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SSRN Research Paper Series
The Social Science Research Network’s Research Paper Series includes working papers produced by Stanford GSB the Rock Center.
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Sustaining Rainforests and Smallholders by Eliminating Payment Delay in a Commodity Supply Chain—It takes a Village
Millions of poor smallholder farmers produce global commodities, often through illegal deforestation. Multinational commodity buyers have committed to halt illegal deforestation and improve farmers’ livelihoods in their supply chains. We propose…
The Long-Term-Care Insurance Puzzle: Modeling and Measurement
Individuals face significant late-in-life risks, including needing long-term care (LTC). Yet, they hold little long-term care insurance (LTCI). Using both “strategic survey questions,” which identify preferences, and stated demand questions, this…
The Big Thumb on the Scale: An Overview of the Proxy Advisory Industry
Proxy advisory firms have significant influence over the voting decisions of institutional investors and the governance choices of publicly traded companies. However, it is not clear that the recommendations of these firms are correct and…
Promoting Consumption Experiences by Positive Incidental Affect: The Interplay of Valence and Arousal in Incidental Affect Infusion Processes
Much research in consumer psychology has investigated how affective reactions unrelated to a decision at hand (i.e., incidental affect) influence consumers’ preconsumption preferences. Most of this research has approximated the incidental affect…
Valuing Peace: The Effects of Financial Market Exposure on Votes and Political Attitudes
Can participation in financial markets lead individuals to re-evaluate the costs of conflict, change their political attitudes and even their votes? Prior to the 2015 Israeli elections, we randomly assigned Palestinian and Israeli financial…
Inducing Exploration in Service Platforms
Crowd-sourced content in the form of online product reviews or recommendations is an integral feature of most Internet-based service platforms and marketplaces, including Yelp, TripAdvisor, Netflix, and Amazon. Customers may find such information…
Learning by Trading
How can we help individuals handle financial decisions in an increasingly complex environment? We explore an easily scalable avenue for improving financial understanding: learning by online trading in stocks. We randomly assign 1345 adults…
Learning and Risk Premiums in an Arbitrage-free Term Structure Model
We study the evolution of risk premiums on US Treasury bonds from the perspective of a real-time Bayesian learner RA who updates her beliefs using a dynamic term structure model. Learning about the historical dynamics of yields led to…
Netflix Approach to Governance: Genuine Transparency with the Board
The hallmark of good corporate governance is an independent board of directors to oversee management. However, it is not clear that independent directors receive the information they need to make fully informed decisions on all key matters.…
Do Banks have an Edge?
We decompose bank activities into passive and active components and evaluate the performance of the active components of the bank business model by controlling for passive maturity transformation strategies that can be executed in the capital…
Making the Right Assignment: Optimal Contracting for Post-Hire Selection
We study the contracting problem of a principal who chooses between motivating an agent to exert effort or taking her outside option. The agent is privately informed about his ability, where a higher-ability agent faces a lower cost of exerting…
Local News and National Politics
The level of journalistic resources dedicated to coverage of local politics is in a long term decline in the US news media, with readership shifting to national outlets. We investigate whether this trend is demand- or supply-driven, exploiting a…
Estimating the Net Value of Treating Hepatitis C Virus Using a Newly Available Direct-Acting Antiviral in India
An Ecosystem-Level Process Model of Business Model Disruption: The Disruptor's Gambit
Based on a longitudinal case study, this paper presents an ecosystem-level process model of the interlocking key activities of the business model disruptor, other ecosystem participants (customers, partners, media, analysts), and the incumbent.…
It's Not Going to Be That Fun: Negative Experiences Can Add Meaning to Life
People seek to spend time in positive experiences, enjoying and savoring. Yet there is no escaping negative experiences, from the mundane (e.g., arguing) to the massive (e.g., death of a child). Might negative experiences confer a hidden benefit…
Just a Few Seeds More: Value of Network Information for Diffusion
Identifying the optimal set of individuals to first receive information (`seeds’) in a social network is a widely-studied question in many settings, such as the diffusion of information, microfinance programs, and new technologies. Numerous…
Operational Volatility and Synergistic Value in Vertically Integrated Energy Systems
We examine the magnitude of synergistic effects in vertically integrated energy systems that arise when the external market for an intermediate input (electricity) is imperfect and the two subsystems are subject to operational volatility in terms…
The Performative Power of Words: How Business Model Innovators Use Framing for Strategic Advantage
Despite increasing interest in business model innovation, there is only limited scholarship that examines how business model innovators present and explain their innovations to various stakeholders. As business model innovation often involves the…
The Role of the General Manager in the New Economy: Can We Save People from Technology Dysfunctions?
Artificial intelligence may destroy and transform millions of jobs, possibly exacerbating the shift in power from labor to capital. Low birth rates, aging populations, and budgetary stringency leave countries ill-prepared to provide the…
Firm Communication and Investor Response: A Framework and Discussion Integrating Social Media
I provide a general framework of firms’ financial communication process and investor response to information, moving from disclosure through dissemination to investor response and management response. I then discuss the entrance of social media…