This collection explores the subject of conflicts of interest. It investigates how to manage conflicts of interest, how they can affect well-meaning professionals, and how they can limit the effectiveness of corporate boards, undermine professional ethics, and corrupt expert opinion. Legal and policy responses are considered, some of which (e.g. disclosure) are shown to backfire and even fail. The results offer a sobering prognosis for professional ethics and for anyone who relies on professionals who have conflicts of interest. The contributors are leading authorities on the subject in the fields of law, medicine, management, public policy, and psychology. The nuances of the problems posed by conflicts of interest will be highlighted for readers in an effort to demonstrate the many ways that structuring incentives can affect decision making and organizations' financial well-being.

"This books is a genuine public service, above all because it shows how human psychology can make conflicts of interest quite intractable. Often, for example, people believe that it is enough for those with a conflict simply to disclose it. Unfortunately, disclosure often does little or no good. Filled with insights and highly relevant to public policy, this outstanding book is must reading for anyone interested in the role of conflicts of interest in both private and public sectors." Cass Sunstein, University of Chicago

"This skillfully edited volume takes social-science analysis of conflicts of interest well beyond the traditional confines of principal-agent theory. Readers are guaranteed to come away with a sharper appreciation for why, so often, what one observer decries as a shameful conflict of interest, another observer applauds as blissful symbiosis." Philip E. Tetlock, University of California, Berkeley