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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(608)
- News (100)
- Research (395)
- Events (3)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (97)
- 06 Sep 2005
- Research & Ideas
The Best Place for Retirement Funds
decisions, trying to understand how they make decisions now is pretty important. Q: Please describe how the research got started. A: Jim Poterba and I started the project at the end of my time in graduate school. There had been earlier literature on asset allocation... View Details
Keywords: by Ann Cullen
- 2020
- Working Paper
Bankruptcy and the COVID-19 Crisis
By: Jialan Wang, Jeyul Yang, Benjamin Iverson and Raymond Kluender
We examine the impact of the COVID-19 economic crisis on business and consumer bankruptcies in the United States using real-time data on the universe of filings. Historically, bankruptcies have closely tracked the business cycle and contemporaneous unemployment rates.... View Details
Keywords: Bankruptcy; Financial Distress; COVID-19; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Crisis; Health Pandemics; United States
Wang, Jialan, Jeyul Yang, Benjamin Iverson, and Raymond Kluender. "Bankruptcy and the COVID-19 Crisis." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-041, September 2020.
- Research Summary
Behavioral Hazard and Public Policy
It is well recognized that people overuse low-value medical care due to moral hazard—because copays are lower than costs. Now Professor Schwartzstein has introduced the concept of “behavioral hazard” to explain the opposite: people underuse high-value care because... View Details
- 27 Jan 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Labor Regulations and European Private Equity
Keywords: by Ant Bozkaya & William R. Kerr
- December 2021
- Article
Auctioneers Sometimes Prefer Entry Fees to Extra Bidders
By: Jiafeng Chen and Scott Duke Kominers
We investigate a market thickness–market power tradeoff in an auction setting with endogenous entry. We find that charging admission fees can sometimes dominate the benefit of recruiting additional bidders, even though the fees themselves implicitly reduce competition... View Details
Chen, Jiafeng, and Scott Duke Kominers. "Auctioneers Sometimes Prefer Entry Fees to Extra Bidders." Art. 102737. International Journal of Industrial Organization 79 (December 2021).
- July 2021 (Revised December 2021)
- Case
Pershing Square's Pandemic Trade (A)
By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira, Dean Xu and Lucas Baker
This case explores the decision that Bill Ackman, CEO and founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital, was considering in late February 2020 about hedging the exposure of the fund’s portfolio from the potential financial fallout ensuing from an extreme event like... View Details
Keywords: Health Pandemics; Financial Liquidity; Cost Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk Management
Siriwardane, Emil N., Luis M. Viceira, Dean Xu, and Lucas Baker. "Pershing Square's Pandemic Trade (A)." Harvard Business School Case 222-007, July 2021. (Revised December 2021.)
- February 2010
- Article
Managing Know-How
By: Deishin Lee and Eric J. Van den Steen
We study how firms can use a knowledge management system to optimally leverage employee-generated know-how. In particular, we consider the following practical strategic questions for the manager of a knowledge-intensive firm: should her firm develop a formal knowledge... View Details
Keywords: Change; Employees; Information; Knowledge Management; Outcome or Result; Practice; Problems and Challenges; Motivation and Incentives; System; Value
Lee, Deishin, and Eric J. Van den Steen. "Managing Know-How." Management Science 56, no. 2 (February 2010): 270–285. (Articles in Advance published online on November 25, 2009.)
- 2006
- Working Paper
Too Motivated?
I show that an agent's motivation to do well (objectively) may be unambiguously bad in a world with differing priors, i.e., when people openly disagree on the optimal course of action. The reason is that an agent who is strongly motivated is more likely to follow... View Details
Keywords: Governance Controls; Employees; Wages; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result; Performance; Agency Theory; Motivation and Incentives
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Too Motivated?" Sloan School of Management Working Paper, No. 4547-05, April 2006. (Available at SSRN.)
- April–June 2022
- Other Article
Commentary on 'Causal Decision Making and Causal Effect Estimation Are Not the Same... and Why It Matters'
There has been a substantial discussion in various methodological and applied literatures around causal inference; especially in the use of machine learning and statistical models to understand heterogeneity in treatment effects and to make optimal decision... View Details
Keywords: Causal Inference; Treatment Effect Estimation; Treatment Assignment Policy; Human-in-the-loop; Decision Making; Fairness
McFowland III, Edward. "Commentary on 'Causal Decision Making and Causal Effect Estimation Are Not the Same... and Why It Matters'." INFORMS Journal on Data Science 1, no. 1 (April–June 2022): 21–22.
- 29 May 2006
- What Do You Think?
How Important Is the “Service Sector Effect” on Productivity?
Summing Up Do increases in social sector productivity, which seem to prevail at least in the U.S., benefit consumers at the expense of workers? Or is the scale weighted in favor of the latter who may benefit... View Details
- Article
Debt Maturity: Is Long-Term Debt Optimal?
By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk
We model and calibrate the arguments in favor and against short-term and long-term debt. These arguments broadly include: maturity premium, sustainability, and service smoothing. We use a dynamic equilibrium model with tax distortions and government... View Details
Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Investment Return; Development Economics; Taxation; Risk and Uncertainty; Cost; Interest Rates; Developing Countries and Economies; Welfare; United States; Brazil
Alfaro, Laura, and Fabio Kanczuk. "Debt Maturity: Is Long-Term Debt Optimal?" Review of International Economics 17, no. 5 (November 2009): 890–905. (Also Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 06-005 and NBER Working Paper No. 13119.)
- 01 Apr 2021
- Blog Post
An Aerospace Engineer Provides a Lift for Underrepresented Innovators and Entrepreneurs
rolling blackouts. I wanted to see if renewables could be something that could benefit those regions of the continent.” Shodiya applied her aerospace engineering training to redesign wind turbine blades that could View Details
- August 2013
- Article
The Timing of Pay
By: Christopher Parsons and E. Van Wesep
There exists large and persistent variation in not only how, but when employees are paid, a fact unexplained by existing theory. This paper develops a simple model of optimal pay timing for firms. When workers have self-control problems, they under-save... View Details
Keywords: Payday Lending; Hyperbolic Discounting; Self-control Problems; Pay Frequency; Payday Loan Legislation; Paycheck Frequency; Time Inconsistency; Wages; Behavior; Employee Relationship Management
Parsons, Christopher, and E. Van Wesep. "The Timing of Pay." Journal of Financial Economics 109, no. 2 (August 2013): 373–397.
- 2022
- Working Paper
THEMIS: A Framework for Cost-Benefit Analysis of COVID-19 Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions
By: Dimitris Bertsimas, Michael Lingzhi Li and Saksham Soni
Since December 2019, the world has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 150 million confirmed cases and 3 million confirmed deaths worldwide. To combat the spread of COVID-19, governments have issued unprecedented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs),... View Details
Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Policy; Framework; Cost vs Benefits; Outcome or Result; United States; Germany; Brazil; Singapore; Spain
Bertsimas, Dimitris, Michael Lingzhi Li, and Saksham Soni. "THEMIS: A Framework for Cost-Benefit Analysis of COVID-19 Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions." Working Paper, April 2022.
- May 2019 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
State of Charge: The Massachusetts Energy Storage Initiative
By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock
In early 2017, Judith Judson (Harvard Business School MBA, 2000), Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), was reflecting on the results of the initiative she had led to identify the contribution advanced electricity storage could make... View Details
Keywords: Energy Storage; Energy Generation; Programs; Policy; Strategy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Massachusetts
Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "State of Charge: The Massachusetts Energy Storage Initiative." Harvard Business School Case 719-448, May 2019. (Revised June 2021.)
- 2012
- Article
Hiring Cheerleaders: Board Appointments of 'Independent' Directors
By: Lauren Cohen, Andrea Frazzini and Christopher Malloy
We provide evidence that firms appoint independent directors who are overly sympathetic to management, while still technically independent according to regulatory definitions. We explore a subset of independent directors for whom we have detailed, micro-level data on... View Details
Keywords: Recruitment; Management; Corporate Governance; Performance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Prejudice and Bias
Cohen, Lauren, Andrea Frazzini, and Christopher Malloy. "Hiring Cheerleaders: Board Appointments of 'Independent' Directors." Management Science 58, no. 6 (June 2012): 1039–1058.
- November 2023
- Case
Will Fintechs and Central Banks Play in Emtech's Sandbox?
By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr
In February 2023, Emtech’s founder Carmelle Cadet is facing a dilemma. Rapidly running out of cash, Cadet has a term sheet from a leading VC but has a choice of how to structure the investment. The decision will have significant implications for Cadet’s own stake, as... View Details
Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Currency; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Digital Platforms
Isenberg, Daniel, and William R. Kerr. "Will Fintechs and Central Banks Play in Emtech's Sandbox?" Harvard Business School Case 824-096, November 2023.
- 2010
- Chapter
The Peculiar Politics of American Disaster Policy: How Television Has Changed Federal Relief
By: David Moss
Particularly since the 1960s, the federal government has played a significant role in financing disaster losses in the United States. The federal government may thus be thought of as providing an implicit form of public disaster insurance. However, unlike many... View Details
- 15 Oct 2009
- Working Paper Summaries
Mixed Source
- February 2007 (Revised May 2008)
- Supplement
Bancaja: Developing Customer Intelligence (B)
In 1996, CEO Fernando Garcia Checa wanted to make customer analytics a part of Bancaja's new strategy. Bancaja, a savings bank based in Valencia, Spain, was expanding and wanted to exploit customer information to increase commercial effectiveness. At the same time, it... View Details
Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Credit Cards; Analytics and Data Science; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing Strategy; Banking Industry; Spain
Martinez-Jerez, Francisco de Asis, and Katherine Miller. "Bancaja: Developing Customer Intelligence (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 107-066, February 2007. (Revised May 2008.)