Publications

May 2021
Case

Endeavor Kenya: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Shikhar Ghosh and Christian Godwin

In 2016, Fiona Mungai became Endeavor Kenya’s first managing director. In this role, she helped the organization build its inaugural board and select its first Endeavor entrepreneur, a fintech company called Cellulant. Throughout this process, Mungai observed the power... View Details

March 2010 (Revised May 2013)
Case

Chile's Copper Surplus: The Road Not Taken (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Dante Roscini and Renee Kim

In 2008, Andres Velasco, Chile's Finance Minister, was under mounting criticisms over his fiscal policy. As the world's largest copper producer, Chile was benefiting from the rise in copper prices, which had more than tripled since 2003. Copper revenues translated into... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Metals and Minerals; Investment Funds; Policy; State Ownership; Wealth; Chile

December 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

By: David E. Bell and Brian Matthew Milder

In 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation joined together to form a new organization, AGRA, to tackle the historic challenge of increasing agricultural production in Africa. Launched with much fanfare and led by former U.N.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Investment Funds; Food; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business and Government Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Poverty; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa

29 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

What Hath the United Kingdom Wrought?

and took a plunge into the unknown. A relatively small number of largely older, uneducated voters decided that the younger generations of Britons who voted to remain should instead face the growing global competition on their own rather than as an integral part of the... View Details

Keywords: by Dante Roscini

19 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Digital Technology’s Profound Game Change for Marketers

meet with entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out what portion of the $70 trillion global economy they can dominate. Within the $1 trillion marketing industry, the impact of software eating marketing has now reached the board room.... View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey Bussgang; Advertising; Technology

21 Nov 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, November 21, 2017

forthcoming Journal of Political Economy Internalizing Global Value Chains: A Firm-Level Analysis By: Alfaro, Laura, Pol Antràs, Davin Chor, and Paola Conconi Abstract—In recent decades, advances in information and communication... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 13

voluntary disclosure and marketing decisions. Publisher's link: http://people.hbs.edu/mluca/StrategicDisclosure.pdf January 2015 Innovation Policy and the Economy Firms and the Economics of Skilled Immigration By: Pekkala Kerr, Sari,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 15

penetration of smartphone devices was high and the economy was developed or in markets where the use of mobile devices was taking off but the economy was still developing. The other critical decision was... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

24 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

Building ’Brandtopias’—How Top Brands Tap into Society

the brand's allegories in the society, as well as how they gain and lose value. Holt finds that the allegories play well in periods of ideological consensus, which may span anywhere from five to fifteen years. But then restructuring of the View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Fall 2012
Article

Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System, 1997-2007

By: Stephen Haber and Aldo Musacchio

What is the impact of foreign bank entry on the pricing and availability of credit in developing economies? The Mexican banking system provides a quasi-experiment to address this question because in 1997 the Mexican government radically changed the laws governing the... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Ownership; Foreign Direct Investment; Laws and Statutes; Developing Countries and Economies; Banking Industry; Mexico

Find at Harvard

2009
Chapter

Plant-Size Distribution and Cross-Country Income Differences

By: Laura Alfaro, Andrew Charlton and Fabio Kanczuk

We investigate, using plant-level data for 79 developed and developing countries, whether differences in the allocation of resources across heterogeneous plants are a significant determinant of cross-country differences in income per worker. For this purpose, we use a... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Developing Countries and Economies; Wages; Resource Allocation; Mathematical Methods

2008
Working Paper

Firm-Size Distribution and Cross-Country Income Differences

By: Laura Alfaro, Andrew Charlton and Fabio Kanczuk

We investigate, using plant-level data for 79 developed and developing countries, whether differences in the allocation of resources across heterogeneous plants are a significant determinant of cross-country differences in income per worker. For this purpose, we use a... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Developing Countries and Economies; Wages; Resource Allocation; Mathematical Methods

Read Now

April 1992 (Revised June 1994)
Case

Grappling with Garbage: The Bandung Municipal Cleansing Enterprise, P.D. Kerbersihan

By: James E. Austin

Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Business and Government Relations; Developing Countries and Economies; Environmental Sustainability; Indonesia

Find at Harvard

September 2011 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Liberia

By: Eric Werker and Jasmina Beganovic

From 1989 to 2003 civil war raged in Liberia, causing GDP per capita to drop an unprecedented 90% from peak to trough. The roots of Liberia's conflict and economic decline are complex and intertwined, resting on over a century of discriminatory elite rule and twisted... View Details

Keywords: War; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Crisis; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; Liberia

February 2004 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Brazil 2003: Inflation Targeting and Debt Dynamics

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

In October 2002, Brazilians elected a left-wing president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, for the first time in that country's history. As markets faltered in response, Lula sought to reaffirm his commitment to fiscal discipline, a floating exchange rate, and inflation... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Inflation and Deflation; Money; Borrowing and Debt; Policy; Emerging Markets; Brazil

03 Oct 2005
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of Globally Organized Labor?

large unions on a national basis? By what means will this be achieved? Or are these proposed efforts typical of those of a movement in its death throes? If it is the latter, how will labor extract its share of the gains of an expanding global View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

RealNetworks, CNET, and Judo Strategy

Sure, the price of tulips in the Netherlands skyrocketed to such outlandish heights that one flower sold for the equivalent of several hundred dollars before the market crashed in 1637, taking the Dutch economy down with it for many years... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

March 2009 (Revised July 2010)
Case

IBM: The Corporate Service Corps

By: Christopher Marquis and Rosabeth M. Kanter

Describes the conception, development, and implementation of the Corporate Services Corps (CSC), an international community service assignment for high-potential IBM employees. The year 2008 was the pilot year of the CSC program, and 100 of IBM's best global employees... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Global Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Partners and Partnerships; Non-Governmental Organizations