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Publications
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- April 2025
- Article
Skill Dependencies Uncover Nested Human Capital
By: Moh Hosseinioun, Frank Neffke, Letian Zhang and Hyejin Youn
Modern economies require increasingly diverse and specialized skills, many
of which depend on the acquisition of other skills first. Here we analyse
US survey data to reveal a nested structure within skill portfolios, where
the direction of dependency is inferred... View Details
- January 2025 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
Smart Construction Site at Huatian (A)
By: Letian Zhang and Wenjie Ma
- January 2025
- Teaching Note
Smart Construction Site at Huatian
By: Letian Zhang and Wenjie Ma
Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 425-071 and 425-072. View Details
- December 2024
- Case
Trust and Family at Fuwei (A): A Confucian Approach to Organizational Design
By: Letian Zhang, Wenjie Ma and Jiaqi Jin
- December 2024
- Supplement
Trust and Family at Fuwei (B): Ethan Yang's Perspective
By: Letian Zhang, Wenjie Ma and Jiaqi Jin
- December 2024
- Supplement
Trust and Family at Fuwei (C): Bringing Back Ethan Yang
By: Letian Zhang, Wenjie Ma and Jiaqi Jin
- November–December 2024
- Article
High-Status Teammates: Award Evaluation in the National Basketball Association
By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Letian Zhang
Social evaluations proceed in stages. First, judges filter a broad pool of candidates and pick a subset for detailed assessment. Then, the chosen group undergoes a closer examination, during which winners are selected. At both stages of the process, judges are... View Details
- August 2024
- Teaching Note
Growing Pains at Coohom (A)
By: Letian Zhang and Anthony Mayo
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 422-009. View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
Trusting Talent: Cross-Country Differences in Hiring
By: Letian Zhang and Shinan Wang
This article argues that a society’s social trust influences employers’ hiring strategies. In selecting workers, employers could either focus on applicants’ potential and select on foundational skills (e.g., social skills, math skills) or focus on their readiness and... View Details
- September 2023
- Article
The Changing Role of Managers
By: Letian Zhang
This study argues that the increase in middle management in recent decades was
accompanied by a major shift in managerial roles. Increased task complexity and a
new management philosophy have reduced the need for direct supervision but generated
a much greater... View Details
- August 29, 2023
- Article
The Fragility of Artists’ Reputations from 1795 to 2020
By: Letian Zhang, Mitali Banerjee, Shinan Wang and Zhuoqiao Hong
This study explores the longevity of artistic reputation. We empirically examine whether artists are more- or less-venerated after their death. We construct a massive historical corpus spanning 1795 to 2020 and build separate word-embedding models for each five-year... View Details
- April 2023
- Article
Racial Inequality in Work Environments
By: Letian Zhang
This article explores racial stratification in work environments. Inequality scholars have long identified racial disparities in wage and occupational attainment, but workers’ careers and well-being are also shaped by elements of their work environment, including firm... View Details
- September 2022
- Article
Regulatory Spillover and Workplace Racial Inequality
By: Letian Zhang
This paper suggests that affirmative action bans in the U.S. public sector may influence racial inequality in the private sector. Since the 1990s, nine states have banned affirmative action practice in public universities and state governments. Though these bans have... View Details
- 2022
- Article
Values and Inequality: Prosocial Jobs and the College Wage Premium
By: Nathan Wilmers and Letian Zhang
Employers often recruit workers by invoking corporate social responsibility, organizational purpose, or other claims to a prosocial mission. In an era of substantial labor
market inequality, commentators typically dismiss these claims as hypocritical: prosocial... View Details
- October 2021
- Background Note
A Framework for Understanding Racial Disadvantage within Organizations
- September 2021 (Revised March 2025)
- Case
Growing Pains at Coohom (A)
By: Letian Zhang and Anthony J. Mayo
- September 2021
- Article
Shaking Things Up: Disruptive Events and Inequality
By: Letian Zhang
This paper develops a theory of how disruptive events could reduce racial and gender inequality in organizations. Despite pressure from regulators and advocates, racial and gender inequality in the workplace remains high. I theorize that because such inequality is... View Details
- March–April 2020
- Article
An Institutional Approach to Gender Diversity and Firm Performance
By: Letian Zhang
This study examines data from 35 countries and 24 industries to understand the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance. Previous studies report conflicting evidence: some find that gender-diverse firms experience more positive performance and others... View Details