Publications

November 2019
Article

Full Substitutability

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers, Alexandru Nichifor, Michael Ostrovsky and Alexander Westkamp

Various forms of substitutability are essential for establishing the existence of equilibria and other useful properties in diverse settings such as matching, auctions, and exchange economies with indivisible goods. We extend earlier models’ definitions of... View Details

Keywords: Substitutability; Mathematical Methods; Auctions; Market Design

July 2008 (Revised May 2009)
Teaching Note

The Springfield Nor'easters: Maximizing Revenues in the Minor Leagues (Brief Case)

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Christopher H. Lovelock and Laura Winig

Teaching Note for 2510 View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Quantitative Analysis; Consumer Marketing; Pricing Strategy; Price; Mathematical Methods; Marketing Channels

November 2012
Article

The Variance of Non-Parametric Treatment Effect Estimators in the Presence of Clustering

By: Samuel G. Hanson and Adi Sunderam

Non-parametric estimators of treatment effects are often applied in settings where clustering may be important. We provide a general methodology for consistently estimating the variance of a large class of non-parametric estimators, including the simple matching... View Details

Keywords: Treatment Effects; Matching Estimators; Clustering; Applications and Software; Mathematical Methods

Web

Louise Bourgeois Eye Benches II 1996-1997 | About

installations, Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) was one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Born in Paris, Bourgeois worked in her family’s tapestry restoration workshop as a young child and then studied mathematics... View Details

01 Dec 2014
News

Taking Tailoring High Tech

width and lining options. But instead of measuring tapes, there’s Molly, a 3D scanner that creates a mathematical model of the shopper’s body. The more than 200,000 measurements collected in just seven seconds are translated into patterns... View Details

Keywords: April White; fashion

01 Mar 2014
News

Chances Are

consultant. He fears a coming mathematical feudalism. "We are left with a kind of elite that knows how to think about this stuff and a large mass of people who are really very vulnerable." The Book of Odds, then, is Shapiro's attempt to... View Details

Keywords: Morrell, Daniel; probability

Working Paper

The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation

By: Tatyana Deryugina, Alexander MacKay and Julian Reif

Economic theory suggests that demand is more elastic in the long run relative to the short run, but evidence on the empirical relevance of this phenomenon is scarce. We study the dynamics of residential electricity demand by exploiting price variation arising from a... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Demand and Consumers; Price; Policy; Mathematical Methods

October 2005 (Revised January 2009)
Background Note

Corporate Valuation and Market Multiples

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Provides a basic introduction to the use of market multiples for business valuation. Explains the method's reliance on the Law of One Price, sets forth the basic steps for using the method, and reviews some practical issues arising in its application. View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Price; Market Transactions; Mathematical Methods; Valuation

September 1974 (Revised April 1975)
Case

Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. (A)

At the conclusion of a small-scale pilot survey, management must decide whether to invest in a larger survey or terminate the project. The objective of the study is to use psychographic measurement techniques to study the alternative positions of cranberry sauce.... View Details

Keywords: Surveys; Product Positioning; Mathematical Methods; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

September 1989
Background Note

Introduction to Decision Making

By: Francis Aguilar

Describes the process of decision making (establish objectives, generate alternatives, and so on) emphasizing the human side of it (using rules of thumb, favoring one's own pet projects) yet demonstrating the role an analytic/quantitative contribution has to make. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Mathematical Methods; Perspective

Article

Preventing Fairness Gerrymandering: Auditing and Learning for Subgroup Fairness

By: Michael J Kearns, Seth Neel, Aaron Leon Roth and Zhiwei Steven Wu

The most prevalent notions of fairness in machine learning are statistical definitions: they fix a small collection of pre-defined groups, and then ask for parity of some statistic of the classifier (like classification rate or false positive rate) across these groups.... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Algorithms; Fairness; Mathematical Methods

2020
Working Paper

Design and Analysis of Switchback Experiments

By: Iavor I Bojinov, David Simchi-Levi and Jinglong Zhao

In switchback experiments, a firm sequentially exposes an experimental unit to a random treatment, measures its response, and repeats the procedure for several periods to determine which treatment leads to the best outcome. Although practitioners have widely adopted... View Details

Keywords: Switchback Experiments; Design; Analysis; Mathematical Methods

October 1992
Case

Charles River Jazz Festival

Charles River Jazz Festival must decide whether to press a compact disk (CD) of Friday's jazz performance for sale on Saturday and Sunday. The idea to press CDs is novel, so there is considerable uncertainty about how receptive customers will be. The festival must... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Decision Making

January 1982
Background Note

Sharing Costs: Internal Telephone Billing Rates

By: Elon Kohlberg

Keywords: Cost; Mathematical Methods

2002
Chapter

Future Possibilities in Finance Theory and Finance Practice

By: Robert C. Merton

Keywords: Finance; Mathematical Methods; Practice

September 1976 (Revised June 1977)
Background Note

Assessing Certainty Equivalents by Assessing Preference for Consequences

By: Paul A. Vatter

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Decision Making