Publications

12 Oct 2022
Video

Lumumba Seegars: Inequality & Agency in ERGs

February 2020
Article

Why Prosocial Referral Incentives Work: The Interplay of Reputational Benefits and Action Costs

By: Rachel Gershon, Cynthia Cryder and Leslie K. John

While selfish incentives typically outperform prosocial incentives, in the context of customer referral rewards, prosocial incentives can be more effective. Companies frequently offer “selfish” (i.e., sender-benefiting) referral incentives, offering customers financial... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Prosocial Behavior; Judgment And Decision-making; Referral Rewards; Motivation and Incentives; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making

August 2012 (Revised October 2015)
Technical Note

A Note on Trust

By: Jim Sharpe and Charles H. Green

The effective manager and leader understands and appreciates trust at both the personal and the organizational levels. Most managers focus more on being trusted than on trusting. The best way to be trusted is to be worthy of trust—to be trustworthy. View Details

Keywords: Turnarounds; Leadership Skills; Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Trust; Management Style; Leadership Style

Educators

2014
Article

Investors Prefer Entrepreneurial Ventures Pitched by Attractive Men

By: Alison Wood Brooks, Laura Huang, Sarah Kearney and Fiona Murray

Entrepreneurship is a central path to job creation, economic growth, and prosperity. In the earliest stages of start-up business creation, the matching of entrepreneurial ventures to investors is critically important. The entrepreneur's business proposition and... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Gender

06 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 6, 2007

Working PapersThe Effects of a Centralized Clearinghouse on Job Placement, Wages, and Hiring Practices Authors:Muriel Niederle and Alvin E. Roth Abstract New gastroenterologists participated in a labor market clearinghouse (a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons in Decision-Making: Confident People Aren't Always Correct (Except When They Are)

the right people are confident, suggests recent research by Thomas Graeber, assistant professor at Harvard Business School. His work tested the effects of meta-cognition—essentially, whether more skilled people are also more confident... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

04 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Best of HBS Working Knowledge 2009

relevant for social networking sites and large advertisers. Key concepts include: There is a significant and positive impact of friends' purchases on the purchase probability of a user. However, there are significant differences across... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

November 1999
Case

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (C)

By: Andre F. Perold

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (LTCM) was in the business of engaging in trading strategies to exploit market pricing discrepancies. Because the firm employed strategies designed to make money over long horizons--from six months to two years or more--it adopted a... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Management; Risk Management; Markets; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

Educators

2025
Working Paper

Discrimination, Rejection, and Job Search

By: Anne Boring, Katherine Coffman, Dylan Glover and María José González-Fuentes

We investigate how candidates’ willingness to apply responds to (potential) discrimination and rejection using a simulated labor market. Past work has shown that “blinding” job applications reduces discrimination and increases the rate at which women are hired. Our... View Details

Keywords: Job Search; Prejudice and Bias; Selection and Staffing; Demographics

12 Sep 2023
Book

Successful, But Still Feel Empty? A Happiness Scholar and Oprah Have Advice for You

goals, is the backbone of Brooks’ new book with Oprah Winfrey, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. They weave together the best happiness how-tos from social psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

May 2022
Case

Timnit Gebru: 'SILENCED No More' on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

By: Tsedal Neeley and Stefani Ruper

Dr. Timnit Gebru—a leading artificial intelligence (AI) computer scientist and co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team—was messaging with one of her colleagues when she saw the words: “Did you resign?? Megan sent an email saying that she accepted your resignation.” Heart... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Employment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technological Innovation

Educators

May 1991
Article

Presidential Commitment and the Veto

By: Daniel E. Ingberman and Dennis Yao

A president's power to veto is widely recognized as an important weapon in the struggle with Congress over legislation. In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of the veto weapon with a simple model of presidential powers that incorporates informal institutional... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Laws and Statutes; Financial Markets; Value; Taxation; Conflict and Resolution; Research; Performance Effectiveness; Legal Services Industry

2012
Other Unpublished Work

The Efficacy of Shareholder Voting: Evidence from Equity Compensation Plans

By: Ian D. Gow, Christopher S. Armstrong and David F. Larcker

This study examines the effects of shareholder support for equity compensation plans on subsequent chief executive officer (CEO) compensation. Using cross-sectional regression, instrumental variable, and regression discontinuity research designs, we find little... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Equity; Executive Compensation; Rights; Performance Effectiveness; Business and Shareholder Relations; Mathematical Methods; Motivation and Incentives

07 Aug 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

Keywords: by Marco Tabellini

28 Feb 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Measuring Employment Impact: Applications and Cases

Keywords: by Katie Panella and George Serafeim

10 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: First Look: October 10

Working PapersTesting Limits to Policy Reversal: Evidence from Indian Privatizations Authors:Siddhartha G. Dastidar, Raymond Fisman, and Tarun Khanna Abstract We examine the effect of regime change on privatization using the 2004... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 10, 2015
Article

Nonprice incentives and Energy Conservation

By: Omar Isaac Asensio and Magali A Delmas

We investigate the effectiveness of nonprice incentives to motivate conservation behavior. We test whether tailored information about environmental and health damages produces behavior change in the residential electricity sector. In a randomized controlled trial with... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Energy Conservation; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Health Disorders; Knowledge Dissemination; Behavior