Luigi Zingales: The Banality of Corporate Evil

Title: The Banality of Corporate Evil (joint with Oliver Hart and Emanuele Licari)

Abstract:

We conduct an incentivized survey across three distinct samples to identify the determinants of the value-versus-values trade-off in corporations. We find that investors are 14 pp. less likely than prospective managers (MBA students) to prefer an immoral but profitable action, even when they are fully residual claimants. Monetary incentives induce prospective managers to prefer the immoral action more; this is not true for investors. To disentangle whether these differences are due to selection or treatment, we use admitted MBA students before they begin classes. We find that half of the effect is due to selection and half to treatment. Finally, we show that the possibility of deflecting responsibility increases the probability of choosing the immoral action by 6-11 pp. 

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