- 06 Dec 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt
Many consumers fail to pay off credit card debt each month and suffer financial consequences. Repayment-by-purchase, allocating payment toward specific purchases on a credit card bill, helps consumers gain a sense of progress and control over credit card debt.
- 24 Aug 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
When Do Experts Listen to Other Experts? The Role of Negative Information in Expert Evaluations for Novel Projects
Evaluators of early-stage scientific proposals tend to systematically focus on the weaknesses of proposed work rather than its strengths, according to evidence from two field experiments.
- 02 Aug 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Discrimination, Disenfranchisement and African American WWII Military Enlistment
The United States entered World War II during one of the worst periods of racial discrimination in post-Civil War history. This paper examines the social costs of this discrimination, with clear implications for policymakers: Requiring equal contributions from citizens means treating citizens equally.
- 20 Jul 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
The Pursuit of Passion Propagates Privilege
While graduating students are often exhorted to do work they love to do, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to feel that they are a fit for and have the skills to thrive in a job that calls for passion.
- 01 Jul 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Scaling Up Behavioral Science Interventions in Online Education
Online courses can lack support structures that are often bundled with traditional higher education. Short pre-course interventions can have short-term benefits, but more innovation throughout the course is needed to have sustained impact on student success.
- 11 Jun 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Paying It Backward and Forward: Expanding Access to Convalescent Plasma Therapy Through Market Design
Without a vaccine for COVID-19, the medical community has turned to a century-old therapy. This paper discusses a market design approach for expanding the collection and distribution of convalescent plasma.
- 19 May 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Global Behaviors and Perceptions at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic
An online survey of more than 110,000 people in 175 countries conducted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic found that most respondents believe that their governments and fellow citizens are not doing enough, which heightens their worries and depression levels. Decisive actions and strong leadership from policymakers change how people perceive their governments and other citizens, and in turn improve their mental health.
- 11 May 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Targeting High Ability Entrepreneurs Using Community Information: Mechanism Design in the Field
Based on a field experiment involving 1,345 microentrepreneurs in India, this study provides insight into the depth and breadth of social knowledge contained in rural and peri-urban social networks. Harnessing community information directly from a microentrepreneur’s peers helps to identify high-growth microentrepreneurs and predict their returns to capital.
- 21 Apr 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Changing In-group Boundaries: The Role of New Immigrant Waves in the US
How do new immigrants affect natives’ views of other minority groups? This work studies the evolution of group boundaries in the United States and indicates that whites living in states receiving more Mexican immigrants recategorize blacks as in-group members, because of the inflow of a new, “affectively” more distant group.
- 13 Apr 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
The Bulletproof Glass Effect: When Privacy Notices Backfire
Consumers regularly encounter privacy notices explaining if and how their personal information will be collected, stored, used, and shared. Evidence in this study demonstrates that privacy notices, though designed to promote a sense of confidence that personal data will not be misused, can undermine consumer trust and decrease purchase intent.
- 03 Apr 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Working (From Home) During a Crisis: Online Social Contributions by Workers During the Coronavirus Shock
This study shows that people working from home (WFH) make more online contributions to socially helpful topics, yet face higher psychic costs and anxiety about time constraints. Managers might consider giving WFH workers more temporal flexibility to deal with time constraints during this crisis.
- 27 Mar 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Novel Risks
Companies can manage known risks by reducing their likelihood and impact. But such routine risk management often prevents them from recognizing and responding rapidly to novel risks, those not envisioned or seen before. Setting up teams, processes, and capabilities in advance for dealing with unexpected circumstances can protect against their severe consequences.
- 17 Mar 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
From Sweetheart to Scapegoat: Brand Selfie-Taking Shapes Consumer Behavior
Using a dataset of more than 280,000 user reviews on Yelp, this paper describes a series of eight studies exploring how brand selfie-taking affects consumers’ behavior and sense of connection toward a brand.
- 13 Jan 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Recognition Incentives for Internal Crowdsourcing: A Field Experiment at NASA
What to do if organizational hierarchy hinders a platform aimed at worker collaboration? A field experiment with NASA employees finds that they respond to managerial appreciation above other incentives.
- 11 Dec 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
When to Apply?
Using a series of experiments, the authors studied gender differences in how job-seekers perceive their own qualifications for different opportunities and how this affects their decision to apply. Results suggest that soft touch employer interventions can improve the diversity of applicant pools even if candidate beliefs about their own ability are unchanged.
- 06 Nov 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Why Does Business Invest in Education in Emerging Markets? Why Does It Matter?
Drawing on 110 interviews with business leaders as part of the Creating Emerging Markets project at Harvard Business School, this paper represents the first systematic attempt to identify and compare investment in education across emerging economies, specifically in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf between the 1960s and the present day.
- 17 Oct 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Persuasion by Populist Propaganda: Evidence from the 2015 Argentine Ballotage
This paper studies data generated prior to the 2015 Argentine presidential ballotage, when a government propaganda campaign was used to attack the opposition candidate and influence voter preferences. Results show the propaganda was persuasive.
- 25 Sep 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Corporate Purpose and Firm Ownership
This study shows that corporate purpose varies greatly according to the nature of firm ownership, and these differences can be least partly explained by the choices and compensation of the CEOs. The greater the pay gap between CEOs and employees, the lower the sense of corporate purpose within the organization.
- 14 May 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Do Experts Listen to Other Experts? Field Experimental Evidence from Scientific Peer Review
Influence is a fundamental aspect of collective decisions. It is thus crucial to consider not only the composition of evaluation panels but also their deliberation process. This study illuminates drivers of influence among an elite population of experts and contributes to our understanding of resource allocation in science and other expert domains.
Information Avoidance and Image Concerns
People avoid information that might compel them to behave more generously. While many people avoid information due to concerns about their self-image, there is a substantial role for other reasons, such as inattention and confusion.