Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,078)
- Faculty Publications (258)
- 2016
- Working Paper
Paying (for) Attention: The Impact of Information Processing Costs on Bayesian Inference
By: Scott Duke Kominers, Xiaosheng Mu and Alexander Peysakhovich
Human information processing is often modeled as costless Bayesian inference.
However, research in psychology shows that attention is a computationally costly and potentially limited resource. We study a Bayesian individual for whom computing posterior beliefs is... View Details
- 2016
- Article
Penalized Fast Subset Scanning
By: Skyler Speakman, Sriram Somanchi, Edward McFowland III and Daniel B. Neill
We present the penalized fast subset scan (PFSS), a new and general framework for scalable and accurate pattern detection. PFSS enables exact and efficient identification of the most anomalous subsets of the data, as measured by a likelihood ratio scan statistic.... View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
What Factors Drive Director Perceptions of Their Board's Effectiveness?
By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and Richard Ellis Crum
We use a survey of directors to collect data on their ratings of board effectiveness as well as board internal dynamics and key processes. Controlling for many of the governance metrics examined by prior research, we find that directors’ ratings of their boards’... View Details
- December 2015
- Article
Introduction: New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structure
By: Viral Acharya, Heitor Almeida and Malcolm Baker
The National Bureau of Economic Research held a symposium titled "New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structures" on April 5–6, 2013 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In its call for the submission of theoretical and empirical papers for the symposium, the NBER noted that... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
The Probability of Rare Disasters: Estimation and Implications
By: Emil Siriwardane
I analyze a rare disasters economy that yields a measure of the risk neutral probability of a macroeconomic disaster, p*t. A large panel of options data provides strong evidence that p*t is the single factor driving option-implied jump risk measures in the cross... View Details
- August 2015
- Article
Poultry in Motion: A Study of International Trade Finance Practices
By: Pol Antràs and C. Fritz Foley
This paper analyzes the financing terms that support international trade and sheds light on how these terms shape the impact of economic shocks on trade. Analysis of transaction-level data from a U.S.-based exporter of frozen and refrigerated food products, primarily... View Details
- Article
Medicine's Continuous Improvement Imperative
By: Robert S. Huckman and Ananth Raman
Maintaining quality and spurring innovation have long been central objectives of the US health care system. Like other health care professionals, physicians are challenged to minimize the likelihood of errors that could harm patients while simultaneously making efforts... View Details
- May 2015
- Article
Admitting Mistakes: Home Country Effect on the Reliability of Restatement Reporting
By: Suraj Srinivasan, Aida Sijamic Wahid and Gwen Yu
We study the frequency of restatements by foreign firms listed on U.S. exchanges. We find that the restatement rate of U.S. listed foreign firms is significantly lower than that of comparable U.S. firms and that the difference depends on the firm's home country... View Details
- Article
Guilt Enhances the Sense of Control and Drives Risky Judgments
By: Maryam Kouchaki, Christopher Oveis and F. Gino
The present studies investigate the hypothesis that guilt influences risk-taking by enhancing one's sense of control. Across multiple inductions of guilt, we demonstrate that experimentally induced guilt enhances optimism about risks for the self (Study 1), preferences... View Details
- November 2014
- Case
Oasys Water: Balancing Strategic Partnerships & Financing Decisions
By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Sid Misra
Oasys Water had developed a proprietary water treatment technology based on an innovative forward osmosis process that could remove dissolved solids from water more effectively and efficiently than existing technologies. As Oasys looked to scale, it was exploring... View Details
- June 2014
- Article
Informal Peer Interaction and Practice Type as Predictors of Physician Performance on Maintenance of Certification Examinations
By: Melissa A. Valentine, S. Barsade, Amy C. Edmondson, A. Gal and R. Rhodes
Context: Physicians can demonstrate mastery of the knowledge that supports continued clinical competence by passing a Maintenance of Certification exam. Exam performance depends on professional learning and development, which may be enhanced by informal routine... View Details
- 2014
- Chapter
Who Uses the Roth 401(k), and How Do They Use It?
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Using administrative data from twelve companies that added a Roth 401(k) option between 2006 and 2010, we describe the characteristics of Roth contributions. Approximately one year after the Roth is introduced, 9% of 401(k) participants have positive Roth balances.... View Details
- 2014
- Book
Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World
By: John P. Kotter
Based on the award-winning article in Harvard Business Review, from global leadership expert John Kotter. It's a familiar scene in organizations today: a new competitive threat or a big opportunity emerges. You quickly create a strategic initiative in response and... View Details
- April 2014
- Article
Golden Parachutes and the Wealth of Shareholders
By: Lucian A. Bebchuk, Alma Cohen and Charles C.Y. Wang
Golden parachutes (GPs) have attracted substantial attention from investors and public officials for more than two decades. We find that GPs are associated with higher expected acquisition premiums and that this association is at least partly due to the effect of GPs... View Details
- February 18, 2014
- Article
Keep Your Kids out of the Entitlement Trap
By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer
This article discusses the concern among wealthy family business owners that their children may become entitled and fail to contribute to society. The fear is grounded in reality, as studies show that a significant portion of inherited wealth is squandered. The article... View Details
- February 2014
- Article
Accountability of Independent Directors—Evidence from Firms Subject to Securities Litigation
By: Francois Brochet and Suraj Srinivasan
We examine which independent directors are held accountable when investors sue firms for financial- and disclosure-related fraud. Investors can name independent directors as defendants in lawsuits, and they can vote against their re-election to express displeasure over... View Details
- 2014
- Case
Microfinance Services in Rural Areas--Farmers' Self-reliance Branch of CFPA Microfinance in Shangyi County
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Siqun Yang and Meihua Shen
Microfinance is introduced into China in the 1990s. It had gone through 3 phases since the beginning, namely the pilot phase when all Microfinance practices are sponsored by charity funds based on projects, the promotion phase when the government subsidized some... View Details
- 2014
- Teaching Note
Microfinance Services in Rural Areas--Farmers' Self-reliance Branch of CFPA Microfinance in Shangyi County (TN)
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yang Siqun and Shen Meihua
Microfinance is introduced into China in the 1990s. It had gone through 3 phases since the beginning, namely the pilot phase when all Microfinance practices are sponsored by charity funds based on projects, the promotion phase when the government subsidized some... View Details
- January 2014
- Article
The Consequences of Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Angel Financings
By: William R. Kerr, Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar
This paper documents that ventures that are funded by two successful angel groups experience superior outcomes to rejected ventures: they have improved survival, exits, employment, patenting, web traffic, and financing. We use strong discontinuities in angel funding... View Details
- December 2013 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Breaking Bad (the Rules): Argentina Defaults, Inflates (and Grows), 1997–2015
By: Rafael Di Tella and Fernanda Miguel
In late October 2011, after losing 1 billion of dollar reserves in one month, the Argentine government began imposing a series of currency controls, limiting the ability to buy foreign currency. As of October 2011, Argentina's tax collection agency AFIP had been... View Details