News Room

We’ve all heard the story of Vincent van Gogh cutting his ear off and of Jackson Pollock’s alcoholism and depression. The struggles facing the creative “genius” are so ingrained in our culture that it has its own moniker: “tortured artists.” Some of the greatest creators of all time are synonymous with depression. But a new study in the INFORMS journal Management Science finds that work created by artists when they are unhappy is valued less than their other works.

In the next three weeks, SEC fans will ponder, debate, agonize and pray over which school their most-coveted recruits will choose on National Signing Day. But a mathematical model has already made the call for all of them – sort of. The model, designed by Iowa Ph.D. candidate Kristina Bigsby, relies on social media posts and “basic biographical information” – presumably including publicly available data like hometown and school. Her work was published in the journal Decision Analysis, from INFORMS.

The ‘ratcheting’ up of bonus goals can make workforces less motivated, so managers need a clear system of communicating changes to incentives, says a new study in the INFORMS journal Management Science, co-authored by INFORMS member Francisco Brahm of Cambridge Judge Business School.

A new study in the INFORMS journal Management Science finds artwork created by artists when they are unhappy is valued at less than their other artistic works. Stuart Holman delves into this study with one of the authors, Kathryn Graddy, a professor at Brandeis with an interest in the economics of art.