Publications

2012
Article

Planning Prompts as a Means of Increasing Rates of Immunization and Preventive Screening

By: Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

Article

How the United States Can Use Trade Policy to Prevent a New Sino-Russian Alliance

By: Jeremy Friedman

Article

The Economic Consequences of Bankruptcy Reform

By: Tal Gross, Raymond Kluender, Feng Liu, Matthew J. Notowidigdo and Jialan Wang

A more generous consumer bankruptcy system provides greater insurance against financial risks but may also raise the cost of credit. We study this trade-off using the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), which increased the costs of... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention And Consumer Protection Act; Borrowing and Debt; Credit

2018
Working Paper

After the Carnival: Key Factors to Enhance Olympic Legacy and Prevent Olympic Sites from Becoming White Elephants

By: Isao Okada and Stephen A. Greyser

In recent years, the total spending on hosting the Olympic Games has snowballed. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games spent $40 billion on infrastructure development, and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics reached $50 billion. Even when the glorious but costly Olympic Games come... View Details

Keywords: Olympic Venue; Effective Reuse; White Elephant; Sustainability; Buildings and Facilities; Sports

July–August 2014
Article

Becoming a First-Class Noticer: How to Spot and Prevent Ethical Failures in Your Organization

By: Max Bazerman

We'd like to think that no smart, upstanding manager would ever overlook or turn a blind eye to threats or wrongdoing that ultimately imperil his or her business. Yet it happens all the time. We fall prey to obstacles that obscure or drown out important signals that... View Details

Keywords: Accountability; Business Ethics; Cognitive Psychology; Human Behavior; Personal Ethics In Business; Business or Company Management; Ethics

Article

The Covid-19 Pandemic Should Not Delay Actions to Prevent Anticompetitive Consolidation in U.S. Health Care Markets

By: Leemore S. Dafny

This article describes potential regulatory and legislative reforms to assist antitrust enforcement agencies in halting anticompetitive acquisitions and practices, and preserving and promoting competition in health care markets. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Markets; Competition; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

August 1997
Article

Preventable Adverse Drug Events in Hospitalized Patients: A Comparative Study of Intensive Care and General Care Units

By: D. J. Cullen, J. Sweitzer, D. W. Bates, E. Burdick, A. Edmondson and L. L. Leape

Keywords: Health; Information

18 Sep 2018
Working Paper Summaries

After the Carnival: Key Factors to Enhance Olympic Legacy and Prevent Olympic Sites from Becoming White Elephants

Keywords: by Isao Okada and Stephen A. Greyser; Sports

2017
Article

Handgun Waiting Periods Reduce Gun Deaths

By: Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra and Christopher Poliquin

Handgun waiting periods are laws that impose a delay between the initiation of a purchase and final acquisition of a firearm. We show that waiting periods, which create a “cooling off” period among buyers, significantly reduce the incidence of gun violence. We estimate... View Details

Keywords: Gun Policy; Gun Violence; Waiting Period; Injury Prevention; Policy; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States

February 2022
Article

Sugar-sweetened Beverage Purchases and Intake at Event Arenas with and without a Portion Size Cap

By: Sheri Volger, James Scott Parrott, Brian Elbel, Leslie K. John, Jason P. Block, Pamela Rothpletz-Puglia and Christina A. Roberto

This is the first real-world study to examine the association between a voluntary 16-ounce (oz.) portion-size cap on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) at a sporting arena on volume of SSBs and food calories purchased and consumed during basketball games. Cross-sectional... View Details

Keywords: Sugar-sweetened Beverages; Nutrition Policy; Obesity Prevention; Portion Sizes; Nutrition; Policy; Health; Behavior

March 2016 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Evive Health and Workplace Influenza Vaccinations

By: John Beshears

Evive Health is a company that manages communication campaigns on behalf of health insurance plans and large employers. Using big data techniques and insights from behavioral economics, Evive deploys targeted and effective messages that improve individuals' health... View Details

Purchase

March 2016
Case

Evive Health and Workplace Influenza Vaccinations

By: John Beshears

Evive Health is a company that manages communication campaigns on behalf of health insurance plans and large employers. Using big data techniques and insights from behavioral economics, Evive deploys targeted and effective messages that improve individuals' health... View Details

Keywords: Vaccination; Influenza; Flu Shot; Preventive Care; Health Care; Behavioral Economics; Choice Architecture; Nudge; Experimental Design; Randomized Controlled Trial; RCT; Causal Inference; Consumer Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Communication Strategy; Health Industry

Educators

Purchase

August 2017
Article

Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?

By: Shlomo Benartzi, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, Maya Shankar, Will Tucker-Ray, William J. Congdon and Steven Galing

Governments are increasingly adopting behavioral science techniques for changing individual behavior in pursuit of policy objectives. The types of “nudge” interventions that governments are now adopting alter people’s decisions without coercion or significant changes... View Details