Incentive Pay - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Tackling Climate Change Will Cost Less Than We Think

No one knows how much it will cost to keep the risks of significant climate disruption to a reasonable level. One commonly cited estimate puts the cost at roughly 1 percent of world GDP a year, or about $840 billion. This is a large number, but it seems smaller when... View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy; Utilities

30 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Venture Investors Prefer Funding Handsome Men

If you're in search of startup funding, it pays to be a good-looking guy. A series of three studies reveals that investors prefer pitches from male entrepreneurs over those from female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitches... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

24 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Want People to Save More? Send a Text

that if she lost her job, she couldn't pay her children's school fees or pay for a doctor," says Pomeranz, an assistant professor in entrepreneurial management at Harvard Business School. “How can we... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

30 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Health Care Under a Research Microscope

away, might encourage more people to use it. The early, surprising answer: yes. Whereas free is sometimes equated with no value, people who pay even a little bit for Clorin are more likely to use it and use more of it, according to the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Biotechnology

13 Dec 2006
Research & Ideas

Improving Public Health for the Poor

School of Public Health, Project Antares aims to create a system for devising commercial incentives that provide affordable public health initiatives, or "interventions" in healthcare parlance. Examples of commercial high-impact... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

08 Jan 2001
Research & Ideas

Can Japan Compete? [Part Two]

companies are already starting to find ways to combine incentives for performance with measures to create more loyalty and employee affiliation with the company. Japanese companies created a very extreme version of such affiliation. The... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Hilah Geer

18 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 18

government sought to limit executive pay and excessive risk. The debate raged over what constituted excessive risk and how best to mitigate it. This case describes the government restrictions on executive View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

24 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Do We Tax?

criterion is a very reasonable, perhaps the most reasonable, goal. But it is not the only one that matters to people. To prove this point, all we need do is examine one aspect of the tax policy we would use if we were fully convinced Utilitarians: people should View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Legal Services

01 Jun 2017
News

Supercharged

promise of better charging infrastructure, and evolving trends in foreign markets all indicate that EVs are approaching a global tipping point. But with political winds imperiling government incentives in the United States and China... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; illustrations by Tavis Coburn

19 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

LEED-ing by Example

tenants to pay the cost of utilities, which reduces a landlord's incentive to invest in LEED, or in other energy efficiency capital expenditures. However, government lessees are attractive to landlords... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Construction; Real Estate; Energy; Utilities

01 Mar 2018
News

Making Sense of the Modern Startup

those traders’ companies were then paying $20,000 a month. Parker thought he could provide a better service for $500 a month. He was proposing to sell $100,000 worth of debentures and stock representing 10 percent of the company, giving... View Details

Keywords: Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (PMD 51, 1986)

25 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Steer Clear of the Blind Spots That Derail Experiments

more questions about the outcome. Alibaba, for example, set out a few years ago to test whether coupons nudged shoppers to buy items they had left in their digital carts. Executives found that these incentives didn’t boost sales, but... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

19 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Empathy: The Brand Equity of Retail

increased dramatically. Now that they could pay for showing up late, the parents stopped feeling guilty and made it a habit. "If you put a money value on the incentive, you often take away the pressure to conform to norms," Raman said.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

21 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Good Banks, Bad Banks, and Government’s Role as Fixer

In fact, it makes it worse. Q: What if rating agencies were paid by investors rather than by bond issuers? Wouldn't that stop forum shopping? A: In theory, yes. The people who are being served by the rating agencies, the investors, should View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

16 Dec 2013
HBS Case

D’O: Making a Michelin-Starred Restaurant Affordable

turns waiting tables. (In fact, when Pisano first dined there, Oldani was his waiter.) This leads to a significant reduction in labor costs, even while allowing Oldani to pay his staff higher-than-average wages. Still, the chef insists... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel & Joanie Tobin; Food & Beverage

14 Feb 2019
News

Plotting a Path Forward on Climate Change

need new technology, Perry said—we need to apply capitalism and government regulation to these problems to provide incentives to farmers or convince consumers they should pay for this change either through... View Details

31 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 31

increase in experience, consistent with learning on the job. Answerers who focus on particular question categories provide answers of higher quality but earn lower pay per hour (perhaps reflecting a lack of versatility). Answers provided... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Fixing Corporate Governance: A Roundtable Discussion at Harvard Business School

the issue of top-management compensation? Brian Hall: As you all know, stock options were intended to give executives incentives to get share prices to rise, which in theory would create value for shareholders and society alike. That... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

01 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 1

firm can mandate a royalty fee from the complementor producer, we find that the value-capture problem is mitigated to some extent and consumer surplus rises. However, because royalty fees greatly reduce the incentives of the firm View Details