Seminars

Donald Light — The Pharmaceutical Industry, Institutional Corruption, and an Epidemic of Harms

The October 3, 2012 Lab seminar was presented by Edmond J. Safra Lab Fellow, Professor Donald W. Light, whose research focuses on how institutional bias has led to an epidemic of harmful side effects in new drugs. In his recent work, Professor Light has been investigating the ways in which Big Pharma corrupts the research and development process, clinical trials, marketing, and prescribing of drugs. In the context of his ongoing investigation of the pharmaceutical industry,...

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William English — The Architecture of Public Trust in Politics, Finance, and Medicine

The September 26, 2012, Lab seminar was led by Edmond J. Safra Lab Fellow Dr. William English. Drawing on his background in political theory, Dr. English began his presentation by examining how politics and economics are interrelated. In light of this analysis he identified ways that institutional complexity and political centralization create opportunities for corruption. Given the stakes involved and the degrees of complexity that increasingly characterize important...

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Sheila Kaplan — The Economy of Influence Shaping the Environment and Public Health: Documenting IC at the EPA

The second Edmond J. Safra Lab seminar met on September 19, 2012, and was led by Lab Fellow and investigative reporter, Sheila Kaplan. Sheila's most recent work centers on institutional corruption at the Environmental Protection Agency, and its effects on public heath and the environment. Citing specific examples in which a lack of public trust in the EPA has led to actual public harm (consumption of fish contaminated with PCBs, continued use of lands polluted by toxic...

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Lawrence Lessig — Setting the Framework for Institutional Corruption

The first Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Lab seminar of the 2012-13 academic year convened on September 13, 2012. Professor Lessig gave a presentation on a chapter from his recent book, which defines institutional corruption as something inherently different from individual corruption, such as bribery. Professor Lessig's definition asserts that institutional corruption occurs when institutions develop improper dependencies, resulting in a loss of necessary...

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Francesca Gino — Bringing Ethics into Focus

The March 23, 2011 seminar was led by Francesca Gino, Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She presented her paper "Bringing Ethics into Focus: How Regulatory Focus and Risk Preferences influence (un)Ethical Behavior," co-authored with Joshua Margolis. Francesca opened the seminar by reviewing some of the models (economic, psychological, social) that attempt to explain why honest people act dishonestly. She then went on to describe the studies from her paper, which demonstrate how regulatory focus can...

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Andy Eggers — Financial Disclosure by Members of Congress (And What We Learn From It)

The March 9, 2011 seminar was led by Andy Eggers, post-doctoral fellow in the Leitner Program in International and Comparative Political Economy at Yale University. Andy presented on financial disclosure by members of Congress, and much of the seminar discussion focused on his paper, which demonstrated the surprisingly mediocre performance of Congressional stock portfolios.

Andy opened by describing some of the historical context for his research. Previous studies had been done that seemed to show that Senators...

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David Korn — Creating the First fCOI Policy for Harvard University

The March 2, 2011 seminar was presented by David Korn, Vice Provost for Research at Harvard University, and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He discussed the Harvard University Conflict of Interest Policy, and participants explored some of the issues that are addressed by the policy, as well as the loopholes that are created by some of the more ambiguous aspects of the policy.

Participants opened the discussion by questioning the types of financial...

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Aaron Swartz — How Congress Works

The February 9, 2011 seminar was presented by Edmond J. Safra Lab Fellow Aaron Swartz. Aaron presented three papers, which he described as "institutional ethnographies". The first paper (and the one which generated the most discussion) provided a detailed account of Congress and the congressional election process as a means of understanding the corruption that flourishes in that institution--specifically the gap between what voters expect from their elected officials,...

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Francesca Gino — Bringing Ethics into Focus

The March 23, 2011 seminar was led by Francesca Gino, Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She presented her paper "Bringing Ethics into Focus: How Regulatory Focus and Risk Preferences influence (un)Ethical Behavior," co-authored with Joshua Margolis. Francesca opened the seminar by reviewing some of the models (economic, psychological, social) that attempt to explain why honest people act dishonestly. She then went on to describe the studies from her paper, which demonstrate how...

Read more about Francesca Gino — Bringing Ethics into Focus

Andy Eggers — Financial Disclosure by Members of Congress (And What We Learn From It)

The March 9, 2011 seminar was led by Andy Eggers, post-doctoral fellow in the Leitner Program in International and Comparative Political Economy at Yale University. Andy presented on financial disclosure by members of Congress, and much of the seminar discussion focused on his paper, which demonstrated the surprisingly mediocre performance of Congressional stock portfolios.

Andy opened by describing some of the historical context for his research. Previous studies had been done that seemed to show that Senators continually made...

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David Korn — Creating the First fCOI Policy for Harvard University

The March 2, 2011 seminar was presented by David Korn, Vice Provost for Research at Harvard University, and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He discussed the Harvard University Conflict of Interest Policy, and participants explored some of the issues that are addressed by the policy, as well as the loopholes that are created by some of the more ambiguous aspects of the policy.

Participants opened the discussion by questioning the types of financial...

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Jerry Avorn — Institutional Conflicts of Interest in Medical Care, Education, and Research

The February 23, 2011 seminar was presented by Jerry Avorn, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Professor Avorn presented on conflicts of interest in medical care, education, and research. He opened the seminar by discussing how marketing and detailing by pharmaceutical companies adversely affects our healthcare system. He talked about the transmission of medical...

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Dan Kahan and Michael Jones — Cultural Cognition and Public Campaign Financing

The February 16, 2011 Lab Seminar was presented by Dan Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Yale Law School, and Michael Jones, Edmond J. Safra Lab Fellow. They presented their research on cultural cognition and campaign finance, which is being conducted in conjunction with the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School.

The presenters began by describing...

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Mapping Seminar

The first Lab seminar of the second semester met on February 2, 2011. Instead of a formal presentation, participants reviewed material from the previous semester which they attempted to synthesize into a coherent conception of institutional corruption. Seminar participants debated various ways of framing the concept of institutional corruption, with particular emphasis given to the nature of the term "institution". The importance of defining the notion of "harm" and its relevance to the problem of institutional corruption was also discussed. Finally, participants considered methods for...

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Susannah Rose — Patient Advocacy Organizations and Institutional Conflicts of Interest

The December 15, 2010, seminar was presented by Edmond J. Safra Lab Fellow Susannah Rose. Susannah's research focuses on patient advocacy groups and their possible dependencies on pharmaceutical companies and other for-profit entities. Seminar participants discussed the ambiguous nature of these groups, both in terms of the many roles they fill, as well as the difficulty of defining when harm has been committed. Given their ambiguous nature, the difficulty of creating a...

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