Publications

19 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 19, 2019

influence strategies that backfire. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55881 in press Journal of the Association for Consumer Research Rituals and Nuptials: The Emotional and... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Article

Beyond Individualized Recourse: Interpretable and Interactive Summaries of Actionable Recourses

By: Kaivalya Rawal and Himabindu Lakkaraju

As predictive models are increasingly being deployed in high-stakes decision-making, there has been a lot of interest in developing algorithms which can provide recourses to affected individuals. While developing such tools is important, it is even more critical to... View Details

Keywords: Predictive Models; Decision Making; Framework; Mathematical Methods

December 2008
Case

Merrimack Tractors and Mowers: LIFO or FIFO?

By: William J. Bruns Jr., Sharon Bruns and Susan S. Hameling

At Merrimack Tractors and Mowers in 2008, product manufacturing costs are increasing faster than competitors' costs, and as a result earnings are likely to fall below those reported in 2007. The company president and the company controller have discussed this problem,... View Details

Keywords: International; Financial; Reporting; Standards; Inventory; Business Ethics; Assets; Valuation; Ethics; Taxation; Financial Reporting; Manufacturing Industry

Educators

23 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

It’s Called ‘Price Coherence,’ and It’s Surprisingly Bad for Consumers

competitive advantage, each intermediary introduces more and more buyer-side benefits like rebates, coupons, prizes, and so on. The more benefits they introduce, the higher the fees they charge to the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Air Transportation; Food & Beverage; Entertainment & Recreation

Forthcoming
Article

Transitory and Permanent Cash Flow Shocks in Debt Contract Design

By: Le Ma, Anywhere Sikochi and Yajun Xiao

We examine how lenders design contracts to account for transitory and permanent cash flow shocks facing borrowers. We find that volatile transitory cash flow shocks are associated with fewer liquidity covenants, indicating financial flexibility that enables firms to... View Details

Keywords: Debt Covenants; Cash Flow Shocks; Debt Contracting; Likelihood Of Default; Cash Flow; System Shocks

31 Oct 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 31, 2017

of the finance and insurance sector. We provide the first large-scale study that documents the economy-wide extent of misconduct among financial advisers and the associated labor market View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2010
Article

Geography, Poverty and Conflict in Nepal

By: Quy-Toan Do and Lakshmi Iyer

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the geographic, economic and social factors that contributed to the spread of civil war in Nepal over the period 1996-2006. This within-country analysis complements existing cross-country studies on the same subject. Using a... View Details

Keywords: Ethnicity; War; Poverty; Geography; Conflict and Resolution; Government and Politics; Economics; Nepal

2008
Working Paper

Traveling Agents: Political Change and Bureaucratic Turnover in India

By: Lakshmi Iyer and Anandi Mani

We develop a framework to empirically examine how politicians with electoral pressures control bureaucrats with career concerns as well as the consequences for bureaucrats' career investments. Unique micro-level data on Indian bureaucrats support our key predictions.... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Political Elections; Management Skills; Managerial Roles; Personal Development and Career; Societal Protocols; India

31 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 31, 2018

psychological consequences of serving in an advisor role to develop a more comprehensive perspective on the psychology of advising. By connecting this work, which spans various methodologies and theoretical... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

17 Jan 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Price Coherence and Adverse Intermediation

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman & Julian Wright; Consumer Products

Article

ESG Integration in Investment Management: Myths and Realities

By: Sakis Kotsantonis, Christopher Pinney and George Serafeim

The authors’ aim in this article is to set the record straight on the financial performance of sustainable investing while also correcting a number of other widespread misconceptions about this rapidly growing set of principles and methods. Myth Number 1:... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Sustainability; Investment Management; Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Governance

05 Sep 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Optimal Reserve Management and Sovereign Debt

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Fabio Kanczuk

2018
Working Paper

Black Out-Migration and Southern Political Realignment

By: Leah Boustan and Marco Tabellini

Can emigration from less democratic and economically less developed areas induce political and economic change? We study this question in the context of the second Great Migration of African Americans (1940–1970), when more than 4 million blacks left the U.S. South and... View Details

Keywords: Great Migration; Immigration; Race; Government and Politics; Economics; United States

November 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Companion Diagnostics: Uncertainties for Approval and Reimbursement

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Norman C. Selby and Phillip Andrews

The FDA approvals of novel therapeutics were seen as signs in the personalized medicine community of real progress in the growth of personalized medicine. The FDA's approval of such drugs, along with companion diagnostics, suggested a shift in thinking and regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Models Of Reimbursement; Personalized Medicine; Regulation; Healthcare Reform; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

Educators

September 2011
Article

Information Risk and Fair Value: An Examination of Equity Betas

By: Edward J. Riedl and George Serafeim

Using a sample of U.S. financial institutions, we exploit recent mandatory disclosures of financial instruments designated as fair value level 1, 2, and 3 to test whether greater information risk in financial instrument fair values leads to higher cost of capital. We... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Assets; Cost of Capital; Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Corporate Disclosure; Information; Risk and Uncertainty; Value; United States

SSRN

June 2016
Article

Technology Choice and Capacity Portfolios under Emissions Regulation

By: David Drake, Paul R. Kleindorfer and Luk N. Van Wassenhove

We study the impact of emissions tax and emissions cap-and-trade regulation on a firm's technology choice and capacity decisions. We show that emissions price uncertainty under cap-and-trade results in greater expected profit than a constant emissions price under an... View Details

Keywords: Technology Management; Management; Technology; Service Operations; Environmental Sustainability

November 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Colbún and the Future of Chile's Power

By: Forest Reinhardt and Shon R. Hiatt

This case is about Colbún, Chile's second largest electricity generator, which is facing significant uncertainty regarding the cost and availability of alternative energy sources. Problems with the contracted supply of natural gas and the volatility of oil prices,... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Chile; Environmental Protection; Energy Generation; Energy Industry; South America; Chile

Educators

2023
Working Paper

Spatial Mobility, Economic Opportunity, and Crime

By: Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Daniel Ramos-Menchelli, Jorge Tamayo and Audrey Tiew

Neighborhoods are strong determinants of both economic opportunity and criminal activity. Does improving connectedness between segregated and unequal parts of a city predominantly import opportunity or export crime? We use a spatial general equilibrium framework to... View Details

Keywords: Urban Transit Infrastructure; Crime; Spatial Equilibrium; Urban Development; Transportation Networks; Crime and Corruption; Transportation Industry; Medellín; Colombia; South America