Publications

SSRN

June 2024
Article

Redistributive Allocation Mechanisms

By: Mohammad Akbarpour, Piotr Dworczak and Scott Duke Kominers

Many scarce public resources are allocated at below-market-clearing prices, and sometimes for free. Such "non-market" mechanisms sacrifice some surplus, yet they can potentially improve equity. We develop a model of mechanism design with redistributive concerns. Agents... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Welfare; Mathematical Methods; Market Design; Cost vs Benefits

SSRN

May 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Background Note

Social Enterprise in Latin America

By: Brian L. Trelstad and Karina Souza

This research note provides an overview of the social enterprise ecosystem in Latin America, exploring current dynamics across key markets, including country-specific insights on Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Central America. In a region characterized... View Details

Educators

February 1990 (Revised March 1990)
Case

Quantum Semiconductor, Inc.

By: Janice H. Hammond and Roy D. Shapiro

Quantum is faced with a difficult ethical dilemma--industry studies provide evidence that chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing may cause women working in fabrication cleanrooms to suffer a higher likelihood of spontaneous abortions. The possibility of other... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Prejudice and Bias; Law; Equality and Inequality; Cost; Production; Ethics; Health; Gender; Semiconductor Industry

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30 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 30, 2015

risks. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=45672 Mums the Word! Cross-national Effects of Maternal Employment on Gender Inequalities at Work and at Home By: McGinn, Kathleen L., Mayra Ruiz Castro, and... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2009
Working Paper

Walking the Talk in Multiparty Bargaining: An Experimental Investigation

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Katherine L Milkman and Markus Noth

We study the framing effects of communication in multiparty bargaining. Communication has been shown to be more truthful and revealing than predicted in equilibrium. Because talk is preference-revealing, it may effectively frame bargaining around a logic of fairness or... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Competition; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Types; Fairness; Interpersonal Communication; Game Theory; Cooperation

13 Apr 2016
Research Event

What Does 'Diversity' Really Mean?

Many male business leaders have the right intentions when it comes to tackling the sticky issue of gender inequality in the workplace. But try as they might to be more sensitive and inclusive with their language, men are quite simply... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

23 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 23

unavailable at this time. Publisher's Link: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t927286744 Political Instability: Effects on Financial Development, Roots in the Severity of Economic Inequality Authors:Mark J. Roe and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 21

Business School Case 315-050 Note on Economic Inequality (2015) For over half a century, most of the world's economies have enjoyed steady growth and prosperity. However, beginning in the 1980s, and continuing essentially unabated to the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel & Sean Silverthorne

2016
Working Paper

Henry Kissinger: Negotiating Black Majority Rule in Southern Africa

By: James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns, Robert H. Mnookin and L. Alexander Green

In 1976, United States Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger conducted a series of intricate, multiparty negotiations in Southern Africa to persuade white Rhodesian leader Ian Smith to accede to black majority rule. Conducted near the end of President Gerald Ford’s... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Negotiation Process; Race; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Deal; Government and Politics; Africa; United States

SSRN

April 2025
Article

Skill Dependencies Uncover Nested Human Capital

By: Moh Hosseinioun, Frank Neffke, Letian Zhang and Hyejin Youn

Modern economies require increasingly diverse and specialized skills, many of which depend on the acquisition of other skills first. Here we analyse US survey data to reveal a nested structure within skill portfolios, where the direction of dependency is inferred... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Human Capital; Personal Development and Career; Equality and Inequality; Analytics and Data Science

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January 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Supplement

IKEA in Saudi Arabia (B)

By: Karthik Ramanna, Jerome Lenhardt and Marc Homsy

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Values; Islam; Multinationals; Globalization; Leadership; Equality and Inequality; Multinational Firms and Management; Religion; Organizational Culture; Gender; Consumer Products Industry; Saudi Arabia; Sweden

2022
Case

Marathon Petroleum and Southwest Detroit: The Intersection of Community and Environment

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Environmental racism describes the unequal burden of environmental hazards placed on disadvantaged communities through systems, policies, and practices. In such a situation, these people disproportionately live close to sources of toxic waste-what are referred to as... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Regulation; Pollutants; Pollution; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues; Poverty; Race; Health Disorders; Ethics

13 Jul 2022
Book

Reimagining the Economy: What Would It Take to Put People First?

What if the way we work could be a catalyst for solving huge problems like inequality and climate change? In the new book Democratize Work: The Case for Reorganizing the Economy, Harvard Business School Professor Julie Battilana and a... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

20 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, February 20, 2018

investor, being instead critically driven by status as a founder; (b) that the underprovision of carried interest and ownership—and inequality in fund economics more generally—leads to the departures of senior partners; and (c) the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

show that (a) the allocation of fund economics to individual partners is divorced from past success as an investor, being instead critically driven by status as a founder; (b) that the underprovision of carried interest and ownership—and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 18, 2009

that this has a substantial impact in limiting the inequality of agreements and results in a non-montonicity of the discount rate. The general need to maintain incentives for cooperation means it may appear that... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

31 Oct 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: In Tackling #MeToo, Don’t Ignore Micro-Insults That Harm Women’s Careers

inequity inevitable. For example, an often-cited research finding is that woman can be viewed as competent or as likeable–but not both. True or not, believing it increases FOSO, as competent women face pressures, depending on their life... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

August 2021
Article

Business Education as If People and the Planet Really Matter

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Mounting concern over capitalism’s inability to address systemic challenges in our natural world (i.e. climate change) and social world (i.e. income inequality) is prompting reexamination of capitalism within business groups. This article argues that a concurrent... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Business Education; Transformation

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