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- 2024
- Working Paper
Lessons from an App Update at Replika AI: Identity Discontinuity in Human-AI Relationships
By: Julian De Freitas, Noah Castelo, Ahmet Uğuralp and Zeliha Uğuralp
Can consumers form deep emotional bonds with AI and be vested in AI identities over time? We
leverage a natural app-update event at Replika AI, a popular US-based AI companion, to shed
light on these questions. We find that customers feel closer to their AI companion...
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De Freitas, Julian, Noah Castelo, Ahmet Uğuralp, and Zeliha Uğuralp. "Lessons from an App Update at Replika AI: Identity Discontinuity in Human-AI Relationships." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-018, October 2024.
- June 2024
- Article
Redistributive Allocation Mechanisms
By: Mohammad Akbarpour, Piotr Dworczak and Scott Duke Kominers
Many scarce public resources are allocated at below-market-clearing prices, and sometimes for free. Such "non-market" mechanisms sacrifice some surplus, yet they can potentially improve equity. We develop a model of mechanism design with redistributive concerns. Agents...
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Akbarpour, Mohammad, Piotr Dworczak, and Scott Duke Kominers. "Redistributive Allocation Mechanisms." Journal of Political Economy 132, no. 6 (June 2024): 1831–1875. (Authors' names are in certified random order.)
- 2024
- Working Paper
The Efficiency of Patent Litigation
By: Samuel Antill, Murat Alp Celik, Xu Tian and Toni M. Whited
How efficient is the U.S. patent litigation system? We quantify the extent to which the litigation system shapes innovation using a novel dynamic model, in which heterogeneous firms innovate and face potential patent lawsuits. We show that the impact of a litigation...
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Keywords:
Innovation and Invention;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Growth and Development;
Welfare;
Patents
Antill, Samuel, Murat Alp Celik, Xu Tian, and Toni M. Whited. "The Efficiency of Patent Litigation." Working Paper, May 2024.
- March 2024 (Revised September 2024)
- Case
Norway: An Embarrassment of Riches
By: Sophus A. Reinert, Forest Reinhardt and Jens-Henrik Munthe-Kaas
- March 2024
- Article
Human Capital Affects Religious Identity: Causal Evidence from Kenya
By: Livia Alfonsi, Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilová and Edward Miguel
We study how human capital and economic conditions causally affect the choice of religious denomination. We utilize a longitudinal dataset monitoring the religious history of more than 5,000 Kenyans over 20 years, in tandem with a randomized experiment (deworming) that...
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Alfonsi, Livia, Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilová, and Edward Miguel. "Human Capital Affects Religious Identity: Causal Evidence from Kenya." Art. 103215. Journal of Development Economics 167 (March 2024).
- January 2024
- Article
Dog Eat Dog: Balancing Network Effects and Differentiation in a Digital Platform Merger
By: Chiara Farronato, Jessica Fong and Andrey Fradkin
Digital platforms are increasingly the subject of regulatory scrutiny. In comparison to multiple competitors, a single platform may increase consumer welfare if network effects are large or may decrease welfare due to higher prices or reduction in platform variety. We...
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Keywords:
Platform Differentiation;
Digital Platforms;
Network Effects;
Measurement and Metrics;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Outcome or Result
Farronato, Chiara, Jessica Fong, and Andrey Fradkin. "Dog Eat Dog: Balancing Network Effects and Differentiation in a Digital Platform Merger." Management Science 70, no. 1 (January 2024): 464–483.
- January 2024
- Article
Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the PROGRESA Experiment
By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Theresa Molina, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo
Can investing in children who faced adverse events in early childhood help them catch up? We answer this question using two orthogonal sources of variation – resource availability at birth (local rainfall) and cash incentives for school enrollment – to identify the...
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Adhvaryu, Achyuta, Theresa Molina, Anant Nyshadham, and Jorge Tamayo. "Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the PROGRESA Experiment." Economic Journal 134, no. 657 (January 2024): 1–22.
- 2023
- Working Paper
Interest-Rate Risk and Household Portfolios
By: Sylvain Catherine, Max Miller, James Paron and Natasha Sarin
How are households exposed to interest-rate risk? When rates fall, households face lower future expected returns but those holding long-term assets—disproportionately the wealthy and middle-aged—experience capital gains. We study the hedging demand for long-term assets...
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Keywords:
Portfolio Choice;
Social Security;
Interest Rates;
Investment Portfolio;
Equality and Inequality;
Welfare
Catherine, Sylvain, Max Miller, James Paron, and Natasha Sarin. "Interest-Rate Risk and Household Portfolios." Working Paper, October 2023. (Reject and Resubmit, American Economic Review.)
- October 2023
- Article
Product Variety, the Cost of Living, and Welfare Across Countries
By: Alberto Cavallo, Robert C. Feenstra and Robert Inklaar
We use the structure of the Melitz (2003) model to compute the cost of living and welfare across 47 countries, and compare these to conventional measures of prices and real consumption from the International Comparisons Project (ICP). The cost of living is inferred...
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Cavallo, Alberto, Robert C. Feenstra, and Robert Inklaar. "Product Variety, the Cost of Living, and Welfare Across Countries." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 15, no. 4 (October 2023): 40–66.
- 2023
- Working Paper
Spatial Mobility, Economic Opportunity, and Crime
By: Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Daniel Ramos-Menchelli, Jorge Tamayo and Audrey Tiew
Neighborhoods are strong determinants of both economic opportunity and criminal activity. Does improving connectedness between segregated and unequal parts of a city predominantly import opportunity or export crime? We use a spatial general equilibrium framework to...
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Keywords:
Urban Development;
Transportation Networks;
Crime and Corruption;
Transportation Industry;
Medellín;
Colombia;
South America
Khanna, Gaurav, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Daniel Ramos-Menchelli, Jorge Tamayo, and Audrey Tiew. "Spatial Mobility, Economic Opportunity, and Crime." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-016, September 2023. (R&R American Economic Review.)
- August 2023
- Article
Can Security Design Foster Household Risk-Taking?
By: Laurent Calvet, Claire Célérier, Paolo Sodini and Boris Vallée
This paper shows that securities with a non-linear payoff design can foster household risk-taking. We demonstrate this effect empirically by exploiting the introduction of capital guarantee products in Sweden from 2002 to 2007. The fast and broad adoption of these...
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Keywords:
Financial Innovation;
Household Finance;
Structured Products;
Stock Market Participation;
Finance;
Innovation and Invention;
Household;
Personal Finance;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Behavior;
Market Participation
Calvet, Laurent, Claire Célérier, Paolo Sodini, and Boris Vallée. "Can Security Design Foster Household Risk-Taking?" Journal of Finance 78, no. 4 (August 2023): 1917–1966.
- 2023
- Working Paper
Much Ado About Nothing? Overreaction to Random Regulatory Audits
By: Samuel Antill and Joseph Kalmenovitz
Regulators often audit firms to detect non-compliance. Exploiting a natural experiment in the lobbying industry, we show that firms overreact to audits and this response distorts prices and reduces welfare. Each year, federal regulators audit a random sample of...
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Antill, Samuel, and Joseph Kalmenovitz. "Much Ado About Nothing? Overreaction to Random Regulatory Audits." Working Paper, August 2023.
- August 2023
- Article
Status and Mortality: Is There a Whitehall Effect in the United States?
By: Tom Nicholas
The influential Whitehall studies found that top-ranking civil servants in Britain experienced lower mortality than civil servants below them in the organizational hierarchy due to differential exposure to workplace stress. I test for a Whitehall effect in the United...
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Nicholas, Tom. "Status and Mortality: Is There a Whitehall Effect in the United States?" Economic History Review 76, no. 3 (August 2023): 1191–1230.
- 2023
- Working Paper
Digital Lending and Financial Well-Being: Through the Lens of Mobile Phone Data
By: AJ Chen, Omri Even-Tov, Jung Koo Kang and Regina Wittenberg-Moerman
To mitigate information asymmetry about borrowers in developing economies, digital lenders utilize machine-learning algorithms and nontraditional data from borrowers’ mobile devices. Consequently, digital lenders have managed to expand access to credit for millions of...
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Keywords:
Borrowing and Debt;
Credit;
AI and Machine Learning;
Welfare;
Well-being;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Equality and Inequality
Chen, AJ, Omri Even-Tov, Jung Koo Kang, and Regina Wittenberg-Moerman. "Digital Lending and Financial Well-Being: Through the Lens of Mobile Phone Data." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-076, April 2023. (Revised November 2023. SSRN Working Paper Series, November 2023)
- June 2023
- Teaching Note
From Cradle to Heaven: Taikang Insurance Group
By: William C. Kirby and Noah B. Truwit
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 320-088. The case explores the rise of Taikang Insurance Group and its quest to be a leader of one of China's fastest-growing industries. Due to China's underdeveloped social welfare state, Taikang saw an opportunity for the private...
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- May 2023
- Article
A Public Health Approach to Negative News Media: The 3-to-1 Solution
By: Tyler VanderWeele and Arthur C. Brooks
There is clear evidence that the prevalence of negative media reporting has increased substantially over the past years. There is evidence also that this negative reporting adversely affects social interactions, as well as health and well-being outcomes. Given the wide...
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Keywords:
News;
Social Networks;
Contagion;
Population Health;
Media;
Health;
Welfare;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Journalism and News Industry
VanderWeele, Tyler, and Arthur C. Brooks. "A Public Health Approach to Negative News Media: The 3-to-1 Solution." American Journal of Health Promotion 37, no. 4 (May 2023): 447–449.
- February 2024
- Article
An Economic Framework for Vaccine Prioritization
By: Mohammad Akbarpour, Eric Budish, Piotr Dworczak and Scott Duke Kominers
We propose an economic framework for determining the optimal allocation of a scarce supply of vaccines that become gradually available during a public health crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Agents differ in observable and unobservable characteristics, and the...
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Keywords:
Vaccine;
Fairness;
Public Finance;
Public Goods;
Allocation Problems;
Allocative Efficiency;
Allocation Rules;
Social Welfare;
Pandemics;
Inequality;
COVID-19;
COVID-19 Pandemic;
Public Sector;
Resource Allocation;
Market Design;
Marketplace Matching;
Public Administration Industry
Akbarpour, Mohammad, Eric Budish, Piotr Dworczak, and Scott Duke Kominers. "An Economic Framework for Vaccine Prioritization." Quarterly Journal of Economics 139, no. 1 (February 2024): 359–417. (Authors' names are in certified random order.)
- December 2022
- Article
Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty: Evidence from Variable Annuities
By: Mark Egan, Shan Ge and Johnny Tang
We examine the variable annuity market to study conflicts of interest and the effect of fiduciary duty in brokerage markets. Insurers typically pay brokers higher commissions for selling more expensive annuities. Our results indicate that sales are four times as...
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Keywords:
Variable Annuity;
Brokers;
Fiduciary Duty;
Finance;
Investment;
Insurance;
Conflict of Interests;
Financial Services Industry;
Insurance Industry;
United States
Egan, Mark, Shan Ge, and Johnny Tang. "Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty: Evidence from Variable Annuities." Review of Financial Studies 35, no. 12 (December 2022): 5334–5386.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Turning Away From the State: Trade Shocks and Informal Insurance in Brazil
By: Paula Rettl
How does economic globalization affect vote choices? Conventional wisdom holds that voters who lose from economic integration support parties that propose to expand the welfare state. I argue that a key scope condition of this causal relationship is expectations about...
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Keywords:
Economic Globalization;
Globalized Economies;
Government Administration;
Economics;
Globalization;
Globalized Economies and Regions;
Voting;
Brazil;
Latin America
Rettl, Paula. "Turning Away From the State: Trade Shocks and Informal Insurance in Brazil." Working Paper, August 2022.
- July–August 2022
- Article
How Do Disadvantaged Groups Seek Information about Public Services? A Randomized Controlled Trial of Communication Technologies
By: Katerina Linos, Melissa Carlson, Laura Jakli, Nadia Dalma, Isabelle Cohen, Afroditi Veloudaki and Stavros Nikiforos Spyrellis
Governments and NGOs are switching to phone- and Internet-based communication technologies to reduce costs and broaden access to public services. However, these technological shifts can backfire if they exacerbate administrative burden in high-need communities. We...
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Linos, Katerina, Melissa Carlson, Laura Jakli, Nadia Dalma, Isabelle Cohen, Afroditi Veloudaki, and Stavros Nikiforos Spyrellis. "How Do Disadvantaged Groups Seek Information about Public Services? A Randomized Controlled Trial of Communication Technologies." Public Administration Review 82, no. 4 (July–August 2022): 708–720.