Prof Diane Reyniers NAB5.22

This course is available on the Diploma in Accounting and Finance, MSc in International Management, MSc in Management Science (Decision Sciences) and MSc in Management and Strategy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Students must have prior knowledge of microeconomics and econometrics.

Intermediate microeconomics and econometrics (equivalent to LSE UG courses MG207 and MG205).

This course addresses various topics in management research which will be used to encourage creative and logical thinking, structuring of clear arguments and critical assessment of evidence. The focus is on interpretation of findings rather than statistical or econometric techniques.

The intellectual backbone of the course is applied and empirical economics (including behavioural economics) and finance but, wherever appropriate, contributions from the psychology, sociology and management literature will be discussed. We will mainly deal with issues which are amenable to rigorous empirical investigation. The course is designed around a set of empirical research papers. Examples of questions considered are whether family firms are managed differently from non-family firms, whether providing feedback on performance improves productivity, whether pain killers are more effective when they are expensive, whether successful entrepreneurs tend to have been juvenile delinquents, whether men and women have different attitudes towards negotiation.

The main objective of the course is to enable students to comprehend and critically assess the literature on selected management topics, to evaluate statements in terms of evidence and to detect false reasoning or logic.

We investigate aspects of Management and what motivates people in organisations. Topics vary each year (based on student feedback) but examples are Entrepreneurship, Racial discrimination, Negotiation, Experiments on Incentives, Placebo effects of price, Leadership, Cheating.

10 hours of lectures and 9 hours of seminars in the MT. 2 hours of seminars in the LT.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with Departmental policy.

Students will be expected to produce 2 problem sets in the MT.

A course pack containing all materials (lecture slides, articles, seminar sheets) will be available to students taking the course. The following readings are indicative only as topics vary:

Lecture 1: Does Management Matter?

Bloom, Nick and Van Reenen, John (2007) Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(4), 1351-1408.

Lecture 2: Choking

Ariely, D.; U. Gneezy, G. Loewenstein & N. Mazar (2009) Large stakes and big mistakes. Review of Economic Studies, 76 (2), 451- 469.

Lecture 3: Entrepreneurship

Levine, R. & Rubinstein, Y. (2013) Smart and Illicit: Who becomes an entrepreneur and does it pay? CEP Discussion Paper 1237.

Lecture 4: Racial discrimination

Bertrand, M. & S. Mullainathan (2004) Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination. American Economic Review, 94, 4, 991-1013.

Lecture 5: Behavioural economics at work

Blanes I Vidal, J. & M. Nossol (2011) Tournaments without prizes: Evidence from personnel records. Management Science, 57, 10, 1721-36.

Lecture 6: Marketing and placebos

Shiv, B.; Z. Carmon & D. Ariely (2005) Placebo effects of marketing actions: consumers may get what they pay for. Journal of Marketing Research, XLII (November), 383-393.

Lecture 7: Creativity and cheating

Gino, F. & D. Ariely (2012) The dark side of creativity: Original thinkers can be more dishonest. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102 (3), 445-459.

Lecture 8: The dark side of leadership

Nevicka, B.; F.S. Ten Velden, A.H.B. De Hoogh & A.E.M. Van Vianen (2011) Reality at odds with perceptions: Narcissistic leaders and group performance. Psychological Science, 22, 10, 1259-64.

Lecture 9: Corporate culture

Weber, R.A. & C.F. Camerer (2003) Cultural conflict and merger failure: an experimental approach. Management Science, 49, 4, 400-415.

Lecture10: Negotiation

Small, D. A., M. Gelfand, L. Babcock & H. Gettman (2007) Who goes to the bargaining table? The influence of gender and framing on the initiation of negotiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 4, 600-613

Bowles, H.R., L. Babcock &L. Lai (2007) Social incentives for gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations: Sometimes it does hurt to ask. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103, 84-103.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.