Publications

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2023
Working Paper

The Market for Sharing Interest Rate Risk: Quantities and Asset Prices

By: Ishita Sen, Umang Khetan, Jane Li and Ioana Neamtu

We study the extent of interest rate risk sharing across the financial system using granular positions and transactions data in interest rate swaps. We show that pension and insurance (PF&I) sector emerges as a natural counterparty to banks and corporations: overall,... View Details

Keywords: Interest Rates; Investment Funds; Banks and Banking; Insurance; Investment Banking; Risk and Uncertainty

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November 2017
Case

The 'Wonder Drug' That Killed Babies

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Tom Nicholas and Matthew Preble

In the early 1960s, a popular drug taken by patients worldwide for a range of maladies was found to cause severe birth defects and other health problems in babies born to mothers who had taken it during a certain stage of fetal development. As many as 10,000 children... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Business and Government Relations; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business History; Health; Government Legislation; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Pharmaceutical Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States; United Kingdom; Australia; Germany; Europe

November 2022
Case

The Battle Among Channels for Marketing Pharmaceuticals: UpScript, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Direct-to-Consumer Sales

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Tiffany Farrell

Can an online, direct-to-consumer pharmacy both improve the quality and speed of care for patients who need branded drugs and stabilize profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers? UpScript, after years spent achieving legal and regulatory compliance and simultaneous... View Details

Keywords: DTC; Internet and the Web; Marketing Channels; Customer Value and Value Chain; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competitive Strategy; Service Delivery; Growth and Development Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Retail Industry

10 Dec 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Market Reaction to the Adoption of IFRS in Europe

Keywords: by Christopher S. Armstrong, Mary E. Barth, Alan D. Jagolinzer & Edward J. Riedl; Banking

Blog Post

Health Care Transparency: The Fox Is Guarding the Chicken Coop in Washington Again

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Now that more people can shop directly for their own health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, they have been transformed from potential patients to consumers, and like any other consumers of goods or services, they want to know if what they're buying is any... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Health Care; Health Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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August 2019
Case

The Allstate Corporation, 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In July 2019, Allstate, the United States’ number-three property and casualty (P/C) insurer, released its second-quarter earnings, which reported first-half revenues of $22.1 billion, up 11.4% year-over-year. Shareholders cheered the top-line growth, but P/C premiums... View Details

Keywords: Insurance Companies; Strategic Analysis; Strategic Change; Insurance; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Insurance Industry; North America

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

05 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

A Market for Human Cadavers in All but Name?

Views of Market Society." Annual Review of Sociology 22:285-311. Goodwin, Michele. 2006. Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Harrington, David E., and Edward A. Sayre. 2006.... View Details

Keywords: by Michel Anteby; Health

01 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

Does Market Capitalism Have a Future?

We showed it to important business leaders—some HBS alumni, some not—from around the world and asked them for their views on potential problem areas and what role HBS might play in addressing them. The fact is that in many parts of the world, firms are not privately... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

September 2018 (Revised August 2019)
Case

The Progressive Corporation, 2018

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In early 2019, The Progressive Corporation (Progressive), the USA’s third-largest auto insurance writer, reported earned premiums were up 20% in 2018 compared to the previous year, and net income was up 64%. Direct sales of personal auto policies rose 21%, while agent... View Details

27 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

businesses over the long run: companies such as Tata Group, founded in India in 1868, or Mexican bakery Grupo Bimbo, started in 1945. What sets these firms apart? What can leaders in developed markets learn from them? In the recent... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

August 2012 (Revised March 2014)
Technical Note

4M: Four-Markets Analysis for Emerging Economies

By: Eric Werker

This technical note describes a methodology for evaluating the political economy of business-government relations in an emerging or frontier economy. The note argues that there are not one but four markets in an emerging economy: the market of "rentiers" such as mining... View Details

Keywords: Frontier Markets; Emerging Markets

June 2023
Article

Regulatory Limits to Risk Management

By: Ishita Sen

Variable annuities, the largest liability of U.S. life insurers, are investment products containing long-dated minimum return guarantees. I show that guarantees with similar economic risks are treated differently by regulation and these differences impact insurers’... View Details

Keywords: Interest Rate Risk; Variable Annuities; Capital Regulation; Reinsurance; Derivatives; Risk Management; Interest Rates; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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January 2013 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Barclays and the LIBOR Scandal

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

In June of 2012, Barclays plc admitted that it had manipulated LIBOR—a benchmark interest rate that was fundamental to the operation of international financial markets and that was the basis for trillions of dollars of financial transactions. Between 2005 and 2009... View Details

Keywords: Financial Systems; Financial Services; Corruption; Regulation; General Management; Management; Leadership; Economic Systems; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Culture; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

14 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

5 Lessons I Hope Marketers Don’t Learn from Donald Trump

If marketing is a profession, and I hope it is, then I suggest there are five rules that marketers should not follow in the interests of self-respect and respect for the profession. It pays to pander. No it... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Deighton

21 Jan 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Market Basket’s Lessons About Buyouts

family and business. And when buyouts do happen, they usually come late. "Buyouts of family owners rarely happen—even when it is clearly a good option" The Case Of Market Basket Market Basket, a... View Details

Keywords: Retail

April 2020
Article

Field Comparisons of Incentive-Compatible Preference Elicitation Techniques

By: Shawn A. Cole, A. Nilesh Fernando, Daniel Stein and Jeremy Tobacman

Knowledge of consumer demand is important for firms, policy makers, and economists. One common tool for incentive-compatible demand elicitation, the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism, has been widely used in laboratory settings but rarely evaluated for... View Details

Keywords: Incentive-compatible Elicitation; Experimental Methods; Weather Insurance; Rainfall Insurance; Agricultural Extension; Demand and Consumers