Publications

Purchase

16 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Can Consumers Be Saved From Their Misguided Decisions?

correct the [consumer] mistake, but also influences how you interpret whether an intervention is working,” says Schwartzstein. The paper, published in the Winter 2018 edition of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, examined previous work... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Consulting; Retail

15 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

Looking For a Job? Some LinkedIn Connections Matter More Than Others

advancement—especially important in a hot labor market at a time of economic uncertainty. “Your digital network can have lasting implications on how your career progresses, not just over the next year, but over your whole life,” says... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2022
Working Paper

Measuring the Tolerance of the State: Theory and Application to Protest

By: Veli Andirin, Yusuf Neggers, Mehdi Shadmehr and Jesse M. Shapiro

We develop a measure of a regime's tolerance for an action by its citizens. We ground our measure in an economic model and apply it to the setting of political protest. In the model, a regime anticipating a protest can take a costly action to repress it. We define the... View Details

Keywords: Political Protests; Modeling And Analysis; Government and Politics; Conflict and Resolution

13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

research will get people to think, ‘Hey, how can I spend a little bit of money in a way that will save me time?’” Whillans co-wrote the study with Michael I. Norton, the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at HBS; Elizabeth W. Dunn, a View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

07 Jul 2003
What Do You Think?

Can We Have Too Much Productivity Improvement?

living more affordable for everyone. But can we have too much of it, especially when there is insufficient demand for the resulting output? Given the economic challenges facing the world's economies, does productivity improvement at a... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2024
Working Paper

A Gender Backlash: Does Exposure to Female Labor Market Participation Fuel Gender Conservatism?

By: Paula Rettl, Diane Bolet, Catherine E. De Vries, Simone Cremaschi, Tarik Abou-Chadi and Sergi Pardos-Prado

The growing participation of women in the labor market has marked a significant societal transformation, coinciding with the rise of gender conservatism and far-right support. We study whether the economic consequences of labor market feminization and gender backlash... View Details

Keywords: Gender Bias; Gender Equality; Gender Inclusivity; Politics; Political Backlash; Political Culture; Conservatism; Gender; Government and Politics; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Labor

2023
Working Paper

Cognitive Uncertainty in Intertemporal Choice

By: Benjamin Enke and Thomas Graeber

This paper studies the relevance of cognitive uncertainty – subjective uncertainty over one's utility-maximizing action – for understanding and predicting intertemporal choice. The main idea is that when people are cognitively noisy, such as when a decision is complex,... View Details

Keywords: Cognitive Uncertainty; Intertemporal Choice; Cognition and Thinking; Complexity; Decision Choices and Conditions

Purchase

09 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations

competition. This type of problem arises again and again in economic activity. Think of the problem of pollution control, of lumbering, of soil conservation—the list goes on and on. To the extent that a living organization managed to... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria

April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Race and Mass Incarceration in the United States

By: Reshmaan N. Hussam and Holly Fetter

The late 20th century saw a dramatic shift in the criminal justice system of the United States. While incarceration rates had remained stable through the 1960s, they quintupled by the 2000s to 707 per 100,000, far exceeding that of all other nations in the world. By... View Details

Keywords: Criminal Justice System; Incarceration; Race; Prejudice and Bias; United States

Educators

Purchase

2021
Working Paper

Cognitive Biases: Mistakes or Missing Stakes?

By: Benjamin Enke, Uri Gneezy, Brian Hall, David Martin, Vadim Nelidov, Theo Offerman and Jeroen van de Ven

Despite decades of research on heuristics and biases, empirical evidence on the effect of large incentives—as present in relevant economic decisions—on cognitive biases is scant. This paper tests the effect of incentives on four widely documented biases: base rate... View Details

Keywords: Cognitive Biases; Incentives; Motivation and Incentives; Decision Making; Performance

November 2022
Article

The Sharp Spikes of Poverty: Financial Scarcity Is Related to Higher Levels of Distress Intensity in Daily Life

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Erin L. Frey, Sandra C. Matz, Bertus F. Jeronimus and Adam D. Galinsky

Although income is an important predictor of life satisfaction, the precise forces that drive this relationship remain unclear. We propose that financial resources afford individuals a path to reducing the distressing impact of everyday hassles, in turn increasing... View Details

Keywords: Distress; Affect; Control; Financial Scarcity; Life Satisfaction; Income; Poverty; Well-being

January 2020
Article

Compensation Consultants and the Level, Composition, and Complexity of CEO Pay

By: Kevin J. Murphy and Tatiana Sandino

We provide fresh evidence regarding the relation between compensation consultants and CEO pay. First, firms that employ consultants have higher-paid CEOs—this result is robust to firm fixed effects and matching on economic and governance variables. Second, while this... View Details

Keywords: Consultants; Benchmarking; Incentive Pay; Executive Compensation; Complexity; Motivation and Incentives; Governance

SSRN

2019
Working Paper

Compensation Consultants and the Level, Composition, and Complexity of CEO Pay

By: Kevin J. Murphy and Tatiana Sandino

We provide fresh evidence regarding the relation between compensation consultants and CEO pay. First, firms that employ consultants have higher-paid CEOs—this result is robust to firm fixed effects and matching on economic and governance variables. Second, while this... View Details

Keywords: Consultants; Benchmarking; Incentive Pay; Executive Compensation; Complexity; Motivation and Incentives; Governance

SSRN

05 Oct 2020
Book

Want to Be Happier? Make More Free Time

squid ink pasta in Venice, walking on beaches, and tasting olive oils in Tuscany, they realized they were glad they had gone, and regretted fretting about the hiccups and cost. “Thinking about the economic value of our leisure time can... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

18 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 18, 2008

Hedonic Treadmill, One Step at a Time: The Impact of Regular Religious Practice and Exercise on Well-Being Authors:Daniel Mochon, Michael I. Norton, and Dan Ariely Publication:Journal of Economic Psychology... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Don't Bring Me Down: Probing Why People Tune Out Bad News

experiment was not related to excuse-driven motives. Rather, individuals frequently avoided information for other reasons, such as inattention and laziness. Passive versus active choice Studies in behavioral economics and choice... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

2023
Working Paper

Mapping Organizational-Level Networks Using Individual-Level Connections: Evidence from Online Professional Networks

By: Shelley Xin Li, Frank Nagle and Aner Zhou

Organization-level networks facilitate the flow of information and business activities in the economy. Prior research relies solely on high-level connections to measure these networks. Therefore, to understand the role of employee connections at all job levels in... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Value; Social and Collaborative Networks; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Sharing; Employees; Social Media

SSRN

30 Jun 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

The Role of Emotions in Effective Negotiations

"If the other team ended up paying that money they were making a mistake." Business schools began teaching negotiation in the 1980s, when it was presented as a straightforward economic analysis. Assuming the other side was... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Entertainment & Recreation; Sports

Article

Excusing Selfishness in Charitable Giving: The Role of Risk

By: Christine L. Exley

Decisions involving charitable giving often occur under the shadow of risk. A common finding is that potential donors give less when there is greater risk that their donation will have less impact. While this behavior could be fully rationalized by standard economic... View Details

Keywords: Charitable Giving; Prosocial Behavior; Altruism; Risk Preferences; Risk and Uncertainty; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Behavior