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- All HBS Web (1,037)
- Faculty Publications (329)
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- Research Summary
Working Hard and Investing for an Early Retirement
I examine consumption, leisure, and portfolio choices made over the life-cycle using a model allowing for semi-flexible leisure and an endogenously chosen retirement date. Under a Cobb-Douglas utility specification, I present closed-form expressions for optimal... View Details
- Research Summary
Optimal Contracts under Inequity Aversion with Voluntary Enforcement (with Tilman Borgers)
We analyze contract structure and efficiency in a Moral Hazard model with possibly fairminded agent and principal when the contract is not automatically enforced but this is a voluntary choice by the contracting parties independently. We find that no penalizing... View Details
- Article
Loss Aversion, Diminishing Sensitivity, and the Role of Experience in Repeated Decisions
Three experiments are presented that explore the assertion that loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity drive the effect of experience on choice behavior. The experiments are focused on repeated choice tasks where decision makers choose repeatedly between... View Details
Erev, Ido, Eyal Ert, and Eldad Yechiam. "Loss Aversion, Diminishing Sensitivity, and the Role of Experience in Repeated Decisions." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 21, no. 5 (December 2008).
- 2018
- Chapter
Behavioral Household Finance
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
This chapter provides an overview of household finance. The first part summarizes key facts regarding household financial behavior, emphasizing empirical regularities that are inconsistent with the standard classical economic model and discussing extensions of the... View Details
Keywords: Personal Finance; Global Range; Household; Behavior; Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Product Design; Welfare
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Behavioral Household Finance." In Handbook of Behavioral Economics: Foundations and Applications 1, edited by B. Douglas Bernheim, Stefano DellaVigna, and David Laibson, 177–276. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2018.
- April 2021 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Social Media War 2021: Snap vs. Facebook vs. TikTok
By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
This case explores the competitive war between Snap, Facebook, and TikTok in 2021. The strategic focus is on Snapchat: how should it respond to the emergence of TikTok, and how should it compete with the dominant competitor in its space—Facebook. The case examines... View Details
Keywords: Strategy Development; Competitor Analysis; Strategy; Network Effects; Competitive Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Social Media
Yoffie, David B., and Daniel Fisher. "Social Media War 2021: Snap vs. Facebook vs. TikTok." Harvard Business School Case 721-443, April 2021. (Revised March 2024.)
- May 2017
- Article
Experimental Evidence of Pooling Outcomes Under Information Asymmetry
By: William Schmidt and Ryan W. Buell
Operational decisions under information asymmetry can signal a firm's prospects to less-informed parties, such as investors, customers, competitors, and regulators. Consequently, managers in these settings often face a tradeoff between making an optimal decision and... View Details
Keywords: Behavioral Decision Research; Information Asymmetry; Signaling; Decision Choices and Conditions; Alignment
Schmidt, William, and Ryan W. Buell. "Experimental Evidence of Pooling Outcomes Under Information Asymmetry." Management Science 63, no. 5 (May 2017): 1586–1605.
- January 2022 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Jackie Robinson: Changing the World
By: Robert Simons and Max Saffer
This case traces the rise of Jackie Robinson from the poor streets of Pasadena, California to one of the most famous people in America after he overturned the color barrier in baseball. The case describes how as a youth he excelled at basketball, football, baseball,... View Details
Keywords: Diversity; Power And Influence; Personal Characteristics; Values And Beliefs; Mission And Purpose; Sports; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Leading Change; Personal Development and Career; United States
Simons, Robert, and Max Saffer. "Jackie Robinson: Changing the World." Harvard Business School Case 122-042, January 2022. (Revised August 2022.)
- 2020
- Working Paper
Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation
By: Matti Tuomala and Matthew C. Weinzierl
Prioritarianism has been at the center of the formal approach to optimal tax theory since its modern starting point in Mirrlees (1971), but most theorists’ use of it is motivated by tractability rather than explicit normative reasoning. We characterize analytically and... View Details
Keywords: Prioritarianism; Optimal Taxation; Utilitarianism; Redistribution; Inverse-optimum; Taxation; Theory
Tuomala, Matti, and Matthew C. Weinzierl. "Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, December 2020.
- 2021
- Working Paper
Salience
By: Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer
We review the fast-growing work on salience and economic behavior. Psychological research shows that salient stimuli attract human attention “bottom up” due to their high contrast with surroundings, their surprising nature relative to recalled experiences, or their... View Details
Keywords: Salience; Economic Behavior; Bottom Up Attention; Microeconomics; Decision Making; Behavior
Bordalo, Pedro, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer. "Salience." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29274, September 2021.
- 20 Nov 2012
- First Look
First Look: November 20
quantitative insight on the link between a firm's business model choices and their ultimate profit consequences. We apply the method to Walmart. Using evidence from annual reports, research papers, case... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- Research Summary
Self-environment relationship and its effect on decisions under risk and uncertainty
My research seek to better understand the main cognitive and social abilities that guide our judgments, and the ways they interact with aspects of the situation to shape humans' decisions. It is currently comprised of three related... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
The Complexity of Economic Decisions
By: Xavier Gabaix and Thomas Graeber
We propose a theory of the complexity of economic decisions. Leveraging a macroeconomic framework of production functions, we conceptualize the mind as a cognitive economy, where a task’s complexity is determined by its composition of cognitive operations. Complexity... View Details
Gabaix, Xavier, and Thomas Graeber. "The Complexity of Economic Decisions." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-049, February 2024.
- 2010
- Working Paper
Quality Provision, Expected Firm Altruism and Brand Extensions
By: Julio J. Rotemberg
This paper studies quality choice in a model where consumers expect firms to act altruistically. It is shown that, under plausible assumptions regarding this altruism and the reaction of consumers to firms that demonstrate insufficient altruism, existing firms (or... View Details
Keywords: Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Quality; Mathematical Methods
Rotemberg, Julio J. "Quality Provision, Expected Firm Altruism and Brand Extensions." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 15635, January 2010.
- winter 1989
- Article
Split-Awards Procurement and Innovation
By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao
In many procurement settings, it is possible for a buyer to split a production award between suppliers. In this article, we develop a model of split-award procurement auctions in which the split choice is endogenous. We characterize the set of equilibrium bids and... View Details
Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Cost; Supply Chain; Investment; Balance and Stability
Anton, James J., and Dennis A. Yao. "Split-Awards Procurement and Innovation." RAND Journal of Economics 20, no. 4 (winter 1989): 538–552. (Harvard users click here for full text.)
- 03 Jun 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Platforms and Limits to Network Effects
- 2022
- Chapter
Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation
By: Matti Tuomala and Matthew Weinzierl
Prioritarianism has been at the center of the formal approach to optimal tax theory since its modern starting point in Mirrlees (1971), but most theorists’ use of it is motivated by tractability rather than explicit normative reasoning. We characterize analytically and... View Details
Keywords: Prioritarianism; Optimal Taxation; Utilitarianism; Redistribution; Inverse-optimum; Taxation; Theory; Policy
Tuomala, Matti, and Matthew Weinzierl. "Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation." In Prioritarianism in Practice, edited by Matthew Adler and Ole Norheim. Cambridge University Press, 2022. (Also published in HBR Insights, December 2020.)
- Article
The Similarity Heuristic
By: Daniel Read and Yael Grushka-Cockayne
Decision makers often make snap judgments using fast‐and‐frugal decision rules called cognitive heuristics. Research into cognitive heuristics has been divided into two camps. One camp has emphasized the limitations and biases produced by the heuristics; another has... View Details
Read, Daniel, and Yael Grushka-Cockayne. "The Similarity Heuristic." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 24, no. 1 (January 2011): 23–46.
- 2016
- Other Teaching and Training Material
Organizational Behavior Reading: Decision Making
By: Francesca Gino, Max Bazerman and Katherine Shonk
This Reading argues that decision making is systematically flawed and introduces methods to improve decision-making effectiveness. The Essential Reading section covers the rational decision-making model and three important ideas that challenge it: Herbert Simon's... View Details
Gino, Francesca, Max Bazerman, and Katherine Shonk. "Organizational Behavior Reading: Decision Making." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Publishing 8383, 2016. Electronic.
- 2012
- Chapter
Structuring Consulting Firms
By: Tim Morris, Heidi K. Gardner and N. Anand
This chapter presents a model of the way in which consulting and other professional-service firms organize themselves and grow. We will argue that the fundamental structural-design challenge for consulting firms, like other professional firms, is to adapt appropriately... View Details
Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Management Practices and Processes; Demand and Consumers; Service Operations; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Projects; Groups and Teams; Consulting Industry; Service Industry
Morris, Tim, Heidi K. Gardner, and N. Anand. "Structuring Consulting Firms." In The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting, edited by Matthias Kipping and Timothy Clark. Oxford University Press, 2012.
- December 2008
- Article
The Political Economy of 'Natural' Disasters
By: Charles Cohen and Eric D. Werker
Natural disasters occur in a political space. Although events beyond our control may trigger a disaster, the level of government preparedness and response greatly determines the extent of suffering incurred by the affected population. We use a political economy model... View Details
Cohen, Charles, and Eric D. Werker. "The Political Economy of 'Natural' Disasters." Journal of Conflict Resolution 52, no. 6 (December 2008): 795–819.