Researchers fixed a tax agency's reform announcement backfiring by debiasing first
Researchers fixed a tax agency's reform announcement backfiring by first showing an independent corruption benchmark, then the reform news.
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3,236 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDHorsford added cornstarch to baking powder to stop premature reaction
Eben Horsford added cornstarch to baking powder to absorb moisture, letting acid and base coexist in one can.
Read the caseHead rebuilt skis from aircraft sandwich panels
Howard Head, an aircraft engineer, rebuilt skis using aircraft sandwich construction to make them light and predictable.
Read the caseHu Xueyan funded his silk trade with the county treasury's idle cash
Hu Xueyan lent county treasury's idle silver to farmers, bought silk, sold in Shanghai, repaid before due, funding his trade free.
Read the caseWarring States rulers split a bronze tiger tally to authenticate orders
Warring States rulers split a bronze tiger tally, keeping one half and giving the general the other, so no order was valid until both halves physically joined.
Read the caseHvam invented release bindings after breaking his leg twice
Hjalmar Hvam, after breaking his leg twice on rigid bindings, invented a release binding that lets go before the leg does.
Read the caseIKEA reframes paper catalogue as next iPhone
IKEA doesn't defend its paper catalogue against digital — it launches the paper catalogue as if it were the next iPhone
Read the caseInterface turned ghost nets into carpet yarn
Interface, needing recycled nylon, bought discarded fishing nets from Philippine villages, turning ocean waste into carpet yarn and income for fishers.
Read the caseFour automakers built a shared EV charging network
BMW, Daimler, Ford, Volkswagen formed IONITY, a joint venture for a Europe-wide fast-charging network open to all EVs.
Read the caseIrvin Air Chute turned saves into a club
Irvin Air Chute Company, after a pilot's save, created the Caterpillar Club to publicly register every survivor, turning isolated saves into cumulative proof.
Read the caseGordon Foster gave books a 9-digit code for W.H. Smith's computer
Gordon Foster gave books a 9-digit code so W.H. Smith's computer could track inventory reliably.
Read the caseChen Qiyuan moved his silk factory to Macau to dodge a local ban
When Nanhai banned his silk machines, Chen Qiyuan moved his factory to Macau, then back once pressure faded.
Read the caseJobcentre Plus boosted exits by asking jobseekers to plan ahead
UK Jobcentre Plus replaced backward-looking compliance questions with forward-looking written commitments, boosting benefit exit rates by 15-20%.
Read the caseHaberdasher John Graunt invented demography from plague records
John Graunt, a haberdasher, read 70 years of plague records as a dataset and invented demography by estimating age-specific survival from burial causes.
Read the caseByzantium smuggled silkworm eggs to bypass Persian silk tolls
Byzantium, unable to negotiate cheaper silk with Persia, smuggled silkworm eggs out of China to start its own industry.
Read the caseKaiser Permanente fixed nurse-doctor handoffs with SBAR script
Kaiser Permanente gave nurses a fixed four-part SBAR script for escalating concerns to doctors, borrowed from aviation.
Read the caseConservation Through Public Health treated villagers and gorillas as one health system
When gorillas caught scabies from villagers, Kalema-Zikusoka founded CTPH to treat both as one health system, growing gorillas by 50%.
Read the caseKamal Kar makes villagers watch themselves eat feces
Open defecation isn't a household problem a toilet solves — it's a shared fact about the whole village. The lever was making the village look at it together.
Read the caseKananga tax agency boosted revenue by letting neighborhood chiefs collect
Kananga's tax agency raised property tax revenue 44% by letting neighborhood chiefs, who knew residents' finances, collect instead of state agents.
Read the caseKautilya priced loans by risk tiers in the Arthashastra
Kautilya's Arthashastra set legal interest rates tiered by risk, so sea voyages cost four times local loans.
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