Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,222)
- Faculty Publications (163)
- Article
Liquidity in Retirement Savings Systems: An International Comparison
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Joshua Hurwitz, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We compare the liquidity that six developed countries have built into their employer-based defined contribution (DC) retirement schemes. In Germany, Singapore, and the UK, withdrawals are essentially banned no matter what kind of transitory income shock the household... View Details
Keywords: Saving; Financial Liquidity; Retirement; Canada; Germany; Australia; United Kingdom; United States; Singapore
- Article
The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Katherine L. Milkman
Using a field experiment in a 401(k) plan, we measure the effect of disseminating information about peer behavior on savings. Low-saving employees received simplified plan enrollment or contribution increase forms. A randomized subset of forms stated the fraction of... View Details
- 2014
- Book
Critical Knowledge Transfer: Tools for Managing Your Company's Deep Smarts
By: Dorothy A. Leonard, Walter Swap and Garvin Barton
When highly skilled subject matter experts, engineers, and managers leave their organizations, they take with them years of hard-earned, experience-based knowledge—much of it undocumented and irreplaceable. Organizations can thereby lose a good part of their... View Details
Keywords: Knowledge Management
- October 2014 (Revised December 2018)
- Case
Jean-Claude Biver (A): The Reemergence of the Swiss Watch Industry
By: Ryan Raffaelli
In the early 1980s, the Swiss watch industry was near collapse after failing to adapt to Japanese competition from battery-powered quartz technology. In 1982, Jean-Claude Biver purchased Blancpain, a watch company that had been out of business since 1961 but had once... View Details
- October 2014 (Revised September 2017)
- Case
The National Football League and Brain Injuries
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Matthew G. Preble
The National Football League (NFL) was both the most popular spectator sport in the U.S. and a major economic entity, taking in roughly $10 billion a year in revenue. However through the early twenty-first century, an increased understanding of the long-term effects of... View Details
Keywords: Employee Safety; Safety; Employees; Sports; Health; Ethics; Sports Industry; United States
- October 2014
- Case
Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference
By: Clayton Rose, Jerome Lenhardt and Daniela Beyersdorfer
For Kai Teckentrup, the owner and co-CEO of the German "Mittelstand" door manufacturer Teckentrup, balancing competitive pressures, demographic realities and values were at the heart of the diversity program that he had started and championed at the company. Beyond... View Details
Keywords: Diversity Management; Corporate Values; Competitiveness; Demographics; Change Management; Transformation; Diversity; Ethnicity; Gender; Literacy; Nationality; Race; Residency; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Culture; Economic Growth; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Immigration; Employee Relationship Management; Civil Society or Community; Manufacturing Industry; Construction Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Europe; Germany; Russia; Turkey
- Fall 2014
- Article
Seesaws and Social Security Benefits Indexing
The price indexation of Social Security benefit payments has emerged in recent years as a flashpoint of debate in the United States. I characterize the direct effects that changes in that price index would have on retirees who differ in their initial wealth at... View Details
- August 15, 2014
- Article
Can an Outside CEO Run a Family-Owned Business?
By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer
This article explores the intricate dynamics that often characterize family-owned businesses, shedding light on key archetypes that play prominent roles within these organizations. Using a narrative approach, the article illustrates the challenges faced by leaders... View Details
- August 2014
- Article
What Makes Annuitization More Appealing?
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Stephen P. Zeldes
We conduct and analyze two large surveys of hypothetical annuitization choices. We find that allowing individuals to annuitize a fraction of their wealth increases annuitization relative to a situation where annuitization is an "all or nothing" decision. Very few... View Details
- July–August 2014
- Article
The Crisis in Retirement Planning
By: Robert C. Merton
Corporate America began to really take notice of the looming retirement crisis in the wake of the dot-com crash, when companies in major industries went bankrupt in large part because of their inability to meet their pension obligations. The result was an acceleration... View Details
- 2014
- Chapter
Who Uses the Roth 401(k), and How Do They Use It?
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Using administrative data from twelve companies that added a Roth 401(k) option between 2006 and 2010, we describe the characteristics of Roth contributions. Approximately one year after the Roth is introduced, 9% of 401(k) participants have positive Roth balances.... View Details
- April 2014 (Revised October 2015)
- Case
Texas Teachers and the New Texas Way
By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Luis M. Viceira, John D. Dionne and Nathaniel Burbank
In 2011 Britt Harris, the Chief Investment Officer for the $107.4 billion Teachers Retirement System of Texas (TRS), was considering whether to pursue strategic partnerships with a group of large private equity firms. After spending four years aggressively moving the... View Details
- November 2013
- Article
Simplification and Saving
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
The daunting complexity of important financial decisions can lead to procrastination. We evaluate a low-cost intervention that substantially simplifies the retirement savings plan participation decision. Individuals received an opportunity to enroll in a retirement... View Details
- September 2013
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: General Gale Pollock and Services for the Vision Impaired
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins
In July 2012, retired United States Army Major General Gale Pollock created Elevivo, a venture that worked on developing a comprehensive disease management software system to support the growing number of visually impaired individuals by providing them with tailored... View Details
Keywords: United States; Health Care; Health Care Education; Insurance Companies; Disease Management; Technology; Military; Leadership Skills; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Education; Insurance; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry; United States
- 2013
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: General Gale Pollock and Services for the Vision Impaired
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins
In July 2012, retired United States Army Major General Gale Pollock created Elevivo, a venture that worked on developing a comprehensive disease management software system to support the growing number of visually impaired individuals by providing them with tailored... View Details
- August 2013 (Revised November 2015)
- Case
Prudential Financial - General Motors Pension Risk Transfer: Back to the Future?
By: Luis M. Viceira and Emily A. Chien
In November 2012, Prudential Financial and General Motors closed on a $25.1B pension risk transfer (PRT) transaction, the largest of its kind to date by an order of magnitude both in the U.S. market and globally. In exchange for an in-kind transfer of $25.1B in... View Details
- February 2013
- Supplement
Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA)'s Entry into the Retirement Market (CW)
By: Lauren Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy
- 2012
- Chapter
The Availability and Utilization of 401(k) Loans
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We document the loan provisions in 401(k) savings plans and how participants use 401(k) loans. Although only about 22% of savings plan participants who are allowed to borrow from their 401(k) have such a loan at any given point in time, almost half had used a 401(k)... View Details
- May 2012 (Revised August 2012)
- Case
Apple Inc. in 2012
By: David B. Yoffie and Penelope Rossano
On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs tragically died of cancer. The recently retired CEO of Apple Inc. was a legend: he had changed Apple from a company near bankruptcy to one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. Moreover, he had revolutionized several... View Details
Keywords: Competition; Market Positioning; Strategic Planning; Technology; Computer Industry; Strategy Implementation; Consumer Electronics; Telecommunications; Information Infrastructure; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Strategy; Leadership; Product Positioning; Telecommunications Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry
- January 2012 (Revised March 2012)
- Case
Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA)'s Entry into the Retirement Market
By: Lauren Cohen and Christopher Malloy
This case examines Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA)'s decision to enter the retirement market with their new "Dimensional Managed DC" product, a complete retirement solution that aimed to provide investors with what they really wanted: the same standard of living in... View Details