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- February 2022
- Article
Borrowing to Save? The Impact of Automatic Enrollment on Debt
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and William L. Skimmyhorn
Does automatic enrollment into a retirement plan increase financial distress due to increased borrowing outside the plan? We study a natural experiment created when the U.S. Army began automatically enrolling newly hired civilian employees into the Thrift Savings Plan....
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- May 2021
- Supplement
Hello Alfred: Come Home Happy — Operating the Business Model Exercise, Instructor Version
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Christopher Payton
On a mission to "automate the on-demand economy," Harvard Business School classmates Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck launched Hello Alfred in 2013 to provide subscribers with an "Alfred" to complete various chores for a monthly fee. In early 2016, the company has built...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Learning with People Like Me: The Role of Age-Similar Peers on Online Business Course Engagement
By: Laura R. Huber, Jacqueline N. Lane and Karim R. Lakhani
Over the past decade, online learning has witnessed tremendous growth in popularity due to its ability to reach diverse participants in a scalable manner. However, one primary area of concern is the low course completion rates in digital platform-based learning,...
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- Article
Returnable Reciprocity: Returnable Gifts Are More Effective than Unreturnable Gifts at Promoting Virtuous Behaviors
By: J.J. Zlatev and Rogers, T.
Increasing virtuous behaviors, such as initiating healthy habits, is an important goal for policymakers and social scientists. To promote compliance with requests to perform virtuous behaviors, we study “returnable reciprocity.” Whereas traditional reciprocity involves...
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Keywords:
Nudges;
Reciprocity;
Want-should Conflicts;
Wellness;
Health;
Behavior;
Change;
Well-being
- September 2020 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
Student Success at Georgia State University (A)
By: Michael W. Toffel, Robin Mendelson and Julia Kelley
Georgia State University had developed a reputation for driving student success by nearly doubling its graduation rate for students of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It did so while growing its student body and the proportion of Black/African...
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Keywords:
Education;
Higher Education;
Learning;
Curriculum and Courses;
Demographics;
Diversity;
Ethnicity;
Income;
Race;
Leadership;
Goals and Objectives;
Measurement and Metrics;
Operations;
Organizations;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Culture;
Outcome or Result;
Performance;
Performance Effectiveness;
Performance Evaluation;
Service Operations;
Performance Improvement;
Planning;
Strategic Planning;
Social Enterprise;
Nonprofit Organizations;
Social Issues;
Wealth and Poverty;
Equality and Inequality;
Technology;
Technology Platform;
Education Industry;
Atlanta
- September 2020 (Revised September 2021)
- Supplement
Student Success at Georgia State University (B)
By: Michael W. Toffel, Robin Mendelson and Julia Kelley
This is a supplement to the Student Success at Georgia State University (A) case. The (B) case includes the results of a randomized control trial that Georgia State conducted to test education technology start-up AdmitHub’s chatbot solution as a strategy for improving...
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Keywords:
Education;
Higher Education;
Learning;
Curriculum and Courses;
Demographics;
Diversity;
Ethnicity;
Income;
Race;
Values and Beliefs;
Leadership;
Goals and Objectives;
Measurement and Metrics;
Operations;
Organizations;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Culture;
Outcome or Result;
Performance;
Performance Effectiveness;
Performance Evaluation;
Performance Improvement;
Planning;
Strategic Planning;
Social Enterprise;
Nonprofit Organizations;
Social Issues;
Wealth and Poverty;
Equality and Inequality;
Technology;
Technology Platform;
Education Industry;
Atlanta
- September 2, 2020
- Article
How to Pay for Public Option Without Tax Hike
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Richard Boxer
A bipartisan combination of the two parties’ most popular initiatives can expand health care coverage, significantly reduce costs, and enable freedom of choice, without raising taxes. Along the way, we can revitalize competition between public and private plans. Our...
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- June 30, 2020
- Article
Bipartisan Tax-Free Solution to Health Care Financing: Coupling HRAs With a Public Option
By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Richard Boxer and James Wallace
A combination of health insurance initiatives by the presumptive 2020 Democratic and Republican presidential nominees could expand health care coverage and significantly reduce costs, without raising taxes. Along the way, the combination could revitalize private...
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- 2020
- Chapter
Building Emergency Savings Through Employer-Sponsored Rainy-Day Savings Accounts
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, J. Mark Iwry, David C. John, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Roughly half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. When financial shocks occur during their working life, many of these households tap into their retirement savings accounts. We explore the practical considerations and challenges associated with helping households...
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- April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
Western Governors University: 10x Vision
By: William R. Kerr and Susie L. Ma
Western Governors University (WGU) was a nonprofit institution of higher education whose online learning model served more than 100,000 students in 2019 and was scaling rapidly. President Scott Pulsipher wanted to expand WGU’s reach to millions more with a plan called...
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- 2019
- Working Paper
Biometric Tracking, Healthcare Provision, and Data Quality: Experimental Evidence from Tuberculosis Control
By: Thomas Bossuroy, Clara Delavallade and Vincent Pons
Developing countries increasingly use biometric identification technology in hopes of improving the reliability of administrative information and delivering social services more efficiently. This paper exploits the random placement of biometric tracking devices in...
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- February 2019
- Article
Does It Matter If Your Health Insurer Is For Profit? Effects of Ownership on Premiums, Insurance Coverage, and Medical Spending
By: Leemore S. Dafny
There is limited empirical evidence about the impact of for-profit health insurers on various outcomes. I study the effects of conversions to for-profit status by Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) affiliates in 11 states, spanning 28 geographic markets. I find both the...
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- August 2018
- Case
Garanti Payment Systems: Digital Transformation Strategy (A)
By: Shelle M. Santana and Esel Çekin
Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, executive vice president of marketing at Garanti Payment Systems (GPS), a subsidiary of Garanti Bank, is grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage the bank’s already...
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Keywords:
Loyalty Program;
Campaign Management;
Campaign Enrollment;
Branding;
Customer Acquisition;
Regulations;
Regulatory Changes;
Bank;
Retail Banks;
Banking;
Credit Card;
Payment Systems;
Installment;
Mobile App;
Call Center;
Data Analytics;
Digital Transformation;
Digital Technology;
Banks and Banking;
Business Subsidiaries;
Mobile Technology;
Credit Cards;
Brands and Branding;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Financial Services Industry
- August 2018
- Supplement
Garanti Payment Systems: Digital Transformation Strategy (B)
By: Shelle M. Santana and Esel Çekin
Supplements the (A) case. Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, executive vice president of marketing at Garanti Payment Systems (GPS), a subsidiary of Garanti Bank, is grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage...
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Keywords:
Loyalty Programs;
Campaign Management;
Campaign Enrollment;
Branding;
Customer Acquisition;
Regulations;
Regulatory Changes;
Bank;
Retail Bank;
Banking;
Payment Systems;
Installment;
Mobile App;
Call Center;
Data Analytics;
Digital Transformation;
Digital;
Technology;
Banks and Banking;
Business Subsidiaries;
Mobile Technology;
Credit Cards;
Brands and Branding;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Decision Choices and Conditions
- July 2018 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
The Robin Hood Army
By: Susanna Gallani
In 2014, Neel Ghose and a handful of friends spent one evening distributing excess food they had collected from local restaurants to the less fortunate people living under the Hauz Khas flyover in South Delhi. Four years later, this initiative had developed into The...
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- 2018
- Working Paper
Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the Progresa Experiment
By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham, Theresa Molina and Jorge Tamayo
Can investing in children who faced adverse events in early childhood help them catch up? We answer this question using two orthogonal sources of variation – resource availability at birth (local rainfall) and cash incentives for school enrollment – to identify the...
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- January 2018
- Article
The Effect of Cost Sharing on an Employee Weight Loss Program: A Randomized Trial
By: Leslie K. John, Andrea Troxel, William Yancy, Joelle Y. Friedman, Jingsan Zhu, Lin Yang, Robert Galvin, Karen Miller-Kovach, Scott Halpern, George Loewenstein and Kevin Volpp
Purpose: We tested the effects of employer subsidies on employee enrollment, attendance, and weight loss in a nationally-available weight management program.
Design: A randomized trial tested the impact of employer subsidy: 100%; 80% 50% and a hybrid 50% subsidy... View Details
Design: A randomized trial tested the impact of employer subsidy: 100%; 80% 50% and a hybrid 50% subsidy... View Details
- December 2017
- Case
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
By: Jose B. Alvarez and Sarah Mehta
It is July 2017, and Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, the director general of the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), is making progress toward two of his primary strategic objectives for the nonprofit research Institute: 1) to scale the impact...
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- August 2017
- Case
CareMore Health System
By: Robert S. Huckman and Brian W. Powers
CareMore Health System—a physician-founded care delivery system and health plan—had developed and refined an innovative care model for at-risk seniors enrolled in Medicare managed care (i.e., Medicare Advantage) plans. CareMore's President, Sachin Jain, and his...
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- August 2017
- Article
Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?
By: Shlomo Benartzi, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, Maya Shankar, Will Tucker-Ray, William J. Congdon and Steven Galing
Governments are increasingly adopting behavioral science techniques for changing individual behavior in pursuit of policy objectives. The types of “nudge” interventions that governments are now adopting alter people’s decisions without coercion or significant changes...
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Keywords:
Nudge;
Nudge Unit;
Choice Architecture;
Behavioral Science;
Behavioral Economics;
Savings;
Pension Plan;
Education;
College Enrollment;
Energy;
Electricity Usage;
Preventive Health;
Influenza Vaccination;
Flu Shot;
Open Materials;
Behavior;
Governance;
Economics;
Policy;
Power and Influence