Publications

In this paper, we prove the optimality of disturbance-affine control policies in the context of one-dimensional, constrained, multistage robust optimization. Our results cover the finite-horizon case, with minimax (worst-case) objective,…

The likelihood that a bank loan will default is of interest to both regulators and investors. Under the Basel II regulatory guidelines, a bank must hold capital in proportion to the riskiness of its assets. The probability of default is a primary…

We investigate whether the removal of high-cost individuals from private insurance markets leads to greater coverage for individuals who are similar but not as high cost. Using data on insurance coverage from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics,…

In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that an important force behind the collapse in advertising revenue experienced by newspapers over the past decade is the greater consumer switching facilitated by online consumption of news.…

We show that in repeated interactions the avenues for effective provision of incentives depend crucially on the type of information players observe. We establish this conclusion for general repeated two-player games in which information arrives…

This article examines the possibilities for health care reform in the 111th Congress. It uses a simple model of policy making to analyze the failure of Congress to pass the Clinton health plan in 1993-1994. It concludes that the factors that…

This research explores the effect of source certainty—that is, the level of certainty expressed by a message source—on persuasion. The authors propose an incongruity hypothesis, suggesting that source certainty effects depend on perceived source…

Reprinted in Voprosy Economiki (in Russian), Volume 1, 2012.

The field of industrial organization has made dramatic advances over the last few decades in developing empirical methods for analyzing imperfect competition and the…

We construct a new data set of consumption and income data for the largest US metropolitan areas, and we show that the extent of risk-sharing between regions varies substantially over time. In times when US housing collateral is scarce nationally…

Instrumental variable (IV) methods are commonly used in accounting research (e.g., earnings management, corporate governance, executive compensation, and disclosure research) when the regressor variables are endogenous. While IV estimation is the…

We introduce limited liability in a model with a continuum of ex ante identical agents who face aggregate and idiosyncratic income risk. These agents can trade a complete menu of contingent claims, but they cannot commit and shares in a Lucas…

These studies examined how the practice of accounting for one’s time-so that work can be billed or charged to specific clients or projects-affects the decision to allocate time to volunteer activities. Using longitudinal data collected from law…

Three studies explored think (“I think … ”) versus feel (“I feel … ”) message framing effects on persuasion. The authors propose a matching hypothesis, suggesting that think framing will be more persuasive when the target attitude or message…

This study empirically tests the notion of global youth through an investigation of college-educated youths’ attitudes toward global brands and the influential drivers behind such attitudes in China and the United States. In both samples, a…

Two days after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, a medical relief team made up in part of four emergency physicians and four emergency nurses from Stanford University Hospital and three emergency physicians from Columbia University Medical…

We show whether central clearing of a particular class of derivatives lowers counterparty risk. For plausible cases, adding a central clearing counterparty (CCP) for a class of derivatives such as credit default swaps reduces netting…

While it is recognized that the high degree of leverage used by financial institutions creates systemic risks and other negative externalities, many argue that financial institutions must rely on extensive debt financing since equity financing is…

Many startup companies go through the so-called “entrepreneurial crisis” when they reach a headcount somewhere between 50 and 100 employees. At this point, the CEO and her team have to transition from a personal to a professional management style…