Publications

Philippe van der Beck is an Assistant Professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches the Finance I course in the MBA required curriculum. Philippe’s research interests are in empirical asset pricing, sustainable finance, and structural estimation.... View Details

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

09 Nov 2016
HBS Seminar

Robert A. Miller, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

1998
Journal Article

Ford's Model-T: Pricing over the Product Life Cycle

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell

The pricing decisions monopolistic firms make over time are determined to a large extent by the complex interplay of two distinct sets of elements: demand- and supply-based considerations. Demand factors include the possibilities of (a) exercising dynamic price... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Price; Information; Demand and Consumers; Monopoly; Product; Sales; Complexity; Auto Industry

December 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Amgen Inc.'s Epogen--Commercializing the First Biotech Blockbuster Drug

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Dennis A. Yao

Amgen Inc.'s Epogen was the first biotech blockbuster drug. Epogen helped prevent anemia, a condition that leads to severe fatigue, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and even death. At the time, the market for Epogen, which included dialysis patients and... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Strategic Planning; Competition; Patents; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

February 2018
Article

Auctions versus Posted Prices in Online Markets

By: Liran Einav, Chiara Farronato, Jonathan Levin and Neel Sundaresan

Auctions were very popular in the early days of internet commerce, but today online sellers mostly use posted prices. We model the choice between auctions and posted prices as a trade-off between competitive price discovery and convenience. Evidence from eBay fits the... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Auctions; Price

How do information frictions distort international trade? This paper exploits a unique historical experiment to estimate the magnitude of these distortions: the establishment of the transatlantic telegraph connection in 1866. I use a newly collected data set based... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Dynamic Pricing, Intertemporal Spillovers, and Efficiency

By: Alexander J. MacKay, Dennis Svartbäck and Anders G. Ekholm

Pricing technology that allows firms to rapidly adjust prices has two potential benefits. Time-varying prices can respond to high-frequency demand shocks to generate greater revenues, and they can also be used to smooth out demand to reduce costs. Using data... View Details

Keywords: Price; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Volatility

SSRN

April 1999 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Aluminum Smelting in South Africa: Alusaf's Hillside Project

With prices at all-time lows at the beginning of 1994, South Africa's sole primary aluminum producer--Alusaf--is considering building the world's largest greenfield smelter. Using cost estimates in this case, students can evaluate the relative cost position of this... View Details

Keywords: Metals and Minerals; Analysis; Markets; Profit; Capital; Industrial Products Industry; South Africa

26 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

National Health Costs Could Decrease if Managers Reduce Work Stress

dollars a year—representing 5 to 8 percent of national spending on health care. The biggest factor in these costs was high demands at work, responsible for an estimated $48 billion in spending; followed by... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

January 1998 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Cafes Monte Bianco: Building a Profit Plan

By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila

Alert: This case has been revised since its original publication; all amounts have been converted to euros and the dates have been updated to 2020. If you’ve taught with this case in the past, please note that changes may affect teaching plans and classroom use. Using... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Profit; Financial Statements; Food and Beverage Industry; Italy

August 2001 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Dakota Office Products

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The senior management team of Dakota, an office products distributor, is concerned about the company's first loss in history. Explores the role for activity based costing and customer profitability measurement in a distribution company. Dakota's customers are... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Profit; Distribution; Customers; Distribution Industry