Publications

February 2010
Supplement

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Breakeven Analysis (CW)

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

This Excel worksheet contains sample problems, prebuilt Excel models to run breakeven analyses, and charts and graphs which help visualize the results. It is designed to accompany "Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Breakeven Analysis." View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Marketing; Decisions; Planning; Marketing Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

June 2008
Article

The Market for Mergers and the Boundaries of the Firm

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and David Robinson

We relate the property rights theory of the firm to empirical regularities in the market for mergers and acquisitions. We first show that high market-to-book acquirers typically do not purchase low market-to-book targets. Instead, mergers pair together firms with... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Assets; Investment; Property; Mathematical Methods; Boundaries

2008
Working Paper

Taste Heterogeneity, IIA, and the Similarity Critique

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Andrew Ainslie

The purpose of this paper is to show that allowing for taste heterogeneity does not address the similarity critique of discrete-choice models. Although IIA may technically be broken in aggregate, the mixed logit model allows neither a given individual nor the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Mathematical Methods; Behavior; Prejudice and Bias

18 Sep 2006
Research & Ideas

When Words Get in the Way: The Failure of Fiscal Language

arbitrary terms with no intrinsic meaning, a lesson that even economists have not learned. "On the General Relativity of Fiscal Language," a working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, provides a mathematical... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

01 Feb 1997
News

Leading the Way In Negotiation and Decision Making

the future and the managerial skills required of the "conflict-competent organization." Assistant Professor Patrick W. Sileo mathematically analyzes bargaining behavior and how people should select negotiating situations and tactics. For... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

01 Dec 2008
News

A U.S. Turnaround?

sad story of our slippage in mathematics and science. In fourth grade, American children are ahead of almost everyone in the world. By the eighth grade they are even, and by twelfth grade they are seriously behind. If you walk through the... View Details

Keywords: Byron Wien; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Transportation Equipment Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Utilities

01 Feb 1997
News

Merton Discusses Risk Management at Dean's Seminar

Merton noted that "risk management will become an essential internal process for the lending institution if it expects to remain viable and competitive." By demonstrating mathematically how to determine and hedge risk exposure for any new... View Details

Keywords: Elizabeth McNair

09 Mar 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Impact Investing: A Theory of Financing Social Entrepreneurship

Keywords: by Benjamin N. Roth; Financial Services

August 2012
Article

Organ Allocation Policy and the Decision to Donate

By: Judd B. Kessler and Alvin E. Roth

Organ donations from deceased donors (cadavers) provide the majority of transplanted organs in the United States, and one deceased donor can save numerous lives by providing multiple organs. Nevertheless, most Americans are not registered organ donors despite the... View Details

Keywords: Organ Donation; Health; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Decision Making; Resource Allocation; Mathematical Methods; United States

2006
Working Paper

On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper shows why members of an organization often share similar beliefs. I argue that there are two mechanisms. First, when performance depends on making correct decisions, people prefer to work with others who share their beliefs and assumptions, since such... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Employees; Values and Beliefs; Mathematical Methods

SSRN

December 1998
Case

Origins of National Income Accounting

By: David A. Moss and Joseph P Gownder

Set in the Great Depression, this case explores the origins of national income accounting in the United States. Highlights Senator La Follette's 1932 proposal for the federal government to begin collecting national income statistics. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Crisis; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; United States

Educators

14 Jun 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Minimizing Justified Envy in School Choice: The Design of New Orleans' OneApp

Keywords: by Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Yeon-Koo Che, Parag A. Pathak, Alvin E. Roth, and Oliver Tercieux; Education

1995
Chapter

Regression to the Mean, Expectation Inflation, and the Winner's Curse in Organizational Contexts

By: J. R. Harrison and M. H. Bazerman

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Conflict and Resolution; Competition; Organizational Structure

2014
Working Paper

Non-Adherence in Health Care: A Positive and Normative Analysis

By: Mark Egan and Tomas J. Philipson

Non-adherence in health care results when a patient does not initiate or continue care that a provider has recommended. Previous research identifies non-adherence as a major source of waste in US health care, totaling approximately 2.3% of GDP, and have proposed a... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Behavior; Economics; Analysis; Mathematical Methods

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Teaching Note

Lyons Document Storage Corporation: Bond Math (Brief Case)

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Teaching Note to 3215 View Details

Keywords: Financial Accounting; Quantitative Analysis; Securities; Debt Securities; Cash Flow; Mathematical Methods; Accounting

Article

How Much Is a Reduction of Your Customers' Wait Worth? An Empirical Study of the Fast-Food Drive-Thru Industry Based on Structural Estimation Methods

In many service industries, companies compete with each other on the basis of the waiting time their customers experience, along with other strategic instruments such as the price they charge for their service. The objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Price; Service Delivery; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry

2008
Working Paper

CPC/CPA Hybrid Bidding in a Second Price Auction

By: Benjamin Edelman and Hoan Lee

We develop a model of online advertising in which each advertiser chooses from multiple advertising measurement metrics—paying either for each click on its ads (CPC), or for each purchase that follows an ad-click (CPA). Our analysis extends classic auction results by... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Measurement and Metrics; Quality; Mathematical Methods; Web Sites

March 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Transparent Value LLC

By: Sharon P. Katz, Krishna G. Palepu and Aldo Sesia, Jr.

Leading index company Dow Jones recently signed a license and joint marketing agreement with Transparent Value LLC, the creator of a new fundamentals-based valuation methodology. The agreement allowed Dow Jones to offer a family of indexes based on the Transparent... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Stocks; Price; Performance Expectations; Mathematical Methods; Valuation

Educators

2025
Article

Statistical Inference for Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Discovered by Generic Machine Learning in Randomized Experiments

By: Kosuke Imai and Michael Lingzhi Li

Researchers are increasingly turning to machine learning (ML) algorithms to investigate causal heterogeneity in randomized experiments. Despite their promise, ML algorithms may fail to accurately ascertain heterogeneous treatment effects under practical settings with... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science