Publications

29 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

The $1 Trillion Link Between Mental Health and Economic Productivity

mental health is an outcome of improvements in economic development.” “We haven’t been as good at understanding the link between mental health and economics as we could be” A View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

July 2022
Article

The Developmental Origins and Behavioral Consequences of Attributions for Inequality

By: Antonya Marie Gonzalez, Lucia Macchia and Ashley V. Whillans

Attributions, or lay explanations for inequality, have been linked to inequality-relevant behavior. In adults and children, attributing inequality to an individual rather than contextual or structural causes is linked to greater support for economic inequality and less... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Behavior; Perception

2018
Book

High-Skilled Migration to the United States and Its Economic Consequences

By: Gordon H. Hanson, William R. Kerr and Sarah Turner

Immigration policy is one of the most contentious public policy issues in the United States today. High-skilled immigrants represent an increasing share of the U.S. workforce, particularly in science and engineering fields. These immigrants affect economic growth,... View Details

Keywords: Immigration; Policy; Economics; Outcome or Result; United States

2023
Working Paper

Global Harms, Local Profits: How the Uneven Costs of Natural Disasters Affect Support for Green Political Platforms

By: Silvia Pianta and Paula Rettl

The emergence of green constituencies enables climate action. Conventional wisdom holds that first-hand experience with natural disasters helps build green coalitions by increasing the salience of the costs of environmental degradation. Focusing on fires in Brazil,... View Details

Keywords: Climate Impact; Politics; Environmental Issues; Environmental Protection; Economic Analysis; Economic Behavior; Economic Geography; Economy; Economics; Climate Change; Environmental Management; Political Elections; Natural Disasters; Green Technology; Environmental Sustainability; Latin America; Brazil

March 2016 (Revised January 2020)
Teaching Note

Behavioural Insights Team (A) and (B)

By: Michael Luca and Patrick Rooney

The Behavioural Insights Team case introduces students to the concept of choice architecture and the value of experimental methods (sometimes called A/B testing) within organizational contexts. The exercise provides an opportunity for students to apply these principles... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Choice Architecture; Public Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mathematical Methods; United Kingdom

March 2015 (Revised January 2020)
Supplement

Behavioural Insights Team (B)

By: Michael Luca and Patrick Rooney

The Behavioural Insights Team case introduces students to the concept of choice architecture and the value of experimental methods (sometimes called A/B testing) within organizational contexts. The exercise provides an opportunity for students to apply these principles... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Choice Architecture; Public Entrepreneurship; United Kingdom

01 Jan 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Lobbying Behavior of Governmental Entities: Evidence from Public Pension Accounting Rules

Keywords: by Abigail M. Allen & Reining Petacchi

05 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Watching for the Next Economic Downturn? Follow Corporate Debt

information about the risk of future economic crashes and deserve more scrutiny from policymakers, economists, and regulators. The paper emerges after years of persistent inflation and mounting interest rates, and amid close scrutiny of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

December 24, 2019
Article

Why It's So Hard to Change People's Commuting Behavior

By: Ariella S. Kristal and A. V. Whillans

Car commuters report higher levels of stress and lower job satisfaction compared to train commuters—in large part because car commuting can involve driving in traffic and navigating tense road situations. Some employers are trying to get involved and reduce car... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Motivating People; Time And Wellbeing; Time Stress; Commuting; Behavior; Change; Motivation and Incentives

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Research Summary

Overview

By: John Beshears

In his research, Professor Beshears shows how managers can influence the behavior of customers and employees by changing the decision-making environment to call attention to a decision, to use psychological framing to shape assessments of options, or to help... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Consumer Finance; Household Finance; Health Care; Organizational Economics; Decision Making; Economics; Negotiation; Behavioral Finance

2016
Working Paper

The Empirical Economics of Online Attention

By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but instead for consumer attention. We model and characterize how households allocate their scarce attention in arguably the largest market for attention: the Internet. Our characterization of household... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competition; Behavior; Resource Allocation; Household; Cognition and Thinking

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September 2012
Article

The Relationship Between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Measures

By: Anke Becker, Thomas Deckers, Thomas Dohmen, Armin Falk and Fabian Kosse

Although both economists and psychologists seek to identify determinants of heterogeneity in behavior, they use different concepts to capture them. In this review, we first analyze the extent to which economic preferences and psychological concepts of personality, such... View Details

Keywords: Risk Preference; Time Preference; Social Preferences; Locus Of Control; Big Five; Economics; Behavior; Personal Characteristics

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16 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Can Applied Economics Save Homeless Puppies?

an animal shelter near her hometown. “I visited the shelter to earn a Girl Scout badge, but it immediately became a passion,” she says. More than a decade later she was sitting in a behavioral economics... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

2022
Article

How to Choose a Default

By: John Beshears, Richard T. Mason and Shlomo Benartzi

We have developed a model for setting a default when a population is choosing among ordered choices—that is, ones listed in ascending or descending order. A company, for instance, might want to set a default contribution rate that will increase employees’ average... View Details

Keywords: Nudge; Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Behavioral Science; Default; Savings; Decision Choices and Conditions; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives

2009
Working Paper

Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior

By: Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton and Elizabeth W. Dunn

While lay intuitions and pop psychology suggest that helping others leads to higher levels of happiness, the existing evidence only weakly supports this causal claim: Research in psychology, economics, and neuroscience exploring the benefits of charitable giving has... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Research; Behavior; Happiness; Motivation and Incentives

2010
Chapter

Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-interested Charitable Behavior

By: L. Anik, L. B. Aknin, M. I. Norton and E. W. Dunn

While lay intuitions and pop psychology suggest that helping others leads to higher levels of happiness, the existing evidence only weakly supports this causal claim: research in psychology, economics, and neuroscience exploring the benefits of charitable giving has... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Cost vs Benefits; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Outcome or Result; Relationships; Research; Behavior; Happiness; Motivation and Incentives

01 Feb 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Dollar Funding and the Lending Behavior of Global Banks

Keywords: by Victoria Ivashina, David S. Scharfstein & Jeremy C. Stein; Financial Services

Article

Beyond Statistics: The Economic Content of Risk Scores

By: Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein, Raymond Kluender and Paul Schrimpf

"Big data" and statistical techniques to score potential transactions have transformed insurance and credit markets. In this paper, we observe that these widely-used statistical scores summarize a much richer heterogeneity, and may be endogenous to the context in which... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Risk and Uncertainty; Insurance Industry

March 2017
Case

From mHealth Hackathon to Reality: Diabetes Care

By: Kevin Schulman and Curry Cheek

This case explores the development of a business plan for a mobile health application for diabetes care. The case depicts a student team excited about the opportunity to improve the care of patients with diabetes by contracting an app. They go through a rigorous... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Mobile Health Technologies; Health Care; Health Care Industry; Behavioral Economics; Applications and Software; Health Care and Treatment; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; Telecommunications Industry

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