Publications

2017
Working Paper

Rethinking Measurement of Pay Disparity and its Relation to Firm Performance

By: Ethan Rouen

I develop measures of firm-level pay disparity and examine their relation to firm accounting performance. Using comprehensive compensation data for a large sample of firms, I find no statistically significant relation between the ratio of CEO-to-mean employee... View Details

Keywords: Pay Disparity; Pay Ratio; CEO Pay Ratio; Income Inequality; Executive Compensation; Wages; Equality and Inequality; Business Ventures; Performance

05 May 2020
Research & Ideas

China Tariffs and Coronavirus a Double Hit to American Retailers

Evidence from U.S. Trade Policy, accepted for publication by American Economic Review: Insights. It was co-authored by Gita Gopinath of Harvard University and the International Monetary Fund; Brent Neiman of the University of Chicago; and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Global Sourcing at Nike

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael W. Toffel and Olivia Hull

This case explores the evolution of Nike’s global product sourcing strategy, in particular ongoing efforts to improve working conditions at its suppliers’ factories. When the case opens in July 2018, Vice President of Sourcing Amanda Tucker and her colleagues in Nike’s... View Details

Educators

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22 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Companies Can Expand Their Talent Pool by Giving Ex-Convicts a Second Chance

Assistant Professor Zoë Cullen. After all, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create challenges for companies attempting to fill job openings as record numbers of people quit their jobs in search of new opportunities in a hot labor... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

30 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

should be heavily regulated, is the market for indentured servants. A market like that with asymmetric information—in which one person knows a whole lot more about potential labor conditions and rights than the person on the other end—is... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2015
Working Paper

A Theory of Intergenerational Mobility

By: Gary Becker, Scott Duke Kominers, Kevin Murphy and Jorg L. Spenkuch

We develop a model of intergenerational resource transmission that emphasizes the link between cross-sectional inequality and intergenerational mobility. By drawing on first principles of human capital theory, we derive several novel results. In particular, we show... View Details

Keywords: Intergenerational Mobility; Inequality; Complementarities; Human Capital; Equality and Inequality; Income; Family and Family Relationships

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

Benioff has long espoused the need for a more equitable economic system and has stated that the current pandemic “is a tremendous opportunity for all CEOs and all businesses to really put their resources right out there and say, 'We're... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

2024
Working Paper

Health, Human Capital Development and the Longevity of Japanese Elites Since 710

By: Tom Nicholas and Hiroshi Shimizu

We examine the lifespan of over 40,000 elites in Japan born between 710 and 1912, including samurai warriors, feudal lords, business, political, cultural, and religious leaders at the apex of the social hierarchy. Japanese elites experienced increases in lifespan about... View Details

Keywords: Life Expectancy; Status and Position; Health; History; Human Capital; Japan

April 2015 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Bankruptcy in the City of Detroit

By: Stuart Gilson, Kristin Mugford and Annelena Lobb

The June 2013 bankruptcy of the city of Detroit, Michigan was, at the time, the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Detroit had struggled for years with a weakening tax base, high unemployment, a heavy debt load and increasing retiree costs. These... View Details

Educators

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07 Jul 2021
Book

Good News for Disgraced Companies: You Can Regain Trust

its value when it loses trust, at least in the short term. Meanwhile, a 10 percent increase in trust leads to 0.8 percent more economic growth. “People think trust is an airy-fairy concept that’s nice but not essential, and it’s not,”... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

14 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 14

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/214107-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 715-011 Colombia and the Economic Premium of Peace Colombia, the fastest growing country in Latin America, continues to struggle with productivity. Both... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Feb 2013
What Do You Think?

Is ‘Conscious Capitalism’ an Antidote to Income Inequality?

never mind narcissism and all the disorders of greed We can't fix the world with economic systems too big a job all we tiny ones have is our love and conscience." Etienne Douaze maintains that the concept is alive and well in Germany's... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2020
Working Paper

Consumers Punish Firms That Cut Employee Pay in Response to COVID-19

By: Bhavya Mohan, Serena Hagerty and Michael Norton

Two experiments, including one incentive compatible study, examine the impact of cutting pay for executives versus employees in response to COVID-19 on consumer behavior. Study 1 explores the effect of announcing cuts or no cuts to CEO and employee pay, and shows that... View Details

Keywords: Employee Furloughs; CEO Pay Cuts; Pay Ratios; Purchase Intention; Health Pandemics; Employees; Wages; Executive Compensation; Consumer Behavior

28 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

Keep or Cut Workers? How Companies Reacted to the COVID-19 Crisis

create human capital. For these companies, the cost of rehiring and restoring operations after a layoff would be greater than the cost of maintaining the status quo during an economic downturn. Amazon, for instance, fared well by having... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

31 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

It’s Not All About Pay: College Grads Want Jobs That ‘Change the World’

potentially lowering wage inequality in the labor markets.” The findings come at a time that communities expect more from companies and HR departments wrestle with the vexing combination of economic concerns... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

December 2001 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Netherlands:The, A "Third Way?"

By: Bruce R. Scott and Jamie Matthews

The economic success of The Netherlands in the 1960s can be attributed to Dutch wages that were kept substantially below those in neighboring countries. But increased pressures in the 1970s led to a wage explosion, which in turn pushed unemployment and disguised... View Details

Keywords: Wages; History; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Macroeconomics; Economic Systems; Employment; Performance Productivity; Jobs and Positions; Economic Growth; Netherlands