Economist - Publications - Faculty & Research

18 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

How to Use Free Shipping as a Competitive Weapon

media creator for Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Related Reading: Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores? Behavioral Economists Can Make You a Healthier Consumer and Smarter Marketer Research Paper: The... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail

12 Mar 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Why BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Is Not a Socialist

benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate.” This position sharply contrasts to Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman’s famous 1970 article, The... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Banking

19 Jun 2013
Research & Ideas

Analyzing Institutions to Solve Big Problems

economist and Harvard President Emeritus Lawrence H. Summers, University of Michigan Professor Gerald Davis, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration at HBS. In her presentation, Kanter... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel & Anna Secino

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Three Steps for Crisis Prevention

was not. The Economist reported at the time that there were many warning flags of the EC's intent to scuttle the deal. For some time, the magazine pointed out, a philosophical gap had been widening between Europe and America over the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael D. Watkins & Max H. Bazerman

07 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Immigrant Workers Cluster in Particular Industries

Mandorff, an economist at the Swedish Competition Authority. “But there are very few facts or details to help policymakers and business leaders understand why this occurs—or whether immigrants start more businesses or create more jobs... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Transportation; Beauty & Cosmetics; Retail

10 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Corporate Responsibility and the Environment: What is the Right Thing To Do?

fiduciary responsibilities. A second approach, by economist Paul Portney, considered whether firms can do CSR without getting hurt competitively, and whether or not they should. He concluded that they could, under limited circumstances,... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

14 Sep 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Google Engineer Deserved to be Fired by the CEO

feelings and aesthetics rather than ideas, a stronger interest in people rather than things, prefer jobs in social or artistic areas, extraversion expressed as gregariousness rather than assertiveness, and neuroticism, characterized by high anxiety and lower stress... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

23 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Medical Debt Won't Make Everyone Happier

should focus their efforts on helping people with debt before they go through the stress of the collections process, he says. “We were optimistic that it could nevertheless have a cost-effective impact.” “An economist might not be that... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

07 Aug 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t Americans Get Health Care Right?

centers, to some extent, on whether there should be a publicly administered alternative to the private health care system, as opposed to other countries in which private care is supplementary to the public system. Harvard economist Greg... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

31 May 2016
HBS Case

Who Owns Space?

substantial number of humans live. That’s big. If you have grand goals of how to change the world, there’s nothing bigger than space.” Back on earth, Weinzierl is looking forward to building up a robust treatment of a sector that hasn’t received much attention from... View Details

Keywords: Re: Matthew C. Weinzierl; Aerospace

30 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Political Polarization: Why We All Just Can't Get Along

a fundamental question is, are these being driven by what economists would call taste—‘I like red people and don’t like green people’—or is it driven by beliefs—‘it’s not that I don’t like them per se, I just don’t think we can trust... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Banking; Financial Services

15 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Black Swans and Big Trends Can Ruin Anyone's Internet Prediction

skepticism, are beginning to overdose. The bust likes to think of itself as a radical departure from the boom, but it has in common with it one big thing: a mob mentality.” Likewise, the economist Charles Kindleberger, in his seminal 1978... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas R. Eisenmann; Technology

05 Nov 2014
What Do You Think?

Are We Entering an Era of Neuromanagement?

that people tend to devalue long-term returns in relation to short-term gains. They tend not to buy and sell according to self-set rules. A person willing to pay up to $200 for a ticket to a sporting event is not, once he owns it, willing to sell it at any price above... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Experimental Researcher Helps Improve Health Care in Zambia

Sometimes big ideas start with small experiments. That's been the experience of Harvard Business School professor Nava Ashraf, whose experimental approach to research in developing countries has produced insights that have influenced government policies. Ashraf, an... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Health

12 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Power to the People: The Unexpected Influence of Small Coalitions

he is at odds with the theories of economist Mancur Olson, whose 1965 book, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, sparked a generation of political scientists and regulation theorists, including George... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

27 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Ordinary People Get Creative?

equipment. Amabile hastens to add that user innovation is nothing new; necessity has long been the mother of invention. (See, for example, economist Eric von Hippel’s paper The Dominant Role of Users in the Scientific Instrument... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

24 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Link Between Language and Corporate Responsibility

socially responsible a company was. Marquis and his fellow researchers based their inquiry on a similar study regarding individual decision-making done by UCLA economist Keith Chen. In a paper published in the American Economic Review in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

04 Jan 2012
What Do You Think?

Income Inequality: What’s the Right Amount?

important contributor to sustained economic growth than such things as openness to trade, a competitive exchange rate, level of foreign investment, or the quality and stability of a country's political institutions. At the risk of oversimplifying a complex analysis,... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Jul 2010
What Do You Think?

Is Profit as a “Direct Goal” Overrated?

new book, Obliquity, by British economist John Kay. You might guess that Kay thinks profit as a "direct goal" is overrated, otherwise he wouldn't have much substance for a book on the subject. Kay argues that business problems... View Details