Publications

June 2014
Article

Frictions in Shadow Banking: Evidence from the Lending Behavior of Money Market Funds

By: Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam

We document the consequences of money market fund risk taking during the European sovereign debt crisis. Using a novel data set of security-level holdings of prime money market funds, we show that funds with large exposures to risky Eurozone banks suffered significant... View Details

Keywords: Money Market Mutual Funds; European Sovereign Debt Crisis; Runs; Contagion; Risk Taking; Investment Funds; Financial Crisis; Europe

December 2021
Article

Trade Policy Uncertainty and Stock Returns

By: Marcelo Bianconi, Federico Esposito and Marco Sammon

A recent literature has documented large real effects of trade policy uncertainty (TPU) on trade, employment, and investment, but there is little evidence that investors are compensated for bearing such risk. To quantify the risk premium associated with TPU, we exploit... View Details

Keywords: Trade Policy; Uncertainty; Stock Returns; Risk Premium; Tariff Rates; Portfolio Analysis; Trade; Policy; Risk and Uncertainty; Stocks; Investment Return

SSRN

February 2019
Article

Who Benefits Most in Disease Management Programs: Improving Target Efficiency

By: Timothy Simcoe, Maryaline Catillon and Paul Gertler

Disease management programs aim to reduce cost by improving the quality of care for chronic diseases. Evidence of their effectiveness is mixed. Reducing health care spending sufficiently to cover program costs has proved particularly challenging. This study uses a... View Details

Keywords: Health Economics; Target Efficiency; Diabetes; Disease Management; Program Evaluation; Heterogeneity; Economics; Health; Quality; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Health Industry

2023
Working Paper

Financial and Informational Integration Through Oracle Networks

By: Lin William Cong, Eswar Prasad and Daniel Rabetti

Oracles are software components that enable data exchange between siloed blockchains and external environments, enhancing smart contract capabilities and platform interoperability. We find that oracle integration is positively associated with total value locked and... View Details

Keywords: Decentralized Finance; Blockchain; Smart Contract; International Economy; Interoperability; Risk Sharing; Applications and Software; Financial Markets; Economics; Risk Management

SSRN

March–April 2017
Article

Advancing Conservation by Understanding and Influencing Human Behavior

By: Sheila M. Reddy, Jensen Montambault, Yuta J. Masuda, Ayelet Gneezy, Elizabeth Keenan, William Butler, Jonathan R. Fisher and Stanley T. Asah

Behavioral sciences can advance conservation by systematically identifying behavioral barriers to conservation and how to best overcome them. Behavioral sciences have informed policy in many other realms (e.g., health, savings), but they are a largely untapped resource... View Details

Keywords: Adaptive Management; Awareness; Behavioral Economics; Behavioral Science; Conservation Intervention; Conservation Planning; Decision-making; Incentives; Nudge; Management; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Marketing; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability; Economics

March 2016 (Revised November 2021)
Teaching Note

T-Mobile in 2013: The Un-Carrier

By: John Beshears and Francesca Gino

By 2013, the U.S. wireless industry was in the midst of a costly transition. As consumers began to embrace more sophisticated mobile devices, the industry's four main players spent heavily to improve their infrastructures for providing reliable high-speed data... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Industry; Telecommunications; Mobile; Service Contracts; Behavioral Economics; Add-on Fees; Shrouded Attributes; Contracts; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; United States

Purchase

03 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff

response to more temporary economic shifts, such as recession, often proves less successful, Sucher says. “These are some of those commonsense things that may not occur to people because they are thinking with their labor hats on and not... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Telecommunications; Technology; Financial Services; Manufacturing

September 2016
Article

Monitoring Global Supply Chains

By: Jodi L. Short, Michael W. Toffel and Andrea R. Hugill

Firms seeking to avoid reputational spillovers that can arise from dangerous, illegal, and unethical behavior at supply chain factories are increasingly relying on private social auditors to provide strategic information about suppliers' conduct. But little is known... View Details

Keywords: Monitoring; Transaction Cost Economics; Industry Self-regulation; Auditing; Codes Of Conduct; Supply Chains; Corporate Social Responsibility; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain; Globalization

David Moss is the Paul Whiton Cherington Professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE) unit. He earned his B.A. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from Yale. In 1992-1993, he served as a... View Details

Keywords: banking; credit card; federal government; financial services; health care; insurance industry; state government

Andi Wang

Andi Wang is a doctoral student in the Business Economics program, where he works at the intersection of finance, macro and behavioral economics. He is particularly interested in studying institutional and behavioral frictions that have long-lasting effects on asset... View Details

David S. Scharfstein

David Scharfstein is the Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Finance and Banking at Harvard Business School, where he has taught since 2003. He currently teaches a course on financial intermediation in the MBA program. Scharfstein has written on a wide range of... View Details

Keywords: banking

May 2011
Supplement

Dharavi: Developing Asia's Largest Slum (B)

By: Lakshmi Iyer and John Macomber

In July 2009, as investors prepared to submit financial bids for the $3 billion Dharavi slum redevelopment project, considerable economic and political risks remained. View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Private Equity; Social Issues; Investment; Developing Countries and Economies; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Mumbai

Purchase

02 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Role of Government When All Else Fails

century, the main objective of most risk management policies—from limited liability to bankruptcy law to a fixed exchange rate—was to encourage trade and investment and thus to facilitate economic growth by... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

June 2019
Article

Social Risk, Fiscal Risk, and the Portfolio of Government Programs

By: Samuel G. Hanson, David S. Scharfstein and Adi Sunderam

We develop a model of government portfolio choice in which a benevolent government chooses the scale of risky projects in the presence of market failures and tax distortions. These two frictions generate motives to manage social risk and fiscal risk. Social risk... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Government and Politics; Programs

Jonathan Wallen is an Assistant Professor of Finance in the Finance Unit and teaches Finance 1 to MBA students.

Professor Wallen’s research centers on financial intermediation and its intersection with asset pricing, currency markets,... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

Gregor Schubert's research focuses mainly on the economics of uncertainty. He investigates the impact of changes in the risk environment on the behavior of workers, firms, voters and policymakers. View Details

November 1995 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Global Property and Casualty Insurance Industry, The

This case gives a broad overview of the global property and casualty insurance industry. Topics covered include insurance economics and risk bearing, insurance accounting, risk-based capital, catastrophic risk, underwriting cycles, the Lloyd's crisis, reinsurance, and... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Insurance; Insurance Industry