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- All HBS Web (407)
- Faculty Publications (151)
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- All HBS Web (407)
- Faculty Publications (151)
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- July 2021
- Article
Invisible Inequality Leads to Punishing the Poor and Rewarding the Rich
By: Oliver P. Hauser, Gordon T. Kraft-Todd, David Rand, Martin A. Nowak and Michael I. Norton
Four experiments examine how the lack of awareness of inequality affects behaviour towards the rich and poor. In Experiment 1, participants who became aware that wealthy individuals donated a smaller percentage of their income switched from rewarding the wealthy to... View Details
Keywords: Income Transparency; Income; Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Knowledge; Behavior; Outcome or Result; Society; Policy
Hauser, Oliver P., Gordon T. Kraft-Todd, David Rand, Martin A. Nowak, and Michael I. Norton. "Invisible Inequality Leads to Punishing the Poor and Rewarding the Rich." Behavioural Public Policy 5, no. 3 (July 2021): 333–353.
- January 2013
- Article
Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India
By: Shawn A. Cole, Xavier Gine, Jeremy Tobacman, Petia Topalova, Robert M. Townsend and James Vickery
Why do many households remain exposed to large exogenous sources of non-systematic income risk? We use a series of randomized field experiments in rural India to test the importance of price and non-price factors in the adoption of an innovative rainfall insurance... View Details
Cole, Shawn A., Xavier Gine, Jeremy Tobacman, Petia Topalova, Robert M. Townsend, and James Vickery. "Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 5, no. 1 (January 2013): 104–135.
- Article
Best Practices for Differentiated Products Demand Estimation with PyBLP
Differentiated products demand systems are a workhorse for understanding the price effects of mergers, the value of new goods, and the contribution of products to seller networks. Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes (1995) provide a flexible random coefficients logit model... View Details
Conlon, Chris, and Jeff Gortmaker. "Best Practices for Differentiated Products Demand Estimation with PyBLP." RAND Journal of Economics 51, no. 4 (2020): 1108–1161.
- Article
Corruption and Firms
By: Emanuele Colonnelli and Mounu Prem
We estimate the causal real economic effects of a randomized anti-corruption crackdown on local governments in Brazil using rich micro-data on corruption and firms. After anti-corruption audits, municipalities experience an increase in the number of firms concentrated... View Details
Colonnelli, Emanuele, and Mounu Prem. "Corruption and Firms." Review of Economic Studies 89, no. 2 (March 2022): 695–732.
- Article
No Taxation Without Information: Deterrence and Self-Enforcement in the Value Added Tax
By: Dina Pomeranz
Claims that the VAT facilitates tax enforcement by generating paper trails on transactions between firms contributed to widespread VAT adoption worldwide, but there is surprisingly little evidence. This paper analyzes the role of third-party information for VAT... View Details
Pomeranz, Dina. "No Taxation Without Information: Deterrence and Self-Enforcement in the Value Added Tax." American Economic Review 105, no. 8 (August 2015): 2539–2569. (Featured by CNN, Vox.eu, World Bank News, Bloomberg News and others.)
- Article
The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Katherine L. Milkman
Using a field experiment in a 401(k) plan, we measure the effect of disseminating information about peer behavior on savings. Low-saving employees received simplified plan enrollment or contribution increase forms. A randomized subset of forms stated the fraction of... View Details
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Katherine L. Milkman. "The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions." Journal of Finance 70, no. 3 (June 2015): 1161–1201.
- Article
The Importance of Being Causal
By: Iavor I Bojinov, Albert Chen and Min Liu
Causal inference is the study of how actions, interventions, or treatments affect outcomes of interest. The methods that have received the lion’s share of attention in the data science literature for establishing causation are variations of randomized experiments.... View Details
Keywords: Causal Inference; Observational Studies; Cross-sectional Studies; Panel Studies; Interrupted Time-series; Instrumental Variables
Bojinov, Iavor I., Albert Chen, and Min Liu. "The Importance of Being Causal." Harvard Data Science Review 2.3 (July 30, 2020).
- Article
Marketing Complex Financial Products in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Rainfall Insurance in India
By: Sarthak Gaurav, Shawn A. Cole and Jeremy Tobacman
Recent financial liberalization in emerging economies has led to the rapid introduction of new financial products. Lack of experience with financial products, low levels of education, and low financial literacy may slow adoption of these products. This article reports... View Details
Keywords: Literacy; Insurance; Marketing; Decisions; Demand and Consumers; Financial Instruments; Emerging Markets; Education; Personal Finance; Agribusiness; Developing Countries and Economies; Innovation and Invention; Gujarat
Gaurav, Sarthak, Shawn A. Cole, and Jeremy Tobacman. "Marketing Complex Financial Products in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Rainfall Insurance in India." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 48, no. SPL (November 2011): S150–S162.
- April 2020
- Article
Designs for Estimating the Treatment Effect in Networks with Interference
By: Ravi Jagadeesan, Natesh S. Pillai and Alexander Volfovsky
In this paper, we introduce new, easily implementable designs for drawing causal inference from randomized experiments on networks with interference. Inspired by the idea of matching in observational studies, we introduce the notion of considering a treatment... View Details
Keywords: Experimental Design; Network Inference; Neyman Estimator; Symmetric Interference Model; Homophily
Jagadeesan, Ravi, Natesh S. Pillai, and Alexander Volfovsky. "Designs for Estimating the Treatment Effect in Networks with Interference." Annals of Statistics 48, no. 2 (April 2020): 679–712.
- 2023
- Working Paper
Design-Based Confidence Sequences: A General Approach to Risk Mitigation in Online Experimentation
By: Dae Woong Ham, Michael Lindon, Martin Tingley and Iavor Bojinov
Randomized experiments have become the standard method for companies to evaluate the performance of new products or services. In addition to augmenting managers’ decision-making, experimentation mitigates risk by limiting the proportion of customers exposed to... View Details
Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Research and Development; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior
Ham, Dae Woong, Michael Lindon, Martin Tingley, and Iavor Bojinov. "Design-Based Confidence Sequences: A General Approach to Risk Mitigation in Online Experimentation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-070, May 2023.
- December 2014
- Article
The Discipline of Business Experimentation
By: Stefan Thomke and Jim Manzi
The data you already have can't tell you how customers will react to innovations. To discover if a truly novel concept will succeed, you must subject it to a rigorous experiment. In most companies, tests do not adhere to scientific and statistical principles. As a... View Details
Thomke, Stefan, and Jim Manzi. "The Discipline of Business Experimentation." Harvard Business Review 92, no. 12 (December 2014): 70–79.
- 2024
- Working Paper
The Uneven Impact of Generative AI on Entrepreneurial Performance
By: Nicholas G. Otis, Rowan Clarke, Solène Delecourt, David Holtz and Rembrand Koning
Scalable and low-cost AI assistance has the potential to improve firm decision-making and economic performance. However, running a business involves a myriad of open-ended problems, making it difficult to know whether recent AI advances can help business owners make... View Details
Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Performance Improvement; Small Business; Decision Choices and Conditions; Kenya
Otis, Nicholas G., Rowan Clarke, Solène Delecourt, David Holtz, and Rembrand Koning. "The Uneven Impact of Generative AI on Entrepreneurial Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-042, December 2023.
- Article
Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization
By: Benjamin Marx, Vincent Pons and Tavneet Suri
We present the results from a field experiment on team diversity. Individuals working as door-to-door canvassers for a non-profit organization were randomly assigned a teammate, a supervisor, and a list of individuals to canvass. This created random variation within... View Details
Keywords: Ethnic Diversity; Organizational Behavior; Labor Management; Groups and Teams; Diversity; Performance
Marx, Benjamin, Vincent Pons, and Tavneet Suri. "Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization." Art. 104332. Journal of Public Economics 197 (May 2021).
- Forthcoming
- Article
Second Chance: Life with Less Student Debt
By: Marco Di Maggio, Ankit Kalda and Vincent Yao
This paper examines the effect of student debt relief on individual credit and labor market outcomes. We exploit an episode of plausibly random debt discharge due to the loss of paperwork for thousands of borrowers to examine the effects of private student debt relief... View Details
Keywords: Student Debt; Private Student Loans; Legal Settlement; Mobility; Debt Collection; Debt Relief; Personal Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Outcome or Result
Di Maggio, Marco, Ankit Kalda, and Vincent Yao. "Second Chance: Life with Less Student Debt." Journal of Finance (forthcoming).
- 2021
- Working Paper
Quantifying the Value of Iterative Experimentation
By: Iavor I Bojinov and Jialiang Mao
Over the past decade, most technology companies and a growing number of conventional firms have adopted online experimentation (or A/B testing) into their product development process. Initially, A/B testing was deployed as a static procedure in which an experiment was... View Details
Bojinov, Iavor I., and Jialiang Mao. "Quantifying the Value of Iterative Experimentation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-059, March 2024.
- July–September 2018
- Article
Memory Bias in Observer-Performance Literature
By: Tamara M. Haygood, Samantha N. Smith and Jia Sun
The objective of our study was to determine how authors of published observer–performance experiments dealt with memory bias in study design. We searched American Journal of Roentgenology online and Radiology using “observer study” and “observer performance.” We... View Details
Haygood, Tamara M., Samantha N. Smith, and Jia Sun. "Memory Bias in Observer-Performance Literature." Art. 031412. Journal of Medical Imaging 5, no. 3 (July–September 2018).
- February 15, 2022
- Article
How Managers Can Build a Culture of Experimentation
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Neil Hoyne
Testing in business presents qualitatively different challenges than those in clinical trials and most scientific research. There are very few opportunities for randomized control experiments in a changing, competitive market. Yet, change and competition make testing a... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., and Neil Hoyne. "How Managers Can Build a Culture of Experimentation." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (February 15, 2022).
- July 2023
- Article
Impacts of Electricity Quality Improvements: Experimental Evidence on Infrastructure Investments
By: Robyn C. Meeks, Arstan Omuraliev, Ruslan Isaev and Zhenxuan Wang
Hundreds of millions of households depend on electricity grid connections providing low quality and unreliable services. Understanding the impacts of and consumer response to electricity quality improvements is important for development and the environment. We... View Details
Meeks, Robyn C., Arstan Omuraliev, Ruslan Isaev, and Zhenxuan Wang. "Impacts of Electricity Quality Improvements: Experimental Evidence on Infrastructure Investments." Art. 102838. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 120 (July 2023).
- October 2021
- Article
Changing Gambling Behavior through Experiential Learning
By: Shawn A. Cole, Martin Abel and Bilal Zia
This paper tests experiential learning as a debiasing tool to reduce gambling in South Africa, through a randomized field experiment. The study implements a simple, interactive game that simulates the odds of winning the national lottery through dice rolling.... View Details
Keywords: Debiasing; Experiential Learning; Behavioral Economics; Financial Education; Learning; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Behavior; Decision Making
Cole, Shawn A., Martin Abel, and Bilal Zia. "Changing Gambling Behavior through Experiential Learning." World Bank Economic Review 35, no. 3 (October 2021): 745–763.
- February 2023
- Article
Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record
By: Zoë Cullen, Will Dobbie and Mitchell Hoffman
State and local policies increasingly restrict employers’ access to criminal records, but without
addressing the underlying reasons that employers may conduct criminal background checks.
Employers may thus still want to ask about a job applicant’s criminal record... View Details
Cullen, Zoë, Will Dobbie, and Mitchell Hoffman. "Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record." Quarterly Journal of Economics 138, no. 1 (February 2023): 103–150.