Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2016
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Who Pays for White-Collar Crime?

By: Paul Healy and George Serafeim
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:50
ShareBar

Abstract

Using a proprietary dataset of 667 companies around the world that experienced white-collar crime, we investigate what drives punishment of perpetrators of crime. We find a significantly lower propensity to punish crime in our sample, where most crimes are not reported to the regulator, relative to samples in studies investigating punishment of perpetrators in cases investigated by U.S. regulatory authorities. Punishment severity is significantly lower for senior executives, for perpetrators of crimes that do not directly steal from the company, and at smaller companies. While economic reasons could explain these associations, we show that gender and frequency of crimes moderate the relation between punishment severity and seniority. Male senior executives and senior executives in organizations with widespread crime are treated more leniently compared to senior female perpetrators or compared to senior perpetrators in organizations with isolated cases of crime. These results suggest that agency problems could partly explain punishment severity.

Keywords

Crime; Gender Bias; Women; Women Executives; Corruption; Legal Aspects Of Business; Firing; Human Capital; Human Resource Management; Prejudice and Bias; Crime and Corruption; Judgments; Law Enforcement; Human Resources; Corporate Governance; Gender

Citation

Healy, Paul, and George Serafeim. "Who Pays for White-Collar Crime?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-148, June 2016.
  • SSRN
  • Read Now

About The Authors

Paul M. Healy

Accounting and Management
→More Publications

George Serafeim

Accounting and Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • March 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Northvolt: Building Batteries to Fight Climate Change

    By: Debora L. Spar, Georgios Serafeim and Julia Comeau
    • January 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Elon Musk at Tesla

    By: George Serafeim and Amram Migdal
    • January 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Organizational Climate Transition Risk Model

    By: George Serafeim and Benjamin Maletta
More from the Authors
  • Northvolt: Building Batteries to Fight Climate Change By: Debora L. Spar, Georgios Serafeim and Julia Comeau
  • Elon Musk at Tesla By: George Serafeim and Amram Migdal
  • Organizational Climate Transition Risk Model By: George Serafeim and Benjamin Maletta
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College