We formulate a mean–variance portfolio selection problem that accommodates qualitative input about expected returns and provide an algorithm that solves the problem. This model and algorithm can be used, for example, when a portfolio manager determines that one industry will benefit more from...

As much as 12%% of the daily volume on the New York Stock Exchange, and similar volumes on other major world exchanges, involves sales by institutional investors to brokers through blind portfolio auctions. Such transactions typically take the form of a first-price sealed-bid auction in which...

A collaborative filtering system recommends to users products that similar users like. Collaborative filtering systems influence purchase decisions and hence have become targets of manipulation by unscrupulous vendors. We demonstrate that nearest neighbors algorithms, which are widely used in...

Our analysis melds two traditional approaches to promoting quality. The first is restoring the stock of quality. The second is curbing its flow of deterioration. Although both approaches are widely used in real world settings, analytic models have tended to focus on one strategy or the other. We...

This paper explores the connection between three important threads of economic research offering different approaches to studying the dynamics of an industry with heterogeneous firms. Finite models of the form pioneered by Ericson and Pakes (1995) capture the dynamics of a finite number of...

We propose an approximation method for analyzing Ericson and Pakes (1995)-style dynamic models of imperfect competition. We develop a simple algorithm for computing an ``oblivious equilibrium,'' in which each firm is assumed to make decisions based only on its own state and knowledge of the long...