Frank Conway, host of Economic Rockstar, interviews Christine Exley about why she co-founded Wagaroo to help save dogs, how a trip to Honduras changed Christine’s academic path from mathematics to economics, and her work on what factors influence volunteer and charitable giving decisions
Should women negotiate more? The authors of a recent study discuss how their results lend support to women being good judges of whether and when they should lean-in.
Requests for self-assessments of one's performance are pervasive throughout one's career. Why do women engage in less self-promotion than men when asked to describe their performance? The authors of a recent study show that it is not as simple as gender differences in confidence.
Christine Exley is an Marvin Bower Associate Professor of business administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit. She teaches the Negotiation course in the MBA elective curriculum. Prior to joining HBS, Professor Exley earned her PhD in economics at Stanford University.
Professor Exley’s primary research interests are driven by a desire to better understand inequality and how to counter inequality. Her first research strand investigates how to direct help to those in need via the encouragement of charitable giving and volunteering. Her second research strand examines how to counter gender gaps in economic outcomes. As a behavioral and experimental economist, her research frequently involves laboratory, online and field experiments.
She also serves as a board member or advisor of various non-profit organizations and seeks to use applied economics to improve the effectiveness of the nonprofit organizations.
- Featured Work
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Frank Conway, host of Economic Rockstar, interviews Christine Exley about why she co-founded Wagaroo to help save dogs, how a trip to Honduras changed Christine’s academic path from mathematics to economics, and her work on what factors influence volunteer and charitable giving decisions
Should women negotiate more? The authors of a recent study discuss how their results lend support to women being good judges of whether and when they should lean-in.
Requests for self-assessments of one's performance are pervasive throughout one's career. Why do women engage in less self-promotion than men when asked to describe their performance? The authors of a recent study show that it is not as simple as gender differences in confidence.
- Journal Articles
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- Exley, Christine L., Nils H. Lehr, and Stephen J. Terry. "Nonprofits in Good Times and Bad Times." Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics 1, no. 1 (February 2023): 42–79. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., and Judd B. Kessler. "The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion." Quarterly Journal of Economics 137, no. 3 (August 2022): 1345–1381. View Details
- Coffman, Katherine B., Christine L. Exley, and Muriel Niederle. "The Role of Beliefs in Driving Gender Discrimination." Management Science 67, no. 6 (June 2021). View Details
- Exley, Christine L. "Using Charity Performance Metrics as an Excuse Not to Give." Management Science 66, no. 2 (February 2020): 553–563. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., Muriel Niederle, and Lise Vesterlund. "Knowing When to Ask: The Cost of Leaning-in." Journal of Political Economy 128, no. 3 (March 2020): 816–854. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., and Stephen J. Terry. "Wage Elasticities in Working and Volunteering: The Role of Reference Points in a Laboratory Study." Management Science 65, no. 1 (January 2019): 413–425. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., and Ragan Petrie. "The Impact of a Surprise Donation Ask." Journal of Public Economics 158 (February 2018): 152–167. View Details
- Exley, Christine L. "Incentives for Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Reputations." Management Science 64, no. 5 (May 2018): 2460–2471. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., and Jeffrey K. Naecker. "Observability Increases the Demand for Commitment Devices." Management Science 63, no. 10 (October 2017): 3262–3267. View Details
- Exley, Christine L. "Excusing Selfishness in Charitable Giving: The Role of Risk." Review of Economic Studies 83, no. 2 (April 2016): 587–628. View Details
- Book Chapters
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- Working Papers
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- Aksoy, Billur, Christine L. Exley, and Judd B. Kessler. "The Gender Minority Gaps in Confidence and Self-Evaluations." Working Paper, October 2022. View Details
- Dykstra, Holly, Christine L. Exley, and Muriel Niederle. "When Do Individuals Give Up Agency? The Role of Decision Avoidance." Working Paper, October 2022. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., John-Henry Pezzuto, and Marta Serra-Garcia. "Beliefs About Giving Across Contexts." Working Paper, September 2022. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., and Kirby Nielsen. "The Gender Gap in Confidence: Expected But Not Accounted For." Working Paper, October 2022. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., Oliver P. Hauser, Molly Moore, and John-Henry Pezzuto. "Beliefs about Gender Differences in Social Preferences." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-079, June 2022. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., and Judd B. Kessler. "Information Avoidance and Image Concerns." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-080, January 2021. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., and Judd B. Kessler. "Equity Concerns Are Narrowly Framed." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-040, November 2018. (Revised August 2021.) View Details
- Exley, Christine L., and Judd B. Kessler. "Motivated Errors." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-017, August 2019. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
- Bernheim, B. Douglas, and Christine L Exley. "Understanding Conformity: An Experimental Investigation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-070, December 2015. View Details
- Cases and Teaching Materials
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- Beshears, John, and Christine Exley. "Negotiating for Equal Pay: The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 922-032, January 2022. View Details
- Exley, Christine, John Beshears, Manuela Collis, and Davis Heniford. "Negotiating for Equal Pay: The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (A)." Harvard Business School Case 920-029, December 2019. (Revised December 2021.) View Details
- Exley, Christine, John Beshears, Manuela Collis, and Davis Heniford. "Negotiating for Equal Pay: The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 920-030, December 2019. (Revised December 2021.) View Details
- Exley, Christine, and Kathleen McGinn. "How to Encourage Others to Give and When to Pass the Torch? Insights from The Philanthropy Connection." Harvard Business School Case 920-018, October 2019. View Details
- Exley, Christine, and Kathleen McGinn. "How to Encourage Others to Give and When to Pass the Torch? Insights from The Philanthropy Connection." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 920-046, January 2020. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., Katherine B. Coffman, and Joshua Schwartzstein. "Legal Time Case – Video Short 2." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 920-704, September 2019. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., Katherine B. Coffman, and Joshua Schwartzstein. "Legal Time Case – Video Short 1." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 920-703, September 2019. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., Katherine B. Coffman, and Joshua Schwartzstein. "Legal Time - Confidential Information for the Prosecution (AUSA Prescott)." Harvard Business School Supplement 920-012, August 2019. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., Katherine B. Coffman, and Joshua Schwartzstein. "Legal Time - Confidential Information for the Defense Attorney (Drew Davis)." Harvard Business School Supplement 920-011, August 2019. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., Katherine B. Coffman, and Joshua Schwartzstein. "Legal Time Case." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 920-013, August 2019. (Revised September 2019.) View Details
- Exley, Christine L., Katherine B. Coffman, and Joshua Schwartzstein. "Legal Time Case." Harvard Business School Case 920-010, August 2019. View Details
- Coffman, Katherine B., and Christine Exley. "BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 920-701, September 2019. View Details
- Coffman, Katherine B., and Christine Exley. "BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 920-004, August 2019. (Revised October 2019.) View Details
- Coffman, Katherine, Christine Exley, and Alpana Thapar. "BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE." Harvard Business School Case 919-004, October 2018. (Revised July 2019.) View Details
- Exley, Christine L., John Beshears, and Alison Wood Brooks. "La Ceiba: Navigating Microfinance and Relationships in Honduras (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 918-016, December 2017. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
- Exley, Christine L., John Beshears, and Alison Wood Brooks. "La Ceiba: Navigating Microfinance and Relationships in Honduras (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 918-015, December 2017. View Details
- Exley, Christine L., John Beshears, and Alison Wood Brooks. "La Ceiba: Navigating Microfinance and Relationships in Honduras (A)." Harvard Business School Case 918-014, December 2017. View Details
- Research Summary
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For the past several decades, income inequality in the United States has steadily increased. The extent of this inequality is exacerbated when making comparisons between the very rich and poor or men and women. Professor Exley’s research is driven by a desire to better understand this inequality and how to counter it.
Her first research strand on prosocial behavior investigates how to direct help to those in need via the encouragement of charitable giving and volunteering. In this work, she shows how to bolster giving by increasing the observability of actions, influencing what is viewed as appropriate, and by shaping the formation of equity preferences. She also shows how individuals are keen to exploit excuses not to be prosocial.
Her second research strand on gender examines how to counter gender gaps in economic outcomes. In doing so, her research specifically highlights faulty assumptions about the drivers of gender gaps. For instance, she finds that leaning-in may backfire as women are frequently adept at knowing when to ask; beliefs about performance can play a role even when gender discrimination appears to be driven by animus or other non-performance considerations; and, that women self-promote less than men but not because of a gender differences in confidence.
- Additional Information
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