MG4G4      Half Unit
Topics in Management Research

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

This course addresses various interesting topics which will be used to encourage creative and logical thinking, structuring of clear arguments and critical assessment of evidence. The focus is on discussion and 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 pain killers are more effective when they are expensive, whether creative people cheat more, whether optimistic entrepreneurs earn more. 
 
The main objective of the course is to enable students to comprehend and critically assess the management literature, to evaluate statements in terms of evidence and to detect false reasoning or logic. Students will gain confidence in expressing their own ideas. 
 
Topics vary each year (based on student feedback) but examples are the beauty premium, wages in finance, grit, self-stereotyping, assertiveness and leadership. 

10 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

In its Ethics Code, LSE upholds a commitment to intellectual freedom. This means we will protect the freedom of expression of our students and staff and the right to engage in healthy debate in the classroom.

One take-home mock exam in the AT.

• Lecture 1: 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 2: 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 3: The finance wage premium - Bohm, M.J.; D. Metzger & P. Stromberg (2023) “Since you’re so rich, you must be really smart”: Talent, rent sharing, and the finance wage premium. Review of Economic Studies, 90, 2215-2260.
• Lecture 4: Pulchronomics! - Mobius, M. & T. Rosenblat (2006) Why Beauty Matters. The American Economic Review, 96, 1, 222- 235.
• Lecture 5: Self-stereotyping - Coffman, K.B. (2014) Evidence on self-stereotyping and the contribution of ideas. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1625-1660.
• Lecture 6: Grit - Alan, S; T. Boneva & S. Ertac (2019) Ever failed, try again, succeed better: Results from a randomized educational intervention on grit. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134, 3, 1121-1162.
• Lecture 7: Optimism and entrepreneurship - de Meza, D. et al. (2019) Curb your enthusiasm: Optimistic entrepreneurs earn less. European Economic Review, 11, 53-69.
• 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: Assertiveness and leadership - Lu, J.G. ; M.X. Liao & L.D. Zhang (2025) Beaking ceilings: Debate training promotes leadership emergence by increasing assertiveness. Journal of applied Psychology.
• Lecture 10: 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 Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 103, 84-103.

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the January exam period