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A Recovery Squandered

In 2019, HBS faculty members of the U.S. Competitiveness Project conducted the sixth survey on U.S. competitiveness. This report—built on the latest survey findings and eight years of prior research on the competitiveness of the United States—highlights a disturbing pattern: structural failures in the U.S. political system continue to prevent meaningful progress on actions needed to improve U.S. competitiveness. Despite a decade of steady economic growth, the trajectory of the nation’s competitiveness remains disappointing.
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Problems Unsolved & A Nation Divided

By: Michael E. Porter, Jan W. Rivkin, and Mihir A. Desai, with Manjari Raman
The 2016 HBS report on the State of U.S. Competitiveness provides a comprehensive analysis of five years of research from the U.S. Competitiveness Project along with the findings of the 2016 HBS survey on U.S. competitiveness. This survey was administered to HBS alumni worldwide, HBS students, and members of the U.S. general public in May—June 2016.
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Business Aligning for Students: The Promise of Collective Impact

This report calls on business leaders to take stock of their efforts to improve pre-K-12 education and commit to an innovative approach called “Collective Impact,” a community endeavor that addresses fundamental weaknesses in the U.S. education ecosystem.
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Growth & Shared Prosperity

By: Karen G. Mills with contributions from Joseph B. Fuller and Jan W. Rivkin
In June 2015, nearly 75 experienced leaders from across business, government, labor, academia, and media gathered at Harvard Business School to discuss a topic of increasing concern in America: How can our nation continue to remain competitive while also providing a path to prosperity for more citizens? This report highlights the group’s deliberations and summarizes the HBS research that was presented during the convening.
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The Challenge of Shared Prosperity

The 2015 HBS survey on U.S. competitiveness reveals that business leaders are concerned about the economy’s ability to generate shared prosperity. America’s business environment is improving, but alumni doubt that firms in the U.S. will be able to improve living standards for the average American. Alumni see issues like inequality, middle-class stagnation, and economic immobility, as social as well as business challenges.

Partners With Purpose

By: Allen S. Grossman, Ann Lombard, and Jan W. Rivkin
Superintendents find new, deeper ways to work with business beyond a financial gift.

Tax Complexity and the Importance of Simplification

Complexity in the tax code has negative redistributive and growth consequences that have only accelerated over time as more and more policy goals are now implemented through the tax system.
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An Economy Doing Half Its Job

Re: Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin, with contributions from Joseph B. Fuller, Allen S. Grossman, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and Kevin W. Sharer
This report presents the findings of HBS' 2013–14 survey on U.S. competitiveness. It highlights a troubling divergence in the U.S. economy: large and midsize firms are prospering, but middle- and working-class citizens and small businesses are struggling.

International Tax Reform

Recent merger transactions highlight long-simmering problems in the U.S. corporate tax, particularly with respect to its international provisions.

The State of Small Business Lending: Credit Access During the Recovery and How Technology May Change the Game

By: Karen G. Mills and Brayden McCarthy
Is there a credit gap in small business lending?

Transforming America's Schools: How Business Leaders Can Help

How can business leaders best partner with educators to transform America's schools?
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The Brink of Renewal: A Business Leader’s Guide to Progress in America’s Schools

This report focuses on the current state of U.S. PK-12 education. It highlights the converging trends that make this a special, promising moment in education reform.
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A Long, Bumpy and Unfinished Road: Education Reform in Memphis, Tennessee

By: Allen S. Grossman, J. Puckett, and Nithya Vaduganathan
Pitt Hyde, a Memphis business leader and the founder of the Hyde Family Foundation, works to ensure the success of the merger between the Memphis City School district and the Shelby County School system.
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Lasting Impact: A Business Leader’s Playbook for Supporting America’s Schools

This booklet provides a practical approach for business leaders seeking to understand the complex issues involved in transforming PK-12 education.
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Partial Credit: How America’s School Superintendents See Business as a Partner

This report presents the findings of the first-ever national survey of school superintendents on U.S. competitiveness and the role of business in improving education outcomes in the U.S., including specific actions that business leaders can take to support transformative change.
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StriveTogether: Reinventing the Local Education Ecosystem

By: Allen S. Grossman, Ann Lombard, and Noah Fisher
StriveTogether is building a network of communities that use Collective Impact as a way for the business community and other stakeholders to collaborate to improve public education in a locale.

A Better Way to Tax U.S. Businesses

The U.S. corporate tax code is broken. High rates and perverse incentives drive capital away from the corporate sector and toward other uses and countries. Professor Mihir A. Desai believes a handful of changes could fix all that.
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Special Report: Restoring U.S. Competitiveness

Some of the world’s most original thinkers explain the competitiveness challenge America faces and point the way forward.

The Incentive Bubble

The last three decades have seen American capitalism transformed by a simple idea—that the evaluation and compensation of managers and investors should be outsourced to financial markets, says Professor Mihir A. Desai.

Why U.S. Competitiveness Matters to All of Us

The world is interdependent, and the U.S. economy is still too large for anyone to profit from a rapid decline in its well-being.