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    • HBS Book

    A Political Economy of Justice

    By: Allen, Danielle, Yochai Benkler, Leah Downey, Rebecca Henderson, and Joshua Simons, eds

    Defining a just economy in a tenuous social-political time. If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and people interact in this next era of the world? A Political Economy of Justice considers the strained state of our political economy in terms of where it can go from here. The contributors to this timely and essential volume look squarely at how normative and positive questions about political economy interact with each other—and from that beginning, how to chart a way forward to a just economy.

    • HBS Book

    A Political Economy of Justice

    By: Allen, Danielle, Yochai Benkler, Leah Downey, Rebecca Henderson, and Joshua Simons, eds

    Defining a just economy in a tenuous social-political time. If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and people interact in this next era of the world? A Political Economy of Justice considers the strained...

    • Brookings Series: The Economics and Regulation of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies (July 7, 2022)

    Are Online Prices Higher Because of Pricing Algorithms?

    By: Zach Y. Brown and Alexander J. MacKay

    This article reviews recent work examining pricing strategies of major online retailers and the potential effects of pricing algorithms. We describe how pricing algorithms can lead to higher prices in a number of ways, even if some characteristics of these algorithms may appear, at first glance, to increase competition. A key feature of many pricing algorithms is that they automatically react to rivals’ prices. Some have argued that this could facilitate collusion. However, this feature can also soften price competition when rivals do not collude. Even very simple pricing algorithms can raise prices. Finally, we discuss potential policy responses to encourage competition in online retail and other markets with pricing algorithms.

    • Brookings Series: The Economics and Regulation of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies (July 7, 2022)

    Are Online Prices Higher Because of Pricing Algorithms?

    By: Zach Y. Brown and Alexander J. MacKay

    This article reviews recent work examining pricing strategies of major online retailers and the potential effects of pricing algorithms. We describe how pricing algorithms can lead to higher prices in a number of ways, even if some characteristics of these algorithms may appear, at first glance, to increase competition. A key feature of many...

    • Health Care Initiative

    The Effectiveness of Digital Interventions on COVID-19 Attitudes and Beliefs

    By: Susan Athey, Kristen Grabarz, Michael Luca and Nils Wernerfelt

    During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, a common strategy for public health organizations around the world has been to launch interventions via advertising campaigns on social media. Despite this ubiquity, little has been known about their average effectiveness. We conduct a large-scale program evaluation of campaigns from 174 public health organizations on Facebook and Instagram that collectively reached 2.1 billion individuals and cost around $40 million. We report the results of 819 randomized experiments that measured the impact of these campaigns across standardized, survey-based outcomes. We find on average these campaigns are effective at influencing self-reported beliefs, shifting opinions close to 1% at baseline with a cost per influenced person of about $3.41. There is further evidence that campaigns are especially effective at influencing users’ knowledge of how to get vaccines.

    • Health Care Initiative

    The Effectiveness of Digital Interventions on COVID-19 Attitudes and Beliefs

    By: Susan Athey, Kristen Grabarz, Michael Luca and Nils Wernerfelt

    During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, a common strategy for public health organizations around the world has been to launch interventions via advertising campaigns on social media. Despite this ubiquity, little has been known about their average effectiveness. We conduct a large-scale program evaluation of campaigns from 174 public health...

    • Featured Case

    NIO: A Chinese EV Company's Global Strategy

    By: William C. Kirby, Shu Lin and Noah B. Truwit

    Founded in November 2014 and based in Shanghai, NIO designed, jointly manufactured, and sold premium “smart” EVs. Its mission was to “shape a joyful lifestyle by offering high-performance smart electric vehicles and being the best user enterprise. At NIO Day 2021, Founder William Li shared plans for the company to expand to 25 different countries and regions by 2025, including the automobile juggernaut nation of Germany. Would users in other markets and cultures embrace his user enterprise and high-touch model? NIO faced tough competition ahead in the race for EV supremacy.

    • Featured Case

    NIO: A Chinese EV Company's Global Strategy

    By: William C. Kirby, Shu Lin and Noah B. Truwit

    Founded in November 2014 and based in Shanghai, NIO designed, jointly manufactured, and sold premium “smart” EVs. Its mission was to “shape a joyful lifestyle by offering high-performance smart electric vehicles and being the best user enterprise. At NIO Day 2021, Founder William Li shared plans for the company to expand to 25 different countries...

    • Featured Case

    Timnit Gebru: 'SILENCED No More' on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

    By: Tsedal Neeley and Stefani Ruper

    Dr. Timnit Gebru—a leading artificial intelligence (AI) computer scientist and co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team—was messaging with one of her colleagues when she saw the words: “Did you resign?? Megan sent an email saying that she accepted your resignation.” Heart rate spiking, Gebru was shocked to find that her company account had been cut off. She scrolled through her personal inbox to find an email stating that the company could not agree to the conditions she had stipulated about a research paper critiquing large language models and also expressing disapproval of a message she had sent to an internal listserv about halting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts without accountability. Therefore, Google was accepting Gebru’s “resignation,” effective immediately.

    • Featured Case

    Timnit Gebru: 'SILENCED No More' on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

    By: Tsedal Neeley and Stefani Ruper

    Dr. Timnit Gebru—a leading artificial intelligence (AI) computer scientist and co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team—was messaging with one of her colleagues when she saw the words: “Did you resign?? Megan sent an email saying that she accepted your resignation.” Heart rate spiking, Gebru was shocked to find that her company account had been cut...

    • HBS Working Paper

    On the Origins of Our Discontent

    By: Rawi Abdelal and Thomas J. DeLong

    Signs of discontent with global capitalism and national capitalisms abound. Unless we find ways to create better jobs and then improve those jobs further with empathic management and thoughtful mentoring, then we will be unable to create a more stable, purposeful political and economic system. We cannot resolve any of these challenges only with money. Our crisis is about the distribution of dignity, purpose, and meaning within our societies. Failure to resolve these challenges would likely lead to a generation of ongoing disruption and the destruction of our era of globalization.

    • HBS Working Paper

    On the Origins of Our Discontent

    By: Rawi Abdelal and Thomas J. DeLong

    Signs of discontent with global capitalism and national capitalisms abound. Unless we find ways to create better jobs and then improve those jobs further with empathic management and thoughtful mentoring, then we will be unable to create a more stable, purposeful political and economic system. We cannot resolve any of these challenges only with...

    • HBS Working Paper

    Beliefs about Gender Differences in Social Preferences

    By: Christine L Exley, Oliver P. Hauser, Molly Moore and John-Henry Pezzuto

    While there is a vast (and mixed) literature on gender differences in social preferences, little is known about believed gender differences in social preferences. This paper documents robust evidence for believed gender differences in social preferences. Across a wide range of contexts that vary in terms of strategic considerations, selfish motives, fairness concepts and applications, we find that individuals robustly expect that women are more generous and more equality-oriented. Despite the robustness of these beliefs, the believed gender gap in social preferences—in the range of contexts we consider—is largely inaccurate.

    • HBS Working Paper

    Beliefs about Gender Differences in Social Preferences

    By: Christine L Exley, Oliver P. Hauser, Molly Moore and John-Henry Pezzuto

    While there is a vast (and mixed) literature on gender differences in social preferences, little is known about believed gender differences in social preferences. This paper documents robust evidence for believed gender differences in social preferences. Across a wide range of contexts that vary in terms of strategic considerations, selfish...

Initiatives & Projects

Health Care

The Health Care Initiative serves as a gateway for health care research, educational programs, and collaboration across all sectors of the health care industry.
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Seminars & Conferences

Sep 06
  • 06 Sep 2022

Boston Conference on Markets and Competition

Sep 14
  • 14 Sep 2022

Stefan Nagel

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Recent Publications

When Listening Is Spoken

By: Hanne Collins
  • October 2022 |
  • Article |
  • Current Opinion in Psychology
Feeling heard is critical to human flourishing—across domains, relationships are strengthened and individual well-being is enhanced when people feel listened to. High-quality conversational listening not only requires the cognitive processes of attention and processing, but also behavioral expression to communicate one's cognitive engagement to others. This need to behaviorally express listening introduces the possibility of deception. Listening can be expressed using non-verbal, paralinguistic, and verbal behaviors. However, recent work reveals that perceptions of conversational listening are often inaccurate—dishonest portrayals of listening often go undetected, while honest portrayals are sometimes mistaken for deception. This article will review work on listening, arguing that honest high-quality conversational listening is most effectively conveyed (and detected) using verbal expressions of listening, in part because these cues cannot be faked.
Citation
Related
Collins, Hanne. "When Listening Is Spoken." Special Issue on Honesty and Deception edited by Maurice E. Schweitzer, Emma Levine. Current Opinion in Psychology 47 (October 2022).

China's Political Economy and International Backlash: From Interdependence to Security Dilemma Dynamics

By: Margaret Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee Tsai
  • Fall 2022 |
  • Article |
  • International Security
Contrary to expectations that economic interdependence might lessen security conflict between China and the U.S. and its allies, much of the contestation between China and several OECD countries has focused on firms and economic links. This paper explains the intensification of economic contestation between China and several OECD countries by showing how changes in China’s domestic political economy have generated security dilemma dynamics. Since the mid-2000s, the Chinese Communist Party’s approach to the economy has become increasingly securitized, such that the developmental goal of economic growth, which required accommodation of the private sector, has been overshadowed by a strategy of political control and risk management for regime survival. We term these changes “party-state capitalism,” and identify two signature manifestations: 1) expansion of party-state authority in firms through changes in corporate governance and state-led financial instruments; and 2) enforcement of political fealty among various economic actors. Together, these trends have blurred the distinction between the state and private capital and resulted in several forms of backlash, including intensified investment reviews, campaigns to exclude Chinese firms from prominent sectors, and novel domestic and international institutions to address perceived threats from Chinese actors. We conclude that the uniqueness of China’s model has prompted significant reorganization of the rules governing capitalism at the national and transnational levels.
Citation
Related
Pearson, Margaret, Meg Rithmire, and Kellee Tsai. "China's Political Economy and International Backlash: From Interdependence to Security Dilemma Dynamics." International Security 47, no. 2 (Fall 2022).

How Does Party-State Capitalism in China Interact with Global Capitalism?

By: Margaret Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee Tsai
  • 2022 |
  • Chapter |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Purchase
Related
Pearson, Margaret, Meg Rithmire, and Kellee Tsai. "How Does Party-State Capitalism in China Interact with Global Capitalism?" Chap. 27 in The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations, edited by Maria Adele Carrai, Jennifer Rudolph, and Michael Szonyi, 250–257. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022.

Boston Beer Company: Sustaining a Culture for Innovation and Growth

By: Gary P. Pisano
  • August 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Educators
Related
Pisano, Gary P. "Boston Beer Company: Sustaining a Culture for Innovation and Growth." Harvard Business School Case 623-015, August 2022.

Retail Media Networks

By: Eva Ascarza, Ayelet Israeli and Celine Chammas
  • August 2022 |
  • Background Note |
  • Faculty Research
In 2022, retail media was one of the fastest growing segments in digital advertising. A retail media network (RMN) allows a retailer to use its assets for advertising. Retailers set up an advertising business by allowing marketers to buy advertising space across their different channels, such as their website or mobile application as well as physical stores or other properties the retailer owns or partners with. The value proposition retailers offer advertisers is to potentially generate more effective advertising and to drive sales, by leveraging their exclusive data that includes customer behavior and transactions (both online and offline), allowing advertisers to close the loop from ad exposure to purchase across channels. This note provides an overview of retail media networks in 2022. First, it describes the role played by each key player—retailers, brands, and consumers—as well as the main drivers behind the dramatic growth of RMN in the last few years. Then, it describes the main challenges for retailers who aim to seize the RMN opportunity. Third, it positions the RMNs within the broader context of digital advertising, identifying key challenges and open questions in this industry.
Citation
Educators
Related
Ascarza, Eva, Ayelet Israeli, and Celine Chammas. "Retail Media Networks." Harvard Business School Background Note 523-029, August 2022.

Institutionalized Entrepreneurship: Flagship Pioneering

By: Gary Pisano and Francesca Gino
  • August 2022 |
  • Teaching Plan |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Purchase
Related
Pisano, Gary, and Francesca Gino. "Institutionalized Entrepreneurship: Flagship Pioneering." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 923-007, August 2022.

How to Build a Life: To Get Out of Your Head, Get Out of Your House

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • August 11, 2022 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Citation
Related
Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: To Get Out of Your Head, Get Out of Your House." The Atlantic (August 11, 2022).

Iluméxico: For Every Family to Have Power

By: Brian Trelstad, Isa Oliveres and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago
  • August 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Educators
Related
Trelstad, Brian, Isa Oliveres, and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago. "Iluméxico: For Every Family to Have Power." Harvard Business School Case 323-026, August 2022.
More Publications

In The News

    • 11 Aug 2022
    • Bloomberg

    These Families Thought Food Inflation Was Bad in 2021. It Only Got Worse

    Re: Alberto Cavallo
    • 10 Aug 2022

    Is In-Person or Remote Work Best for Agile Teams?

    Re: Tsedal Neeley
    • 10 Aug 2022
    • Harvard Law School

    The Market for CEOs: Evidence from Private Equity

    By: Paul Gompers
    • 10 Aug 2022
    • Harvard Gazette

    Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

    Re: Amitabh Chandra
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The Case Method

Introduced by HBS faculty to business education in 1925, the case method is a powerful interactive learning process that puts students in the shoes of a leader faced with a real-world management issue and challenges them to propose and justify a resolution.
Today, HBS remains an authority on teaching by the case method. The School is also the world’s leading case-writing institution, with HBS faculty members contributing hundreds of new cases to the management curriculum a year via the School’s unique case development and writing process.
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Harvard Business School seeks candidates in all fields for full time positions. Candidates with outstanding records in PhD or DBA programs are encouraged to apply.
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