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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,358)
- People (4)
- News (605)
- Research (1,263)
- Events (22)
- Multimedia (37)
- Faculty Publications (631)
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- 2012
- Working Paper
~Why Do We Redistribute so Much but Tag so Little? Normative Diversity, Equal Sacrifice and Optimal Taxation
Tagging is a free lunch in conventional optimal tax theory because it eases the classic tradeoff between efficiency and equality. But tagging is used in only limited ways in tax policy. I propose one explanation: conventional optimal tax theory has yet to capture the... View Details
Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Framework; Policy; Taxation; Analytics and Data Science; Performance Efficiency; United States
Weinzierl, Matthew. "~Why Do We Redistribute so Much but Tag so Little? Normative Diversity, Equal Sacrifice and Optimal Taxation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-064, January 2012. (Revised August 2012. NBER Working Paper Series, No. 18045, August 2012)
- 2020
- Working Paper
Spreading the Health: Americans' Estimated and Ideal Distributions of Death and Health(care)
By: Sorapop Kiatpongsan and Michael I. Norton
The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act intensified debates over the role of government in the distribution of healthcare. A nationally-representative sample of Americans reported their estimated and ideal distributions of healthcare (unmet need for... View Details
Keywords: Healthcare; Mortality; Inequality; Justice; Equity; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Equality and Inequality; Fairness; Public Opinion; United States
Kiatpongsan, Sorapop, and Michael I. Norton. "Spreading the Health: Americans' Estimated and Ideal Distributions of Death and Health(care)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-114, April 2020.
- June 23, 2020
- Article
Inequality in Socially Permissible Consumption
By: Serena Hagerty and Kate Barasz
Lower-income individuals are frequently criticized for their consumption decisions; this research examines why. Eleven preregistered studies document systematic differences in permissible consumption—interpersonal judgments about what is acceptable (or not) for others... View Details
Keywords: Interpersonal Judgments; Consumption; Economic Inequalty; Income; Equality and Inequality; Spending; Judgments
Hagerty, Serena, and Kate Barasz. "Inequality in Socially Permissible Consumption." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 25 (June 23, 2020): 14084–14093.
- January 2023
- Article
Inequality Regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa from Precolonial Times to the Present
By: Ewout Frankema, Michiel de Haas and Marlous van Waijenburg
While current levels of economic inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa receive ample attention from academics and policymakers, we know little about the long-run evolution of inequality in the region. Even the new and influential ‘global inequality literature’ that is... View Details
Frankema, Ewout, Michiel de Haas, and Marlous van Waijenburg. "Inequality Regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa from Precolonial Times to the Present." African Affairs 122, no. 486 (January 2023): 57–94.
- 2000
- Working Paper
Resources, Power and Prestige: Formulation of Structural Inequality in Social Exchange Networks
By: Bharat Anand and M.J. Piskorski
- 2020
- White Paper
Does Attending a More Selective College Equal a Bigger Paycheck?
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Frederick M. Hess
Fuller, Joseph B., and Frederick M. Hess. "Does Attending a More Selective College Equal a Bigger Paycheck?" White Paper, American Enterprise Institute, June 2020.
- June 2016
- Article
Task Segregation as a Mechanism for Within-Job Inequality: Women and Men of the Transportation Security Administration
By: Curtis K. Chan and Michel Anteby
What could explain inequality within a given job between groups of workers, particularly between women and men? Extant workplace inequality scholarship has largely overlooked as a source for inequality the job’s work content—the actual tasks workers perform. It is... View Details
Keywords: Inequality; Work; Mechanisms And Processes; Stratification; Labor Process; Qualitative Methods (General); Case Method; Field Research; Equality and Inequality; Working Conditions; Gender; Labor; Labor and Management Relations; Air Transportation Industry
Chan, Curtis K., and Michel Anteby. "Task Segregation as a Mechanism for Within-Job Inequality: Women and Men of the Transportation Security Administration." Administrative Science Quarterly 61, no. 2 (June 2016): 184–216.
- March–April 1992
- Article
Debate: A Response to the Business of Equal Opportunity by Reginald Dickerson
By: D. A. Thomas and D. Evans
Keywords: Equality and Inequality
Thomas, D. A., and D. Evans. "Debate: A Response to the Business of Equal Opportunity by Reginald Dickerson." Harvard Business Review 70, no. 2 (March–April 1992).
- October 6, 2015
- Article
Compared to Men, Women View Professional Advancement as Equally Attainable, but Less Desirable
By: Francesca Gino, Caroline Ashley Wilmuth and Alison Wood Brooks
Women are underrepresented in most high-level positions in organizations. While a great deal of research has provided evidence that bias and discrimination give rise to and perpetuate this gender disparity, in the current research, we explore another explanation: men... View Details
Gino, Francesca, Caroline Ashley Wilmuth, and Alison Wood Brooks. "Compared to Men, Women View Professional Advancement as Equally Attainable, but Less Desirable." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 40 (October 6, 2015).
- Article
Evolution of Land Distribution in West Bengal 1967–2004: Role of Land Reform and Demographic Changes
By: Pranab Bardhan, Michael Luca, Dilip Mookherjee and Francisco Pino
This paper studies how land reform and population growth affect land inequality and landlessness, focusing particularly on indirect effects owing to their influence on household divisions and land market transactions. Theoretical predictions of a model of household... View Details
Keywords: Inequality; Land Reform; Household Division; Land Markets; Equality and Inequality; Residency; Property; Household; West Bengal
Bardhan, Pranab, Michael Luca, Dilip Mookherjee, and Francisco Pino. "Evolution of Land Distribution in West Bengal 1967–2004: Role of Land Reform and Demographic Changes." Journal of Development Economics 110 (September 2014): 171–190.
- 2004
- Article
Sources of Structural Inequality in Managerial Labor Markets
By: Rakesh Khurana and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
This article proposes two mechanisms that allow actors to obtain unearned advantages in labor markets. The first mechanism is consistent with collusive closure arguments. However, it questions the assumption that those who seek to benefit from collusive closure will... View Details
Khurana, Rakesh, and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski. "Sources of Structural Inequality in Managerial Labor Markets." Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 21 (2004): 169–187.
- Research Summary
'Optimal Incentive Contracts under Inequity Aversion' (with Achim Wambach) ), 2005
We analyze the Moral Hazard problem, assuming that the agent is inequity averse. Our results differ from conventional contract theory and are more in line with empirical findings than these standard results. Our key findings are: Inequity aversion alters the structure... View Details
- 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... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 1 Aug 1973
- Conference Presentation
De-Housewifing Women, Domesticating Men: Equality between the Sexes in Urban Communes
By: R. M. Kanter and M. Halter
Kanter, R. M., and M. Halter. "De-Housewifing Women, Domesticating Men: Equality between the Sexes in Urban Communes." Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, August 01, 1973. (Also in Marriage and Family Interaction, edited by J. Heiss. Second Edition. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1976. (with M. Halter); Reprinted in Modern Sociology: Introductory Readings, edited by P. Worsley London: Penguin, 1978.)
- 2014
- Working Paper
Evolution of Land Distribution in West Bengal 1967-2004: Role of Land Reform and Demographic Changes
By: Pranab Bardhan, Michael Luca, Dilip Mookherjee and Francisco Pino
This paper studies how land reform and population growth affect land inequality and landlessness, focusing particularly on indirect effects owing to their influence on household divisions and land market transactions. Theoretical predictions of a model of household... View Details
Keywords: Inequality; Land Reform; Household Division; Land Markets; Equality and Inequality; Property; West Bengal
Bardhan, Pranab, Michael Luca, Dilip Mookherjee, and Francisco Pino. "Evolution of Land Distribution in West Bengal 1967-2004: Role of Land Reform and Demographic Changes." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-066, January 2014.
- 2021
- Working Paper
Employee Ownership and Wealth Inequality: A Path to Reducing Wealth Concentration
By: Thomas Dudley and Ethan Rouen
This paper examines the impact of an economy-wide shift to broad-based employee ownership on wealth concentration in the United States. Relying on government data, we show that if all private firms became 30% employee-owned, the wealth distribution would be profoundly... View Details
Keywords: Wealth Inequality; Employee Ownership; Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Analysis; United States
Dudley, Thomas, and Ethan Rouen. "Employee Ownership and Wealth Inequality: A Path to Reducing Wealth Concentration." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-021, September 2021.
- January 2025
- Case
Creating Value by Splitting Aster: Can One Minus One Equal Two?
By: V.G. Narayanan and Kairavi Dey
Aster DM Healthcare (Aster), founded by Dr. Azad Moopen in 1987, is a prominent healthcare conglomerate with operations spanning hospitals, clinics, retail pharmacies, and diagnostic centers across India and the GCC. After its 2018 listing on India’s National Stock... View Details
- September 2016
- Background Note
A Brief History of African American Leaders in Unions and the Labor Movement
By: Steven Rogers and Mercer Cook
This historically focused background note highlights the role of African American Labor Leaders in both the Labor Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. In doing so, it attempts to both highlight these noteworthy individuals and demonstrate the innate connection... View Details
Keywords: Wages; Working Conditions; Political History; Social History; Economic History; Business History; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Labor And Management Relations; Social Issues; Culture; Equality And Inequality; Rights; Leading Change; Race; Civil Society or Community; Labor Unions
Rogers, Steven, and Mercer Cook. "A Brief History of African American Leaders in Unions and the Labor Movement." Harvard Business School Background Note 317-004, September 2016.
- September 2011
- Article
Political Instability: Effects on Financial Development, Roots in the Severity of Economic Inequality
By: Mark J. Roe and Jordan I. Siegel
We here bring forward strong evidence that political instability impedes financial development, with its variation a primary determinant of differences in financial development around the world. As such, it needs to be added to the short list of major determinants of... View Details
Keywords: Financial Development; Political Instability; Government and Politics; Finance; Growth and Development; Economics; Equality and Inequality
Roe, Mark J., and Jordan I. Siegel. "Political Instability: Effects on Financial Development, Roots in the Severity of Economic Inequality." Journal of Comparative Economics 39, no. 3 (September 2011): 279–309. (We here bring forward strong evidence that political instability impedes financial development, with its variation a primary determinant of differences in financial development around the world. As such, it needs to be added to the short list of major determinants of financial development. First, structural conditions first postulated by
Engerman and Sokoloff (2002) as generating long-term inequality are shown here empirically to be exogenous determinants of political instability. Second, that exogenously-determined political instability in turn holds back financial development, even when we control for factors prominent in the last decade's cross-country studies of
financial development. The findings indicate that inequality-perpetuating conditions that result in political instability are fundamental roadblocks for international organizations like the World Bank that seek to promote financial development. The evidence here includes country fixed effect regressions and an instrumental model inspired by Engerman and Sokoloff's (2002) work, which to our knowledge has not yet been used in finance and which is consistent with current tests as valid instruments. Four conventional measures of national political instability — Alesina and Perotti's (1996) well-known index of instability, a subsequent index derived from Banks' (2005) work,
and two indices of managerial perceptions of nation-by-nation political instability — persistently predict a wide range of national financial development outcomes for recent decades. Political instability's significance is time consistent in cross-sectional regressions back to the 1960's, the period when the key data becomes available, robust
in both country fixed-effects and instrumental variable regressions, and consistent across multiple measures of instability and of financial development. Overall, the results indicate the existence of an important channel running from structural inequality to political instability, principally in nondemocratic settings, and then to financial
backwardness. The robust significance of that channel extends existing work demonstrating the importance of political economy explanations for financial development and financial backwardness. It should help to better understand which policies will work for financial development, because political instability has causes, cures, and effects quite distinct from those of many of the key institutions most studied in the past decade as explaining financial backwardness.)
- July 2020
- Article
Higher Economic Inequality Intensifies the Financial Hardship of People Living in Poverty by Fraying the Community Buffer
By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Barnabas Szaszi, Marcel Lukas, David Smerdon, Jaideep Prabhu and Elke U. Weber
The current research investigates whether higher economic inequality disproportionately intensifies the financial hardship of low-income individuals. We propose that higher economic inequality increases financial hardship for low-income individuals by reducing their... View Details
Keywords: Economic Inequalty; Economy; Income; Equality and Inequality; Poverty; Civil Society or Community
Jachimowicz, Jon M., Barnabas Szaszi, Marcel Lukas, David Smerdon, Jaideep Prabhu, and Elke U. Weber. "Higher Economic Inequality Intensifies the Financial Hardship of People Living in Poverty by Fraying the Community Buffer." Special Issue on Racism in Action. Nature Human Behaviour 4, no. 7 (July 2020): 702–712.