Publications

July 2002
Article

The Economist As Engineer: Game Theory, Experimental Economics and Computation As Tools of Design Economics

By: Alvin E Roth

Keywords: Game Theory; Economics; Mathematical Methods; Design

08 Aug 2006
First Look

First Look: August 8, 2006

between and among experimenters and theorists, and psychologists and economists, about how to evaluate a theory that can be rejected by sufficient data, but may nevertheless be a useful approximation. A standard experimental design... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Is Your Org Chart Stuck in a Rut? Try a Scientific Experiment

Professor of Business Administration at HBS. “The fact that they keep doing it that way means that there’s not a theory of the organization. Nobody can say, ‘In this situation, based on theory, this is the way we should reorganize.’ So... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 Dec 2013
News

Christensen Awarded Kim Clark Fellowship

SEEDING LEADERSHIP: "If we give the next generation good theories they might provide us with better leadership in the future," Christensen told the crowd. Photo courtesy of University of Oxford HBS professor Clayton Christensen, a former... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

24 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Do We Tax?

fixing this gap. For 40 years, economists have drawn from the well of Utilitarian theory—which has the goal of maximizing overall well-being in society—to help design tax systems in the United States and around the world. Although the View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Legal Services

1977
Chapter

A Fixed Point Approach to Stability in Cooperative Games

By: A. E. Roth

Keywords: Game Theory; Balance and Stability; Cooperation

September 2023
Article

A Pull versus Push Framework for Reputation

By: Jillian J. Jordan

Reputation is a powerful driver of human behavior. Reputation systems incentivize 'actors' to take reputation-enhancing actions, and 'evaluators' to reward actors with positive reputations by preferentially cooperating with them. This article proposes a reputation... View Details

Keywords: Reputation; Behavior; Game Theory

Article

Third-party Punishment as a Costly Signal of Trustworthiness

By: Jillian J. Jordan, Moshe Hoffman, Paul Bloom and David G. Rand

Third-party punishment (TPP), in which unaffected observers punish selfishness, promotes cooperation by deterring defection. But why should individuals choose to bear the costs of punishing? We present a game theoretic model of TPP as a costly signal of... View Details

Keywords: Third-party Punishment; Trustworthiness; Behavior; Trust; Game Theory

June 2012 (Revised July 2013)
Exercise

Competition Simulator Exercise: Instructions

By: Eric Van den Steen

In the Competition Simulator Exercise, students explore through trial and error some important economic foundations of competitive strategy and managerial economics. In particular, the nine simulator exercises let students explore horizontal differentiation with and... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Economics; Strategy; Game Theory

Purchase

March 2008
Article

Deferred Acceptance Algorithms: History, Theory, Practice, and Open Questions

By: Alvin E. Roth

The deferred acceptance algorithm proposed by Gale and Shapley (1962) has had a profound influence on market design, both directly, by being adapted into practical matching mechanisms, and, indirectly, by raising new theoretical questions. Deferred acceptance... View Details

Keywords: History; Market Design; Labor; System; Practice; Performance; Theory; Boston; New York (city, NY)

26 Sep 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Dangerous Expectations: Breaking Rules to Resolve Cognitive Dissonance

Keywords: by Celia Moore, S. Wiley Wakeman & Francesca Gino

13 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

In Favor of Clear Thinking: Incorporating Moral Rules into a Wise Cost-Benefit Analysis

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman & Joshua D. Greene

Article

Wealth Making in the Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century: The Rubinstein Hypothesis Revisited

By: Tom Nicholas

Keywords: Wealth; Theory

16 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 16, 2018

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 5 Complementarity By: Baldwin, Carliss Y. Abstract—The purpose of this chapter is to relate the theory of task networks and technology set forth in previous chapters to... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

June 2001
Article

Learning Processes in Development Planning: A Theoretical Overview and Case Study

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and L. Ortolano

Keywords: Learning; Growth and Development; Planning; Theory; Information