Labor Force Participation - Publications - Faculty & Research

May 2021 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Colombia: An Economic Premium to Peace?

Colombia, once the fastest growing country in Latin America, continues to struggle with productivity. Both labor productivity and total factor productivity have been low for the past decade, despite economic growth of 4.7% annually. Many factors contribute, which... View Details

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11 Apr 2024
In Practice

Why Progress on Immigration Might Soften Labor Pains

company and drawing upon native and foreign talent as befits their local situation. While the employment-based and family reunification pathways are distinct, the tight labor market makes them more alike. Whether it's very high- or... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

13 Apr 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The ‘IKEA Effect’: When Labor Leads to Love

Keywords: by Michael I. Norton, Daniel Mochon & Dan Ariely; Consumer Products

June 2019
Article

Learning From Mum: Cross-National Evidence Linking Maternal Employment and Adult Children’s Outcomes

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Mayra Ruiz Castro and Elizabeth Long Lingo

Analyses relying on two international surveys from over 100,000 men and women across 29 countries explore the relationship between maternal employment and adult daughters’ and sons’ employment and domestic outcomes. In the employment sphere, adult daughters, but not... View Details

Keywords: Female Labor Force Participation; Gender Attitudes; Household Labor; Maternal Employment; Social Class; Social Learning Theory; Social Mobility; Employment; Gender; Attitudes; Household; Labor; Learning; Outcome or Result

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11 Jun 2015
News

U.S. Losing the Race to Raise Work Force Skills

July 2005
Article

The Consequences of Labor Market Flexibility: Panel Evidence Based on Survey Data

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

We introduce a new data set on hiring and firing restrictions for 21 OECD countries for the period 1984 –1990. The data are based on surveys of business people in the countries covered, so the indices we use are subjective in nature. Controlling for country and time... View Details

Keywords: Job Security Provisions; Subjective Data; Unemployment; Employment; Labor; Markets; Data and Data Sets

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01 May 2006
Research & Ideas

What Companies Lose from Forced Disclosure

interests of the employer. Why? Financial disclosures are read by labor markets, that is, potential future employers. An executive who has an interest in career advancement may take actions that look good in mandated disclosure but might... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

01 Jun 2006
News

Social Enterprise Conference Draws 800 Participants

FUNDRAISER FOR HOMELESS VETS: HBS Armed Forces Alumni Association members, including Jon Redmond and Kate Kohler (both MBA '06), took turns spending three days and two nights in late March camped out on Spangler Lawn to help raise... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

06 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Money and Quotas Motivate the Sales Force Best

than 14 million people employed in personal selling in the United States alone represent about 10 percent of the entire country's labor force, according to the US Department of Labor. In addition, companies spend on average 10 percent of... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Retail

May 2013
Article

Sweatshop Labor Is Wrong Unless the Shoes Are Cute: Cognition Can Both Hurt and Help Motivated Moral Reasoning

By: Neeru Paharia, Kathleen Vohs and Rohit Deshpandé

The present research investigated the dual role of cognition as either an enabler of moral reasoning or self-interested motivated reasoning for endorsing sweatshop labor. Experiment 1A showed motivated reasoning: participants were more likely to endorse the use of... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Motivation and Incentives; Working Conditions; Cognition and Thinking

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2011
Other Unpublished Work

Functional Centralization and the Division of Labor in Management

By: Julie Wulf, Maria Guadalupe and Hongyi Li

This paper shows that the trend towards flatter hierarchies in large US firms since the mid-80's has been accompanied by increased centralization of activities at the top of the organization. In particular, the number of functional managers (e.g., Chief Financial... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Management Teams; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Diversification; Information Technology; United States

Citation

11 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Is Group Loyalty a Force for Good or Evil?

than just argue, you can look at the data.” Putting loyalty to the test The researchers arranged a simple experiment, in which participants were asked to solve a series of number puzzles. Rather than handing in their results, however,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

November–December 2023
Article

Look the Part? The Role of Profile Pictures in Online Labor Markets

By: Isamar Troncoso and Lan Luo

Profile pictures are a key component of many freelancing platforms, a design choice that can impact hiring and matching outcomes. In this paper, we examine how appearance-based perceptions of a freelancer’s fit for the job (i.e., whether a freelancer "looks the part"... View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Gig Workers; Demographics; Prejudice and Bias; Selection and Staffing; Jobs and Positions; Analytics and Data Science

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Research Summary

Overview

Dr. Burch’s research focuses on capitalism, work, and gender in the twentieth-century United States. Her work reinterprets the history of direct selling by placing it at the center, rather than on the margins, of narratives about advanced capitalism. Examining the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Political Economy; Labor History; Gender; Marketing; Sales Force Management; Direct Sales; United States

22 May 2020
Blog Post

Reflections on Service - Armed Forces Alumni Association Student Profiles

sinking fishing ship that had called out for help. Our ship provided food and water to fishermen who had been stranded for days and made sure that they could get back to their homes and families. What I will remember most were the moments like that. Those moments where... View Details

14 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Connection between 1930s Weather and Today's Labor Unions

There’s something curious about the labor force in the United States. Identical jobs and industries have become unionized in some states while remaining nonunionized in others. Unionization levels vary... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

July 2018
Article

Marketplaces, Markets, and Market Design

By: Alvin E. Roth

Marketplaces are often small parts of large markets, and both markets and marketplaces come in many varieties. Market design seeks to understand what marketplaces must accomplish to enable different kinds of markets. Marketplaces can have varying degrees of success,... View Details

Keywords: Labor Market; Pricing; Market Design; Markets; Economics

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June 2008
Case

Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Plant

By: C. Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham

Treadway Tire's plant in Lima, Ohio must confront strong job dissatisfaction and high turnover among its line foremen. The foremen are caught in the middle of an adversarial relationship between the union and management, and they must cope with the needs and interests... View Details

Keywords: Superior ＆ Subordinate; Labor Relations; Work Force Management; Human Resource Management; Hiring; Job Satisfaction; Management; Leadership; Retention; Rank and Position; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Selection and Staffing; Satisfaction; Personal Development and Career; Labor and Management Relations; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Ohio

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December 2016 (Revised December 2018)
Case

From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem

By: Elie Ofek and Margot Eiran

In June 2016, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, wrestled with how to sustain Israel’s strong innovation track record and the country’s reputation as the “startup nation.” Despite the economic miracle the country had wrought since its founding, he... View Details