Publications

July 2008 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Corruption in Germany

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella and Jonathan Schlefer

Why do managers become corrupt? Does corruption ever pay? When do friendly relations cross into bribery? How can CEOs manage and prevent outbreaks of corruption? These and other questions are raised by three short case studies of corruption in Germany: at the global... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Law; Managerial Roles; Practice; Conflict of Interests; Germany

October 2018
Case

Corruption and Business in Emerging Markets

By: Geoffrey Jones, Tarun Khanna and Nataliya Langburd Wright

The case is built around video clips from top business leaders in emerging markets who were interviewed for Harvard Business School’s innovative Creating Emerging Markets oral history project. Corruption is a widespread problem in emerging markets, and this case is... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Emerging Markets

Article

Job Loss, Credit and Crime in Colombia

By: Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Christian Posso and Jorge Tamayo

We investigate the effects of job displacement, as a result of mass layoffs, on criminal arrests using a matched employer-employee-crime dataset from Medellín, Colombia. Job displacement leads to immediate and persistent earnings losses and higher probability of arrest... View Details

Keywords: Job Displacements; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Crime and Corruption; Credit; Colombia; Medellín

2020
Working Paper

Job Loss, Credit and Crime in Colombia

By: Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Christian Posso and Jorge Tamayo

We investigate the effects of job displacement, as a result of mass layoffs, on criminal arrests using a matched employer-employee-crime dataset from Medellín, Colombia. Job displacement leads to immediate and persistent earnings losses and higher probability of arrest... View Details

Keywords: Job Displacements; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Crime and Corruption; Credit; Colombia; Medellín

Distinguished Proceedings Prize & Holmes-Cardozo Award, 2017 Acad. of Legal Stud. in Bus. Highlighted in Oxford University’s Business Law and Columbia L. Sch.’s Blue Sky blogs. Re-posted by the Business Law Prof. blog. Selected for AALS... View Details

19 Jul 2017
News

‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Corporate Crime

01 Dec 2012
News

Corruption 101

Corruption doesn't announce itself with a capital C. It is subtler and thornier than that—as one HBS student learned the hard way during a recent summer internship in Tanzania. In a new case detailing his... View Details

Keywords: Credit Intermediation and Related Activities; Credit Intermediation and Related Activities; Credit Intermediation and Related Activities; Credit Intermediation and Related Activities

14 Jun 2022
News

Corporate Crime and the Ethical Slide

July – August 2010
Column

Powerlessness Corrupts

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Powerlessness damages organizations--especially in the middle ranks, says HBR columnist Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Hemmed in by rules and treated as unimportant, people get even with management by overcontrolling their own turf. Kanter urges leaders to give employees... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Opportunities; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence

March 2022 (Revised November 2024)
Background Note

Legal Analysis: Bribery and Corruption

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Louis Caldera, Christopher Diak and Matthew Souba

14 Mar 2023
News

On Background: White-Collar Crime and Punishment

October 2011
Article

Government Advertising and Media Coverage of Corruption Scandals

By: Rafael Di Tella and Ignacio Franceschelli

We construct measures of the extent to which the four main newspapers in Argentina report government corruption in their front page during the period 1998-2007 and correlate them with government advertising. The correlation is negative. The size is considerable: a one... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Advertising; Government and Politics; Newspapers; Media; Argentina

October 2003 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Corrupt Practices in International Business

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Robert E. Kennedy

Explores various aspects of corruption in international business. This abridged case contains materials from both Corruption in International Business (A) & (B), but does not include the example "caselets." A rewritten version of earlier cases. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Crime and Corruption

01 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

Company Town: Fixing Corrupt Governments

Ernst & Young, or McKinsey should all get a shot at becoming candidates to run cities and districts with a history of corruption. Entities that are experts at municipal accounting, consulting to foreign governments, or providing... View Details

Keywords: by Eric Werker

2017
Working Paper

Crime and Violence: Desensitization in Victims to Watching Criminal Events

By: Rafael Di Tella, Lucia Freira, Ramiro H. Gálvez, Ernesto Schargrodsky, Diego Shalom and Mariano Sigman

We study desensitization to crime in a lab experiment by showing footage of criminal acts to a group of subjects, some of whom have been previously victimized. We measure biological markers of stress and behavioral indices of cognitive control before and after treated... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Attitudes; Perspective; Behavior

On November 15, 2006, German prosecutors raided offices and homes of Siemens AG staff as part of an ongoing investigation into bribery. The subsequent investigations covered business representing 60% of Siemens' revenues and spanned operations in Asia, Africa,... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Spatial Mobility, Economic Opportunity, and Crime

By: Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Daniel Ramos-Menchelli, Jorge Tamayo and Audrey Tiew

Neighborhoods are strong determinants of both economic opportunity and criminal activity. Does improving connectedness between segregated and unequal parts of a city predominantly import opportunity or export crime? We use a spatial general equilibrium framework to... View Details

Keywords: Urban Development; Transportation Networks; Crime and Corruption; Transportation Industry; Medellín; Colombia; South America