Publications

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2008
Working Paper

Colonial Land Tenure, Electoral Competition and Public Goods in India

By: Abhijit Banerjee and Lakshmi Iyer

1979
Article

An Incentive Compatible Planning Procedure for Public Good Production: A Corrigendum

By: Jerry R. Green and Jean-Jacques Laffont

2016
Article

Learning By Contributing: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Contributing to Public Goods

By: Frank Nagle

2008
Chapter

Public Action for Public Goods: Theory and Evidence

By: Abhijit Banerjee, Lakshmi Iyer and Rohini Somanathan

This chapter focuses on the relationship between public action and access to public goods. It begins by developing a simple model of collective action which is intended to capture the various mechanisms that are discussed in the theoretical literature on collective... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Quality; Groups and Teams; Human Needs; Poverty; Welfare or Wellbeing; Public Administration Industry

April 2, 2018
Article

The Right Way for Companies to Publicize Their Social Responsibility Efforts

By: Mark R. Kramer

It’s a common complaint. Companies keep trying to show the world that they are socially conscious and keep losing the battle. Anheuser-Busch and Hyundai even devoted this year’s Super Bowl ads to lauding their philanthropic efforts with decidedly mixed responses.... View Details

Keywords: Public Relations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Communication Strategy

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Fall 2021
Article

The Problem of Social Benefit

By: Frank Nagle

Economists have obsessed over the question of negative externalities, but market arrangements can also generate positive externalities. We should consider how to harness them for public good. View Details

Keywords: Externalities; Public Good; Economics; Social Issues

01 Jun 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Motivating Effort in Contributing to Public Goods Inside Organizations: Field Experimental Evidence

Keywords: by Andrea Blasco, Olivia S. Jung, Karim R. Lakhani, and Michael E. Menietti

Article

Characterization of Satisfactory Mechanisms for the Revelation of Preferences for Public Goods

By: Jerry R. Green and Jean-Jacques Laffont

Social decision mechanisms that admit dominant strategies and result in Pareto optima are characterized by the class of mechanisms proposed by Groves. The concept of decision mechanisms is generalized and the characterization is shown to extend to these cases. View Details

Keywords: Decision Mechanisms; Game Theory; Economics

Research Summary

Research and Publication Interests

Michelle Craig McDonald is currently writing a Harvard Business School case study on the impact of the International Coffee Act on small producers. She is interested in early American economic development, especially the role of foreign trade and re-exported... View Details

May 16, 2018
Other Article

How Companies Can Use the Data They Collect to Further the Public Good

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

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10 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Pay for Environmental Performance: The Effect of Incentive Provision on Carbon Emissions

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou, Shelley Xin Li & George Serafeim

13 Dec 2006
Research & Ideas

Improving Public Health for the Poor

low cost or a business providing goods or services that end or reduce respiratory ailments. Bringing together public healthcare and market forces "could have huge impact," says Chu. That feeling... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

2012
Article

A Reduced-Form Approach to Behavioral Public Finance

By: Sendhil Mullainathan, Joshua Schwartzstein and William Congdon

Research in behavioral public finance has blossomed in recent years, producing diverse empirical and theoretical insights. This article develops a single framework with which to understand these advances. Rather than drawing out the consequences of specific... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Social Insurance; Externalities; Taxation; Finance; Public Sector

July 2016
Article

Taxation, Corruption, and Growth

By: Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, Julia Cagé and William R. Kerr

We build an endogenous growth model to analyze the relationships between taxation, corruption, and economic growth. Entrepreneurs lie at the center of the model and face disincentive effects from taxation but acquire positive benefits from public infrastructure.... View Details

Keywords: Endogenous Growth; Public Goods; Corruption; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Taxation; Economic Growth

06 Feb 2006
What Do You Think?

Should CEOs of Public Companies Offer Earnings Guidance?

practice of providing detailed information about the company's "quarterly standings, stock prices, new acquisitions, etc.," concludes that "anyone who has stock or investments in a public company should be privileged to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

June 2020
Article

Understanding Different Approaches to Benefit-Based Taxation

By: Robert Scherf and Matthew C. Weinzierl

The normative principle of benefit-based taxation has exerted substantial influence on many areas of public finance, but it has been largely set aside in the modern theoretical approach to optimal income taxation, where welfarist objectives dominate. A prerequisite for... View Details

Keywords: Benefit-based Taxation; Public Goods; Lindahl; Optimal Taxation; Taxation