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Articles by Ray Fisman
State Corruption Influences Government Transparency During Elections
In new research, Raymond Fisman, Aron Malatinszky, and Eyüb Yegen find that states with higher levels of corruption are more likely to delay or reject requests for government data required by freedom of information laws in the leadup to elections. Transparency, it has long been argued, is a basic principle upon which government accountability rests. It can limit rent-seeking, improve bureaucratic performance, and bolster the legitimacy of government.
The Patient: A DS Cross Thriller
Sullivan’s third police procedural featuring neurodivergent detective sergeant George Cross (after The Cyclist) is another winner. After noticing the same woman sitting in the reception area of Bristol’s Major Crime Unit for three consecutive days, Cross introduces himself. The woman says that she’s been written off by the authorities for claiming that her daughter, a recovering heroin addict named Flick Wilson, was murdered via an intentional overdose, despite a lack of concrete evidence.
The Cyclist by Tim Sullivan
Sullivan’s shrewd second procedural featuring neurodivergent detective sergeant George Cross (after The Dentist) opens with Cross being called to the site of a Somerset demolition crew’s grisly discovery.
The Institutions Protecting US Democracy Have Turned Into Traps
Americans take pride in their democratic past, but not their democratic present: A 2024 Pew survey found that 72% of US respondents felt their country was once a good model for the world to follow, but only 19% believe it still is.
Once an Economy Switches from Rules to Deals, It’s Hard to Go Back
In 1976, Mao Zedong succumbed to Parkinson’s disease and passed the torch to Deng Xiaoping. After the Mao-led disasters of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Deng took China in a very different direction.
Why running the government like a business would be a disaster
A lot of what the government does is hard to quantify and involves complicated tasks that inevitably require bureaucratic coordination and, yes, inefficiency Published Mon, Dec 9, 2024 · 09:00 PM THE fact that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped two businessmen – Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy – to lead an advisory commission focused on streamlining government operations suggests that these efficiencies will come from making the government run more like a business.
Why running the government like a business would be a disaster
The fact that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped two businessmen - Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy - to lead an advisory commission focused on streamlining government operations suggests that these efficiencies will come from making the government run more like a business.
If DOGE Treats Government Like a Business, It Could Be a Disaster
The fact that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped two businessmen - Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy - to lead an advisory commission focused on streamlining government operations suggests that these efficiencies will come from making the government run more like a business.
Risky Business: Why Insurance Markets Fail and What to Do About It
Review by Jim Lynch Risky Business: Why Insurance Markets Fail and What to Do About It By Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein, and Ray Fisman Decades ago, I reviewed the loss reserves of a tiny nonstandard auto[1] program that was losing lots of money. Management knew why: The rating plan inadvertently charged young male drivers much less than competitors did. The young men (or their agents) seized upon the glitch.
A closer look at insurance markets Original
Illustration by erhui1979 Risky Business: Why Insurance Markets Fail and What to Do About It by Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein, and Ray Fisman, Yale University Press, 2023 What’s going on with insurance markets? Why are policies so expensive and riddled with exemptions? Why do insurance companies have a bad rap when it comes to making claims?
The Statistics That Come Out of Nowhere
The annual cost of global corruption probably isn’t $2.6 trillion. Bareheaded people likely won’t lose 80 percent of their body heat. By Ray Fisman, Andrew Gelman, and Matthew C.
The Statistics That Come Out of Nowhere
This winter, the university where one of us works sent out an email urging employees to wear a hat on particularly cold days because “most body heat is lost through the top of the head.” Many people we know have childhood memories of a specific figure—perhaps 50 percent or, by some accounts, 80 percent of the heat you lose is through your head. But neither figure is scientific: One is flawed, and the other is patently wrong.
Investing in Influence: Investors, Portfolio Firms, and Political Giving
A new paper examines the relationship between the rising concentration in institutional investors’ ownership of publicly traded U.S. firms and portfolio companies’ political giving. Ray Fisman discusses the findings and implications of this research by Marianne Bertrand, Matilde Bombardini, Fisman, Francesco Trebbi, and Eyub Yegen. This article was first published by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
How Higher Wages Can Increase Profits
Pay cuts and salary freezes have become an unfortunate hallmark of the Covid-19 recession. Over seven million employees have seen their wages drop since March, and a great many others have had their pay frozen. But a handful of companies have bucked this trend and increased pay despite the economic crisis. In November, yogurt maker Chobani announced that it was raising its workers’ lowest hourly wage from $13 to $15; the floor was set at $18 in high-cost centers like New York.
Digital Cameras and Cell Phones Reduce Corruption in Afghan Elections
The Dismal Science How digital cameras and smartphones might reduce corruption in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Will digital photo monitoring fix electoral corruption in developing countries? Photograph by Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images. With the deadline approaching for troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. is facing the unhappy prospect of handing off military and political control of both countries to thoroughly corrupt regimes.
Lessons from India in gender politics.
The Dismal Science … to fail to thank its female leader, no matter how good she is. Hillary Clinton The possibility that America will elect its first woman president next November has triggered the inevitable onslaught of one-liners, and also a more serious discussion about how America might change with a woman in the Oval Office. As luck would have it, there’s new data out there about the shifts that take place when women run the world. Or at least a bunch of Indian villages.
The financial rewards reaped by Methodist preachers who grow their flocks.
The Dismal Science Are preachers motivated by the desire to save souls or to make cold, hard cash? Chris Parsons is the son of a Baptist preacher. He remembers his mom hawking audiocassettes of his father’s sermons in the church lobby after services—the Baptist church encouraged this spirit of enterprise among those tending its flocks.
How a Network of Food Banks Learned to Feed More People by Embracing the Free Market
How a network of food banks learned to feed more people by embracing the free market. By Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan June 07, 20169:00 AM Chef Max Hardy grills at a Food Bank for New York City event on June 29, 2015, in NYC. Food Bank for New York City is one of hundreds of food banks that Feeding America serves.
Did Free Pens Cause the Opioid Crisis?
Michael Luca & Ray Fisman, The Atlantic December 31, 2018 AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File Early in Dopesick, a book examining how Purdue Pharma helped addict an alarming number of Americans to opioids, Beth Macy writes about the army of drug reps who pushed the painkiller OxyContin. In its approach to sales, Macy shows, Purdue was scientific. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments
Did Free Pens Cause the Opioid Crisis?
Chiara Zarmati Early in Dopesick, a book examining how Purdue Pharma helped addict an alarming number of Americans to opioids, Beth Macy writes about the army of drug reps who pushed the painkiller OxyContin. In its approach to sales, Macy shows, Purdue was scientific. Using information purchased from a data-mining firm, the company determined which physicians were prescribing the most of its competitors’ painkillers, and dispatched sales reps to their practices.
Why Do Drug Reps Give Doctors Free Pens? Because What They Get in Return Is Far More Valuable.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Thinkstock. It’s natural for the recipient of a gift to feel a sense of gratitude toward the giver and, very likely, a desire to return the favor. That a gift engenders a sense of obligation hasn’t been lost on the corporate sales forces of the world who shower prospective customers with promotional pens and tote bags and display an excessive enthusiasm for picking up the tabs at lunch or dinner.
How Amazon’s Higher Wages Could Increase Productivity
Amazon recently made headlines by announcing that it would voluntarily increase its minimum hourly wage to $15. With a federal minimum wage of only $7.25, this pledge might seem like a curious decision — especially for a company as laser-focused on cost containment as Amazon. But thinking only about the costs involved in raising wages misses a key issue: pay hikes can also boost workplace productivity.
The Model Company
What works—and what doesn’t—when companies try to do good Can companies really be “socially responsible”—and should they try? This debate is newly urgent as consumers, employees, and investors push companies to take a stand on everything from climate change to inequality.
Risky Business
Description Praise Why is dental insurance so crummy? Why is pet insurance so expensive? Why does your auto insurer ask for your credit score? The answer to these questions lies in understanding how insurance works. Unlike the market for other goods and services—for instance, a grocer who doesn’t care who buys the store’s broccoli or carrots—insurance providers are more careful in choosing their customers, because some are more expensive than others.
When Taxpayers Subsidize Corporate Lobbying: How Firms Use Charitable Giving to Influence Politics
A new Stigler Center working paper examines a more roundabout way that companies can influence legislators: by donating money to charities in lawmakers’ districts.
Corruption: are you an expert? [quiz] | OUPblog
Tom Nichols is Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, an adjunct professor at the Harvard Extension School, and a former aide in the U.S. Senate. He is also the author of several works on foreign policy and international security affairs, including The Sacred Cause, No Use: Nuclear Weapons and U.S. National Security, Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War, and The Russian Presidency.
Business as usual in Washington? | OUPblog
For decades, a majority of Americans have held the view that their representatives in government are corrupt. It is tempting, therefore, to view the current administration through the lens of “politics-as-usual,” just another instance of granting special interests access to the halls of government via lobbying or lavish campaign donations. However, the Trump Presidency is accused of mixing public and private interests in ways that stand apart from those used by previous US administrations.
Did eBay just prove they don’t work?
Before you read the rest of this article, go to Google and try searching for “Amazon.” You’ll probably notice that the top two listings are both for Amazon’s website, with the first appearing on a light beige background. If you click on the first—a paid search ad—Amazon will pay Google for attracting your business. If you click on the second, Amazon gets your business but Google gets nothing. Try “Macys,” “Walgreens,” and “Sports Authority”—you’ll see the same thing.
Free gifts to doctors translate into billions of extra revenue for drug-makers.
It’s natural for the recipient of a gift to feel a sense of gratitude toward the giver and, very likely, a desire to return the favor. That a gift engenders a sense of obligation hasn’t been lost on the corporate sales forces of the world who shower prospective customers with promotional pens and tote bags and display an excessive enthusiasm for picking up the tabs at lunch or dinner. How much goodwill—and profits—do those pens and sandwiches actually buy?
Baltimore police excerpt from The Org by Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan.
Still, Frazier’s replacement, Ronald L. Daniel—who would be stuck with any fallout from Moskos’ work—didn’t have quite so laissez-faire an attitude.
Can citizens be trusted with bad TV and the vote?
The scourge of fake news was a novel concern during the 2016 campaign, but the fear that a poorly informed electorate will make ill-advised choices at the voting booth is hardly new. The Founding Fathers worried about what might befall a republic of ignorant citizens.
Betsy DeVos thinks education needs to be more like business. Wrong.
During her questioning of Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s just-confirmed pick for secretary of education, Washington Sen.
A Super Bowl Ad Is the Equivalent of Lighting Money on Fire (Which Can Be More Strategic Than It Sounds)
Everyone knows that whispering “I love you” to someone you just met over some bangin’ beats in the club at 3 AM stands no chance of success. Similarly, suspect claims of honesty or authenticity in business will likely be heavily discounted as cheap talk by a skeptical counterpart. So why make these overtures? Because while the upside is limited, the cost isn’t just cheap, it’s nil; give it a try and hope there’s someone out there who’ll believe you.
How much will Trump profit from the presidency?
Given the similarities to Donald Trump, it’s no surprise that political observers have turned to Silvio Berlusconi for some hint of what is to come for the United States. And because the Berlusconi chapter in Italian history is now in the rearview mirror, Italian researchers are well into the postmortem of his reign. It isn’t pretty.
Fixing discrimination in online marketplaces - BusinessDay : News you can trust
In the late 1980s, law professors Ian Ayres and Peter Siegelman set out to learn whether blacks and women got the same deals as white men when buying a new car.
Don't let Uber and Amazon take over the world: column
Ray Fisman is the Slater family professor in behavioral economics, Boston University, and Tim Sullivan is the editorial director for Harvard Business Review Press. BOSTON — During a recent ride with ride-hailing service Lyft in Boston, one of us struck up a conversation with the driver, Victor, about how he liked his job. His enthusiasm seemed genuine.
Men still aren’t comfortable with ambitious women.
In an early episode of Sex and the City, the Harvard-educated lawyer Miranda Hobbes tries her hand at speed dating in a last-ditch effort to find a date for a friend’s wedding. She quickly finds her career successes are an instant turnoff. Switching tactics, she tells her next partner that she’s a stewardess. Her luck changes instantly. That was back in 2000, already well past the heyday of the stay-at-home housewife.
How to invest your savings in the Trump economy.
It was widely reported on election night: As the vote tallies tilted in Donald Trump’s favor, a flood of web traffic crashed Canada’s immigration and customs website, while searches for one-way tickets to the Great White North more than doubled. At this point, most of us have decided to stick it out for next four years (or have decided to stay and fight). But even if you’re staying here physically, you might still send your savings to a safer haven.
Five Books: Diane Coyle recommends the Best Economics Books of 2016
Diane Coyle is a professor of economics at the University of Manchester and a fellow of the Office for National Statistics. She also runs Enlightenment Economics , a consultancy specialising in the economic and social effects of new technologies. She was awarded the OBE in 2009. Diane Coyle is a professor of economics at the University of Manchester and a fellow of the Office for National Statistics.
How badly can the Trump Administration corrupt the United States?
In a classic 1974 essay, Stanford economist Anne Krueger coined the term rent-seeking society to describe economies where profits are earned by securing favorable regulations or contracts from government (i.e., rents) rather than creating goods or services that boost economic productivity and improve the happiness and well-being of citizens.
Fixing Discrimination in Online Marketplaces
Seemingly small design features can have an outsize impact on discriminatory behavior. Smart choices and transparent experimentation can create markets that are both more efficient and more inclusive. The key lies in more-intentional platform design, say the authors, who offer a framework for creating a thriving marketplace while minimizing the risk of discrimination.
Donald Trump’s dangerous approach to taxes.
A number of years ago, one of us led a study trip of MBA students to Buenos Aires, Argentina. A U.S.-educated investment banker came to speak to the class about differences between the American and Argentine business environments. As a summary statement of what was wrong with his country, he explained that, “It’s not just that people cheat on their taxes here.
Column: Donald Trump's dangerous approach to taxes
A number of years ago, one of us led a study trip of MBA students to Buenos Aires. A U.S.-educated investment banker came to speak to the class about differences between the American and Argentine business environments. As a summary statement of what was wrong with his country, he explained that, "It's not just that people cheat on their taxes here.
Airbnb needs to do a lot more to fight discrimination.
Not that long ago, online commerce promised not only to make markets more efficient but also more inclusive and less prone to discrimination. The rationale was simple: On the internet, no one knows whether you’re black or white, male or female, making it more difficult for discrimination to occur.
The Internet of “Stuff Your Mom Won’t Do for You Anymore”
Every startup in Silicon Valley wants to be the next Facebook, with its one billion users, or LinkedIn, which just sold to Microsoft for $26 billion. And why not? Their business model is a beautiful thing: platforms (also known as two- or multi-sided markets) are asset-light and make money by sitting between different parties, controlling the market and taking a piece of every transaction.
How to make America more innovative: give scientists more incentives to innovate.
Is America no longer the land of innovation? Everyone from tech billionaires to Times columnists is sounding the alarm, and everyone has his own diagnosis of the problem: innovators kept out of the country by H1-B visa quotas and bureaucracy. Poor science education in public schools. Even U.S.-style health care has been implicated.
Are nurse strikes worse for patients than doctor strikes?
Last weekend, Brigham and Women’s Hospital narrowly averted a strike that would have left one of America’s premier medical facilities without the nursing staff to support patients ranging from newborns in need of intensive care to elderly patients in need of heart surgery. But even in the days leading up to the strike, the hospital was canceling, rescheduling, and redirecting patients in anticipation of reduced capacity. The process was fast and ugly.
Pathbreaking Study Shows Researchers Don’t Publish Enough Pathbreaking Studies
We offer this glowing description with the benefit of hindsight. In the decades since Akerlof’s paper “The Market for ‘Lemons’ ” was published, it’s become one of the most frequently cited papers in the social sciences. But in the 1960s, Akerlof was just another young assistant professor trying to get his rather unorthodox paper on the economics of the used car market published in an academic journal.
Fox News Exerts More Power Over the Electorate Than You Might Think
For years now, Fox News has been the most-watched cable news channel in America. While it lays claim to neutral reporting, its coverage has typically been more sympathetic toward Republican candidates in general elections. But the 2016 presidential race hasn’t exactly been typical. The Republican Party is set to nominate a figure in Donald Trump who has divided his own party and been at odds with Fox News, too, since squaring off with anchor Megyn Kelly at a debate last August.
The Economics of Neck Tattoos
When a 15-year-old Robert Torres came home in 1977 with the letters “SF” tattooed on his left hand, his horror-struck mother asked him why he’d gone and “marked [himself] for life.” The initials served to permanently identify him with the San Fers, one of the gangs fighting increasingly violent turf wars in the San Fernando Valley in the late 1970s. Twenty years later, Torres was just coming off a yearlong stint in jail for violating his probation on previous drug and burglary convictions.
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