Omar Besbes

Published or Forthcoming Journal Articles

• On the Robustness of Second-Price Auctions in Prior-Independent Mechanism Design, J. Anunrojwong, S. Balseiro, and O. Besbes. Operations Research (forthcoming).
  - 2022 INFORMS George Nicholson student paper competition, finalist (J. Anunrojwong)
  
  
• Effective Wages under Workforce Scheduling with Heterogeneous Time Preferences, O. Besbes, V. Goyal, G. Iyengar and R. Singal. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (forthcoming).
  - 2022 Michael H. Rothkopf Junior Researcher Paper Prize, 2nd place (R. Singal)
  
  
• Dynamic Resource Allocation: Algorithmic Design Principles and Spectrum of Achievable Performances, O. Besbes, Y. Kanoria and A. Kumar. Operations Research (forthcoming).
  - 2023 INFORMS George Nicholson student paper competition, finalist (A. Kumar)
  - 2023 Jeff McGill RMP Best Student Paper Prize, 2nd place (A. Kumar)
  
  
• Contextual Inverse Optimization: Offline and Online Learning, O. Besbes, Y. Fonseca and I. Lobel. Operations Research (articles online).
  
  
• How Big Should Your Data Really Be? Data-Driven Newsvendor: Learning One Sample at a Time, O. Besbes and O. Mouchtaki. Management Science (articles online).
  - 2024 'Best OM Paper in Management Science' Award, finalist
  - 2021 Jeff McGill RMP Best Student Paper Prize, winner (O. Mouchtaki)
  - 2021 INFORMS George Nicholson student paper competition, finalist (O. Mouchtaki)
  - 2021 INFORMS APS Best Student Paper Competition, finalist (O. Mouchtaki)
  
  
• Survey of Dynamic Resource Constrained Reward Collection Problems: Unified Model and Analysis, S. Balseiro, O. Besbes and D. Pizarro. Operations Research (articles online).
  
  
• Optimal Pricing with a Single Point, A. Allouah A. Bahamou and O. Besbes. Management Science (articles online).
  - 2021 MSOM Best Student Paper Competition, 2nd place (A. Bahamou)
  
  
• Mechanism Design with Approximate Incentive Compatibility, S. Balseiro, O. Besbes and F. Castro. Operations Research (articles online).
  
  
• Shapley Meets Uniform: an Axiomatic Framework for Attribution in Online Advertising, R. Singal, O. Besbes, A. Desir, V. Goyal and G. Iyengar. (2021) Management Science (forthcoming).
  - 2019 Jeff McGill RMP Best Student Paper Prize, 2nd place (R. Singal)
  
  
• The Exploration-Exploitation tradeoff in the Newsvendor Problem, O. Besbes, J. M. Chaneton and C. Moallemi. (2020) Stochastic Systems (forthcoming).
  
  
• Pricing with Samples, A. Allouah, A. Bahamou and O. Besbes. Operations Research, 2022, 70 (2), 1088-1104.
  
  
• Spatial Capacity Planning, O. Besbes, F. Castro and I. Lobel. Operations Research, 2022, 70 (2), 1271-1291.
  
  
• Static Pricing: Universal Guarantees for Reusable Resources, O. Besbes, A. Elmachtoub and Y. Sun. Operations Research, 2022, 70 (2), 1143-115.
  - 2019 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing (RMP) Practice Award, finalist (part 1 of 2)
  
  
• Surge Pricing and its Spatial Supply Response, O. Besbes, F. Castro and I. Lobel. Management Science, 2021, 67 (3), 1350-1367.
  - featured article, associated entry in Management Science Review
  
  
• Prior-Independent Optimal Auctions, A. Allouah and O. Besbes. Management Science, 2020, 66 (10), 4417-4432.
  - EC'18 conference best paper award, finalist
  
  
• Pricing Analytics for Rotable Spare Parts, O. Besbes, A. Elmachtoub and Y. Sun. INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics, 2020, 50 (5), 313-324.
  - 2019 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice, finalist
  - 2019 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing (RMP) Practice Award, finalist (part 2 of 2)
  
  
• Dynamic Mechanism Design with Budget Constrained Buyers under Limited Commitment, S. Balseiro, O. Besbes and G. Weintraub. Operations Research, 2019, 67 (3), 711-730.
  
  
• Optimal Exploration-Exploitation in a Multi-Armed-Bandit Problem with Non-Stationary Rewards, O. Besbes, Y. Gur and A. Zeevi. Stochastic Systems, 2019, 9 (4), 319-337.
  
  
• Contracting in Medical Equipment Maintenance Services: an Empirical Investigation, T. Chan, F. de Vericourt and O. Besbes. Management Science, 2019, 65 (3), 1136-1150.
  
  
• On Information Distortions in Online Ratings, O. Besbes and M. Scarsini. Operations Research, 2018, 66 (3), 597-610.
  short research brief featuring this work in Columbia ideas at work
  
  
• Dynamic Pricing under Debt: Spiraling Distortions and Efficiency Losses, O. Besbes, D. A. Iancu and N. Trichakis. Management Science, 2018, 64 (10), 4572-4589.
  
  
• Optimization in Online Content Recommendation services: Beyond Click-Through-Rates, O. Besbes, Y. Gur and A. Zeevi. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2016, 18 (1), 15-33.
  - lead article of special issue on practice-focused research
  - 2014 MSOM student paper competition, winner (Y. Gur)
  
  
• Product Assortment and Price Competition under Multinomial Logit Demand, O. Besbes and D. Saure. Production and Operations Management, 2016, 25 (1), 114-127.
  
  
• Non-Stationary Stochastic Optimization, O. Besbes, Y. Gur and A. Zeevi. Operations Research, 2015, 63 (5), 1227-1244.
  - 2013 INFORMS George Nicholson student paper competition, honorable mention (Y. Gur)
  
  
• Repeated Auctions with Budgets in Ad Exchanges: Approximations and Design, S. Balseiro, O. Besbes and G. Weintraub. Management Science, 2015, 61 (4), 864-884.
  - short research brief featuring this work in Columbia ideas at work
  - part of thesis that received the 2014 INFORMS George Dantzig dissertation award (S. Balseiro)
  - 2014 INFORMS George Nicholson student paper competition, finalist (S. Balseiro)
  
  
• On the (Surprising) Sufficiency of Linear Models for Dynamic Pricing with Demand Learning, O. Besbes and A. Zeevi. Management Science, 2015, 61 (4), 723-739.
  
  
• Intertemporal Price Discrimination: Structure and Computation of Optimal Policies, O. Besbes and I. Lobel. Management Science, 2015, 61 (1), 92-110.
  - `2018 Best OM Paper in Management Science' Award, finalist
  
  
• Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Demand Shifts, O. Besbes and D. Saure. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2014, 16 (4), 513-528.
  
  
• On Implications of Demand Censoring in the Newsvendor Problem, O. Besbes and A. Muharremoglu. Management Science, 2013, 59 (6), 1407-1424.
  
  
• Dynamic Pricing with Financial Milestones: Feedback-Form Policies, O. Besbes and C. Maglaras. Management Science, 2012, 58 (9), 1715-1731.
  - short research brief featuring this work in Columbia ideas at work
  
  
• Blind Network Revenue Management, O. Besbes and A. Zeevi. Operations Research, 2012, 60 (6), 1537-1550.
  
  
• On the Minimax Complexity of Pricing in a Changing Environment, O. Besbes and A. Zeevi. Operations Research, 2011, 59 (1), 66-79.
  
  
• Testing the Validity of a Demand Model: an Operations Perspective, O. Besbes, R. Phillips and A. Zeevi. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2010, 12 (1), 162-183.
  - 2013 M&SOM best paper award
  
  
• Revenue Optimization for a Make-To-Order Queue in an Uncertain Market Environment, O. Besbes and C. Maglaras. Operations Research, 2009, 57 (6), 1438-1450.
  - 2012 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize
  
  
• Dynamic Pricing without Knowing the Demand Function: Risk Bounds and Near-Optimal Algorithms, O. Besbes and A. Zeevi. Operations Research, 2009, 57 (6), 1407-1420.
  - 2012 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize
  
  
• Going Bunkers: the Joint Route Selection and Refueling Problem, O. Besbes and S. Savin. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2009, 11 (4), 694-711.
  
  

Working Papers

• Battery Operations in Electricity Markets: Strategic Behavior and Distortions, Jerry Anunrojwong, Santiago R. Balseiro and Omar Besbes.
  
  
• Fast Revenue Maximization, Achraf Bahamou, Omar Besbes, Omar Mouchtaki.
  
  
• The Best of Many Robustness Criteria in Decision Making: Formulation and Application to Robust Pricing, Jerry Anunrojwong, Santiago R. Balseiro and Omar Besbes.
  
  
• From Contextual Data to Newsvendor Decisions: On the Actual Performance of Data-Driven Algorithms, O. Besbes, W. Ma and O. Mouchtaki.
  
  
• Signaling Competition in Two-Sided Markets, O. Besbes, Y. Fonseca, I. Lobel, and F. Zheng.
  - 2023 Jeff McGill RMP Best Student Paper Prize, 2nd place (Y. Fonseca)
  
  
• Beyond IID: Data-Driven Decision-Making in Heterogeneous Environments, O. Besbes, W. Ma and O. Mouchtaki.
  
  
• Robust Auction Design with Support Information, J. Anunrojwong, S. Balseiro, and O. Besbes.
  
  
• Auctions in the Online Display Advertising Chain: A Case for Independent Campaign Management, A. Allouah and O. Besbes.
  
  

Refereed Conferences

• The Fault in Our Recommendations: On the Perils of Optimizing the Measurable, O. Besbes, Y. Kanoria and A. Kumar. RecSys 2024.
  
  
• Robust Auction Design with Support Information, J. Anunrojwong, S. Balseiro, and O. Besbes. EC'23, Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Signaling Competition in Two-Sided Markets, O. Besbes, Y. Fonseca, I. Lobel, and F. Zheng. EC'23, Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Beyond IID: data-driven decision-making in heterogeneous environments, O. Besbes, W. Ma, O. Mouchtaki. To appear in the Proceedings of the 36th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2022).
  
  
• On the Robustness of Second-Price Auctions in Prior-Independent Mechanism Design, J. Anunrojwong, S. Balseiro, and O. Besbes. EC'22, Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• The Multisecretary Problem with Many Types, O. Besbes, Y. Kanoria and A. Kumar. EC'22, Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Online Learning from Optimal Actions, O. Besbes, Y. Fonseca and I. Lobel. COLT' 21, 34th Annual Conference on Learning Theory.
  
  
• Revenue Maximization from Finite Samples, A. Allouah A. Bahamou and O. Besbes. EC'21, Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Optimal Pricing with a Single Point, A. Allouah A. Bahamou and O. Besbes. EC'21, Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Spatial Capacity Planning, O. Besbes, F. Castro and I. Lobel. EC'19, Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Static Pricing: Universal Guarantees for Reusable Resources, O. Besbes, A. Elmachtoub and Y. Sun. EC'19, Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Sample-Based Optimal Pricing, A. Allouah and O. Besbes. EC'19, Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Shapley Meets Uniform: an Axiomatic Framework for Attribution in Online Advertising, R. Singal, O. Besbes, A. Desir, V. Goyal and G. Iyengar. WWW Conference, 2019.
  
  
• Prior-Independent Optimal Auctions, A. Allouah and O. Besbes. EC'18, Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Dynamic Mechanism Design with Budget Constrained Buyers under Limited Commitment, S. Balseiro, O. Besbes, and G.Y. Weintraub. EC'16, Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Stochastic Multi-Armed-Bandit Problem with Non-Stationary Rewards, O. Besbes, Y. Gur and A. Zeevi. NIPS 2014, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 27, Z. Ghahramani and M. Welling and C. Cortes and N.D. Lawrence and K.Q. Weinberger, 199-207.
  
  
• Auctions for Online Display Advertising Exchanges: Approximations and Design, S. Balseiro, O. Besbes, and G.Y. Weintraub. EC'13, Proceedings of the 2013 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation.
  
  
• Effect of grid resolution on accuracy of skin friction and heat transfer in turbulent boundary layers, F. Thivet, O. Besbes and D. Knight. AIAA '00, Paper No. 2000-0820, AIAA 38th Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, Nevada, 2000.