Publications

2024
Working Paper

Consumer Inertia and Market Power

By: Alexander MacKay and Marc Remer

We study the pricing decisions of firms in the presence of consumer inertia. Inertia, which can arise from habit formation, brand loyalty, and switching costs, generates dynamic pricing incentives. These incentives mediate the impact of competition on market power in... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Inertia; Market Power; Dynamic Competition; Demand Estimation; Consumer Behavior; Markets; Performance; Competition; Price

SSRN

May 2018
Article

Incentives for Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Reputations

By: Christine L. Exley

Do monetary incentives encourage volunteering? Or, do they introduce concerns about appearing greedy and crowd out the motivation to volunteer? Since the importance of such image concerns is normally unobserved, the answer is theoretically unclear, and corresponding... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Image Motivation; Volunteer; Prosocial Behavior; Altruism; Gender; Reputations; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Perception; Reputation

2020
Chapter

Foreign Direct Investment, Finance and Economic Development

By: Laura Alfaro and Jasmina Chauvin

Research has sought to understand how foreign direct investment affects host economies. This paper reviews the empirical literature, specifically addressing the question: How does FDI affect economic development of host countries and what is the role of local financial... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Condition; Development Economics

2012
Article

The Two Facets of Collaboration: Cooperation and Coordination in Strategic Alliances

By: Ranjay Gulati, Franz Wohlgezogen and Pavel Zhelyazkov

This paper unpacks two underspecified facets of collaboration: cooperation and coordination. Prior research has emphasized cooperation, and specifically the partners' commitment and alignment of interests, as the key determinant of collaborative success. Scholars have... View Details

Keywords: Alliances; Social and Collaborative Networks; Cooperation

March 2010
Article

The Desire to Win: The Effects of Competitive Arousal on Motivation and Behavior

By: Deepak Malhotra

The paper theoretically elaborates and empirically investigates the "competitive arousal" model of decision making, which argues that elements of the strategic environment (e.g., head-to-head rivalry and time pressure) can fuel competitive motivations and behavior.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Personal Characteristics; Competition

04 Mar 2021
News

It Would Be a Major Blunder to Raise Taxes Right Now

Estimating Spillovers from Publicly Funded R&D: Evidence from the US Department of Energy

The spillovers from public R&D grants are large and reach far across geographic and technological space, and focusing only on firms that directly receive grants causes... View Details

17 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

The Lessons of Business History: A Handbook

generated rich empirical data that in some cases confirms and in other cases contradicts many of today's fashionable theories and assumptions by other disciplines, says Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones, who edited the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

September 2020
Article

Relaxing Household Liquidity Constraints Through Social Security

By: Sylvain Catherine, Max Miller and Natasha Sarin

More than a quarter of working-age households in the United States do not have sufficient savings to cover their expenditures after a month of unemployment. Recent proposals suggest giving workers early access to a small portion of their future Social Security benefits... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Personal Finance; Employment; Welfare; Insurance; Government Legislation

2022
Working Paper

Overreaction and Diagnostic Expectations in Macroeconomics

By: Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer

We present the case for the centrality of overreaction in expectations for addressing important challenges in finance and macroeconomics. First, non-rational expectations by market participants can be measured and modeled in ways that address some of the key challenges... View Details

Keywords: Overreaction; Rational Expectations; Macroeconomics; Market Participation; Social Psychology

2009
Article

Placing the Normative Logics of Accountability in 'Thick' Perspective

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

This article provides a critical reflection on the heavily normative nature of current accountability debates. In particular, it explores three streams of normative discourse on nonprofit accountability: improving board governance, improving performance-based... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Accounting; Governance; Performance Evaluation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Organizational Structure; Relationships; Accounting Industry

Program Requirements - Doctoral

Processing (MIT 6.864) Bayesian Modeling Inference (MIT 6.435) Inference Causal Parameters (MIT 14.388) Quantitative Research Design Courses Advanced Quantitative Research Methodology (Gov 2001) Program Evaluation: Estimating Program Effectiveness with View Details

16 Nov 2015
HBS Seminar

Vish Krishnan, Professor of Innovation, Technology & Operations, University of California San Diego Rady School of Man

23 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Face Value: Do Certain Physical Features Help People Get Ahead?

empirically predicted with a machine learning model, suggests work by Shunyuan Zhang, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, and collaborators. “Our research represents the first empirical... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

15 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Competition and Social Identity in the Workplace: Evidence from a Chinese Textile Firm

Keywords: by Takao Kato & Pian Shu

10 Oct 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Harnessing Our Inner Angels and Demons: What We Have Learned About Want/Should Conflicts and How That Knowledge Can Help Us Reduce Short-Sighted Decision Making

Keywords: by Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers & Max H. Bazerman

23 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

What Causes Industry Agglomeration? Evidence from Coagglomeration Patterns

Keywords: by Glenn Ellison, Edward L. Glaeser & William Kerr; Manufacturing

Research Summary

Antecedents and Consequences of Trust in Interorganizational Relations: An International Comparison

The objective of this research project is to build from the conceptual development described above and test the sources and effects of trust in a different empirical setting. The level of analysis is also interorganizational but narrowed to the level of a specific... View Details

July 2020
Case

Michael Solomonov: Jerusalem in a Bowl

By: Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht and Katherine Connolly Baden

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook had begun to wonder whether it might be time to rethink their opportunistic approach to the expansion of their small restaurant empire in Philadelphia, CooknSolo. The pandemic, however, caused an... View Details

Keywords: Restaurant Industry; Entrepreneur; COVID-19; Crisis; Crisis Response Plans; Entrepreneurship; Food; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Creativity; Strategy; Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Situation or Environment; Food and Beverage Industry; United States