Technology & Operations Seminar Series

Technology & Operations Seminar Series - 2024-2025

Contact Shandra Bremer at [email protected] with any questions.

September 6

Auyon Siddiq, UCLA Anderson School of Management

Title: Platform Disintermediation; Information Effects and Pricing Remedies

Time: 11 a.m. - noon
Location: R1240

September 20

Ricky Roet-Green, University of Rochester, Simon Business School

Title: Foresee the Next Line: Customer Strategies and Information Disclosure in Tandem Queues

Time: 11:00 am- 12:00 pm
Location: R1240

September 27

Gad Allon, Wharton

Title: Strategic Decision-Making in the Gig Economy: Labor Flexibility and Incentives

Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: R1240

OCTOBER 4

Antonio Moreno, Harvard

Title: Assortment Curation in Online Marketplaces

Abstract: Most online sales worldwide take place in online marketplaces that connect buyers
with third-party seller. The presence of numerous third-party sellers leads to a proliferation of
options for each product, making it difficult for customers to choose between the available
options. Online marketplaces adopt algorithmic tools to curate how the different options in an
assortment are presented to customers. This talk will discuss some of the key differences
between retailers and marketplaces, and different mechanisms for algorithmic assortment
curation in marketplaces. We will focus on one such tool (an “algorithmic buybox”), that
algorithmically chooses one option to be presented prominently to customers. We leveraged
the staggered introduction of buybox within a prominent product category in a leading online
marketplace to study how introducing buybox for algorithmic assortment curation impacts
marketplace dynamics, exploring consequences for customers, sellers, and the marketplace
operator.

Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: R1240

OCTOBER 11

Dennis Zhang, Olin Business School

Title: The Impact of Recommender Systems on Content Consumption and Production: Evidence from Field Experiments and Structural Modeling

Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: R0220

OCTOBER 18

Prasanna (Sonny) Tambe, Wharton

Title: Political Polarization and Tech Talent

Abstract: We demonstrate that growing political polarization influences the application behaviors
of technology workers in the startup labor market. We analyze data from a leading job search
platform for high-tech startups in the window surrounding the Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v.
Jackson Women's Health Organization. The analysis yields three insights: i) following Dobbs,
application rates to new jobs in states with trigger laws fell relative to jobs in states with
legislatures that maintained the legality of abortion; ii) the fall in application rates was primarily
in in-person jobs; and iii) the differences are most pronounced among applicants who have
more power to choose employers. A compensating differential analysis reveals that startups in
trigger-law states had to offer about 15% higher compensation to attract talent than those in
protected states.

Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: R1240

NOVEMBER 8

Stefan Wager, Stanford

Title: Optimal Mechanisms for Demand Response: An Indifference Set Approach

Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: R1240

NOVEMBER 15

Mor Armony, NYU Stern School of Business

Title: Queue configurations and customer ownership: An Analytical and experimental investigation

Abstract: Contrary to traditional queueing theory, recent field studies in health care and call centers
indicate that pooling queues may not lead to operational efficiencies relative to dedicated
queues. We use an equilibrium queueing model analysis and a series of controlled experiments
to examine the conditions under which this may be the case and to test several behavioral
mechanisms that may explain why. We also examine whether the order in which servers are
exposed to one type of queue configuration versus another has an impact on their performance,
and why.

Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm
Location: R1240

NOVEMBER 22

Jeannette Song, Duke Fuqua School of Business

Title: Index-Based Yield Protection for Smallholder Farmers

Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: R1240

DECEMBER 2

Kadeem Noray, Harvard

Title: Selecting for Diverse Talent: Theory and Evidence

Time: 1:00 pm-2:00 pm
Location: R0210

DECEMBER 6

Angela Kohlenberg, Northwestern

Title: Greedy Matching of Impatient Agents: The Role of Inventory