labor - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 Jul 2014
Op-Ed

Reform Tax Law to Keep US Firms at Home

profit-shifting activities that are not value-creating and e) the consequent, negative impact of all of these distortions on the US labor force. While it is tempting to limit attention to the more sensational effects and characterize them... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai; Pharmaceutical

05 Jul 2004
What Do You Think?

Work-Life: Is Productivity in the Balance?

of work is going to ... increase morale." Faisal Shaheen takes the matter one step further by asserting that "If not supported and recharged, households will not be able to add productive talent to the future labor force."... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

09 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

The Manager’s Guide to Communicating with Customers Collection

African-American clientele, have hundreds of products for blondes." In a labor market where youth seems to hold a premium, especially for marketing jobs, this notion is deadly for those trying to sell to an aging population of baby... View Details

Keywords: by Richard Bierck; Retail

12 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 12

a district-industry predicts a greater share of subsequent entrepreneurs will be female. Moreover, higher female ownership of local businesses in related industries (e.g., those sharing similar labor needs, industries related via... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 26, 2019

long-term innovation output rather than for private benefits. Code Contingencies: Designing Monitoring Regimes to Promote Improvement in Supply Chain Working Conditions By: Short, Jodi L., Michael W. Toffel, and Andrea R. Hugill Abstract—Worker rights advocates seeking... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

30 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 30, 2015

employed mothers are more likely to be employed, more likely to hold supervisory responsibility if employed, work more hours, and earn marginally higher wages than women whose mothers were home full time. The effects on labor market... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2023
Working Paper

Job Design and Workers’ Wellbeing: Evidence from a Hospital Setting

By: Susanna Gallani and Jacob Riegler

This study examines the relationship between job design imbalance and workers’ well-being. We build on Simons (2005) framework for the design of high-performing jobs and develop a survey instrument to capture workers’ perceptions of their job design and work... View Details

Keywords: Well-being; Job Design and Levels; Working Conditions; Perception; Work-Life Balance; Health Industry

Citation

August 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Just Arrived: Integrating Refugees in Sweden

By: Brian Trelstad, Emilie Billaud and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

Just Arrived is an online platform that matches newly-arrived immigrants in Sweden with employment opportunities. As one of several for-profit and non-profit start-ups in Europe that is looking to address the refugee crisis, the case enables a comparative analysis of... View Details

Keywords: Immigration; Refugees; Employment; Integration; Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Sweden; Italy; Germany

Citation

Educators

Purchase

May 2012
Article

Incentive Schemes, Sorting and Behavioral Biases of Employees: Experimental Evidence

By: Ian Larkin and Stephen Leider

We investigate how the convexity of a firm's incentives interacts with worker overconfidence to affect sorting decisions and performance. We demonstrate experimentally that overconfident employees are more likely to sort into a non-linear incentive scheme over a linear... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Behavior; Prejudice and Bias; Decisions; Employees; Wages

Citation

Find at Harvard

September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Marc Abrahams: Annals of an Improbable Entrepreneur

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Marc Abrahams was a media entrepreneur who specialized in science humor. In 2008, he sought to boost the scale and monetization potential of his business. That business, called Improbable Research, encompassed a magazine (Annals of Improbable Research), a high-profile... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Personal Development and Career

Citation

Find at Harvard

August 2005 (Revised April 2015)
Background Note

Employment At Will: A Legal Perspective

By: Lynn S. Paine and Christopher M. Bruner

Provides a brief overview of the employment-at-will doctrine, an important concept unique to the U.S. legal system and business landscape. Briefly surveys the history and development of this doctrine and certain limitations and exceptions to it, as well as some of the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Resignation and Termination; Employment; Common Law; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

March 2022
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details

Citation

Purchase

January 2008
Article

Nonemployment Stigma as Rational Herding: A Field Experiment

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Long spells of unemployment are known to reduce the likelihood of re-employment, but it is difficult to discern the reasons for this observation. Using an experimental method that controls for search intensity and possible discouragement of job applicants, I document... View Details

Keywords: Job Search; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employment; Cognition and Thinking; Perception; Creativity; Human Needs; Job Interviews; Selection and Staffing; Recruitment; Managerial Roles; Judgments; Employment Industry

Citation

Find at Harvard

22 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 22, 2018

exit, output, and R&D. Taxing the continued operation of incumbents can lead to sizable gains (of the order of 1.4% improvement in welfare) by encouraging exit of less productive firms and freeing up skilled labor to be used for... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

17 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Can China Maintain Its Economic Power?

terrible Foxconn suicides. The one-child-per-family policy was beginning to create a population shortage that meant cheap labor was running out. The old low-cost manufacturing-for-export strategy had run out of steam. They were developing... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg

22 Dec 2015
First Look

December 22, 2015

customers looking for a place to stay. The note allows students to explore what impact such companies might have on traditional business models, what impact they might have on labor and how people work, and whether existing regulations... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

23 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 23

Australian prime minister, Robert Hawke. The government's fiscal position seemed to demand that educational financing be overhauled, but there was no consensus on how best to do this. Could the prime minister convince his Australian Labor... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 24, 2016
Article

Build a Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

Every company, large and small, has an impact on health. It does so in four ways: first, through the healthfulness and safety of the products and services it sells; second, through its attention to employee health and well-being in its work practices and benefits;... View Details

Citation

Read Now

2016
Blog

Building A Culture of Health - John A. Quelch: Creating A Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

All American companies are in the health business whether they like it or not. The private sector directly pays for one-fifth of the whopping 17.5% of GDP spent on healthcare in the United States. Rather than viewing health merely as an insurance expense to be... View Details

Citation

Read Now

August 1999
Case

Leaving

By: David A. Thomas

A company supervisor listens to an employee, an African American woman, announce she is leaving the company and tries to understand the situation. View Details

Keywords: Resignation and Termination; Retention; Race; Behavior; Diversity; Interpersonal Communication; Labor and Management Relations

Citation

Educators

Purchase