Publications

Summer 2021
Article

The Origin and Development of Firm Management

By: Michela Giorcelli

This paper examines the historical origin and diffusion of management practices. Despite their centrality in the modern world, the concepts of ‘management’ developed fairly recently. Only with the Industrial Revolution, due to the increased firm size, owners needed a... View Details

Keywords: Productivity; Kaizen; Management; Management Practices and Processes; History; Performance Productivity; Technology

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2010
Working Paper

Medium Term Business Cycles in Developing Countries

By: Diego A. Comin, Norman Loayza, Farooq Pasha and Luis Serven

We build a two-country asymmetric DSGE model with two features: (i) endogenous and slow diffusion of technologies from the developed to the developing country, and (ii) adjustment costs to investment flows. We calibrate the model to match the Mexico-U.S. trade and FDI... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Developing Countries and Economies; Trade; International Finance; Foreign Direct Investment; Mathematical Methods; Mexico; United States

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August 2009 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Tenova: Mining for Growth in an Economic Crisis

By: Gary P. Pisano, Elena Corsi and Elisa Farri

In December 2008, Gianluigi Nova, CEO of Tenova SpA, a technology and equipment supplier to the metals and mining industry, had to choose between two options. The first was to continue growing in the company's core business: equipment for the steel production. The... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Leadership; Crisis Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Diversification; Industrial Products Industry; Mining Industry

29 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

The $1 Trillion Link Between Mental Health and Economic Productivity

In April, the World Health Organization released a groundbreaking study that established a definitive link between mental health and economic productivity. The findings were both depressing and hopeful. On the downside, depression and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

05 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Watching for the Next Economic Downturn? Follow Corporate Debt

probability of a crisis within the next three years. “Once the bank balance sheet is handicapped, all kinds of other consequences come out.” An ensuing recovery can take longer to develop once a financial crisis abates if commercial... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

01 Dec 1997
News

Merton's Economics Research Wins Nobel Prize

accomplishment from both sides of the Charles. "Robert Merton has been an innovative leader in the field of economic valuations and in improving the capacity to manage financial risk," said Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine. "This is a... View Details

January 1997
Case

World Bank (A1): Rural Development (Revisited)

By: George C. Lodge

Begins with a brief description of the World Bank and its commitment to rural development. Discusses the bank's Northeast rural development program in Brazil, outlining its failure, success, and structural design. The questions raised by the project are left for the... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Development Economics; Rural Scope; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Government Legislation

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Research Summary

Advertising and the Economics of Attention

Using novel technologies, such as eye- and face-tracking, to gauge attentional and emotional (facial) reactions to advertising, Professor Teixeira studies how advertising effectiveness can be optimized. Through complex statistical models of consumer response, he... View Details

October 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

YES BANK: Mainstreaming Development into Indian Banking

By: Michael Chu and Namrata Arora

YES BANK, founded in 2003 and highly successful, has consistently been profitable meeting the Indian government's Priority Sector Lending (PSL) requirements, unlike virtually all other private sector banks, which view PSL activity as a necessary but loss-making part of... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Private Equity; Microfinance; Investment; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Expansion; Banking Industry; India

March 2011
Case

Uganda: The Constitution of Development

By: Catherine S. M. Duggan and Alexander Roehrkasse

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Public Administration Industry; Uganda

17 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Can China Maintain Its Economic Power?

terrible Foxconn suicides. The one-child-per-family policy was beginning to create a population shortage that meant cheap labor was running out. The old low-cost manufacturing-for-export strategy had run out of steam. They were developing... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg

July 2021
Teaching Plan

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-098. In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied directly to one primary resource—in this case... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

2006
Other Unpublished Work

Rural Clusters of Innovation: Berkshires Strategy Project: Driving A Long-Term Economic Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter

The Berkshires Strategy Project, a six-month strategy development effort involving dozens of private and public sector organizations in the Berkshires, has led to broad consensus behind an economic strategy for the County, and galvanized a leadership group in the form... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Industry Clusters; Growth and Development; United States

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05 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Firms and the Economics of Skilled Immigration

Keywords: by Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr & William F. Lincoln; Technology

16 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Can Applied Economics Save Homeless Puppies?

In 2012, two seasoned scholars shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their research on designing markets. Lloyd Shapley had developed theoretical methods to create stable matches in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

August 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Teaching Note

Dharavi: Developing Asia's Largest Slum (TN)

By: Lakshmi Iyer and John D. Macomber

Teaching Note for [710004]. View Details

Keywords: Wealth and Poverty; Developing Countries and Economies; Asia

January 2019
Case

King Abdullah Economic City: Population Drivers and Cash Flow

By: John D. Macomber

CEO of high profile new economic city in Saudi Arabia must decide how to allocate limited investment funds across projects under duress. Issues include understanding core economic drivers; planning infrastructure investment and return; attracting multinationals; and... View Details

Keywords: Urban Development; Infrastructure; Project Finance; Resource Allocation; Decision Making; City; Real Estate Industry; Saudi Arabia

May 2016
Background Note

Health Systems in the Developing World

By: Kevin Schulman, Muhammed Pate and Gary Carbell

This note offers an approach to the evaluation of health care markets globally. It prepares students with a set of questions about the organization of core elements of the health care system. The organization of these elements can vary across markets and can vary in... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Developing Countries and Economies; Public Sector; Private Sector; Opportunities; Analysis