Publications

November 1996 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, The

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Stephanie L. Woerner

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) runs one of the nation's most important research libraries and a museum focusing on colonial history. Financial analysis shows that the society has absorbed increased costs of operation over the past decade through slow but... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Cost; Human Resources; Leadership Style; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Managerial Roles; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Strategy; Pennsylvania

2020
Working Paper

The Cost of Anonymous Lemons

By: Amar Bhidé

Rules that restrict information required in negotiated private transactions have spurred a vast increase in the scope of anonymous financial markets, particularly in the US. The subtle costs of the information restricting rules raise questions about the social value of... View Details

Keywords: Information Asymmetry; Securities; Securitization; Regulation; Liquidity; Information; Financial Markets; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Liquidity

Read Now

03 May 2013
News

Looking Through Glass, Historically

held in the hand-glassware industry. As he writes in the preface of Westmoreland Glass, his 336-page book illustrated with many historic photographs, "Westmoreland has a story to tell that was not being told." Established in 1889 in... View Details

Keywords: Visual arts; crafts; glass making; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Manufacturing

September 2001
Background Note

Accounting for Computer Software Development Costs

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Tatiana Sandino

Summarizes the debate on accounting for computer software development costs. Provides a historical description of the development of standards on accounting of computer software development costs, both in the United States and internationally. Describes how, after much... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Information Technology Industry; Accounting Industry; United States

June 2021
Article

Symmetric Ignorance: The Cost of Anonymous Lemons

By: Amar Bhidé

Rules that restrict information required in negotiated private transactions have spurred a vast increase in the scope of anonymous financial markets, particularly in the United States. The subtle costs of the information‐restricting rules raise questions about the... View Details

Keywords: Information Asymmetry; Liquidity; Regulation; Securities Markets; Securitization; Information; Financial Liquidity; Financial Markets; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

Find at Harvard

Read Now

May 2016 (Revised August 2022)
Case

RegionFly: Cutting Costs in the Airline Industry

By: Susanna Gallani and Eva Labro

RegionFly is a small, private airline specializing in ultra-premium services. Founded shortly after the "Golden Age of airline travel," RegionFly's financial performance had been strong for several decades. More recently, however, the results have taken a downward... View Details

Keywords: Recession; Downsizing; Profitability; Cost Management; Profit; Luxury; Competitive Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Divisions; Logistics; Decision Making; Strategic Planning; Air Transportation Industry

08 Apr 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Multinational Strategies and Developing Countries in Historical Perspective

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

Fast Answer

Cost of doing business

historical data, KPMG's Competitive Alternatives compared the cost of doing business in various cities, countries, regions, and industries (2002-2016 available). View Details

20 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

Gaps in the Historical Record: Development of the Electronics Industry

the late 1970s, taking with it a number of smaller U.S. enterprises. The latter were acquired by Japanese companies and Europe's Philips. In the same brief historical period, from the late 1960s to the late 1970s, the Japanese industry... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Consumer Products

June 2023
Case

Accounting for Loan Losses at JPMorgan Chase: Predicting Credit Costs

By: Jonas Heese, Jung Koo Kang and James Weber

The case examines the accounting for loan losses at a large bank, how a bank sets its Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL) on its financial statements. ALLL, and the rules that set them, determine when banks would and would not extend loans, which significantly... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Standards; Accrual Accounting; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Banking Industry; United States

06 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Do Strict Capital Requirements Raise the Cost of Capital? Banking Regulation and the Low Risk Anomaly

Keywords: by Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler; Banking; Financial Services

Web

The True Costs of Gig Work | Working Knowledge

Career and Workplace The True Costs of Gig Work Featuring Ryan W. Buell and Paige Tsai . By Rachel Layne on May 9, 2025 . People with multiple jobs, such as gig workers, spend more cautiously than typical full-time employees, says... View Details

Web

Crisis Leadership - Bubbles, Panics & Crashes – Historical Collections – Harvard Business School

Dennison to mechanize the production of watches, a technique recently applied to firearms. Dennison, an artisan watchmaker underemployed throughout the crisis years, calculated that interchangeable parts could dramatically reduce the high labor View Details

July 2012 (Revised February 2013)
Case

Société Internationale de Plantations et de Finance (SIPEF)

By: David Hawkins

Management of a company with extensive palm oil tree plantations questions the usefulness to management and investors of IAS41's requirement to value palm oil trees at their fair value. View Details

Keywords: Financial Accounting; International Financial Reporting Standards; International Accounting Standards; Biological Asset Accounting; IAS41; Historical Cost; Equity Valuation; Financial Ratios; Plant-Based Agribusiness; International Accounting; Valuation; Financial Reporting; Fair Value Accounting; Equity; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

08 May 2015
News

A new view of the cost of equity and capital requirements for banks

Capital requirements for banks, which govern the ratio of equity to debt, have come under greater scrutiny in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. A central question is how these requirements affect banks’ overall cost of capital, or... View Details

Web

Bibliography - Option Pricing in Theory & Practice: The Nobel Prize Research of Robert C. Merton - Exhibits - Historical Collections

"An Analytic Derivation of the Cost of Deposit Insurance and Loan Guarantees: An Application of Modern Option Pricing Theory." Journal of Banking and Finance 1, no. 1 (June 1977): 3-11. ** Merton, Robert C. " Applications of... View Details

December 2019
Article

The Impact of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira and Thales Teixeira

Many online stores are designed such that shoppers can easily access any available discounted products. We propose that deliberately increasing search frictions by placing small obstacles to locating discounted items can improve online retailers’ margins and even... View Details

Keywords: Online Retailing; Friction; Effor; Search Costs; Price Discrimination; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Strategy; Price; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry

Find at Harvard

2019
Working Paper

The Impact of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira and Thales Teixeira

Many online stores are designed such that shoppers can easily access any available discounted products. We propose that deliberately increasing search frictions by placing small obstacles to locating discounted items can improve online retailers’ margins and even... View Details

Keywords: E-commerce; Online Retailing; Friction; Effor; Search Costs; Price Discrimination; Consumer Behavior; Price; Search Technology