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Delivery worker wearing a medical mask and carrying packages.
Feature: The Impact of State Paid Sick Leave Laws on Service Workers

Daniel Schneider finds that state paid sick leave laws increased service workers’ access to paid sick leave and reduced the share of service workers who worked while sick.

A family with a father, mother, and two small children walking on a dirt path.
Feature: Connecting Absolute and Relative Intergenerational Mobility

Deirdre Bloome offers two frameworks for understanding the relationship between types of intergenerational mobility, or whether people are socioeconomically better off than their parents.

Two women in rural India dressed colorfully and carrying baskets on their heads.
Feature: Studying a Government Program to Support Women’s Self-Help Groups

Michael Walton explores the interactions between state and society in rural India within a major community-based development program, finding two major tensions.

A network of computer motherboards and other parts assembled to look like a miniature city.
Feature: The Data-Informed City

Jorrit de Jong presents a comprehensive framework for how cities can use data to address problems more effectively, efficiently, equitably, and with better accountability.

Harvard Kennedy School faculty disseminate their research in working publications and papers that contribute to public knowledge and fuel policy innovation. This list features recent faculty publications, including journal articles, books, edited volumes, research papers, and public testimony.

Faculty Publications

Risk-aversion with both high and low ambiguity: Elevated OCD symptom severity and intolerance of uncertainty are associated with less risk-taking in an OCD patient sub-sample

Jacoby, Ryan J., Dalton L. Klare, Caroline H. Armstrong, Susanne S. Hoeppner, Jennifer Lerner, and Sabine Wilhelm. "Risk-aversion with both high and low ambiguity: Elevated OCD symptom severity and intolerance of uncertainty are associated with less risk-taking in an OCD patient sub-sample." Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders 46 (July 2025): 100955.

The role of positive emotion in harmful health behavior: Implications for theory and public health campaigns

Wang, Ke, Vaughan W. Rees, Charles A. Dorison, and Jennifer S. Lerner. "The role of positive emotion in harmful health behavior: Implications for theory and public health campaigns." PNAS 121.28 (July 1, 2024).

Feeling uncertain despite knowing the risk: Patients with OCD (but not controls) experience known and unknown probabilistic decisions as similarly distressing and uncertain

Jacoby, Ryan J., Abigail Szkutak, Jin Shin, Jennifer Lerner, and Sabine Wilhelm. "Feeling uncertain despite knowing the risk: Patients with OCD (but not controls) experience known and unknown probabilistic decisions as similarly distressing and uncertain." Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders 39 (October 2023).

In COVID-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence from 84 Countries

Dorison, Charles A., Jennifer S. Lerner, et al. "In COVID-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence from 84 Countries." Affective Science 3 (September 2022): 577-602.

Staying the course: Decision makers who escalate commitment are trusted and trustworthy

Dorison, Charles A., Christopher K. Umphres, and Jennifer S. Lerner. "Staying the course: Decision makers who escalate commitment are trusted and trustworthy." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 151.4 (April 2022): 960-965.

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic

Wang, Ke, Jennifer Lerner, et al. "A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic." Nature Human Behaviour 5.8 (August 2021): 1089–1110.

Perceiving others’ feelings: The importance of personality and social structure

Sherman, Gary D., Jennifer S. Lerner, Jonathan Renshon, Christine Ma-Kellams, and Samantha Joel. "Perceiving others’ feelings: The importance of personality and social structure." Social Psychological and Personality Science 6.5 (July 2015): 559-569.