Working Papers

Arielle Anderer, PhD Candidate, The Wharton School; Hamsa Bastani, Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School; Divya Singhvi, NYU Stern Abstract: This project adapts online learning techniques to unstructured data, focusing on neural networks. We posit a non-parametric multi-armed bandit algorithm with context that uses a neural network for its underlying function approximation. We theoretically analyze ...Read More

This paper develops a theoretical model to study the economic incentives for a social media platform to moderate user-generated content. We show that a self-interested platform can use content moderation as an effective marketing tool to expand its installed user base, to increase the utility of its users, and to achieve its positioning as a ...Read More

Uber. Upwork. TaskRabbit. The world of work is transforming and my research agenda attempts to identify and explain 1) how work is changing and 2) how these changes affect workers, especially those who are marginalized or vulnerable. Read More

We investigate whether the effect of network position on innovation is causal or spurious. Although empirical evidence demonstrates that certain structural positions in alliance networks (e.g. structural holes) affect firm innovation, it is hard to disentangle the factors allowing a firm to put itself in a certain position from the innovation outcomes that stem from ...Read More

Globally, 1.5 billion people live off the grid, their only access to electricity often limited to operationally-expensive fossil fuel generators. Solar power has risen as a sustainable and less expensive option, but its generation is variable during the day and non-existent at night. Read More

I quantify the impact of trade secret protection on labor outsourcing, and consequently, on aggregate productivity. Read More

We show that financial reporting spurs consumer behavior. Using granular GPS data, we show that foot-traffic to firms’ commerce locations significantly increases in the days following their earnings announcements. Read More

Tolga Dizdarer, PhD Candidate, The Wharton School, Gerry Tsoukalas, Operations, Information & Decisions, The Wharton School, and Gérard Cachon, Operations, Information & Decisions, The Wharton School Abstract: Service platforms like Uber and AirBnb create markets that connect customers with service providers. Platforms provide the medium of interaction and receive commissions from each transaction taking place between the ...Read More

We establish the relevance of human capital to startup financing. Using administrative databases from the Central Bank of Brazil, we obtain information on private firms, their founders and their access to bank credit. Read More

How can rooftop solar owners capture economic value from investing in battery technologies? Storage adds at least three strategic options for homeowners that previously could only directly consume solar generation and sell any excess instantaneously, thus they traditionally relied on feed-in tariffs or other subsidies. Read More