The DI builds community and expertise around the digital transformation of the economy at HBS and beyond through curated content, facilitated exchange, and thought leadership.
America's infrastructure woes and how to fix them were front and center at the recent summit, America on the Move: Transportation and Infrastructure for the 21st Century, led by Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
Mechanism Design meets Development: Selective Trials for Technology Diffusion
Many technologies require local experimentation before individuals can make successful adoption and usage decisions. Since information is a public good, technology adoption subsidies are an important component of development policy. We ask whether it is possible to enhance technology adoption schemes by targeting the most appropriate experimenters. Building on Chassang et al. (AER 2012), we design and implement a set of field experiments that let us study the building blocks needed for successful targeting: Are people heterogeneous in their ability as experimenters? Is this information known, and by whom? Can it be elicited and how? Can it be used to enhance the effectiveness of subsidies?
May
15, 2019
|
1:30pm -
3:00pm
| Cumnock 103
| Faculty and doctoral students only
TOM Seminar: Rules For a Nascent Domain: Technological Innovation and Regulatory Uncertainty
Abstract:
When confronted with a rapidly evolving and growing new technology that has the potential to increase competition and lower barriers to entry, but that also introduces immediate challenges from a market safety perspective, regulators have to decide not only how to intervene, but also when to do so. On the one hand, by allowing additional entrepreneurial experiments to take place before introducing new rules, they may learn more about the technology, increase the odds that some of its most valuable applications will be developed within their jurisdictions, and ultimately write better rules. On the other hand, by delaying regulation they may expose consumers, investors or firms to risk, and discourage investment because of regulatory uncertainty. Between allowing for complete 'laissez-faire' and introducing a full ban, they can also issue directional notices that set the stage for a regulatory sandbox, but also clarify that participants will be monitored and the space will not remain unregulated. Using a novel set of digital trails on technology experiments in a nascent domain, we examine how regulatory notices influence the rate and direction of innovation. Results show that while non-binding, these interventions can play a meaningful role in shaping the types of early-stage projects that thrive in the market, and the investors that are attracted to them.
May
13, 2019
|
12:30pm -
2:00pm
| Baker Library | Bloomberg Center 103
| Harvard Business School faculty and doctoral students only
Organizer: Technology & Operations Management Unit
