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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,709)
- News (398)
- Research (1,016)
- Events (16)
- Multimedia (3)
- Faculty Publications (456)
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- 2020
- Working Paper
What Can Economics Say About Alzheimer's Disease?
By: Amitabh Chandra, Courtney Coile and Corina Mommaerts
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) affects one in ten people aged 65 or older and is the most expensive disease in the United States. We describe the central economic questions raised by AD. While there is overlap with the economics of aging, the defining features of the... View Details
Chandra, Amitabh, Courtney Coile, and Corina Mommaerts. "What Can Economics Say About Alzheimer's Disease?" NBER Working Paper Series, No. 27760, August 2020.
- March 2020
- Article
Governance Through Shame and Aspiration: Index Creation and Corporate Behavior
By: Akash Chattopadhyay, Matthew D. Shaffer and Charles C.Y. Wang
After decades of deprioritizing shareholders' economic interests and low corporate profitability, Japan introduced the JPX-Nikkei400 in 2014. The index highlighted the country's "best-run" companies by annually selecting the 400 most profitable of its large and liquid... View Details
Keywords: JPX-Nikkei 400 Index; Status Incentives; Return On Equity; Capital Efficiency; Social Norms; Index Inclusion; Reputation Incentives; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Governance; Behavior; Investment Return; Status and Position; Japan
Chattopadhyay, Akash, Matthew D. Shaffer, and Charles C.Y. Wang. "Governance Through Shame and Aspiration: Index Creation and Corporate Behavior." Journal of Financial Economics 135, no. 3 (March 2020): 704–724.
- 19 Aug 2013
- Research & Ideas
Studying How Income Inequality Shapes Behavior
public outrage and protests, as well as a fair amount of handwringing on the part of politicians. What's less clear is how this rising level of inequality has affected the nation. Researchers have tried to determine its impact on a wide array of indicators—among them... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 14 Apr 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
The Economic Crisis and Medical Care Usage
- Article
The Impact of Penalties for Wrong Answers on the Gender Gap in Test Scores
By: Katherine B. Coffman and David Klinowski
Multiple-choice exams play a critical role in university admissions across the world. A key question is whether imposing penalties for wrong answers on these exams deters guessing from women more than men, disadvantaging female test-takers. We consider data from a... View Details
Coffman, Katherine B., and David Klinowski. "The Impact of Penalties for Wrong Answers on the Gender Gap in Test Scores." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 16 (April 21, 2020): 8794–8803.
- 2023
- Working Paper
The Buy-In Effect: When Increasing Initial Effort Motivates Behavioral Follow-Through
By: Holly Dykstra, Shibeal O'Flaherty and A.V. Whillans
Behavioral interventions often focus on reducing friction to encourage behavior change. In
contrast, we provide evidence that adding friction can promote long-term behavior change when
behaviors involve repeated costly efforts over longer time horizons. In... View Details
Dykstra, Holly, Shibeal O'Flaherty, and A.V. Whillans. "The Buy-In Effect: When Increasing Initial Effort Motivates Behavioral Follow-Through." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-020, October 2023.
- November 2012
- Article
Empirical Observations on Longer-term Use of Incentives for Weight Loss
By: Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Kevin Volpp
Behavioral economic-based interventions are emerging as powerful tools to help individuals accomplish their own goals, including weight loss. Deposit contract incentive systems give participants the opportunity to put their money down toward losing weight, which they... View Details
Keywords: Weight Loss; Obesity; Behavioral Economics; Intervention; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives
John, Leslie K., George Loewenstein, and Kevin Volpp. "Empirical Observations on Longer-term Use of Incentives for Weight Loss." Preventive Medicine 55, Supplement 1 (November 2012): S68–S74.
- 17 Aug 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Dividends as Reference Points: A Behavioral Signaling Approach
Keywords: by Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler
- 2023
- Working Paper
Scapegoating and Discrimination in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Airbnb
By: Michael Luca, Elizaveta Pronkina and Michelangelo Rossi
We present evidence that discrimination against Asian-American Airbnb users sharply increased at the
start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a DiD approach, we find that hosts with distinctively Asian
names experienced a 20 percent decline in guests relative to hosts... View Details
Keywords: Discrimination; Behavioral Economics; Market Design; Health Pandemics; Prejudice and Bias; Digital Platforms; Design
Luca, Michael, Elizaveta Pronkina, and Michelangelo Rossi. "Scapegoating and Discrimination in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Airbnb." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-012, August 2022. (Revised March 2023.)
- June 2013
- Article
Opting-in: Participation Bias in Economic Experiments
By: Robert Slonim, Carmen Wang, Ellen Garbarino and Danielle Merrett
Assuming individuals rationally decide whether to participate or not to participate in lab experiments, we hypothesize several non-representative biases in the characteristics of lab participants. We test the hypotheses by first collecting survey and experimental data... View Details
Slonim, Robert, Carmen Wang, Ellen Garbarino, and Danielle Merrett. "Opting-in: Participation Bias in Economic Experiments." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 90 (June 2013): 43–70.
- March 2015 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Behavioural Insights Team (A)
By: Michael Luca and Patrick Rooney
The Behavioural Insights Team case introduces students to the concept of choice architecture and the value of experimental methods (sometimes called A/B testing) within organizational contexts. The exercise provides an opportunity for students to apply these principles... View Details
Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Choice Architecture; Public Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Taxation; Economics; Public Administration Industry; United Kingdom
Luca, Michael, and Patrick Rooney. "Behavioural Insights Team (A)." Harvard Business School Case 915-024, March 2015. (Revised January 2020.)
- 2021
- Working Paper
Salience
By: Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer
We review the fast-growing work on salience and economic behavior. Psychological research shows that salient stimuli attract human attention “bottom up” due to their high contrast with surroundings, their surprising nature relative to recalled experiences, or their... View Details
Keywords: Salience; Economic Behavior; Bottom Up Attention; Microeconomics; Decision Making; Behavior
Bordalo, Pedro, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer. "Salience." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29274, September 2021.
- 04 Aug 2006
- What Do You Think?
What Happens When the Economics of Scarcity Meets the Economics of Abundance?
means to understand human behavior and finds ways to accommodate and direct such behaviors." Citing the works of Ronald Coase, David Touve opined, "It would seem that economics has grappled with... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
- 03 Mar 2010
- What Do You Think?
To What Degree Does “Identity” Affect Economic Performance?
Summing Up Is "identity" a victim of competitiveness? A recent study of organizational behavior published by Timothy Kieningham and Lerzan Toksoy shows that employees' perceptions of their employers' levels of commitment to them... View Details
Keywords: by Jim Heskett
- 01 Jan 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Lobbying Behavior of Governmental Entities: Evidence from Public Pension Accounting Rules
Keywords: by Abigail M. Allen & Reining Petacchi
- 2025
- Working Paper
Global Harms, Local Profits: How the Uneven Costs of Natural Disasters Affect Support for Green Political Platforms
By: Silvia Pianta and Paula Rettl
Large-scale fires are becoming increasingly common due to climate change. While conventional
wisdom suggests that firsthand experiences with natural disasters foster green coalitions
by raising awareness of environmental degradation, we propose an alternative... View Details
Keywords: Climate Impact; Politics; Environmental Issues; Environmental Protection; Economic Analysis; Economic Behavior; Economic Geography; Economy; Economics; Climate Change; Environmental Management; Political Elections; Natural Disasters; Green Technology; Environmental Sustainability; Latin America; Brazil
Pianta, Silvia, and Paula Rettl. "Global Harms, Local Profits: How the Uneven Costs of Natural Disasters Affect Support for Green Political Platforms." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-023, September 2023. (Revised June 2025.)
- 10 Sep 2009
- Working Paper Summaries
Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior
- July 2022
- Article
The Developmental Origins and Behavioral Consequences of Attributions for Inequality
By: Antonya Marie Gonzalez, Lucia Macchia and Ashley V. Whillans
Attributions, or lay explanations for inequality, have been linked to inequality-relevant behavior. In adults and children, attributing inequality to an individual rather than contextual or structural causes is linked to greater support for economic inequality and less... View Details
Gonzalez, Antonya Marie, Lucia Macchia, and Ashley V. Whillans. "The Developmental Origins and Behavioral Consequences of Attributions for Inequality." Art. 104329. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 101 (July 2022).
- 05 Dec 2013
- What Do You Think?
Is Walmart Defying Economic Gravity?
that the tradeoff between scale and friction is complex. For example, what effect does a company's origins, its beliefs, and how these are reflected in management behaviors (reflected in Walmart's emphasis on "family") reduce... View Details