Publications

January 2014 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Legislative Choices for U.S. Corporate Tax Reform

By: Robert C. Pozen and Eric Lonstein

This case asks students to wear the hat of a policymaker to explore the politically charged issues around corporate tax reform in the U.S. View Details

Keywords: Tax Accounting; Policy-making; Political Economy; Policy; Taxation; United States

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2012
Article

Signing at the Beginning Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest Self-reports in Comparison to Signing at the End

By: L. Shu, N. Mazar, F. Gino, D. Ariely and M. Bazerman

Many written forms required by businesses and governments rely on honest reporting. Proof of honest intent is typically provided through signature at the end of the document, e.g., tax returns or insurance policy forms. Still, people sometimes cheat to advance their... View Details

Keywords: Nudge; Morality; Honesty; Self-report; Policy-making; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Reports; Policy

January 26, 2016
Article

Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst

By: Leslie K. John, Kate Barasz and Michael I. Norton

Seven experiments explore people's decisions to share or withhold personal information and the wisdom of such decisions. When people choose not to reveal information—to be "hiders"—they are judged negatively by others (experiment 1). These negative judgments emerge... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Transparency; Policy-making; Privacy; Information; Corporate Disclosure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Trust

Article

Signing at the Beginning vs at the End Does Not Decrease Dishonesty

By: Ariella S. Kristal, A.V. Whillans, Max Bazerman, Francesca Gino, Lisa Shu, Nina Mazar and Dan Ariely

Honest reporting is essential for society to function well. However, people frequently lie when asked to provide information, such as misrepresenting their income to save money on taxes. A landmark finding published in PNAS (Shu, Mazar, Gino, Ariely, and Bazerman,... View Details

Keywords: Morality; Nudge; Policy-making; Replication; Honesty; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Policy

2022
Working Paper

The Limits of Decentralized Administrative Data Collection: Experimental Evidence from Colombia

By: Natalia Garbiras-Diaz and Tara Slough

States collect vast amounts of data for use in policymaking and public administration. To do so, central governments frequently solicit data from decentralized bureaucrats. Because central governments use these data in policymaking, decentralized bureaucrats may face... View Details

Keywords: Decentralization; Policy-making; Policy/economics; Policy Evaluation; Governance; Government Administration; Government and Politics; Government Legislation; Policy; Public Opinion; Analytics and Data Science; Latin America; South America; Colombia

Teaching Interest

Overview

Erin has served as a teaching assistant in seven different courses at Harvard University since 2008. She has taught courses at both the undergraduate level and the graduate level. She most recently was a teaching assistant for HPM 539: Organizational Behavior, taught... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Science; Policy-making; Environmental Policy; Politics

Article

Crowdsourcing City Government: Using Tournaments to Improve Inspection Accuracy

By: Edward Glaeser, Andrew Hillis, Scott Duke Kominers and Michael Luca

The proliferation of big data makes it possible to better target city services like hygiene inspections, but city governments rarely have the in-house talent needed for developing prediction algorithms. Cities could hire consultants, but a cheaper alternative is to... View Details

Keywords: User-generated Content; Operations; Tournaments; Policy-making; Machine Learning; Online Platforms; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; City; Infrastructure; Business Processes; Government and Politics

2005
Chapter

Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States

By: David Vogel, Michael W. Toffel and Diahanna Post

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) are federal systems in which the responsibility for environmental policy-making is divided or shared between the central government and the (member) states. The attribution of decision-making power has important policy... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government Legislation; Natural Environment; Pollutants; Climate Change; European Union; United States

30 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Looking Behind Bad Decisions

Why is it that the U.S. federal government allows local communities to give tax dollars to wealthy sports team owners rather than to create better benefits for citizens? Why are organ-donor programs constrained to the point where thousands of Americans die needlessly... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

2012
Chapter

Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States

By: David Vogel, Michael W. Toffel, Diahanna Post and Nazli Z. Uludere Aragon

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) are federal systems in which the responsibility for environmental policy-making is divided or shared between the central government and the (member) states. The attribution of decision-making power has important policy... View Details

Keywords: Natural Environment; Policy; Government and Politics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; European Union; United States

August 2016 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Tom Kalil: Leading Technology & Innovation at the White House

By: Linda A. Hill and Allison J. Wigen

This case explores the role of Tom Kalil as Deputy Director for Technology & Innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. With the end of President Obama's Administration drawing near, Kalil and his team of "policy entrepreneurs" must work to... View Details

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April 29, 2020
Article

How Should We Allocate Scarce Medical Resources?

By: Max Bazerman, Regan Bernhard, Joshua D. Greene, Karen Huang and Netta Barak-Corren

Who should get a ventilator if there aren’t enough to go around? Research on decision making leads to three concrete guidelines that policy-makers and physicians can use to make fair choices when allocating scarce, life-saving resources. The key to making fair and... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Resource Allocation; Decision Making; Policy; Fairness; Ethics

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15 Oct 2019
News

Fighting Poverty With Field Experiments: the Nobel Laureates’ Revolution

2018
Chapter

Work and Well-being: A Global Perspective

By: Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, and Council Members: A. Blankson, A. Clark, C. Cooper, H. James, C. Krekel, J. Lim, P. Litchfield, J. Moss, M. I. Norton, M. Rojas, G. Ward and A.V. Whillans

Work and employment play a central role in most people’s lives. In OECD countries, for example, people spend around a third of their waking hours engaged in paid work. We not only spend considerable amounts of our time at work, employment and workplace quality also... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Working Conditions; Happiness; Policy; Global Range

January 1992 (Revised December 1994)
Background Note

Note on E-Mail and Privacy: U.S. Law and Company Policies

By: Lynn S. Paine

Describes the legal landscape of employee privacy as it applies to e-mail interception: the various legal theories on which a privacy claim might be based and proposed federal legislation relevant to the subject. Also describes the policies companies like UPS,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Information; Rights; Government Legislation; Internet and the Web; Interpersonal Communication; Ethics; Theory; Policy; Employees