Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(525)
- Faculty Publications (142)
- 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
- January 2011
- Article
Building a Better America—One Wealth Quintile at a Time
By: Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely
Disagreements about the optimal level of wealth inequality underlie policy debates ranging from taxation to welfare. We attempt to insert the desires of "regular" Americans into these debates, by asking a nationally representative online panel to estimate the current... View Details
- 2010
- Book
Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism
By: Peter Wehner and Arthur C. Brooks
Popular opinion would have us believe that America's free market system is driven by greed and materialism, resulting in gross inequalities of wealth, destruction of the environment, and other social ills. Even proponents of capitalism often refer to the free market as... View Details
- Article
The Price of Equality: Suboptimal Resource Allocations across Social Categories
By: Stephen M. Garcia, Max Bazerman, Shirli Kopelman, Avishalom Tor and Dale T. Miller
This paper explores the influence of social categories on the perceived trade-off between relatively bad but equal distribution of resources between two parties and profit maximizing, yet asymmetric, payoffs. Studies 1 and 2 show that people prefer to maximize profits... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Walking the Talk in Multiparty Bargaining: An Experimental Investigation
By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Katherine L Milkman and Markus Noth
We study the framing effects of communication in multiparty bargaining. Communication has been shown to be more truthful and revealing than predicted in equilibrium. Because talk is preference-revealing, it may effectively frame bargaining around a logic of fairness or... View Details
- Article
Untapped Potential in the Study of Negotiation and Gender Inequality in Organizations
By: Hannah Riley Bowles and Kathleen L. McGinn
Negotiation is a process that creates, reinforces, and reduces gender inequality in organizations, yet the study of gender in negotiation has little connection to the study of gender in organizations. We review the literature on gender in job negotiations from... View Details
- July 2005
- Article
Profit Maximization versus Disadvantageous Inequality in Choice Behavior: The Impact of Self-Categorization
By: S. M. Garcia, A. Tor, M. Bazerman and D. T. Miller
- May 2005 (Revised May 2011)
- Background Note
Inequality and Globalization
By: David A. Moss, Anna Harrington and Jonathan Schlefer
Inequality represented a major issue at the dawn of the 21st century. By many measures, inequality had increased over the previous several decades, within both developed and developing countries. Whether global inequality (measured across countries or among the people... View Details
- December 2004
- Supplement
Basic Statistics from the World Bank's World Development Indicators, 2004
By: David A. Moss, Sarah A. Brennan and Peter Epstein
Provides basic economic and social indicators for 145 countries, drawn from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (2004). The data include: population, land area, GNP per capita, real GDP growth, life expectancy, adult illiteracy, fertility rate, access to... View Details
- August 2004
- Article
Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?
By: Rafael Di Tella, Alberto Alesina and Robert MacCulloch
We study the effect of the level of inequality in society on individual well-being using a total of 123,668 answers to a survey question about “happiness”. We find that individuals have a lower tendency to report themselves happy when inequality is high, even after... View Details
- 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
- November 2002 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Inequality and the "American Model"
By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel
Official data that suggest economic inequality has been mounting in the United States on various dimensions since 1979. Many causes of such inequality have been postulated: technological change, globalization, demographic factors, and changes in public policy (notably... View Details
- March 2002
- Case
Women and Power: Stories From Around the Globe
By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Alexis Lefort and Nicole Nasser
This case uses vignettes and statistics of the broader issue discussed in each vignette to explore some of the ways in which gender is played out in the struggle for power and control. Disenfranchised groups--those not allowed access to critical resources--have little... View Details
- July 2001
- Case
Paula Evans and the Redesign of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (A)
By: Linda A. Hill, Kristin Doughty and Ellen Pruyne
Paula Evans is in her second year as principal of the only high school in Cambridge, MA. Her mandate when she arrived was to redesign the high school so that long-standing inequities in academic achievement rates across race and socioeconomic class were removed. In her... View Details
- 2000
- Working Paper
Resources, Power and Prestige: Formulation of Structural Inequality in Social Exchange Networks
By: Bharat Anand and M.J. Piskorski
- October 1998 (Revised September 1999)
- Case
Brazil Confronts an Interdependent World
By: George C. Lodge and Cate Reavis
Discusses the politics of change and how Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, elected in 1994, has fought to promote systemic change in Brazil. While his Real Plan has stabilized inflation and attracted foreign investment, the nation's deficit continues to... View Details
- April 1993
- Supplement
Prodigy Services Company (B)
By: Lynn S. Paine
Describes the actions taken by Prodigy executives. View Details
- February 1990 (Revised March 1990)
- Case
Quantum Semiconductor, Inc.
By: Janice H. Hammond and Roy D. Shapiro
Quantum is faced with a difficult ethical dilemma--industry studies provide evidence that chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing may cause women working in fabrication cleanrooms to suffer a higher likelihood of spontaneous abortions. The possibility of other... View Details
Keywords: Safety; Prejudice and Bias; Law; Equality and Inequality; Cost; Production; Ethics; Health; Gender; Semiconductor Industry
- Research Summary
Managing Multiple Identities at Work
Peoples’ work identities, which are often a deep source of meaning for them, may conflict with or complement cultural, familial, or personal identities they value. A central focus of Professor Ramarajan’s work is understanding, on the individual level, how these... View Details
- 2023
- Chapter
Market Design Under Weak Institutions
By: Benjamin N. Roth
As market designers begin to address economic inequality, we will necessarily also
begin to engage marginalized populations who have so far not been served well by the
markets in which they participate. We will need new market designs for participants who
may not... View Details