Publications

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June 2010 (Revised February 2013)
Background Note

The Precautionary Principle

By: Michael W. Toffel and Nazli Z. Uludere Aragon

This note describes the precautionary principle and its key tenets, highlights challenges associated with its use, and includes many examples of its application, primarily within the realm of regulating activities based on the risk of harm to human health and the... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Health Disorders; Business and Government Relations; Safety; Natural Environment; Pollutants; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

Educators

03 Nov 2015
First Look

November 3, 2015

November 2015 Quarterly Journal of Economics Behavioral Hazard in Health Insurance By: Baicker, Katherine, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Joshua Schwartzstein Abstract—A fundamental implication of standard moral hazard models is overuse of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

friends’ purchasing. Third, they looked at whether liking affects things other than purchasing (for example, whether it can persuade people to engage in healthful behaviors). And fourth, they tested whether boosting likes by paying to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

such as talent and capital, away from wealth creation and toward wealth distribution. It distorts thinking. Restoring the balance of power is critical to the competitiveness and the health of the rest of the economy. Limits on the size... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 18, 2012
Article

Randomized Government Safety Inspections Reduce Worker Injuries with No Detectable Job Loss

By: David I Levine, Michael W. Toffel and Matthew S. Johnson

Controversy surrounds occupational health and safety regulators, with some observers claiming that workplace regulations damage firms' competitiveness and destroy jobs and others arguing that they make workplaces safer at little cost to employers and employees. We... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Occupational Safety; Evaluation; Regression; Matching; Difference In Differences; Safety; Health; Working Conditions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competitive Advantage; Performance; Manufacturing Industry; California

January 2018
Article

The Central and Unacknowledged Role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the Design and Execution of Medical Device Pivotal Trials

By: Aaron V. Kaplan and Ariel D. Stern

The introduction of new medical devices has transformed cardiovascular care in recent decades. Devices, such as heart valves, pacemakers, stents, ventricular assist devices, and implantable defibrillators, have prolonged and improved the quality of life for millions of... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Business and Government Relations; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Information Publishing; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

24 Feb 2022
Op-Ed

Want to Prevent the Next Hospital Bed Crisis? Enlist the SEC

billing rule that hospitals had ignored, it imposed a tangle of new requirements and directed the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to help prevent excess out-of-network charges. And consider the HHS’s multimillion dollar... View Details

Keywords: by Regina Herzlinger and Richard Boxer; Health

15 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 15, 2008

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=808087 Two Brattle Center: A Mental-Health Clinic in Search of a Viable Operating Model Harvard Business School Case 408-103 Two Brattle Center (TBC) is a struggling for-profit private mental View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

The Financial Crisis: Timothy Geithner and the Stress Tests

By: Samuel G. Hanson, Robin Greenwood, David Scharfstein and Adi Sunderam

In February and March 2009, the U.S. economy was in the midst of a terrifying financial and economic crisis. Between the beginning of 2008 and early 2009, four of the 25 largest U.S. financial institutions had failed, and nine of these 25 institutions had taken... View Details

Keywords: Bailout; Regulation; Stress Test; Financial Crisis; History; Economy; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Decision Making; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States

Educators

18 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Are Banks the ‘Bad Guys’? Overdraft Fees Are Crushing Low-Income Customers

consumers’ financial health improves The researchers looked at the link between high-to-low ordering and payday lenders and found a direct relationship between the two. They compiled data from alternative credit bureau Clarity Services,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

24 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 24, 2007

effect of the policy reforms on the entry of startups versus facility expansions by existing firms. We find that the deregulations reduced financing constraints, particularly among small startups, and improved allocative efficiency across... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July 2020
Article

Lessons from the Impact of Price Regulation on the Pricing of Anticancer Drugs in Germany

By: Victoria D. Lauenroth, Aaron S. Kesselheim, Ameet Sarpatwari and Ariel Dora Stern

Worldwide spending on prescription drugs has increased dramatically in recent years. Although this increase has been particularly pronounced in the U.S., it remains largely unaddressed there. In Europe, however, different approaches to regulating drug prices have been... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceuticals; Prescription Drug Costs; Drug Pricing; Access To Care; Cost Reduction; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Cost Management; Germany

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2008
Book

Revisiting Rental Housing: Policies, Programs, and Priorities

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Eric S. Belsky

Rental housing is increasingly recognized as a vital housing option in the United States. Yet government policies and programs continue to grapple with widespread problems, including affordability, distressed urban neighborhoods, poor-quality housing stock,... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics; Housing; Renting or Rental; Problems and Challenges; United States

Article

Regulatory, Legal, and Market Aspects of Smart Wearables for Cardiac Monitoring

By: Jan Benedikt Brönneke, Jennifer Müller, Konstantinos Mouratis, Julia Hagen and Ariel Dora Stern

In the area of cardiac monitoring, the use of digitally driven technologies is on the rise. While the development of medical products is advancing rapidly, allowing for new use-cases in cardiac monitoring and other areas, regulatory and legal requirements that govern... View Details

Keywords: Wearables; Regulatory Changes; Medical Technology; Medical Devices; Market Access; Market Entry and Exit; Information Technology; Health Care and Treatment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States; Germany; Belgium

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March 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Case

The Trouble with TCE

By: Vincent Pons, Rafael Di Tella and Galit Goldstein

Trichloroethylene, or TCE, was a chemical used by tens of thousands of businesses in the United States. It was an affordable tool for many. Yet, TCE had been associated with important health risks, including cancer and autoimmune disease. TCE potentially posed other... View Details

Keywords: Trichloroethylene; Toxicity; Lobbying; Chemicals; Health Disorders; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Ethics; Business and Government Relations; Chemical Industry; United States

Educators