Publications

2019
Article

Preferences for Experienced Versus Remembered Happiness

By: Cassie Mogilner and Michael I. Norton

Consider two types of happiness: one experienced on a moment-to-moment basis, the other a reflective evaluation where people feel happy looking back. Though researchers have measured and argued the merits of each, we inquired into which happiness people say they want.... View Details

Keywords: Well-being; Life Satisfaction; Experience; Retrospective; Time; Happiness; Satisfaction; Welfare; Perception

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16 Dec 2009
Working Paper Summaries

The End of Chimerica

Keywords: by Niall Ferguson & Moritz Schularick

2013
Book

Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending

By: Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton

If you think money can't buy happiness, you're not spending it right. Two rising stars in behavioral science explain how money can buy happiness—if you follow five core principles of smarter spending. Happy Money offers a tour of new research on the science of... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Spending; Personal Finance

Article

Every Large Point Set Contains Many Collinear Points or an Empty Pentagon

By: Zachary Abel, Brad Ballinger, Prosenjit Bose, Sébastien Collette, Vida Dujmović, Ferran Hurtado, Scott Duke Kominers, Stefan Langerman, Attila Pór and David Wood

We prove the following generalised empty pentagon theorem for every integer ℓ ≥ 2, every sufficiently large set of points in the plane contains ℓ collinear points or an empty pentagon. As an application, we settle the next open case of the “big line or big clique”... View Details

Keywords: Erdős-Szekeres Theorem; Happy End Problem; Big Line Or Big Clique Conjecture; Empty Quadrilateral; Empty Pentagon; Empty Hexagon

Article

Social Recycling Transforms Unwanted Goods into Happiness

By: Grant Edward Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Rebecca Walker Reczek and Michael I. Norton

Consumers are often surrounded by resources that once offered meaning or happiness but that have lost this subjective value over time—even as they retain their objective utility. We explore the potential for social recycling—disposing of used goods by allowing other... View Details

Keywords: Disposition; Well-being; Prosocial Behavior; Pro-environmental Behavior; Happiness; Behavior; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Environmental Sustainability

March 24, 2020
Article

Delayed Negative Effects of Prosocial Spending on Happiness

By: Armin Falk and Thomas Graeber

Does prosocial behavior promote happiness? We test this longstanding hypothesis in a behavioral experiment that extends the scope of previous research. In our Saving a Life paradigm, every participant either saved one human life in expectation by triggering a targeted... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Behavior; Altruism; Happiness; Well-being; Spending; Behavior

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January 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Russia: The End of a Time of Troubles?

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

Describes Russia's troubled economic transition since 1991, highlights the problem of institutional development, and surveys the challenges President Vladimir Putin faced in 2000. The first section provides a brief synopsis of liberalization, stabilization, and... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Public Sector; Privatization; Economy; Developing Countries and Economies; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Russia

Educators

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

pensions, college savings, IRAs, and 401(k)s? We have yet to see the answers to these questions. The likelihood is that if the investments are laundered, so to speak, through a big bank that pretends to impose some prudence in management on the hedge funds in which... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

15 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Apple Pay’s Technology Adoption Problem

technology, but you really have to line up the complementary assets so all the pieces play with you and they are motivated to make it work. At the end of the day, Apple is going to have to make the economics work for everybody. That is a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Technology; Retail

15 Aug 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Ryan Serhant: How to Manage Your Time for Happiness

Keywords: Re: Ashley V. Whillans; Real Estate

16 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Kids of Working Moms Grow into Happy Adults

wind up just as happy in adulthood as the children of moms who stayed home. Harvard Business School Professor Kathleen McGinn hopes the findings bring a big sigh of relief for guilt-ridden mothers who either have to hold down a job to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

service lines, market segments, and competitive positioning. Marketing did the thinking, managed the brand and consumer franchise in consumer goods companies, and provided support to the sales force. In this simpler world, sales did the execution in the field and sold... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

19 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

How Mercadona Fixes Retail’s ’Last 10 Yards’ Problem

about how poor operational decisions create unnecessary complications that lead to quality problems and lower labor productivity and, in general, make life hard for retail employees." Ton is interested in demonstrating how operations... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Food & Beverage

2023
Book

Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader's Guide to Solving Hard Problems

By: Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

Speed has gotten a bad name in business, much of it deserved. When Facebook made "Move fast and break things" an informal company motto, it fueled a widely held belief that we can either make progress or take care of people, one or the other. That a certain amount of... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture

06 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Expensing Options Doesn’t Solve the Problem

problems at Enron from its reported financial statements. In this regard, current accounting for stock options actually serves as a model for disclosure, in some respects. Investors are given lots of information about stock option plans,... View Details

Keywords: by William Sahlman

Summer 2023
Article

(Un)principled Agents: Monitoring Loyalty after the End of the Royal African Company Monopoly

By: Anne Ruderman and Marlous van Waijenburg

The revocation of the Royal African Company's monopoly in 1698 inaugurated a transformation of the transatlantic slave trade. While the RAC’s exit from the slave trade has received scholarly attention, little is known about the company’s response to the loss of its... View Details

Keywords: Slavery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business History; Monopoly; History; Business and Government Relations