Publications

SSRN

2022
Working Paper

Many Markets Make Good Neighbors: Multimarket Contact and Deposit Banking

By: John William Hatfield and Jonathan Wallen

We investigate the relationship between the interest rates offered to consumers in a deposit banking market and the contact that banks in that market have with each other in other markets. We show, in a simple theoretical model, that such overlapping relationships... View Details

Keywords: Antitrust; Deposit Banking; Market Power; Multimarket Contact; Banks and Banking; Markets; Competition

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2009
Book

Experiments in Financial Democracy: Corporate Governance and Financial Development in Brazil, 1882-1950

By: Aldo Musacchio

In Experiments in Financial Democracy, I challenge the idea that it was colonial institutions that sent Brazil, a civil law country, down a particular path of corporate governance and finance. Detailed archival research reveals significantly different patterns of... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business History; Business and Shareholder Relations; Brazil

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2022
Working Paper

Heterogeneous Investors and Stock Market Fluctuations

By: Odhrain McCarthy and Sebastian Hillenbrand

We introduce a heterogeneous agent model which features extrapolative beliefs and time-varying risk aversion. The model leads to an empirical framework which we estimate with stock prices, survey data and risk aversion measures. We find that extrapolative beliefs and... View Details

Keywords: Stock Market; Investment Decisions; Asset Pricing; Investment; Behavioral Finance; Stocks

SSRN

04 May 2009
Research & Ideas

What’s Next for the Big Financial Brands

(Editor's note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge.) Recent news... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Financial Services; Financial Services

July 2004 (Revised January 2007)
Case

H&R Block and "Everyday Financial Services"

By: Peter Tufano and Daniel Schneider

H&R Block, the U.S. market leader in tax preparation services, must decide whether to offer financial services to its low-income clients. H&R Block is facing increased competition from branded and nonbranded tax preparers, and the number of returns prepared by the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Income; Taxation; Product Development; Financial Services Industry; United States

Research Summary

Do Equity Covariances Reflect Financial Leverage?

No arbitrage option pricing theory and the efficient market hypothesis predict that firms with higher financial leverage should have higher equity betas, all else equal. This paper finds little support in the data for this prediction. Within industry, there is large... View Details

September 2006 (Revised November 2007)
Exercise

Market Making Exercise

By: Malcolm P. Baker

Students make a market in a new security, posting bid and offer prices and quantities for a new derivative security. View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Financial Markets; Price

01 Feb 2000
News

Financial Services 24/7

a routine part of most people's lives, there is no doubt that technology - especially Internet technology - is having a huge impact on the financial services industry. With much hype and headlines, Web trading has revolutionized the... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

December 1998
Case

Retail Financial Services in 1998: Travelers

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of Travelers Group's current strategy for retail financial services. Retail Financial Services in 1998 should be given to all students as background material. The class should then be split into groups, with each group receiving one of the... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Industry Structures; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

23 Apr 2010
News

Back to Basics on Financial Reform

Winter 2013
Article

Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Financial Statement Comparability

By: Francois Brochet, Alan Jagolinzer and Edward J. Riedl

This study examines whether mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) leads to capital market benefits through enhanced financial statement comparability. UK domestic standards are considered very similar to IFRS (Bae et al., 2008),... View Details

Keywords: IFRS; Comparability; Private Information; Insider Trading; Ethics; Standards; Financial Statements

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12 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Investors Often Lose When They Sue Their Financial Adviser

Years of bull market bliss gave brokerage clients few reasons to open their account statements—until March. Within one month, stocks in the United States notched their biggest one-day losses—and gains—as mounting fears about COVID-19’s... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services

2009
Article

An Evolutionary Approach to Financial History

Financial history is not conventionally thought of in evolutionary terms, but it should be. Traditional ways of thinking about finance, dating back to Hilferding, emphasize the importance of concentration and economies of scale. But these approaches overlook the rich... View Details

Keywords: History; Transformation; Finance

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2015
Book

Political Standards: Corporate Interest, Ideology, and Leadership in the Shaping of Accounting Rules for the Market Economy

By: Karthik Ramanna

There are certain institutions underlying our modern market-capitalist system that are largely outside the interest and understanding of the general public—e.g., rulemaking for bank capital adequacy, actuarial standards, accounting standards, and auditing practice. In... View Details

Keywords: Business And Society; Financial Institutions; Financial Reporting; GAAP; IFRS; Lobbying; Capitalism; Sustainability; Accounting; Finance; Business and Government Relations; Leadership; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; China; India

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December 1998
Background Note

Retail Financial Services in 1998

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of the current restructuring that is taking place in the retail financial services industry. Provides a brief overview of the structural changes in banking, brokerage, insurance, and mutual funds. Used as background for examining the strategies of... View Details

Keywords: Economic Sectors; Economy; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Industry Growth; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

April 2000 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Capital One Financial Corporation

By: Bharat N. Anand, Michael G. Rukstad and Christopher Paige

Designed to explore the structure, implementation, and sustainability of an information-based strategy (IBS) undertaken by Capital One during the 1990s. Particular issues of interest are the impact of mass customization on industry structure, the ability to transfer... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Industry Structures; Internet and the Web; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Financial Services Industry; United States

21 Nov 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

The New Challenge of Leading Financial Firms

A worldwide economic crisis. Intense scrutiny from board members, customers, and government regulators. Expanding global markets. Public protests aimed squarely at your industry. Running a financial institution, never easy to begin with,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

2012
Chapter

Is Private Equity in Emerging Markets Coming of Age?: Evidence of the Mexican Private Equity Market

By: Roberto Charvel and Darek Klonowski

This chapters reviews the potential of the private equity and alternative assets industry in Mexico. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Emerging Markets; Latin America; Mexico; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Ventures; Economics; Finance; Market Design; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; Mexico