Publications

December 2007
Article

Adoption of Information Technology under Network Effects

By: Deishin Lee and Haim Mendelson

Because information technologies are often characterized by network effects, compatibility is an important issue. Although total network value is maximized when everyone operates in one compatible network, we find that the technology benefits of the users depend on... View Details

Keywords: Network Effects; Standards; Competitive Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Information Technology; Technology Adoption

2009
Other Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Andrew F. Newman and Harald Fadinger

We examine how trade policy affects firms' organizational choices. We embed a model of firms' vertical integration decisions into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. In the model, integration decisions are driven by a trade-off... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Vertical Integration; Boundaries

2010
Working Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman

We study how trade policy affects firms' ownership structures. We embed an incomplete contracts model of vertical integration choices into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. Integration decisions are driven by a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Vertical Integration; Business and Government Relations; Boundaries; Ownership; Mathematical Methods

2013
Working Paper

The Auditing Oligopoly and Lobbying on Accounting Standards

By: Abigail M. Allen, Karthik Ramanna and Sugata Roychowdhury

We examine how the tightening of the U.S. auditing oligopoly over the last twenty-five years—from the Big 8 to the Big 6, the Big 5, and, then, the Big 4—has affected the incentives of the Big N, as manifest in their lobbying preferences on accounting standards. We... View Details

Keywords: Standards; Accounting Audits; Accounting Industry; United States

SSRN

18 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

Marketing After the Recession

quality, measured objectively, has remained constant. Stay focused on costs. Many manufacturing industries (as opposed to services industries) are plagued by global overcapacity, relative even to pre-recession demand. Combined with excess... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Retail

November–December 2014
Article

Accountable? The Problems and Solutions of Online Ad Optimization

By: Benjamin Edelman

Online advertising might seem to be the most measurable form of marketing ever invented. Comprehensive records can track who clicked what ad—and often who saw what ad—to compare those clicks with users' subsequent purchases. Ever-cheaper IT makes this tracking... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Fraud; Optimization; Incentives; Digital Marketing; Contracts; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Design

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

few researchers have looked to see whether firms that adopt it have subsequently seen increased revenues or share prices. But there's almost no research that examines whether this quality standard actually helps firms improve quality. Quality is difficult to View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

25 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 25

Economics & Management Strategy Measuring Consumer Preferences for Video Content Provision via Cord-Cutting Behavior By: Prince, Jeffrey, and Shane Greenstein Abstract—The television industry is... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Jul 2010
What Do You Think?

Is Profit as a “Direct Goal” Overrated?

illustration of that point; BP is very profitable, but there is official evidence that it continues to compromise safety.) Gerald Nanninga, on the other hand, argued that profit is a default measure, commenting that "It is easier to View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

2020
Working Paper

Do Lenders Still Discriminate? A Robust Approach for Assessing Differences in Menus

By: David Hao Zhang and Paul Willen

We use a new methodology to assess mortgage pricing discrimination by race. We make four main contributions. First, we show that existing estimates of mortgage pricing differences by race can be confounded by a "menu problem," which is the problem associated with... View Details

Keywords: Mortgages; Financing and Loans; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Measurement and Metrics; Banking Industry; United States

Article

Market Heterogeneity and Local Capacity Decisions in Services

By: Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

We empirically document factors that influence how local operating managers use discretion to balance the tradeoff between service capacity costs and customer sensitivity to service time. Our findings, using data from one of the largest financial services providers in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Cost; Standards; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Productivity; Financial Services Industry; United States

13 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 13

maintaining a long-term strategic plan is of value in thwarting such investors. Executives and directors are advised to analyze their corporations from the point of view of an activist investor, to create harmony within the board of directors, and to View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

The Clock Is Ticking: 3 Ways to Manage Your Time Better

biomedical research institute. We measured employees’ daily work locations using building-badge swipe data, as well as various work and work-life outcomes via biweekly surveys. We found that each employee’s individual outcomes—such as... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

30 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 30

Rucker Abstract—Previous research suggests that people draw inferences about their attitudes and preferences based on their own thoughtfulness. The current research explores how observing other individuals make decisions more or less... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

09 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 9, 2018

matched employer-employee literature for handling large data sets, we identify bank-specific shocks for each year in our sample. Combining the Spanish input-output structure and firm-specific measures of upstream and downstream exposure,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Assent-maximizing Social Choice

By: Katherine A. Baldiga and Jerry R. Green

We take a decision theoretic approach to the classic social choice problem, using data on the frequency of choice problems to compute social choice functions. We define a family of social choice rules that depend on the population's preferences and on the probability... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Theory; Measurement and Metrics; Mathematical Methods; Society