Publications

2018
Working Paper

Bundling Incentives in (Many-to-Many) Matching with Contracts

By: Jonathan Ma and Scott Duke Kominers

In many-to-many matching with contracts, the way in which contracts are specified can affect the set of stable equilibrium outcomes. Consequently, agents may be incentivized to modify the set of contracts upfront. We consider one simple way in which agents may do so:... View Details

Keywords: Matching With Contracts; Contract Design; Bundling-proofness; Substitutability; Mathematical Methods

SSRN

March 2020
Article

Organizing Knowledge Production Teams Within Firms for Innovation

By: Vikas A. Aggarwal, David H. Hsu and Andy Wu

How should firms organize their pool of inventive human capital for firm-level innovation? While access to diverse knowledge may aid knowledge recombination, which can facilitate innovation, prior literature has focused primarily on one way of achieving that: diversity... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Recombination; Organization Design; Team Boundary; Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Diversity; Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Human Capital; Organizational Design

Article

Matriarch: A Python Library for Materials Architecture

By: Tristan Giesa, Ravi Jagadeesan, David I. Spivak and Markus J. Buehler

Biological materials, such as proteins, often have a hierarchical structure ranging from basic building blocks at the nanoscale (e.g., amino acids) to assembled structures at the macroscale (e.g., fibers). Current software for materials engineering allows the user to... View Details

Keywords: Building Block; Category Theory; Hierarchical Protein Materials; Molecular Design; Open-Source Software; Structure Creation

Find at Harvard

08 Jul 2019
News

Can Social Networks Improve Credit Access in Developing Countries?

Article

Good Markets (Really Do) Make Good Neighbors

By: Scott Duke Kominers

This article gives a (very) brief exposition of what market design is, along with four examples of market design in action. Loosely themed after Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall,” the examples demonstrate ways in which market design can break barriers—physical,... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Economics; Theory; Change; Society

Research Summary

Overview

My research broadly examines design choices of management control systems, with a special focus on organizational culture as an informal control mechanism and how it interacts with other formal control system View Details

08 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits

Cap and trade has become an increasingly popular mechanism used by governments to induce green behavior among corporate polluters, with news emerging almost daily. Just recently New Jersey Governor Chris Christie withdrew his state from... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

11 Nov 2021
Blog Post

ZONE DEFENSE: These self-driving, AI-powered drones do recon so soldiers don’t have to

“Iron Man suit.” The idea seemed absurd—but not because of the comic-book connotations. Tseng, with a background in mechanical engineering and on-the-ground experience in actual conflict zones such as Afghanistan, where the so-called Iron... View Details

November 1990 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Regency Plaza

By: William J. Poorvu and Richard E Crum

Designed to examine the process of project management during the development cycle of a luxury condominium building, exploring the issue of how the design, development strategy, project organization, and project personnel are interrelated. More specifically, looks at... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Design; Construction; Housing; Management Practices and Processes; Projects; Luxury; Real Estate Industry

Educators

08 Nov 2023
Blog Post

Zone Defense: These self-driving, AI-powered drones do recon so soldiers don’t have to

armor, a project known in the press as the “Iron Man suit.” The idea seemed absurd—but not because of the comic-book connotations. Tseng, with a background in mechanical engineering and on-the-ground experience in actual conflict zones... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Entrepreneurship

May 2014
Article

Investment Incentives in Labor Market Matching

By: John William Hatfield, Fuhito Kojima and Scott Duke Kominers

We provide an illustration of how the design of labor market clearing mechanisms can affect incentives for human capital acquisition. Specifically, we extend the labor market matching model (with discrete transfers) of Kelso and Crawford (1982) to incorporate the... View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; Marketplace Matching

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December 2012
Article

Grand Innovation Prizes: A Theoretical, Normative, and Empirical Evaluation

By: Alan MacCormack, Fiona Murray, Scott Stern and Georgina Campbell

This paper provides a systematic examination of the use of a Grand Innovation Prize (GIP) in action—the Progressive Automotive Insurance X PRIZE—a $10 million prize for a highly efficient vehicle. Following a mechanism design approach we define three key dimensions for... View Details

Keywords: Design; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Performance; Auto Industry

Find at Harvard

December 2023
Case

TikTok: The Algorithm Will See You Now

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In a world where attention is a scarce commodity, this case explores the meteoric rise of TikTok—an app that transformed from a niche platform for teens into the most visited domain by 2021—surpassing even Google. Its algorithm was a sophisticated mechanism for... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Applications and Software; Disruptive Innovation; Business and Government Relations; International Relations; Cybersecurity; Culture; Technology Industry; China; United States; India

Educators

2024
Working Paper

What Makes Players Pay? An Empirical Investigation of In-Game Lotteries

By: Tomomichi Amano and Andrey Simonov

In 2020, gamers spent more than $15 billion on loot boxes, lotteries of virtual items in video games. Paid loot boxes are contentious. Game producers argue that loot boxes complement the gameplay and expenditures on loot boxes reflect players’ enjoyment of the game.... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Policy; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Product Design; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Video Game Industry

2008
Working Paper

Resolving Information Asymmetries in Markets: The Role of Certified Management Programs

By: Michael W. Toffel

Firms and regulators are increasingly relying on voluntary mechanisms to signal and infer quality of difficult-to-observe management practices. Prior evaluations of voluntary management programs have focused on those that lack verification mechanisms and have found... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Information; Standards; Performance Improvement; Programs; Environmental Sustainability; Manufacturing Industry; United States

SSRN

Research Summary

Overview

By: Tatiana Sandino

In studying management control systems, Professor Sandino aims to understand how different control mechanisms can help lead employees within an organization to achieve common goals. Her work builds on contingency theory by exploring environmental, strategic, and... View Details

Research Summary

Internet Auctions for Close Substitutes

(with Eric Budish)

This is mainly an experimental project where we compare many auction designs in a market for close substitutes. We hypothesize some information will not get to market if there is sequential bidding and/or a hard close, and that this will... View Details

January 2009 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Who Broke the Bank of England?

By: Niall Ferguson and Jonathan Schlefer

In the summer of 1992, hedge fund manager George Soros was contemplating the possibility that the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) would break down. Designed to pave the way for a full-scale European Monetary Union, the ERM was a system of fixed exchange rates... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Currency Exchange Rate; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Services Industry; European Union

Educators

2019
Article

Ridesharing with Driver Location Preferences

By: Duncan Rheingans-Yoo, Scott Duke Kominers, Hongyao Ma and David C. Parkes

We study revenue-optimal pricing and driver compensation in ridesharing platforms when drivers have heterogeneous preferences over locations. If a platform ignores drivers' location preferences, it may make inefficient trip dispatches; moreover, drivers may strategize... View Details

Keywords: Ridesharing; Pricing; Compensation and Benefits; Geographic Location; Market Design; Mathematical Methods