Publications

01 Apr 1999
News

A Random Sampling of HBS Graduates in the News

an odd experience for Kramer the journalist: SEC rules prohibited MarketWatch from covering its own much-anticipated debut - or even from running stories by other news media that might mention it - so as not to unfairly promote its stock.... View Details

01 Jun 1999
News

A Random Sampling of HBS Graduates in the News

Have you heard the one about the minister and the stockbroker waiting in line at the Pearly Gates? St. Peter smiles and says to the stockbroker, "My son, take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Then he tells the minister, "Take this... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

2024
Working Paper

Design of Panel Experiments with Spatial and Temporal Interference

By: Tu Ni, Iavor Bojinov and Jinglong Zhao

One of the main practical challenges companies face when running experiments (or A/B tests) over a panel is interference, the setting where one experimental unit's treatment assignment at one time period impacts another's outcomes, possibly at the following time... View Details

Keywords: Research

SSRN

One of the main practical challenges companies face when running experiments (or A/B tests) over a panel is interference, the setting where one experimental unit's treatment assignment at one time period impacts another's outcomes, possibly at the following time... View Details

29 Oct 2015
News

How to Design (and Analyze) a Business Experiment

January 2014
Article

Randomized Tax Enforcement Messages: A Policy Tool for Improving Audit Strategies

By: Dina Pomeranz, Cristobal Marshall and Pamela Castellon

Reducing tax evasion is a key challenge for governments around the world, particularly in developing countries. This paper presents a methodology to generate information to optimize audit strategies. Randomly selected taxpayers receive a deterrence message. Comparing... View Details

Keywords: Lawfulness; Taxation; Chile

15 Nov 2021
News

Take Control of Your Onboarding

Research Summary

Models of optimal experience (flow)

Flow is a state of profound task-absorption, involvement, and intrinsic enjoyment that makes the person feel one with the activity. Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory states that flow is more likely to occur in situations in which the person feels that the activity is very... View Details

Design and Analysis of Switchback Experiments

Switchback experiments, where a firm sequentially exposes an experimental unit to random treatments, are among the most prevalent designs used in the technology sector, with applications ranging from ride-hailing platforms to online marketplaces. Although... View Details

The Surprising Power of Online Experiments

In the fast-moving digital world, even experts have a hard time assessing new ideas. Case in point: At Bing a small headline change an employee proposed was deemed a low priority and shelved for months until one engineer decided to do a quick online controlled... View Details

02 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Investor Protection: The Czech Experience

Protection in a Converging World," the expropriation and its aftermath "illustrate the interaction of property and contract rights in a global setting, how corporate control is shaped by geography, and how multinational firms... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Media & Broadcasting; Entertainment & Recreation

Article

Using Fresh Starts to Nudge Increased Retirement Savings

By: John Beshears, Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman and Shlomo Benartzi

We conducted a field experiment to study the effect of framing future moments in time as new beginnings (or “fresh starts”). University employees (N=6,082) received mailings with an opportunity to choose between increasing their contributions to a savings plan... View Details

Keywords: Choice Architecture; Randomized Field Experiment; Savings; New Beginning; Fresh Start; Saving; Retirement; Behavior

May 18, 2012
Article

Randomized Government Safety Inspections Reduce Worker Injuries with No Detectable Job Loss

By: David I Levine, Michael W. Toffel and Matthew S. Johnson

Controversy surrounds occupational health and safety regulators, with some observers claiming that workplace regulations damage firms' competitiveness and destroy jobs and others arguing that they make workplaces safer at little cost to employers and employees. We... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Occupational Safety; Evaluation; Regression; Matching; Difference In Differences; Safety; Health; Working Conditions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competitive Advantage; Performance; Manufacturing Industry; California

2014
Working Paper

Savings in Transnational Households: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador

By: Nava Ashraf, Diego Aycinena, Claudia Martinez A. and Dean Yang

While remittance flows to developing countries are very large, it is unknown whether migrants desire more control over how remittances are used. This research uses a randomized field experiment to investigate the importance of migrant control over the use of... View Details

Keywords: Migration; Remittances; Intrahousehold Allocation; Savings; Immigration; Diasporas; International Finance; El Salvador

16 Oct 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Making the Gambler’s Fallacy Disappear: The Role of Experience

Keywords: by Gregory M. Barron & Stephen Leider

Spring 2016
Article

Has Social Science Taken Over Electoral Campaigns and Should We Regret It?

By: Vincent Pons

Keywords: Data Analytics; Elections; Electoral Campaigns; Persuasion; Randomized Experiments

Article

Savings in Transnational Households: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador

By: Nava Ashraf, Diego Aycinena, Claudia Martinez A. and Dean Yang

While remittance flows to developing countries are very large, it is unknown whether migrants desire more control over how remittances are used. This research uses a randomized field experiment to investigate the importance of migrant control over the use of... View Details

Keywords: Migration; Remittances; Intrahousehold Allocation; Savings; Saving; Residency; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; El Salvador; United States

January 2017
Article

Impact Evaluation Methods in Public Economics: A Brief Introduction to Randomized Evaluations and Comparison with Other Methods

By: Dina Pomeranz

Recent years have seen a large expansion in the use of rigorous impact evaluation techniques. Increasingly, public administrations are collaborating with academic economists and other quantitative social scientists to apply such rigorous methods to the study of public... View Details

Keywords: Practice; Public Sector; Research; Policy; Performance Evaluation