Inequalities - Publications - Faculty & Research

10 Apr 2025
Blog Post

IFC India 2025: SELCO - Decentralized Renewable Energy to Develop While Decarbonizing

logistical barriers. Decarbonization + Development SELCO’s work exemplifies that decarbonization and development can co-exist. Through a holistic and inclusive approach, the SELCO Foundation addresses inequities that hinder sustainable... View Details

25 Aug 2022
News

On Purpose

this deeper understanding of purpose can serve as a trusted compass to help point the way through the increasingly tangled landscape of issues on which leaders are being asked to take a stand—such as social inequality or the war in... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

30 Jan 2018
First Look

January 30, 2018

feelings of life satisfaction, we explore when, how, and why time and money impact peoples’ anticipated, momentary, and lasting happiness. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53781 November 2017 Journal of Public Economics Popular... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2022
Teaching Note

Sawiris Foundation: Elevating Education in Egypt

By: Brian Trelstad and Alpana Thapar

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 322-023. Founded in 2001 by the Sawiris family, one of the wealthiest families in Egypt, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) invested in human capital and provision of basic social services for the most marginalized... View Details

Keywords: Sustainable Development; Human Capital; Equality and Inequality; Education; Business Strategy; Social Enterprise; Social Issues; Partners and Partnerships; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; Egypt

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20 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 20

instrumental variables approach exploiting an historical shift in innovation activity during World War II to show that this relationship could be causal. Finally, we document a U-shaped relationship between top income inequality and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

How to Communicate your Organizations’ People-Centered Values - Recruiting

salary inequality around race and gender,” said Eliason. “Also consider who is being promoted within the organization and equity of departures. If you do identify equity problem areas, build a strategy and plan to solve those concerns.... View Details

01 Jun 2006
News

The Baby Business

who can’t do it are at a real disadvantage, especially if they’re poor. We have to decide whether that’s an inequity that we as a society should accept. You’ve written about the business of stem cells, which is also emotion-driven to a... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Government; Health, Social Assistance

10 Aug 2020
Blog Post

HBS Summer Fellows Focus on Racial Equity and Justice

Bukie Adebo (MBA 2021), Rebel One Ventures: I am working with at an impact venture capital firm that funds founders of color and solutions that help to address inequality in financial services, education, and work. Cathy Chukwulebe (MBA... View Details

01 Mar 2013
News

Leveraging Female Talent

directors. I was the only man. When I joined a table for a meal, the conversation died—and when I left, it picked up again. I mentioned what had happened when I gave my presentation. The response? That happens to us every single day. I had always understood View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

04 Jan 2021
What Do You Think?

How Do We Sustain Organization Diversity?

December 16, 2020. Summing up last month’s column My column last month about job training inequality and economic growth sparked many insightful comments about the role of markets as arbiters of fairness and the nature of competition for... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Web

Launching Tech Ventures - Course Catalog

More broadly, why does the startup ecosystem contain so many market failures that lead to biases and inequities – particularly in terms of access to capital for female entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color? 6. Financing and Exits. What... View Details

19 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 19, 2019

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55865 in press Behavioural Public Policy Invisible Inequality Leads to Punishing the Poor and Rewarding the Rich By: Hauser, Oliver P., Gordon T. Kraft-Todd, David Rand, Martin A. Nowak, and... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

May 2025
Case

IQanat: Empowering Rural Youth in Kazakhstan

By: Boris Groysberg and Maxim Pike Harrell

In June 2025, IQanat CEO Aliya Salikova considered scaling opportunities for the foundation, which provided educational opportunities for children from rural regions of Kazakhstan. Established by Kazakhstani businessman and philanthropist Aidyn Rakhimbayev, IQanat... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Rural Scope; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Equality and Inequality; Education Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan

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07 Sep 2021
News

Embracing Activism for Social Change

“We spoke to folks in California and Texas, asking questions about coalition building, data collection, evaluation, stakeholder management, and community engagement,” she says. “This was at a time when COVID-19 was exposing a big range of underlying health View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

April 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Unrest in Chile

By: Vincent Pons, William Mullins, John Masko, Annelena Lobb and Rafael Di Tella

In 2020, Chileans would head to the ballot box to decide their country’s future. Many international observers credited Chile’s decades of neoliberal governance with turning the country into Latin America’s “Tiger,” a prosperous, diversified economy on its way to... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Economy; Political Elections; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Equality and Inequality; System Shocks; Chile; Latin America

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16 Feb 2012
Op-Ed

Nitin Nohria: Why US Competitiveness Matters

economic inequality worrisome. They see that US corporations are skittish about making investments in a time of uncertainty about government policy, taxes, and regulations. They hear too many American CEOs talk about choosing to postpone... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria

15 Jun 2021
News

Diversifying HBS's Case Collection

“The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations,” coauthored by Mihir Desai, the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance [see related story]. A PDF of this written case, as well as of the note “African American Inequality in the... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

24 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Tax Reform is on the Front Burner Again. Here’s Why You Should Care

way to see that concretely is the distributional implications if passed as is, with no extra top bracket and pass-through at 25 percent. We all know inequality has been rising and it's high. There's recent research showing a substantial... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

March 2012
Article

The Incentive Bubble

By: Mihir Desai

The past three decades have seen American capitalism quietly transformed by a single, powerful idea—that financial markets are a suitable tool for measuring performance and structuring compensation. Stock instruments for managers, high-powered incentive contracts for... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Financial Markets; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Governance; Equality and Inequality; Human Capital; United States

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January 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Background Note

State, The

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

Surveys approaches to understanding the state; highlights the relationships between the state, order, and property; and offers an analytical framework for how states vary from place to place and over time. View Details