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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(12,429)
- People (22)
- News (2,068)
- Research (8,505)
- Events (104)
- Multimedia (62)
- Faculty Publications (6,434)
- September 2011
- Article
Political Instability: Effects on Financial Development, Roots in the Severity of Economic Inequality
By: Mark J. Roe and Jordan I. Siegel
We here bring forward strong evidence that political instability impedes financial development, with its variation a primary determinant of differences in financial development around the world. As such, it needs to be added to the short list of major determinants of... View Details
Keywords: Financial Development; Political Instability; Government and Politics; Finance; Growth and Development; Economics; Equality and Inequality
Roe, Mark J., and Jordan I. Siegel. "Political Instability: Effects on Financial Development, Roots in the Severity of Economic Inequality." Journal of Comparative Economics 39, no. 3 (September 2011): 279–309. (We here bring forward strong evidence that political instability impedes financial development, with its variation a primary determinant of differences in financial development around the world. As such, it needs to be added to the short list of major determinants of financial development. First, structural conditions first postulated by
Engerman and Sokoloff (2002) as generating long-term inequality are shown here empirically to be exogenous determinants of political instability. Second, that exogenously-determined political instability in turn holds back financial development, even when we control for factors prominent in the last decade's cross-country studies of
financial development. The findings indicate that inequality-perpetuating conditions that result in political instability are fundamental roadblocks for international organizations like the World Bank that seek to promote financial development. The evidence here includes country fixed effect regressions and an instrumental model inspired by Engerman and Sokoloff's (2002) work, which to our knowledge has not yet been used in finance and which is consistent with current tests as valid instruments. Four conventional measures of national political instability — Alesina and Perotti's (1996) well-known index of instability, a subsequent index derived from Banks' (2005) work,
and two indices of managerial perceptions of nation-by-nation political instability — persistently predict a wide range of national financial development outcomes for recent decades. Political instability's significance is time consistent in cross-sectional regressions back to the 1960's, the period when the key data becomes available, robust
in both country fixed-effects and instrumental variable regressions, and consistent across multiple measures of instability and of financial development. Overall, the results indicate the existence of an important channel running from structural inequality to political instability, principally in nondemocratic settings, and then to financial
backwardness. The robust significance of that channel extends existing work demonstrating the importance of political economy explanations for financial development and financial backwardness. It should help to better understand which policies will work for financial development, because political instability has causes, cures, and effects quite distinct from those of many of the key institutions most studied in the past decade as explaining financial backwardness.)
- 01 Dec 2019
- News
What’s Behind the Explosive Growth of Sustainable Investing?
financial returns and impact in the business model of investee companies. Quite a few of the large, global PE View Details
Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint
- 26 Mar 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact
- 2024
- Working Paper
Private Equity Fund Valuation Management during Fundraising
By: Brian K. Baik
I investigate whether and how private equity fund managers (GPs) inflate their interim fund valuations (net asset values or NAVs) during fundraising periods. Specifically, I study the extent to which the GPs inflate NAVs by managing valuation assumptions (e.g.,... View Details
Keywords: Private Equity; Institutional Investors; Valuation Multiples; Earnings Management; Private Firms; Valuation; Investment Funds
Baik, Brian K. "Private Equity Fund Valuation Management during Fundraising." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-013, August 2022. (Revised May 2024.)
- Research Summary
Dissertation: "Essays in International Non-market Strategy and the Political Economy of Environmental Regulation"
My dissertation is part of a research agenda intended to advance our understanding of the interaction between companies and non-market actors (e.g. regulators) in an international context. The empirical setting of my analysis is the European Union Emissions Trading... View Details
- 06 Jun 2013
- Op-Ed
How to Do Away with the Dangers of Outsourcing
diminishing the quality and even viability of its offerings. Outsourcing Has Its Costs Just ask Boeing. No firm placed a bigger bet on the... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
The Effects of Hierarchy on Learning and Performance in Business Experimentation
By: Sourobh Ghosh, Stefan Thomke and Hazjier Pourkhalkhali
Do senior managers help or hurt business experiments? Despite the widespread adoption of business experiments to guide strategic decision-making, we lack a scholarly understanding of what role senior managers play in firm experimentation. Using proprietary data of live... View Details
Keywords: Experimentation; Innovation; Search; New Product Development; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Design; Learning; Performance
Ghosh, Sourobh, Stefan Thomke, and Hazjier Pourkhalkhali. "The Effects of Hierarchy on Learning and Performance in Business Experimentation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-081, February 2020.
- Web
The Coming of Managerial Capitalism - Course Catalog
course covers the founding of the new nation, early entrepreneurial venturing, changes in the strategy and View Details
- 03 Feb 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Tricky Business of Managing Web Advertising Affiliates
When the FBI charged Shawn Hogan and two others with defrauding eBay of about $21 million in affiliate marketing sales, Benjamin G. Edelman was watching closely behind the... View Details
- October 2015
- Teaching Note
Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details
Keywords: Convertible Debt; Uncertainty; Competition; Startup; China; Supply ＆ Demand; Growth; Rare Earth Minerals; Discounted Cash Flows; Mining; Payoff Diagrams; Option Pricing; Capital Budgeting; Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Financial Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Vertical Integration; Valuation; Metals and Minerals; Mining Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Canada; California
- 2014
- Working Paper
Profits and Economic Development
By: Dan Schwab and Eric Werker
Are rents, or excess profits, good for development? Using industry-level manufacturing data, this paper demonstrates a negative effect of rents, measured by the mark-up ratio, on productivity growth. The negative effect is strongest in poor countries, suggesting that... View Details
Keywords: Firm Performance; Rent; Mark-up; Competition; Manufacturing; Development Economics; Profit; Economic Growth; Renting or Rental
Schwab, Dan, and Eric Werker. "Profits and Economic Development." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-087, March 2014. (Revised April 2014.)
- 2022
- Working Paper
Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact
By: Michelle A. Kinch and Ryan W. Buell
Prior research in social psychology has shown that when people feel anxious, they seek advice from others. However, companies that operate in high-anxiety settings (like financial services, health care, and education) are increasingly deploying self-service... View Details
Keywords: Anxiety; Self-service; Empirical Operations; Behavioral Operations; Customers; Emotions; Service Delivery; Interpersonal Communication; Customer Satisfaction; Trust
Kinch, Michelle A., and Ryan W. Buell. "Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-089, February 2019. (Revised November 2023.)
- 2017
- Working Paper
The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond
By: Josh Lerner
Patents and citations are powerful tools for understanding innovative activity inside the firm and are increasingly used in corporate finance research. But due to the complexities of patent data collection and the changing spatial and industry composition of innovative... View Details
Lerner, Josh, and Amit Seru. "The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-042, November 2017.
- 2014
- Working Paper
Return on Political Investment in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004
By: Hui Chen, Katherine Gunny and Karthik Ramanna
Prior literature raises a "puzzle" of high rates of return on corporate political investment, but evidence for this puzzle is largely descriptive in nature. We exploit the setting of the American Jobs Creation Act's passage in 2004 to provide more robust estimates of... View Details
Chen, Hui, Katherine Gunny, and Karthik Ramanna. "Return on Political Investment in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 15-050, December 2014.
- 2008
- Article
Market Leadership and Strategic Investments in Innovation: The Adoption of E-Business Capabilities
By: Kristina Steffenson McElheran
This study focuses on whether more-productive firms are more likely to adopt process innovations and why. The empirical context is the adoption of e-business practices among U.S. manufacturing plants in early 2000. Based on detailed data from the U.S. Census of... View Details
Keywords: Investment; Innovation Strategy; Leadership; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Advantage; Technology Adoption; Manufacturing Industry; United States
McElheran, Kristina Steffenson. "Market Leadership and Strategic Investments in Innovation: The Adoption of E-Business Capabilities." Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings (2008): 1–6p, 4 charts. (Finalist for the 2008 Best Paper Award presented by Academy of Management, TIM Division.)
- February 2014
- Article
Developing a System to Track Meaningful Outcome Measures in Head and Neck Cancer Treatment
By: Ronald S. Walters, Heidi W. Albright, Randal S. Weber, Thomas W. Feeley, Ehab Y. Hanna, Scott B. Cantor, Carol M. Lewis and Thomas W. Burke
The health care industry, including consumers, providers, and payers of health care, recognize the importance of developing meaningful, patient-centered measures. This article describes our experience using an existing electronic medical record largely based on free... View Details
Keywords: Cancer Treatment; Cancer Care In The U.S.; Outcomes Measurement; Health Care and Treatment; Measurement and Metrics; Health Industry; North and Central America
Walters, Ronald S., Heidi W. Albright, Randal S. Weber, Thomas W. Feeley, Ehab Y. Hanna, Scott B. Cantor, Carol M. Lewis, and Thomas W. Burke. "Developing a System to Track Meaningful Outcome Measures in Head and Neck Cancer Treatment." Head & Neck 36, no. 2 (February 2014): 226–230. (e-Pub 6/2013. PMID: 23729280.)
- 2012
- Working Paper
Information Technology and Boundary of the Firm: Evidence from Plant-Level Data
By: Chris Forman and Kristina McElheran
We study the relationship between different margins of information technology (IT) use and vertical integration using plant-level data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures. Focusing on the short-run decision of whether to allocate production output to downstream plants... View Details
Keywords: Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Production; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Vertical Integration; Supply Chain; Manufacturing Industry; United States
Forman, Chris, and Kristina McElheran. "Information Technology and Boundary of the Firm: Evidence from Plant-Level Data." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-092, April 2012.
- July 2018
- Article
Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Tina Xu
We review the extensive literature since 2000 on the personality traits of entrepreneurs. We first consider baseline personality traits like the Big-5 model, self-efficacy and innovativeness, locus of control, and the need for achievement. We then consider risk... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Venturing; Personality Traits; Characteristics; Big-5; Risk Attitudes; Goals; Skills; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Goals and Objectives; Competency and Skills; Success; Demographics; Research
Kerr, Sari Pekkala, William R. Kerr, and Tina Xu. "Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature." Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship 14, no. 3 (July 2018): 279–356.
- 30 Dec 2014
- Working Paper Summaries