Publications

November 2024
Article

On the Representativeness of Voter Turnout

By: Louis Kaplow and Scott Duke Kominers

Prominent theory research on voting analyzes a variety of models in which expected pivotality drives voters' turnout decisions and hence determines voting outcomes. It is recognized, however, that such work is at odds with Downs's paradox: in practice, many... View Details

Keywords: Voting Behavior; Voting Turnout; Paradox Of Voting; Pivotality; Elections; Model; Theory; Governance Transparency; Government; Democracy; Turnout; Voting; Governance; Government and Politics; Public Sector; Political Elections

Article

Design and Testing of a Mobile Health Application Rating Tool

By: David Levine, Zo Co, Lisa Newmark, Alissa Groisser, A Jay Holmgren, Jennifer Haas and David Bates

Mobile health applications (“apps”) have rapidly proliferated, yet their ability to improve outcomes for patients remains unclear. A validated tool that addresses apps’ potentially important dimensions has not been available to patients and clinicians. The objective of... View Details

Keywords: Health; Mobile Technology; Design; Analysis

January 2018
Article

Who Gets Hired? The Importance of Competition Among Applicants

By: Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw and Christopher Stanton

Despite seeming to be an important requirement for hiring, the concept of a slot is absent from virtually all of economics. Macroeconomic studies of vacancies and search come closest, but the implications of slot-based hiring for individual worker outcomes has not been... View Details

Keywords: Hiring; Selection and Staffing; Employment; Competency and Skills

September 2012
Article

Food Choices of Minority and Low-Income Employees: A Cafeteria Intervention

By: Douglas E. Levy, Jason Riis, Lillian M. Sonnenberg, Susan J. Barraclough and Anne N. Thorndike

Background: Effective strategies are needed to address obesity, particularly among minority and low-income individuals.

Purpose: To test whether a two-phase point-of-purchase intervention improved food choices across racial, socioeconomic (job... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competitive Advantage; Cost

Research Summary

Overview

I am an ethnographer and field researcher studying how people experience and interpret their work and cultural contexts, as well as how this shapes inequality and organizational outcomes like normative control. I specialize in utilizing in-depth, inductive field... View Details

March 2022 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Pittsburgh: A Successful City?

By: Karen Mills, Caroline Elkins, Vikram Gandhi, Gabriella Elanbeck and Zeke Gillman

Pittsburgh, PA, was once the crown jewel of American heavy industry. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city was an undisputed leader in steel production, boasting some of the largest companies and wealthiest individuals in the world. Its abundance of... View Details

Keywords: Economic And Social Disparities; Economic Development; Local Economic Development; Contextual Intelligence; Contextual Knowledge; Context; City Growth; City Innovation; City Leadership; Pittsburgh; Local Government; Local Stakeholders; Business And Community; Business And Community Relations; Community Engagement; Community Relations; Cross-sector Collaboration; Innovation; Innovation Economy; Innovation Clusters; Innovation Ecosystems; Shared Prosperity; Equality Of Opportunity; Equity; Inclusion; Business And Government; Business ＆ Government Relations; Business And Government Relations; Business And Society; Neighborhoods; Race And Ethnicity; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Diversity; Ethnicity; Race; Household; Income; Economic Growth; Economic Sectors; Economics; Local Range; Urban Development; Urban Scope; City; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Government and Politics; Government Administration; Growth and Development; History; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Society; Civil Society or Community; Culture; Human Needs; Public Opinion; Public Sector; Social Issues; Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Manufacturing Industry; Steel Industry; Education Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania

Educators

01 Sep 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces 2023 Goldsmith Fellows

strategy to help improve student outcomes in Washington state, and supported the postsecondary education team to determine how technology can boost college advisors’ productivity and improve student outcomes... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Keep Your Enemies Closer: Strategic Platform Adjustments during U.S. and French Elections

By: Rafael Di Tella, Randy Kotti, Caroline Le Pennec and Vincent Pons

A key tenet of representative democracy is that politicians' discourse and policies should follow voters' preferences. In the median voter theorem, this outcome emerges as candidates strategically adjust their platform to get closer to their opponent. Despite its... View Details

Keywords: Political Ideology; Political Elections; United States; France

Fast Answer

Suggested Resources: Israel - Hamas War

(CSIS) CSIS in a bipartisan think tank where leading experts across the organization provide comprehensive analysis on the conflict in Israel and potential outcomes in the days ahead. View Details

Web

Geography of Care - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Measure Outcomes & Cost for Every Patient Aligning Reimbursement with Value Systems Integration Geography of Care Information Technology Geography of Care Geography of Care Today’s top health care providers can help lead the way toward a... View Details

Web

Building From the Bottom Up - Managing the Future of Work

mobility experience of low-wage workers. Most employers believe they have policies in place for mentoring, training, and providing career pathways to low-wage workers. In reality, companies do not adequately measure outcomes and... View Details

Web

Research Areas - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Edition by Michael E. Porter See All Publications Projects & Activities U.S. Competitiveness Project U.S. Cluster Mapping Project International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement Social Progress Index View Details

19 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

What Motivates People to Give Generously—and Why We Sometimes Don't

self-interested reasons Christine is talking about? In some ways, that’s a philosophical debate that can’t really be answered empirically. But it is important to at least ask the question: Does it even matter, if the outcome is that... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint, HBS Alumni Bulletin

2024
Working Paper

The Cram Method for Efficient Simultaneous Learning and Evaluation

By: Zeyang Jia, Kosuke Imai and Michael Lingzhi Li

We introduce the "cram" method, a general and efficient approach to simultaneous learning and evaluation using a generic machine learning (ML) algorithm. In a single pass of batched data, the proposed method repeatedly trains an ML algorithm and tests its empirical... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning

2020
Working Paper

Arbitration with Uninformed Consumers

By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru

This paper studies the impact of the arbitrator selection process on consumer outcomes by examining roughly 9,000 consumer arbitration cases in the securities industry. Securities disputes present a good laboratory: arbitration is mandatory for all disputes,... View Details

Keywords: Arbitration; Financial Advisers; Financial Advisors; Brokers; Consumer Finance; Financial Misconduct; Fraud; Personal Finance; Conflict and Resolution; Information; Fairness

SSRN

Article

What Makes a Critic Tick? Connected Authors and the Determinants of Book Reviews

By: Loretti I. Dobrescu, Michael Luca and Alberto Motta

This paper investigates the determinants of expert reviews in the book industry. Reviews are determined not only by the quality of the product, but also by the incentives of the media outlet providing the review. For example, a media outlet may have the incentive to... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Media; Relationships; Marketing Reference Programs; Books; Publishing Industry

September 2006 (Revised May 2008)
Supplement

Corporate Responsibility & Community Engagement at the Tintaya Copper Mine (B)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Brooke Barton and Ezequiel Reficco

Engaging local stakeholders and building strong relations has become a strategic imperative for multinational firms in the often politically charged mining, oil, and gas sectors. For BHP Billiton, the world's second largest mining company, its Tintaya copper mine in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mining Industry

2009
Chapter

Evaluating the Impact of SA8000 Certification

By: Michael J. Hiscox, Claire Schwartz and Michael W. Toffel

SA 8000, along with other types of certification standards and corporate codes of conduct, represents a new form of private governance of working conditions, initiated and implemented by companies, labor unions, and non-governmental activist groups. Whether these codes... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Working Conditions; Standards; Performance Evaluation