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- Faculty Publications (230)
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- All HBS Web (302)
- Faculty Publications (230)
- August 2022
- Article
Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions
By: Alexander MacKay
The optimal duration of a supply contract balances the costs of reselecting a supplier against the costs of being matched to an inefficient supplier when the contract lasts too long. I develop a structural model of contract duration that captures this tradeoff and... View Details
Keywords: Supply Contracts; Intermediate Goods; Switching Costs; Vertical Relationships; Transaction Costs; Contract Duration; Identification; Supply Chain; Cost; Contracts; Auctions; Mathematical Methods
MacKay, Alexander. "Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 14, no. 3 (August 2022): 164–212.
- 2023
- Article
On Minimizing the Impact of Dataset Shifts on Actionable Explanations
By: Anna P. Meyer, Dan Ley, Suraj Srinivas and Himabindu Lakkaraju
The Right to Explanation is an important regulatory principle that allows individuals to request actionable explanations for algorithmic decisions. However, several technical challenges arise when providing such actionable explanations in practice. For instance, models... View Details
Meyer, Anna P., Dan Ley, Suraj Srinivas, and Himabindu Lakkaraju. "On Minimizing the Impact of Dataset Shifts on Actionable Explanations." Proceedings of the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI) 39th (2023): 1434–1444.
- 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.
- 2011
- Working Paper
Charitable Giving When Altruism and Similarity Are Linked
By: Julio J. Rotemberg
This paper presents a model in which anonymous charitable donations are rationalized by two human tendencies drawn from the psychology literature. The first is people's disproportionate disposition to help those they agree with while the second is the dependence of... View Details
Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Mathematical Methods; Attitudes; Interests; Perception; Wealth and Poverty
Rotemberg, Julio J. "Charitable Giving When Altruism and Similarity Are Linked." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 17585, November 2011.
- September 2010
- Article
Do Inventory and Gross Margin Data Improve Sales Forecasts for U.S. Public Retailers?
By: Saravanan Kesavan, Vishal Gaur and Ananth Raman
Firm-level sales forecasts for retailers can be improved if we incorporate cost of goods sold, inventory, and gross margin (defined here as the ratio of sales to cost of goods sold) as three endogenous variables. We construct a simultaneous equations model, estimated... View Details
Keywords: Sales; Forecasting and Prediction; Distribution; Goods and Commodities; Cost; Public Sector; Profit; Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science; Retail Industry; United States
Kesavan, Saravanan, Vishal Gaur, and Ananth Raman. "Do Inventory and Gross Margin Data Improve Sales Forecasts for U.S. Public Retailers?" Management Science 56, no. 9 (September 2010): 1519–1533.
- spring 1987
- Article
Second-Sourcing and the Experience Curve: Price Competition in Defense Procurement
By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao
We examine a dynamic model of price competition in defense procurement that incorporates the experience curve, asymmetric cost information, and the availability of a higher cost alternative system. We model acquisition as a two-stage process in which initial production... View Details
Anton, James J., and Dennis A. Yao. "Second-Sourcing and the Experience Curve: Price Competition in Defense Procurement." RAND Journal of Economics 18, no. 1 (spring 1987): 57–76. (Harvard users click here for full text.)
- Article
Fly-by-Night Firms and the Market for Product Reviews
By: Gerald R. Faulhaber and Dennis A. Yao
This paper presents a model that permits third-party information provision in a market characterized by information asymmetries and reputation formation. The model is used to examine how the market for information provision affects prices and supply in the primary... View Details
Keywords: Markets; Reputation; SWOT Analysis; Mathematical Methods; Price Bubble; Inflation and Deflation; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Cost; Information; Quality; Price; Competitive Advantage; Information Industry
Faulhaber, Gerald R., and Dennis A. Yao. "Fly-by-Night Firms and the Market for Product Reviews." Journal of Industrial Economics 38, no. 1 (September 1989): 65–77. (Harvard users click here for full text.)
- March 1989 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
Marriott Corporation: The Cost of Capital (Abridged)
Gives students the opportunity to explore how a company uses the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to compute the cost of capital for each of its divisions. The use of Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) formula and the mechanics of applying it are stressed. View Details
Ruback, Richard S. "Marriott Corporation: The Cost of Capital (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 289-047, March 1989. (Revised April 1998.)
- November 2007
- Background Note
Bayesian Estimation & Black-Litterman
By: Joshua D. Coval and Erik Stafford
Describes a practical method for asset allocation that is more robust to estimation errors than the traditional implementation of mean-variance optimization with sample means and covariances. The Bayesian inspired Black-Litterman model is described after introducing... View Details
Coval, Joshua D., and Erik Stafford. "Bayesian Estimation & Black-Litterman." Harvard Business School Background Note 208-085, November 2007.
- May 2017
- Article
Agent-based Modeling: A Guide for Social Psychologists
By: Joshua Conrad Jackson, David Rand, Kevin Lewis, Michael I. Norton and Kurt Gray
Agent-based modeling is a longstanding but underused method that allows researchers to simulate artificial worlds for hypothesis testing and theory building. Agent-based models (ABMs) offer unprecedented control and statistical power by allowing researchers to... View Details
Jackson, Joshua Conrad, David Rand, Kevin Lewis, Michael I. Norton, and Kurt Gray. "Agent-based Modeling: A Guide for Social Psychologists." Social Psychological & Personality Science 8, no. 4 (May 2017): 387–395.
- 2001
- Working Paper
When Does the Market Matter? Stock Prices and the Investment of Equity Dependent Firms
By: Malcolm Baker, Jeremy Stein and Jeffrey Wurgler
We use a simple model of corporate investment to determine when investment will be sensitive to non-fundamental movements in stock prices. The key cross-sectional prediction of the model is that stock prices will have a stronger impact on the investment of firms that... View Details
Baker, Malcolm, Jeremy Stein, and Jeffrey Wurgler. "When Does the Market Matter? Stock Prices and the Investment of Equity Dependent Firms." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 8750, December 2001. (First draft in 2001.)
- 2005
- Working Paper
Nominal versus Indexed Debt: A Quantitative Horse Race
By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk
The main arguments in favor of and against nominal and indexed debt are the incentive to default through inflation versus hedging against unforeseen shocks. We model and calibrate these arguments to assess their quantitative importance. We use a dynamic equilibrium... View Details
Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Taxation; Risk and Uncertainty; Inflation and Deflation; System Shocks; Developing Countries and Economies; Mathematical Methods
Alfaro, Laura, and Fabio Kanczuk. "Nominal versus Indexed Debt: A Quantitative Horse Race." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 05-053, January 2005. (Revised March 2010. Also NBER Working Paper No. 13131.)
- October 2007
- Case
The AtekPC Project Management Office
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and John Hupp
Presents one company's efforts to implement a project management organization, or PMO, and the challenges they faced in doing so. Issues brought out in the case include defining the PMO's purpose and mission, the structure and governance of the PMO, and how to... View Details
Keywords: Projects; Goals and Objectives; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Mathematical Methods; Consulting Industry
McFarlan, F. Warren, Mark Keil, and John Hupp. "The AtekPC Project Management Office." Harvard Business School Case 308-049, October 2007.
- 18 Nov 2016
- Conference Presentation
Rawlsian Fairness for Machine Learning
By: Matthew Joseph, Michael J. Kearns, Jamie Morgenstern, Seth Neel and Aaron Leon Roth
Motivated by concerns that automated decision-making procedures can unintentionally lead to discriminatory behavior, we study a technical definition of fairness modeled after John Rawls' notion of "fair equality of opportunity". In the context of a simple model of... View Details
Joseph, Matthew, Michael J. Kearns, Jamie Morgenstern, Seth Neel, and Aaron Leon Roth. "Rawlsian Fairness for Machine Learning." Paper presented at the 3rd Workshop on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Machine Learning, Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD), November 18, 2016.
- May 2020
- Article
Identifying Sources of Inefficiency in Health Care
By: Amitabh Chandra and Douglas O. Staiger
In medicine, the reasons for variation in treatment rates across hospitals serving similar patients are not well understood. Some interpret this variation as unwarranted and push standardization of care as a way of reducing allocative inefficiency. However, an... View Details
Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Mathematical Methods
Chandra, Amitabh, and Douglas O. Staiger. "Identifying Sources of Inefficiency in Health Care." Quarterly Journal of Economics 135, no. 2 (May 2020): 785–843.
- 2020
- Working Paper
Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach
By: Eva Ascarza
The success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs ultimately depends on the firm's ability to understand consumers' preferences and precisely capture how these preferences may differ across customers. Only by understanding customer heterogeneity, firms can... View Details
Keywords: Customer Management; Targeting; Deep Exponential Families; Probabilistic Machine Learning; Cold Start Problem; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry
Padilla, Nicolas, and Eva Ascarza. "Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-091, February 2019. (Revised May 2020. Accepted at the Journal of Marketing Research.)
- October 1, 2021
- Article
An Evaluation of Cross-efficiency Methods: With an Application to Warehouse Performance.
By: B.M. Balk, M.R. De Koster, Christian Kaps and J.L. Zofio
Cross-efficiency measurement is an extension of Data Envelopment Analysis that allows for tie-breaking ranking of the Decision Making Units (DMUs) using all the peer evaluations. In this article we examine the theory of cross-efficiency measurement by comparing a... View Details
Keywords: Efficiency Analysis; Performance Benchmarking; Warehousing; Analytics and Data Science; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics; Mathematical Methods
Balk, B.M., M.R. De Koster, Christian Kaps, and J.L. Zofio. "An Evaluation of Cross-efficiency Methods: With an Application to Warehouse Performance." Art. 126261. Applied Mathematics and Computation 406 (October 1, 2021).
- 2022
- Article
Fairness via Explanation Quality: Evaluating Disparities in the Quality of Post hoc Explanations
By: Jessica Dai, Sohini Upadhyay, Ulrich Aivodji, Stephen Bach and Himabindu Lakkaraju
As post hoc explanation methods are increasingly being leveraged to explain complex models in high-stakes settings, it becomes critical to ensure that the quality of the resulting explanations is consistently high across all subgroups of a population. For instance, it... View Details
Dai, Jessica, Sohini Upadhyay, Ulrich Aivodji, Stephen Bach, and Himabindu Lakkaraju. "Fairness via Explanation Quality: Evaluating Disparities in the Quality of Post hoc Explanations." Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (2022): 203–214.
- Web
Faculty & Advisors | MBA
Fund, an impact investment fund he co-founded in 2016 that has used a venture philanthropic model to catalyze over $700 million of private capital investment in type one diabetes (T1D) cure therapeutics. Sean has held a range of volunteer... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Altruistic Dynamic Pricing with Customer Regret
By: Julio J. Rotemberg
A model is considered where firms internalize the regret costs that consumers experience when they see an unexpected price change. Regret costs are assumed to be increasing in the size of price changes and this can explain why the size of price increases is less... View Details