Publications

2025
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

Large-scale fires are becoming increasingly common due to climate change. While conventional wisdom suggests that firsthand experiences with natural disasters foster green coalitions by raising awareness of environmental degradation, we propose an alternative... 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

2022
Working Paper

The Limits of Decentralized Administrative Data Collection: Experimental Evidence from Colombia

By: Natalia Garbiras-Diaz and Tara Slough

States collect vast amounts of data for use in policymaking and public administration. To do so, central governments frequently solicit data from decentralized bureaucrats. Because central governments use these data in policymaking, decentralized bureaucrats may face... View Details

Keywords: Decentralization; Policy-making; Policy/economics; Policy Evaluation; Governance; Government Administration; Government and Politics; Government Legislation; Policy; Public Opinion; Analytics and Data Science; Latin America; South America; Colombia

December 2022
Article

The Emotional Rewards of Prosocial Spending Are Robust and Replicable in Large Samples

By: Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Ashley V. Whillans

Past studies show that spending money on other people—prosocial spending—increases a person’s happiness. However, foundational research on this topic was conducted prior to psychology’s credibility revolution (or “replication crisis”), so it is essential to ask... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Money

2024
Working Paper

What Drives Variation in Investor Portfolios? Estimating the Roles of Beliefs and Risk Preferences

By: Mark Egan, Alexander MacKay and Hanbin Yang

We present an empirical model of portfolio choice that allows for the nonparametric estimation of investors' (subjective) expectations and risk preferences. Utilizing a comprehensive dataset of 401(k) plans from 2009 through 2019, we explore heterogeneity in asset... View Details

Keywords: Stock Market Expectations; Demand Estimation; Retirement Planning; Defined Contribution Retirement Plan; 401 (K); Finance; Investment Portfolio; Investment; Retirement; Behavioral Finance; Financial Services Industry; United States

SSRN

Article

Inaccurate Group Meta-Perceptions Drive Negative Out-Group Attributions in Competitive Contexts

By: J. Lees and M. Cikara

Across seven experiments and one survey (n = 4,282), people consistently overestimated out-group negativity towards the collective behaviour of their in-group. This negativity bias in group meta-perception was present across multiple competitive (but not cooperative)... View Details

Keywords: Intergroup Competition; Psychology; Political Polarization; Judgment And Decision-making

November 2019
Supplement

Kids & Company: Entering the U.S.

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah Mehta and Matthew Preble

This video supplement pairs with “Kids & Company: Entering the U.S.” (case no. 418011). It contains eight individual clips that range in length from 5 to 12 minutes. Instructors can use the videos, either in whole or in part, as an additional teaching... View Details

October 2019
Case

Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship (A)

By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg

Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their Harvard Business School MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the... View Details

Educators

June 2020
Article

U.S. Monetary Policy and Emerging Market Credit Cycles

By: Falk Bräuning and Victoria Ivashina

Foreign banks’ lending to firms in emerging market economies (EMEs) is large and denominated predominantly in U.S. dollars. This creates a direct connection between U.S. monetary policy and EME credit cycles. We estimate that over a typical U.S. monetary easing cycle,... View Details

Keywords: Global Business Cycle; Monetary Policy; Reaching For Yield; Money; Policy; Credit; Emerging Markets

November 2019
Article

Procedural Justice and the Risks of Consumer Voting

By: Tami Kim, Leslie John, Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton

Firms are increasingly giving consumers the vote. Eight studies demonstrate that when firms empower consumers to vote, consumers infer a series of implicit promises—even in the absence of explicit promises. We identify three implicit promises to which consumers react... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Empowerment; Procedural Justice; Promises; Customer Relationship Management; Voting; Perception; Fairness; Risk Management

January 2019
Article

Wage Elasticities in Working and Volunteering: The Role of Reference Points in a Laboratory Study

By: Christine L. Exley and Stephen J. Terry

We experimentally test how effort responds to wages—randomly assigned to accrue to individuals or to a charity—in the presence of expectations-based reference points or targets. When individuals earn money for themselves, higher wages lead to higher effort with... View Details

Keywords: Reference Points; Wage Elasticities; Labor Supply; Effor; Volunteering; Prosocial Behavior; Wages; Motivation and Incentives; Nonprofit Organizations; Behavior

May 2018
Article

Advice Giving: A Subtle Pathway to Power

By: M. Schaerer, L.P. Tost, L. Huang, F. Gino and R. P. Larrick

We propose that interpersonal behaviors can activate feelings of power, and we examine this idea in the context of advice giving. Specifically, we show a) that advice giving is an interpersonal behavior that enhances individuals’ sense of power and b) that those who... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Behavior; Power and Influence

Article

Getting the Most Out of Giving: Concretely Framing a Prosocial Goal Maximizes Happiness

By: Melanie Rudd, Jennifer Aaker and Michael I. Norton

Across six field and laboratory experiments, participants assigned a more concretely-framed prosocial goal (e.g., making someone smile or increasing recycling) felt happier and reported creating greater personal happiness after performing a goal-directed act of... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Behavior; Goal Framing; Affective Forecasting; Goals and Objectives; Happiness; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

August 2010 (Revised November 2020)
Module Note

Integrating Around the Job to Be Done

By: Clayton Christensen, Rory McDonald, Laura E Day and Shaye Roseman

Unlike traditional market segmentations that are based on a correlation of product sales or service with the attributes of the purchaser (such as age, gender, income level, and education level), jobs-based segmentation seeks to understand the causal roots of... View Details

Keywords: Integration Planning; Jobs; Market Segmentation; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing; Jobs and Positions; Marketing Strategy; Segmentation; Integration; Planning

April 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Golden Rule

By: Andrew Wasynczuk, Katherine Dowd and Sara del Nido

Jim Golden wants to radically change how catastrophic trucking accident lawsuit claims are handled by his trucking company. He wants to “do the right thing” for both the claimant and his company. Golden is a former litigator with 16 years of experience defending... View Details

Keywords: Business Ethics; Business Law; Law; Executives; Management Education; Management; Negotiator's Dilemma; Negotiations; Value; Moral Compass; Moral Leadership; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Corporate Accountability; Negotiation; Conflict and Resolution; Value Creation

Educators

January 1998 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care

Reading Rehab Hospital has experimented with a popular new concept in health care--patient-focused care--intended to increase quality and reduce costs by organizing care delivery around particular diagnoses or "service lines," rather than around the functions or... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Production; Service Operations; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

Educators