Visit hbs.edu

sfhussain

Provisional Score Dynamics for NASA REALM RFID

Figure 1. The figure shows provisional scores (as percents of the theoretical maximum score) of each submission in a contest as a function of the time it was submitted. The larger dot sizes correspond to higher final placements of the submission authors. The submissions from the five winners of the contest are distinguished by colors. The two NASA benchmarks are shown by horizontal lines.

Matthew Backus headshot

Learning about Bargaining from eBay’s Best Offer Platform

Abstract: The economics literature on bargaining is rich in theory and experiments and poor in empirical work, particularly from real-world bargaining. Data from online negotiations on eBay’s “Best Offer” platform offer a unique chance to remedy this. In that setting we document patterns of behavior and relate them to “rational” and “psychological” theories of bargaining and find […]
Simon Dedeo writing on board

Where Do New Things Come From, and What Do We Do When We Get Them?

Abstract: What is the cognitive science of how we process the new, the unexpected, the pattern-breaking? I’ll present some reasons to think the human race is, by default, a novelty-rejection machine. And I’ll show empirical work that shows how communities, institutions, and the exceptional individual can overcome basic cognitive biases to create new science, new […]
Beibei Li Headshot

Mobile Targeting Using Customer Trajectory Patterns

Abstract: Rapid improvements in the precision of mobile technologies now make it possible for advertisers to go beyond real-time static location and contextual information on consumers. In this paper, we propose a novel “trajectory-based” targeting strategy for mobile recommendation that leverages detailed information on consumers’ physical-movement trajectories using fine-grained behavioral information from different mobility dimensions. […]
David Parkes headshot

Optimal Economic Design through Deep Learning

Abstract: Designing an auction that maximizes expected revenue is a major open problem in economics. Despite significant effort, only the single-item case is fully understood. We ask whether the tools of deep learning can be used to make progress. We show that multi-layer neural networks can learn essentially optimal auction designs for the few problems that […]
Digital Seminar logo

Upstream, Downstream: Diffusion and Impact of the Universal Product Code

Abstract: This paper matches archival data from the Uniform Code Council to establishments in the Longitudinal Business Database and Economic Census to study the diffusion and impacts of the Universal Product Code (UPC). We find evidence of network effects in the diffusion process. Matched-sample difference-in-difference estimates show that employment and trademark registrations increase following UPC adoption […]

Simon Dedeo headshot

Engage With Us

Join Our Community

Ready to dive deeper with the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard? Subscribe to our newsletter, contribute to the conversation and begin to invent the future for yourself, your business and society as a whole.