Publications

2014
Working Paper

Savings in Transnational Households: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador

By: Nava Ashraf, Diego Aycinena, Claudia Martinez A. and Dean Yang

While remittance flows to developing countries are very large, it is unknown whether migrants desire more control over how remittances are used. This research uses a randomized field experiment to investigate the importance of migrant control over the use of... View Details

Keywords: Migration; Remittances; Intrahousehold Allocation; Savings; Immigration; Diasporas; International Finance; El Salvador

24 Nov 2008
Research & Ideas

Harvard Business School Discusses Future of the MBA

you need to think critically about what you are doing every 100 years or so, whether you need to or not," Dean Jay Light wryly observed in opening remarks to an unprecedented campus gathering last March of business school deans,... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson & HBS Bulletin; Education

2015
Other Unpublished Work

Democracy and Women's Rights in America: The Fight over the ERA

By: David Moss, Amy Smekar, Dean Grodzins, Rachel Wilf and Marc Campasano

February 1996
Case

Seaman Corporation

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Dean Whitney

April 2022
Case

Melio: Modernizing Payments for Small Business

By: David S. Scharfstein, Dean Xu and Danielle Golan

January 2007 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Kibera and the Kenya Slum Upgrading Project (A)

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Arthur I Segel, Marc Diaz and John Dean Shepherd

Kenya's Minister of Housing faces tremendous pressures in dealing with the pervasive housing troubles in his country. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and home to more than 800,000 residents, yet only measures two square kilometers, roughly half the size of... View Details

Keywords: Construction; Housing; Urban Development; Poverty; Kenya

January 2007 (Revised May 2009)
Supplement

Kibera and the Kenya Slum Upgrading Project (B)

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Arthur I Segel, Marc Diaz and John Dean Shepherd

Keywords: Projects; Wealth and Poverty; Kenya

26 Jun 2000
Research & Ideas

A New Ecosystem for Business and Society

In their opening comments at the IS2K conference, Harvard University President Neil L. Rudenstine and Harvard Business School Dean Kim B. Clark called forth, respectively, the spirits of the industrial past and the high-tech future to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

February 2014
Supplement

Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (C)

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin and Marc Shotland

Keywords: Saving; Innovation and Invention; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Success; Performance Evaluation; Banking Industry; Philippines

February 2014
Supplement

Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B)

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin and Marc Shotland

Keywords: Microfinance; Saving; Innovation and Invention; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Success; Performance Evaluation; Banking Industry; Philippines

March 1997 (Revised March 1997)
Case

Business Teams at Rubbermaid, Inc.

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Dean Whitney

Rubbermaid, a consumer-products company widely praised for its innovation, has instituted a company-wide experiment to stimulate innovation even further. The experiment consists of creating small cross-functional business teams within each division, with each team... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Innovation Strategy; Groups and Teams; Innovation and Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Consumer Products Industry; United States

2003
Article

Temporal Specificity of Perceptual Learning in an Auditory Discrimination Task

By: Uma R. Karmarkar and Dean V. Buonomano

Keywords: Learning; Health

Article

Timing in the Absence of Clocks: Encoding Time in Neural Network States

By: Uma R. Karmarkar and Dean V. Buonomano

May 2006
Article

Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin

We designed a commitment savings product for a Philippine bank and implemented it using a randomized control methodology. The savings product was intended for individuals who want to commit now to restrict access to their savings, and who were sophisticated enough to... View Details

Keywords: Information; Product; Philippines

2022
Working Paper

Social Protection and Social Distancing During the Pandemic: Mobile Money Transfers in Ghana

By: Dean Karlan, Matt Lowe, Robert Osei, Isaac Osei-Akoto, Benjamin N. Roth and Christopher Udry

We study the impact of mobile money transfers to a representative sample of low-income Ghanaians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement of the upcoming transfers affects neither consumption, well-being, nor social distancing. Once disbursed,... View Details

Keywords: Social Distancing; Social Welfare; Economic Relief; Health Pandemics; Poverty

April 2021 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Next Insurance: Considering New Markets

By: David S. Scharfstein, Ishita Sen and Dean Xu

2008
Working Paper

Finding Missing Markets (and a disturbing epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya

By: Nava Ashraf, Xavier Gine and Dean Karlan

In much of the developing world, many farmers grow crops for local or personal consumption despite export options which appear to be more profitable. Thus many conjecture that one or several markets are missing. We report here on a randomized controlled trial conducted... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Developing Countries and Economies; Trade; Profit; Product Marketing; Standards; Failure; Risk and Uncertainty; Non-Governmental Organizations; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Service Industry; Kenya; Europe

2003
Other Unpublished Work

Testing Savings Product Innovations Using an Experimental Methodology

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin

Keywords: Saving; Financial Instruments; Innovation and Invention