Publications

31 May 2017
News

Harvard professor argues for restoring 'humanity' in finance

01 Oct 2011
News

Beat the Market—With Less Risk

01 Oct 1999
News

Finance Conference Explores Research Methodologies

While HBS scholars have long appreciated the value of field-based research, the broader academic community in the field of finance has been slower to accept this method of inquiry. Field-based research, which closely studies the actions... View Details

November 2013
Article

Investment Cycles and Startup Innovation

By: Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

We find that VC-backed firms receiving their initial investment in hot markets are more likely to go bankrupt, but conditional on going public are valued higher on the day of their IPO, have more patents, and have more citations to their patents. Our results suggest... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Market Cycles; Financing Risk; Risk and Uncertainty; Venture Capital; Investment; Innovation and Invention

November 2012
Case

Tracy Palandjian at Social Finance US (A)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim, Catherine Clark and Beth Bafford

It had been eighteen months since Tracy Palandjian had left her position as a managing director at The Parthenon Group to start an ambitious venture called Social Finance US. With a mission "to mobilize investment capital to drive social change," her new organization... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career

Educators

18 Oct 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Monetary Policy Drivers of Bond and Equity Risks

Keywords: by John Y. Campbell, Carolin E. Pflueger & Luis M. Viceira

Understanding Why Low Risk Stocks Can Be Undervalued

Contrary to basic finance principles, high-beta and high-volatility stocks have long underperformed low-beta and low-volatility stocks. This anomaly may be partly explained by the fact that the typical institutional investor's mandate to beat a fixed benchmark... View Details

March 2012
Article

Managing Political Risk in Global Business: Beiersdorf 1914-1990

By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski

This article is concerned with business strategies of political risk management during the twentieth century. It focuses especially on Beiersdorf, a pharmaceutical and skin care company in Germany. During World War I, the expropriation of its brands and trademarks... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Government and Politics; Risk Management; Brands and Branding; Problems and Challenges; Communication Technology; Cost; Trademarks; Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Germany

April 2024
Article

Demand-and-Supply Imbalance Risk and Long-Term Swap Spreads

By: Samuel G. Hanson, Aytek Malkhozov and Gyuri Venter

We develop and test a model in which swap spreads are determined by end users' demand for and constrained intermediaries’ supply of long-term interest rate swaps. Swap spreads reflect compensation both for using scarce intermediary capital and for bearing convergence... View Details

Keywords: Swap Spreads; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Interest Rates; Risk and Uncertainty; Volatility

01 Oct 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Systemic Risk and the Refinancing Ratchet Effect

Keywords: by Amir E. Khandani, Andrew W. Lo & Robert C. Merton; Construction; Real Estate

March 2013
Supplement

FX Risk Hedging at EADS

By: W. Carl Kester

Keywords: Derivatives; Foreign Exchange; Options; Forward Contract; Aerospace; Europe; Risk Management; Futures and Commodity Futures; Europe

Purchase

03 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

The Competitive Advantage of Global Finance

As waves of globalization wash across the business world, tremendous new opportunities for financing and investment present themselves to savvy enterprises. In a new casebook, HBS professor Mihir A. Desai discusses the numerous challenges... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

April 2003
Article

2002 10-Ks: Equity Financial Risk Focus

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Reports; Equity; Finance; Risk and Uncertainty

June 2017
Article

Does Aggregated Returns Disclosure Increase Portfolio Risk Taking?

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

Many experiments have found that participants take more investment risk if they see returns less frequently, see portfolio-level returns (rather than each individual asset’s returns), or see long-horizon (rather than one-year) historical return distributions. In... View Details

Keywords: Information; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return

1996
Chapter

Measuring Risk and Return for Portfolios

By: D. E. Bell

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Risk and Uncertainty; Measurement and Metrics

2013
Working Paper

The Appeal of the Appropriate: Accounting, Risk Management, and the Competition for the Supply of Control Systems

By: Anette Mikes

How do certain risk measurements in organizations come to be seen as more reliable and acceptable than others? Taking a multiple-control perspective, I investigate the aftermath of a control debacle at a financial services company (MultiBank), focusing on its insurance... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Multiple Control Systems; Interactive Control Systems; Performance Measurement; Risk Measurement; Financialization Of Accounting; Institutional Logics; Banking; Risk Management; Fair Value Accounting; Insurance; Financial Services Industry

September 2009
Case

The Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions, Inc.

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Stephen P. Bradley and Natalie Kindred

Through its uniquely proactive approach to medical malpractice risk management, the Risk Management Foundation (RMF) has decreased claims—and premiums—for the Harvard hospitals it insures. The RMF is the captive medico-legal insurer of the Harvard medical institutions... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Risk Management; Performance Improvement; Safety; Health Industry; Insurance Industry; Boston