Publications

2007
Dissertation

The Implications of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting: Evidence from the Political Economy of Goodwill Accounting

By: Karthik Ramanna

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Goodwill Accounting

SSRN

01 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Spreading the Health: Americans' Estimated and Ideal Distributions of Death and Health(care)

Keywords: by Sorapop Kiatpongsan and Michael I. Norton; Health

08 May 2006
Research & Ideas

The Cost of Cutting in Line

the queue? And how would social norms and a sense of fairness play out along the line? The results were quite surprising. As might be expected, the higher the amount of payment offered, the more likely individuals were to allow a stranger... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

1997
Chapter

Fairness, Justification, and Dispute Resolution

By: K. A. Diekmann, A. E. Tenbrunsel and M. H. Bazerman

Keywords: Fairness; Conflict and Resolution

Article

Repairing the Damage: The Effect of Price Knowledge and Gender on Auto-Repair Price Quotes

By: Meghan Busse, Ayelet Israeli and Florian Zettelmeyer

In this paper we investigate whether sellers treat consumers differently on the basis of how well informed consumers appear to be. We implement a large-scale field experiment in which callers request price quotes from automotive repair shops. We show that sellers alter... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Price Discrimination; Automobiles; Field Experiment; Information; Fairness; Price; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Internet and the Web; Gender; Service Industry; Auto Industry

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August 2002 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Electronic Arts Introduces The Sims Online

By: Youngme E. Moon

Electronic Arts (EA), the world's largest independent game publisher, is preparing to launch an online, subscription-based version of the most popular PC game in history: The Sims. The new game is called "The Sims Online" and it differs from the original game in two... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Decision Making; Price; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Internet; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

2021
White Paper

Report on Racial Inclusion in the Boardroom: A Workshop Convened by Harvard Business School's Leadership Initiative and Board Leadership Project

By: James I. Cash, Linda A. Hill, Hubert Joly, Lynn S. Paine and Suraj Srinivasan

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Inclusion; Organization Culture; Corporate Governance; Diversity; Equity; Governing and Advisory Boards; Race; Fairness; Organizational Culture

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November 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Accounting for Frequent Fliers

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Airline frequent flier programs offer members the opportunity to earn free flights by accumulating mileage. Accounting and reporting the obligations of airlines and the cost of frequent flier programs raises difficult measurement issues. In 1991, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Fair Value Accounting; Policy; Air Transportation Industry; United States

23 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 23

neutral. 'Fair Marriages': An Impossibility Author:Bettina-Elisabeth Klaus Publication:Economics Letters (forthcoming) Abstract For the classical marriage model (introduced in Gale and Shapley, 1962) efficiency and envy-freeness are not always compatible, i.e., View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 1991 (Revised March 1991)
Case

Responsible Care

By: George C. Lodge and Jeffrey F. Rayport

Describes a 1989 initiative of the Chemical Manufacturer's Association (CMA) to secure chemical industry support for and implementation of a series of codes of conduct in the field of environmental health and safety. Called "Responsible Care", the program makes... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Fairness; Ethics; Environmental Sustainability; Safety; Chemical Industry

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10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

Here's a tip for companies looking to woo customers away from the competition: Besides advertising fair prices for your products, try advertising fair wages for your employees. Recent research from Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

14 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 14, 2007

on the Market's Valuation of R&D Capital Author:Michael D. Kimbrough Periodical:The Accounting Review 82, no. 5 (October 2007): 1195-1225 Abstract Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 141 (SFAS No. 141)'s requirement that an acquirer in a business... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Off-Balance Sheet Leases in the Restaurant Industry

By: Amy P. Hutton, Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen

Amid mounting concern by credit agencies about off-balance sheet liabilities, an analyst for one of the leading credit-rating agencies has been asked to make a presentation about off-balance sheet liabilities, the strategic analysis behind leasing versus purchasing... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Property; Leasing; Financial Statements; Capital Structure; Credit; Financial Services Industry

25 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 25

Allocation for Kidney Transplantation Authors:Dimitris Bertsimas, Vivek F. Farias, and Nikolaos Trichakis Abstract We propose a scalable, data-driven method for designing national policies for the allocation of deceased donor kidneys to patients on a waiting list in a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Misgovernance at the World Bank

development banks, and UN agencies. Overall, the researchers say, the World Bank is quite well run—the issue is one of misgovernance, not malfeasance. "Ashwin and I highlight a setting in which fair institutions can generate unfair... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Article

Eliminating Unintended Bias in Personalized Policies Using Bias-Eliminating Adapted Trees (BEAT)

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

An inherent risk of algorithmic personalization is disproportionate targeting of individuals from certain groups (or demographic characteristics such as gender or race), even when the decision maker does not intend to discriminate based on those “protected”... View Details

Keywords: Algorithm Bias; Personalization; Targeting; Generalized Random Forests (GRF); Discrimination; Customization and Personalization; Decision Making; Fairness; Mathematical Methods

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2014
Article

Unequality: Who Gets What and Why It Matters

By: Michael I. Norton

Who should get what, and what are the consequences? Economic inequality in the United States has been rising for decades, yet only recently have behavioral scientists explored two central questions surrounding the optimal level of inequality. First, what are the... View Details

Keywords: Inequality; Ethics; Productivity; Gambling; Equality and Inequality; Fairness; Income; Performance Productivity; United States

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September 1994 (Revised January 1997)
Case

This Case Sucks: Beavis, Butt-head, and TV Content (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

Beginning in 1992, "Beavis and Butt-head," an animated series on MTV about two uncivilized teenaged misfits, became both a runaway popular sensation and the symbol of a heated national debate about violent and inappropriate programming on television. Especially after... View Details

Keywords: Debates; Decision Choices and Conditions; Animation Entertainment; Fairness; Governance Controls; Media; Outcome or Result; Social Issues; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

March 2013
Case

NovaStar Financial: A Short Seller's Battle

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The NovaStar case describes the challenges faced by short seller Marc Cohodes of hedge fund Rocker Partners as he tried to expose what he thought was widespread fraud in mortgage lender NovaStar Financial. The case is set in the time period from 2001 to 2007 and tracks... View Details