Publications

Educators

July 2021
Article

Redistribution through Markets

By: Piotr Dworczak, Scott Duke Kominers and Mohammad Akbarpour

Policymakers frequently use price regulations as a response to inequality in the markets they control. In this paper, we examine the optimal structure of such policies from the perspective of mechanism design. We study a buyer-seller market in which agents have private... View Details

Keywords: Optimal Mechanism Design; Redistribution; Inequality; Welfare Theorems; Market Design; Equality and Inequality

March 31, 2022
Article

Two Approaches to Capping Health Care Prices

By: Michael E. Chernew, Maximilian J. Pany and Leemore S. Dafny

High health care prices for the privately-insured contribute to high premiums, which put downward pressure on wages, and induce employers to reduce benefit generosity and charge employees more for coverage. As the average annual premium for family coverage currently... View Details

Keywords: Price Caps; Health Care and Treatment; Price

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05 Jul 2016
Blog Post

The Softer Side of Business at HBS

school (and the list goes on and on). What I’m guessing you probably don’t know is just how much time and effort the school puts into honing your “soft” skills and helping you really evaluate what it means to be a leader. Two years... View Details

April 2002 (Revised November 2003)
Case

World Oil Markets

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Rebecca Evans

Summarizes world markets for oil and natural gas from 1980-2001. Examines the rise of OPEC, two oil shocks, Gulf War efforts, and recent pricing issues facing Saudi Arabia. View Details

Keywords: Energy Sources; Asset Pricing; Markets; Organizations; Saudi Arabia

Educators

2022
Working Paper

Many Markets Make Good Neighbors: Multimarket Contact and Deposit Banking

By: John William Hatfield and Jonathan Wallen

We investigate the relationship between the interest rates offered to consumers in a deposit banking market and the contact that banks in that market have with each other in other markets. We show, in a simple theoretical model, that such overlapping relationships... View Details

Keywords: Antitrust; Deposit Banking; Market Power; Multimarket Contact; Banks and Banking; Markets; Competition

01 Dec 2001
News

New York Club Honors Two Executives

At its 33rd annual International Dinner last June, the HBS Club of Greater New York honored two business leaders: Roger A. Enrico, former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Inc., and Jeanette Sarkisian Wagner (90th AMP), vice chairman of The... View Details

Keywords: awards; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management

19 Nov 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Marijuana

the United States, two new states, Alaska and Oregon, as well as the District of Columbia had legalized the recreational sale of marijuana. They joined Washington and Colorado, which legalized pot in the 2012 election, as well as View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part Two

to bring their offerings to large numbers of people, to make a market for prestige cosmetics, specialty coffee, and made-to-order PCs at moments when these products were new. In starting out, each of these entrepreneurs believed—and this... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2021
Working Paper

Closing Costs, Refinancing, and Inefficiencies in the Mortgage Market

By: David Hao Zhang

In the US, borrowers often finance the price of mortgage origination by agreeing to higher mortgage rates for a given principal amount. I show that for standard fixed-rate, prepayable mortgages this contractual feature has two consequences. First, it leads to increased... View Details

Keywords: Mortgage Market; Refinancing; Mortgages; Consumer Behavior

Article

The Dark Side of Strategic Alliances: Lessons from Volvo-Renault

By: Robert Bruner and Robert Spekman

This article explores sources of failure in strategic alliances drawing on field research into one of the most prominent alliance collapses in recent years. The alliance of Volvo and Renault married the two largest enterprises in their respective countries for economic... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Alliances; Failure; Auto Industry; Europe

June 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Teaching Note

Clash of Two Giants Simulation Exercise Teaching Note

By: Feng Zhu

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 623-092. Many markets are organized around platforms that connect consumers with complimentary applications and services. These platforms are two-sided because both sides—consumers and those providing applications or services—need access... View Details

Keywords: Platform Strategy; Customer Acquisition; Technology Platform; Competitive Strategy; Network Effects; Digital Platforms; Management Skills

2010
Working Paper

The Job Market for New Economists: A Market Design Perspective

By: Peter A. Coles, John Cawley, Phillip B. Levine, Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth and John J. Siegfried

This paper provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the American Economic Association (AEA) in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms adopted in recent years at the suggestion of our committee. First, job... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Information; Surveys; Jobs and Positions; Job Interviews; Job Search; Emerging Markets; Digital Platforms; Service Operations; Internet and the Web

Summer 2013
Article

A Tale of Two Stories: Sustainability and the Quarterly Earnings Call

By: Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim

One of the challenges companies claim to face in making sustainability a core part of their strategy and operations is that the market does not care about sustainability, either in general or because the time frames in which it matters are too long. The response of... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Communication; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Investment; Environmental Sustainability

30 Jan 2019
What Do You Think?

Who Will Measure up to These Two Remarkable Leaders?

Summing Up: Which Schools Will Produce the Next Generation of Transformative Leaders? This month’s column featured two leaders who were able to build organizations that literally transformed the mutual fund and airline industries. In the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Air Transportation; Financial Services

12 Mar 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Allocating Marketing Resources

Keywords: by Sunil Gupta & Thomas J. Steenburgh

2015
Other Teaching and Training Material

Competitive Strategies Marketing Reading

By: Jill Avery and Sunil Gupta

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover the fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks that business students must study.
This Reading illuminates the dynamics of companies in competition and offers a process for planning and executing marketing... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy

2008
Working Paper

Allocating Marketing Resources

By: Sunil Gupta and Thomas J. Steenburgh

Marketing is essential for the organic growth of a company. Not surprisingly, firms spend billions of dollars on marketing. Given these large investments, marketing managers have the responsibility to optimally allocate these resources and demonstrate that these... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Resource Allocation; Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Mathematical Methods