Publications

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23 Jan 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Transaction Costs and the Duration of Contracts

Keywords: by Alexander MacKay

2012
Article

The Cost and Timing of Financial Distress

By: Christopher Parsons

Assessments of the trade-off theory have typically compared the present value of tax benefits to the present value of bankruptcy costs. We verify that this comparison overwhelmingly favors tax benefits, suggesting that firms are under-leveraged. However, when we... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

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2004
Working Paper

Agency Costs of Overvalued Equity

By: Michael C. Jensen

SSRN

05 Nov 2013
News

The Real Cost of Bribery

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

Desan look to how scholars in history, law, and political science are redefining capitalism in light of the American experience. Essayists write on such diverse subjects as markets, selling View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

2009
Case

Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital: Brief Case No. 4129.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Joel L. Heilprin

The senior vice president of project finance for a global oil and gas company must determine the weighted average cost of capital for the company as a whole and each of its divisions as part of the annual capital budgeting process. The case uses comparable companies to... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cost of Capital; Energy Industry

07 Oct 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Lifting the Veil: The Benefits of Cost Transparency

Keywords: by Bhavya Mohan, Ryan W. Buell & Leslie K. John; Retail

February 1997 (Revised July 2001)
Background Note

Introduction to Activity-Based Costing

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Introduces the fundamental notions of activity-based costing (ABC). Motivates ABC by means of a simple example, a single and a diversified pen factory. Proceeds to show how ABC assigns costs more accurately to products and customers by: 1) identifying the activities... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management

06 May 2022
HBS Conference

Forms of Capitalism

October 2022
Case

Cost Plus Drugs

By: Alexander MacKay and James Barnett

In September 2022, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Company CEO Alex Oshmyansky considered the future of the company. Cost Plus Drugs was a retailer for more than 340 generic oral medications, selling their drugs at significantly lower prices than typical pharmacies.... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Health; Markets; Social Enterprise; Society; Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Business Divisions; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Texas

07 Dec 2015
News

Easing the Costs of Adoption

education, and advocacy to assist children’s adoptions. “There are 10-14 million voiceless children trapped in these hell holes around the world. We knew we would only be one arrow in the quiver to rescue the Christinas of the world, but... View Details

04 Nov 2013
News

The Real Cost of Bribery

Keywords: Management

October 2004
Case

Costing Alternative Choices

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

Discusses the role of differential cost and revenues in solving alternative choice problems. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Revenue

October 2016 (Revised March 2022)
Background Note

Cost Variance Analysis

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Susanna Gallani

This note was written to provide students with fundamental concepts and methods for the analysis of cost variances. It focuses on the decomposition of cost variances into price, quantity, and mix variance components, an approach that allows students to identify the... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting

02 May 2012
News

The Cost of Well-run Companies

June 1, 2021
Article

Capitalism Won't Thrive on Value Investing Alone

By: Amar Bhidé

Investors fall into two camps: value investors, who base decisions on a careful analysis of revenues and costs, looking for steady performance, and growth investors, who place bets on risky projects with very high potential payoffs. A capitalist economy needs both... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Investors; Economy; Investment

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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

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March 2011
Case

Valuation of AirThread Connections

By: Erik Stafford and Joel L. Heilprin

This case can be used as a capstone valuation exercise for first-year MBA students in an introductory finance course. A senior associate in the business development group at American Cable Communications, one of the largest cable companies in the U.S., must prepare a... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Present Value; Tax Accounting; Capital Costs; Synergy; Telephony; Wireless Technologies; Communication Technology; Assets; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Cash Flow; Capital Structure; Accounting; Wireless Technology; Communications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

December 1994
Background Note

Cost System Analysis

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Describes six characteristics of cost systems: standard vs. actual costs; job-order vs. process costing; variable vs. full costs; disaggregate vs. aggregate cost accumulation; and specific vs. average rates for labor and overhead. A rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Analysis; System