Publications

30 Aug 2016
First Look

August 30, 2016

impatience parameter is calibrated to local interest rates. A quantitative exercise calibrated to Brazil finds welfare gains of the optimal fiscal policy to be economically substantial, and the optimal rule to not entail a countercyclical... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

03 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 3

water purification solution. We find that higher prices screen out those who use the product less. By contrast, we find no consistent evidence of sunk-cost effects. Welfare Payments and Crime Author:C. Fritz Foley Publication:The Review... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

What the World Could Learn from America's Immigration Backlash—100 Years Ago

size of its welfare state and perception of new immigrant behavior. First, the welfare state today in Europe is larger, and native-born individuals may perceive immigrants as being net consumers of public... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Tabellini

Forthcoming
Article

Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality

By: Sylvain Catherine, Max Miller and Natasha Sarin

Recent influential work finds large increases in inequality in the U.S. based on measures of wealth concentration that notably exclude the value of social insurance programs. This paper shows that top wealth shares have not changed much over the last three decades when... View Details

Keywords: Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Taxation; Insurance; Welfare

March 2000
Background Note

Fall Before Rising, A: The Story of Jai Jaikumar (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Richard Compton Squire, Sarah Patricia Vickers-Willis and Harry James Wilson

What is the relationship between good fortune, professional success, and a moral obligation to other people? Jai Jaikumar, who as a youth was saved by a shepherd woman after a tragic mountaineering accident in the Himalayas, and who later rose to the top of his... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; History; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Familiarity; Perception; Welfare

23 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 23

markets in order to pursue public welfare goals. In either case, features of markets serve to justify regulatory intervention. I argue that this causal logic must sometimes be reversed. For certain areas of regulation, its function must... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 23

and Jonathan T. Kolstad Publication:American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (forthcoming) Abstract We consider the welfare economics of firm entry when input supply is inelastic. Prior studies suggest that with elastic supply of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2018
Chapter

Behavioral Household Finance

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

This chapter provides an overview of household finance. The first part summarizes key facts regarding household financial behavior, emphasizing empirical regularities that are inconsistent with the standard classical economic model and discussing extensions of the... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Global Range; Household; Behavior; Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Product Design; Welfare

April 1991 (Revised July 1992)
Case

Koito Manufacturing Ltd.

By: W. Carl Kester and Robert W. Lightfoot

Having acquired a 26% stake in Koito Manufacturing, a Japanese automotive parts supplier in the Toyota Group, T. Boone Pickens seeks a seat on Koito's board of directors. Koito's management resists, claiming Pickens is an unhelpful greenmailer, not a true long-term... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Debates; Corporate Governance; Production; Supply Chain; Performance Efficiency; Welfare; Auto Industry; Japan; United States

November 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

The Tzu Chi Foundation's China Relief Mission

By: Herman B. Leonard and YiKwan Chu

Tzu Chi is one of the largest charities in Taiwan, and one of the swiftest and most effective relief organizations internationally. Rooted in the value of compassion, the organization has many unusual operating features -- including having no long term plan. This case... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Service Delivery; Mission and Purpose; Religion; Natural Disasters; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare; China; Taiwan

July 2009 (Revised August 2009)
Case

From Little Things Big Things Grow: The Clontarf Foundation Program for Aboriginal Boys

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Michael Vitale

This case focuses on the growth of an innovative non-profit institution that motivates aboriginal children to attend school by harnessing their love of football. View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Welfare; Education; Sports; Service Industry

October 2008
Article

Navigating the Bind of Necessary Evils: Psychological Engagement and the Production of Interpersonally Sensitive Behavior

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Andrew Molinsky

We develop grounded theory about how individuals respond to the subjective experience of performing "necessary evils" and how that influences the way they treat targets of their actions. Despite the importance and difficulty of delivering just, compassionate treatment... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Problems and Challenges; Behavior; Power and Influence; Welfare

Find at Harvard

10 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 10, 2009

perspective on the current global "descent of money." Book Link: http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/ 0,,9781440653995,00.html?The_Ascent_of_Money_Niall_Ferguson Optimal Life-Cycle Investing with Flexible Labor Supply: A View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Medical Debt Won't Make Everyone Happier

The solution seems obvious. Forgiving medical debt should ease both financial and emotional burdens for the two in five people in the US who carry it. Yet a new comprehensive study that tracked more than 200,000 patients and randomly relieved more than $169 million of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

July 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

The Millennium Challenge Corporation and Ghana

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

A U.S. government agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), provides aid to developing countries, focusing on poverty reduction through economic growth. It measures results through an economic rate of return based on increases in farmer incomes anticipated... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Investment Return; Measurement and Metrics; Welfare; Ghana; United States

2025
Working Paper

Lessons from an App Update at Replika AI: Identity Discontinuity in Human-AI Relationships

By: Julian De Freitas, Noah Castelo, Ahmet K. Uğuralp and Zeliha O. Uğuralp

As consumers increasingly interact with AI applications specialized for social relationships, what is the nature and depth of these relationships among actual users, and can company actions influence these dynamics? We find that active users of the US-based AI... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Welfare; Loss; Well-being; Identity; Perception; Relationships

SSRN

21 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Faculty Research Looks to Latin America

particular social welfare decisions. Current research: "Is Brazil on the Path of Sustainable Growth and Development?" Laura Alfaro Alfaro: "I want to look at competition for foreign direct investment through the eyes on... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

December 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

The World Food Programme during the Global Food Crisis (A)

By: Anette Mikes, Peter Tufano, Eric D. Werker and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve

Rising food prices threatened an unprecedented number of people around the world with malnutrition or starvation in 2008. The new Executive Director of the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP)—the world's largest food relief agency—must not only address this... View Details

Keywords: Food; Globalized Firms and Management; Nutrition; Crisis Management; Business and Government Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare