Publications

March 2021
Article

The Effectiveness of White-Collar Crime Enforcement: Evidence from the War on Terror

By: Trung Nguyen

This paper analyzes the impact of changes in regulatory priorities and resource allocation on criminal enforcement of white‐collar criminal activities. Using the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a shock to the FBI's priorities and allocation of investigative resources, as... View Details

Keywords: White-collar Crime; Government Regulation; Financial Fraud; Securities Fraud; Insider Trading; Crime and Corruption; Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Law Enforcement

18 Aug 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring

Keywords: by Lamar Pierce & Michael W. Toffel

Causes and Consequences of Firm Disclosures of Anticorruption Efforts

Multinationals frequently operate in locations where laws against corruption are not widely enforced. We examine ratings of self-reported anticorruption efforts for 480 multinationals to better understand what factors underlie their efforts and their performance... View Details

24 Jan 2017
News

How a former Clinton aide is rewriting Silicon Valley’s political playbook

Who Sways the USDA on GMO Approvals?

Economists use the term "regulatory capture" to describe the phenomenon whereby regulatory agencies serving the public instead end up advancing the interests of the companies they regulate. Once those laws are passed, however, it's less clear how companies sway the... View Details

Article

California Fair Trade: Antitrust and the Politics of 'Fairness' in U.S. Competition Policy

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

In the decades before World War II, U.S. antitrust law was anything but settled. Considerable pressure for antitrust revision came from the states. A perhaps unlikely leader, Edna Gleason, organized California's retail pharmacists and coordinated trade networks to... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Fairness; Laws and Statutes; Policy; United States

In the decades before World War II, U.S. antitrust law was anything but settled. Considerable pressure for antitrust revision came from the states. A perhaps unlikely leader, Edna Gleason, organized California's retail pharmacists and coordinated trade networks to... View Details

2007
Working Paper

Noncompetes and Inventor Mobility: Specialists, Stars, and the Michigan Experiment

Several scholars have documented the positive consequences of job-hopping by inventors, including knowledge spillovers and agglomeration and the concentration of spinoffs. This work investigates a possible antecedent of inventor mobility: regional variation in the... View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Laws and Statutes; Intellectual Property; Innovation and Invention; Michigan

The founders of Mark43, an early-stage startup that provides software for law enforcement agencies, must decide whether to bid on a request for proposals (RFP) from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). On the one hand, LAPD would be a second large and... View Details

November 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Mark43

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Mitch Weiss and Halah AlQahtani

The founders of Mark43, an early-stage startup that provides software for law enforcement agencies, must decide whether to bid on a request for proposals (RFP) from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). On the one hand, LAPD would be a second large and influential... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Software Applications; Government Markets; Rapid Growth Stage; Public Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Business Startups; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; United States; New York (city, NY)

Educators

Article

The Causes and Consequences of Industry Self-Policing

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Innovative regulatory programs are encouraging firms to police their own regulatory compliance and voluntarily disclose, or "confess," the violations they find. Despite the "win-win" rhetoric surrounding these government voluntary programs, it is not clear why... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Governance Compliance; Law Enforcement; Policy; United States

April 2005
Case

FBI: Mission Extended

Following the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, there was consensus that the FBI needed to make organizational changes. The FBI had long distinguished itself as the world's pre-eminent organization for conducting after-the-fact investigations that laid the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Law Enforcement; United States

Educators

February 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Lina Khan at the FTC: Redefining Antitrust in the Age of Big Tech

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Susan Pinckney

In 2023 and 2024, the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice sued Google, Amazon, and Apple claiming antitrust violations. These lawsuits marked a shift in U.S. antitrust enforcement away from the Chicago School and towards the New Brandeis school of... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Government Administration; Lawsuits and Litigation; Monopoly; Technology Industry; United States; European Union; China; India

Educators

June 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Teaching Note

Mark43

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Mitchell Weiss and Matt Higgins

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-016. The founders of Mark43, an early-stage startup that provides software for law enforcement agencies, must decide whether to bid on a request for proposals (RFP) from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). On the one hand, LAPD would... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Customers; Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Making; Technology Industry; District of Columbia; Los Angeles

04 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 4

organizational processes among corporations and nonprofits. Read the paper: http://www.people.hbs.edu/cmarquis/GolfingAlone_FINAL.pdf Regulatory Uncertainty and Corporate Response: How China's Environmental Enforcement Is Catching Up to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

How To Do Business in Islamic Countries

the Challenge." He was joined by a specialist in Islamic law, Harvard Law School professor Frank E. Vogel, for the series' discussion on doing business in the Islamic world. Vogel and Hayes are also co-authors of the book Islamic... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 2025
Article

Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin

[Research Summary]: Framing is critical for leaders who must build support for strategic renewal. While research has concentrated on renewal that replaces one set of capabilities with another, we explore a distinctive challenge: how leaders persuade stakeholders to... View Details

Keywords: Framing; Stakeholder Management; Capabilities; Transformation; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Resource Allocation; Government and Politics; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Public Administration Industry

August 2011
Article

Coming Clean and Cleaning Up: Does Voluntary Self-Reporting Indicate Effective Self-Policing

By: Michael W. Toffel and Jodi L. Short

Regulatory agencies are increasingly establishing voluntary self-reporting programs both as an investigative tool and to encourage regulated firms to commit to policing themselves. We investigate whether voluntary self-reporting can reliably indicate effective... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Programs; Governance Compliance; Corporate Disclosure; Law Enforcement