Publications

SSRN

14 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces Its 2023-2024 Blavatnik Fellows

personalized oncology care. They have collectively raised more than $500M in funding and an additional $244M from an IPO in June 2020. The fellowship is guided by Peter Barrett, executive fellow, and a Key Advisory Board of 13 seasoned... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Optimal Illiquidity

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

We calculate the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and naive present bias. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each witha different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty. Collected... View Details

Keywords: Illiquidity; Commitment; Flexibility; Savings; Social Security; Retirement; Government Legislation; Taxation; Saving

26 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 26, 2017

worked are positively correlated with firm performance, and differences between family and non-family CEOs account for approximately 18% of the performance gap between family and non-family firms. We investigate the sources of the differences in CEO labor supply across... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2017
Article

When Discounts Raise Costs: The Effect of Copay Coupons on Generic Utilization

By: Leemore S. Dafny, Christopher Ody and Matt Schmitt

Branded pharmaceutical manufacturers frequently offer “copay coupons” that insulate consumers from cost sharing, thereby undermining insurers’ ability to influence drug utilization. We study the impact of copay coupons on branded drugs first facing generic entry... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Insurance Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

2014
Article

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China: Symbol or Substance?

By: Christopher Marquis and Cuili Qian

This study focuses on how and why firms strategically respond to government signals regarding appropriate corporate activity. We integrate institutional theory and research on corporate political strategy to develop a political dependence model that explains (a) how... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Theory; Political Strategy; Non-market Strategy; China; Corporate Social Responsibility; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Emerging Markets; Government and Politics; China

October 1997
Article

Does Competition Kill Corruption?

By: Christopher Bliss and Rafael Di Tella

Corrupt agents (officials or gangsters) exact money from firms. Corruption affects the number of firms in a free-entry equilibrium. The degree of deep competition in the economy increases with lower overhead costs relative to profits and with a tendency toward similar... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Crime and Corruption

September 2016 (Revised July 2017)
Supplement

Transferring Knowledge Between Projects at NASA JPL (B)

By: Dorothy Leonard and Christopher Myers

At the conclusion of the (A) case, Jennifer Trosper needed to decide whether or not to throw her support behind the training and outreach represented by the ROV-E program to build small rovers like the ones used on the surface of Mars by NASA JPL. The (B) case... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Management; Employees; Experience and Expertise; Decision Making; Aerospace Industry; United States

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Web

Entrepreneurial Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

People by Boston Magazine in 2015. Lauren H. Cohen : Winner of the Inaugural Hakan Orbay Research First Prize Award in 2015 for “Resident Networks and Corporate Connections: Evidence from World War II Internment Camps” with Umit Gurun and... View Details

Web

Advisory Board - Entrepreneurship

Research Award, and the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences, awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from Ohio Wesleyan University for his work... View Details

Web

Research - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

Info Global Cycles: Capital Flows, Commodities, and Sovereign Defaults, 1815-2015 By: Carmen Reinhart, Vincent Reinhart & Christoph Trebesch FEB 2016 Empirical works exploring the relationship between capital flows and economic crisises... View Details

September 2017 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Dianrong: Marketplace Lending, Blockchain, and 'The New Finance' in China

By: Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen and Anthony K. Woo

This case examines the strategic positioning of Dianrong, one of the largest online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms in China, in its attempt to become a foundational player in the expansion of the FinTech sector in Asia. Dianrong had recently announced the... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain; Finance; Innovation and Invention; Competition; Product Positioning; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; China

Educators

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March 2025
Article

Optimal Illiquidity

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

We study the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and present bias with naive beliefs. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each with a different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty.... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Financial Liquidity; Personal Finance; Saving

September 1989 (Revised July 1991)
Case

Komatsu: Ryoichi Kawai's Leadership

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Highlights the role played by Ryoichi Kawai in building a company that was able to challenge industry leader Caterpillar. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management; Growth Management; Competition; Manufacturing Industry

Web

Events - Business History

Events Events Upcoming Events Business History Seminar The Fall 2025 Business History Seminar, co-organized by Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski, explores the theme "Rethinking Entrepreneurial History." The Seminar meets via Zoom on... View Details

August 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Braintrust: The Blockchain-Powered Talent Network

By: Christopher Stanton, Joseph B. Fuller and George Gonzalez

A San Francisco startup seeks to disrupt the freelancing industry through its user-owned talent network powered by the cryptocurrency, BTRST. View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Social and Collaborative Networks; Talent and Talent Management; Consulting Industry; Technology Industry; United States

Educators

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August 2013
Article

The Timing of Pay

By: Christopher Parsons and E. Van Wesep

There exists large and persistent variation in not only how, but when employees are paid, a fact unexplained by existing theory. This paper develops a simple model of optimal pay timing for firms. When workers have self-control problems, they under-save... View Details

Keywords: Payday Lending; Hyperbolic Discounting; Self-control Problems; Pay Frequency; Payday Loan Legislation; Paycheck Frequency; Time Inconsistency; Wages; Behavior; Employee Relationship Management

18 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 18

used in the literature. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=46750 Speaking of Corporate Social Responsibility By: Liang, Hao, Christopher Marquis, Luc Renneboog, and Sunny Li Sun Abstract—We argue that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2025
Working Paper

Race, Rental Yields, and Housing Decay in Manhattan

By: Tom Nicholas and Christophe Spaenjers

We develop a new dataset on real estate transactions in Manhattan (1912–1939), linked to federal Census records (1930 and 1940) and property images used for tax assessment purposes (around 1940 and 1980). We analyze investor returns and incentives to maintain... View Details

Keywords: Housing Markets; Rental Yields; Urban Decay; Manhattan; Race; Equality and Inequality; Investment Return; Motivation and Incentives; Real Estate Industry; New York (city, NY)