Nick Bloom, Benn Eifert, Aprajit Mahajan, David McKenzie and John Roberts, 2013

Published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics

A joint Stanford University and World Bank team is running a management field experiment in India. The project is working with 28 plants in large multi-plant firms to provide randomized free management consultancy to a treatment group alongside a control group. We are monitoring both groups and evaluating the impact of improved management on firm performance. The management treatment is being carried out by Accenture, a leading international consulting firm. The research is investigating the causal impact of the adoption of modern quality, inventory and efficiency management practices.

Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts and Zhichun Jenny Ying, 2015

Published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics

This paper reports the results of a “working from home” experiment in a 13,000 employee NASDAQ listed Chinese multinational. Home-working led to a 13% performance increase, of which about 9.5% is from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick-days) and 3.5% from more calls per minute (quieter working environment). Home workers also reported improved work satisfaction and their job attrition rate fell by 50%.

Click on the button below to download a PowerPoint presentation with factory photos from China and India.