Publications

March 2017 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Catalant: The Future of Work?

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Christine Snively

Catalant, founded in 2013 as an online marketplace where MBAs could bid on consulting projects posted by small- to medium-sized businesses, had expanded by 2016 to provide Fortune 1000 companies with access to over 35,000 independent experts. The founders envisioned... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Recruitment; Labor; Market Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Employment Industry; United States

28 Mar 2012
Working Paper Summaries

When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint versus Separate Evaluation

Keywords: by Iris Bohnet, Alexandra van Geen & Max H. Bazerman

Winter 2014
Article

Labor Regulations and European Venture Capital

By: Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr

European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures (e.g., unemployment insurance benefits) for providing worker insurance. Employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor adjustments than other labor... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Labor; Europe

25 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

For Migrant Workers, Homesickness Can Reduce Productivity

the senior workers suffered more because they had vacation flexibility earlier in their employment and then lost it, or simply because they did not have it when they were more experienced, Choudhury says. Practice is as important as... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

February 2011
Case

oDesk: Changing How the World Works

By: Boris Groysberg, David A. Thomas and Jennifer M. Tydlaska

It is 2010, and Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, is contemplating the next steps for his organization. Founded in 2004 in California, oDesk operates an online marketplace which matches Employers with Contractors. oDesk provides fact-based information on Contractors, including... View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Corporate Strategy; Internet and the Web; Consulting Industry

November 2008
Supplement

Differences at Work: Sameer (B)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon

In Differences at Work: Sameer (B) HBS Case No. 9-609-054, Sameer leaves the firm at the summer's end without confronting his employer about the jokes and wondering whether he made the right choice. Later Sameer's former employer calls him to apologize for their... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Moral Sensibility; Resignation and Termination; Working Conditions; Opportunities; Behavior

March 2007 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Fabindia Overseas Pvt. Ltd.

By: Mukti Khaire and Prabakar (PK) Kothandaraman

Fabindia is a for-profit Indian retail company with the stated mission of providing employment to weavers and traditional handicraft artisans in rural India. Established in 1960 as an exporter of home furnishings, Fabindia has grown as a consumer-facing retailer of... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Growth and Development Strategy; Supply Chain; Mission and Purpose; Expansion; Retail Industry; India

2022
White Paper

Building from the Bottom Up: What Business Can Do to Strengthen the Bottom Line by Investing in Front-line Workers

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Manjari Raman

A significant number of American workers—44%—are employed in low wage jobs at the front line of industries. Despite undertaking some of the most tedious, dirtiest, and most dangerous jobs, low-wage workers are—and have long been—the most likely to be overlooked by... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Labor Market; Low-wage Workers; Worker Welfare; Churn/retention; Morale; Jobs and Positions; Employees; Wages; Retention; Well-being; Human Resources

01 Jan 2020
What Do You Think?

Why Not Open America's Doors to All the World’s Talent?

H-1B visa, the ticket to temporary employment for skilled immigrants that can lead to the coveted “green card” providing permanent residency. Along with college admissions of international students and and new hires by non-profit... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

July 1, 2022
Editorial

New Transparency Rule Helps Rein in Health Care Costs

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Cynthia A. Fisher

Over the last year, consumer prices have grown 60% faster than wages. Employers can help their employees contend with this high inflation by addressing a long-running source: health care costs. View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Costs; Consumer Prices; Inflation and Deflation; Wages; Health Industry

Forthcoming
Article

Outcome-Driven Dynamic Refugee Assignment with Allocation Balancing

By: Kirk Bansak and Elisabeth Paulson

This study proposes two new dynamic assignment algorithms to match refugees and asylum seekers to geographic localities within a host country. The first, currently implemented in a multi-year pilot in Switzerland, seeks to maximize the average predicted employment... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Refugees; Geographic Location; Employment

August 2024
Article

The Labor Market Effects of Loan Guarantee Programs

By: Jean-Noël Barrot, Thorsten Martin, Julien Sauvagnat and Boris Vallée

We investigate the labor market effects of a loan guarantee program targeting French SMEs during the financial crisis. Exploiting differences in regional treatment intensity in a border discontinuity design, we uncover a central trade-off for such interventions. While... View Details

Keywords: Labor; Financial Crisis; Policy; France

February 2008
Exercise

Gerson Lehrman Group

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr. and David Lane

Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) brought together decision makers in search of hard-to-find answers with specialized experts in nearly every imaginable field. Over time, GLG developed software to help minimize potential conflicts of interest among and between experts and... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Customer Focus and Relationships; Governance Compliance; Conflict of Interests; Competitive Advantage; Software; Consulting Industry

2015
Working Paper

Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

We study entrepreneurship and growth through the lens of U.S. cities. Initial entrepreneurship correlates strongly with urban employment growth, but endogeneity bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near cities led to specialization in... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Organization; Chinitz; Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Mines; Industry Clusters; Entrepreneurship; City; Mining; Mining Industry; Pittsburgh

October 2020
Article

Patronage and Selection in Public Sector Organizations

By: Emanuele Colonnelli, Mounu Prem and Edoardo Teso

In all modern bureaucracies, politicians retain some discretion in public employment decisions, which may lead to frictions in the selection process if political connections substitute for individual competence. Relying on detailed matched employer-employee data on the... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Selection and Staffing; Political Elections; Public Sector; Brazil

April 2014
Article

Awards Unbundled: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

By: Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera and Scott S. Lee

Organizations often use non-monetary awards to incentivize performance. Awards may affect behavior through several mechanisms: by conferring employer recognition, by enhancing social visibility, and by facilitating social comparison. In a nationwide health worker... View Details

Keywords: Social Comparison; Awards; Optimal Expectactions; Zambia; Status and Position; Performance Expectations; Motivation and Incentives; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Zambia

2008
Working Paper

Financial Development, Bank Ownership, and Growth. Or, Does Quantity Imply Quality?

By: Shawn A. Cole

In 1980, India nationalized its large private banks. This induced different bank ownership patterns across different towns, allowing credible identification of the effects of bank ownership on financial development, lending rates, and the quality of intermediation, as... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Credit; Banks and Banking; Interest Rates; State Ownership; Private Ownership; Banking Industry; India

January 2018
Article

The Effect of Cost Sharing on an Employee Weight Loss Program: A Randomized Trial

By: Leslie K. John, Andrea Troxel, William Yancy, Joelle Y. Friedman, Jingsan Zhu, Lin Yang, Robert Galvin, Karen Miller-Kovach, Scott Halpern, George Loewenstein and Kevin Volpp

Purpose: We tested the effects of employer subsidies on employee enrollment, attendance, and weight loss in a nationally-available weight management program.
Design: A randomized trial tested the impact of employer subsidy: 100%; 80% 50% and a hybrid 50% subsidy... View Details

Keywords: Affordable Care Act (ACA); Subsidies; Weight Loss; Obesity; Incentives; Behavioral Economics; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Health Disorders; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; United States

2022
Working Paper

Can a Website Bring Unemployment Down? Experimental Evidence from France

By: Aïcha Ben Dhia, Bruno Crépon, Esther Mbih, Louise Paul-Delvaux, Bertille Picard and Vincent Pons

We evaluate the impact of an online platform giving job seekers tips to improve their search and recommendations of new occupations and locations to target, based on their personal data and labor market data. Our experiment used an encouragement design and was... View Details

Keywords: Online Platform; Digital Platform; Unemployment; Encouragement Design; Job Search; Jobs and Positions; Internet and the Web; Well-being; Outcome or Result; Digital Platforms; France

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