When managing projects with considerable uncertainty, such as those arising in construction, defense, and new product development, it is customary for a manufacturer (project manager) to offer contracts under which each supplier (contractor) receives a prespecified payment when she completes her...

type="main" <p>We study the interaction between a group of agents who exert effort to complete a project and a manager who chooses its objectives. The manager has limited commitment power so that she can commit to the objectives only when the project is sufficiently close to completion. We show...</p>

When operating in a market with heterogeneous customers, a service firm (e.g., a car rental company or a hotel) needs to manage its capacity so as to maximize its revenue. To gauge the potential demand, a service firm often allows each customer to reserve a unit of service in advance. However,...

A significant percentage of greenhouse gas emissions results from the need to heat and cool buildings and to provide power to household appliances. The potential for energy savings in this sector is considerable with estimates that energy use could be cut by almost a third simply by implementing...

I study a dynamic problem in which a group of agents collaborate over time to complete a project. The project progresses at a rate that depends on the agents' efforts, and it generates a pay-off upon completion. I show that agents work harder the closer the project is to completion, and members...

This dissertation is intended to widen our understanding of three issues among IT-mediated phenomena observed after the revolution of social structure accompanied by the “paradigm shift”: (1) learning behavior of IT knowledge workers, (2) users’ consumption behavior of wireless...

We attempt to better understand the varying correlations between stock and bond returns across countries and over sample periods using international data. The observation is that there are two forces that affect the correlation between stock and bond returns. The force that drives a positive...