Inequality - Publications - Faculty & Research

2025
Working Paper

Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Generative AI

By: Nicholas G. Otis, Solène Delecourt, Katelynn Cranney and Rembrand Koning

Generative AI has the potential to transform productivity and reduce inequality, but only if adopted broadly. In this paper, we show that recently identified gender gaps in generative AI use are nearly universal. Synthesizing data from 18 studies covering more than... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Technology Adoption; Behavior

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15 May 2024
Podcast

Can work-based learning revive college-for-all?

Propel America CEO Chad Rountree on rethinking the high school-to-career transition to meet the needs of low-income students, colleges, and employers. View Details

Web

Leading Race Work in Business Schools - Race, Gender & Equity

Courtney McCluney Courtney L. McCluney is an assistant professor in organizational behavior at the ILR School at Cornell. Dr. McCluney’s research investigates marginalization, or practices within organizations, institutions, and society that maintain View Details

October 2024
Article

On Why Women-owned Businesses Take More Time to Secure Microloans

By: Goran Calic, Moren Lévesque and Anton Shevchenko

Examining gender differences in business financing reveals important dimensions on which women- and men-owned businesses differ. Although considerable progress has been made in understanding gender differences in mobilizing resources, the role of time in business... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Gender; Financing and Loans; Equality and Inequality; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship

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20 Jun 2024
Podcast

Cengage Group’s Michael Hansen on the employment-ready syllabus

The ed-tech executive on shifting the discussion to emphasize the economic benefits of education, harnessing AI, skills-based hiring, employer-educator collaboration, and the public policy landscape. View Details

06 Nov 2024
Podcast

Guest Episode: Joseph Fuller on The Gartner Talent Angle

Managing the Future of Work co-chair Joseph Fuller delves into what’s driving and limiting the practice of skills-based hiring. The discussion ranges from degree inflation and HR automation to workforce demographics, skills-based promotion and employee retention. Also,... View Details

25 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

We May Have Taken Too Much Credit for Easing Workplace Segregation

companies, and this is where we’re seeing more segregation. So, we made gains in some companies, but overall have seen a loss in diversity. That’s problematic.” The connection between racial segregation and wage inequality The authors are... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

15 Apr 2021
News

Bringing Light to the Fight

inequalities in patient care. In 1998, the foundation’s advocacy encouraged the New Zealand government to institute free breast cancer screenings for women ages 50 to 64, later extended to 45 to 69. The foundation is currently working to... View Details

16 Aug 2016
First Look

August 16, 2016

frictions play a first-order role in determining market prices. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49425 Popular Acceptance of Inequality Due to Brute Luck and Support for Classical Benefit-Based... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Oct 2019
Blog Post

6 Steps to Building a Better Workplace for Black Employees

several books about race and public policy, writes that young black professionals who aspire to advance to senior leadership positions typically adopt the strategy of remaining silent about race and inequality to avoid being labeled... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

11 May 2021
Blog Post

Q+A on the Socioeconomic Inclusion Task Force with Holly Fetter (MBA 2020) and Alexxis Isaac (MBA 2020)

implication for fostering more inclusion around socioeconomic status in terms of what inequality looks like after people leave HBS. If students from lower income backgrounds are not able to access the full HBS experience and can’t network... View Details

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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18 Aug 2021
News

Alumni on the Black Lives Matter Movement

something lasting,” said Josh Kraft, who is president of Kraft Family Philanthropies. The fund has raised nearly $30 million to support community groups and coalitions that fight racism and racial inequity in Massachusetts. Among its core... View Details

April 2019
Case

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn: The Power of Writing to Launch and Sustain a Movement (Abridged)

By: Julie Battilana, Lakshmi Ramarajan and Michael Norris

In 2018, New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof and his wife, former Times writer Sheryl WuDunn (HBS ’86) who worked in finance, were planning for their next book. The couple’s earlier books had given rise to social movements around gender equity and poverty issues.... View Details

Keywords: Social Movement; Gender Equality; Writing; Social Issues; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Poverty; Books; Change; Leadership

Citation

Educators

January 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Supplement

IKEA in Saudi Arabia (C)

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

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17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Business of Babies

other ten or fifteen percent have to pay anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000 and up. You don't see that kind of inequity often." Inconsistent standards of payment. Only ten U.S. states have some sort of mandate regarding insurance... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

12 May 2020
Blog Post

The Importance of Coordination: Apoorva Pasricha Reflects on Crisis Leadership

schools transitioned to online learning, “the pandemic highlighted digital inequities around devices and connectivity and created a greater sense of urgency,” says Pasricha. Suddenly, Pasricha and her colleagues had to reorganize their... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Technology; Nonprofit / Government

01 Dec 2020
News

In the Zone

the organization’s top leadership role in the midst of a pandemic came with unexpected challenges, which included overseeing the launch of a hybrid teaching model in two of HCZ’s charter schools, implementing safety protocols, and addressing the sweeping View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; nonprofit management; urban development; leadership; public education; Educational Services

28 Apr 2020
Blog Post

The Importance of Coordination: Apoorva Pasricha Reflects on Crisis Leadership

schools transitioned to online learning, “the pandemic highlighted digital inequities around devices and connectivity and created a greater sense of urgency,” says Pasricha. Suddenly, Pasricha and her colleagues had to reorganize their... View Details

April 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

SA Taxi: A Vehicle for Empowerment? (A)

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and F. Christopher Eaglin

SA Taxi was a vertically integrated business that operated in South Africa’s distinctive taxi industry. Despite being plagued by violence, informal structures, unsafe road practices and lack of government support, the taxi industry had grown to become South Africa’s... View Details