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- All HBS Web (1,053)
- Faculty Publications (527)
- September 2023
- Article
The Health Costs of Dirty Energy: Evidence from the Capacity Market in Colombia
By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Theresa Molina, Anant Nyshadham, Jorge Tamayo and Nicholas Torres
The health effects of “dirty” (fossil fuel driven) energy production are difficult to measure accurately due to the endogeneity of fuel choice. We exploit an electricity policy in Colombia that generates a price-based trigger for the use of thermal energy sources.... View Details
Adhvaryu, Achyuta, Theresa Molina, Anant Nyshadham, Jorge Tamayo, and Nicholas Torres. "The Health Costs of Dirty Energy: Evidence from the Capacity Market in Colombia." Art. 103116. Journal of Development Economics 164 (September 2023).
- 04 May 2009
- Research & Ideas
What’s Next for the Big Financial Brands
services sector is an open invitation to other non-financial companies to exploit the brand vacuum created by the demise of the likes of Merrill Lynch and RBS. Look to Tesco, the leading retailer in the United Kingdom, to extend further... View Details
- Forthcoming
- Article
In the Red: Overdrafts, Payday Lending and the Underbanked
By: Marco Di Maggio, Angela Ma and Emily Williams
The reordering of transactions from “high-to-low” is a controversial bank practice thought to maximize fees paid by low-income customers on overdrawn accounts. We exploit multiple class-action lawsuits resulting in mandatory changes to this practice, coupled with... View Details
- March 2023
- Article
Attracting the Sharks: Corporate Innovation and Securities Class Action Lawsuits
By: Elisabeth Kempf and Oliver Spalt
This paper provides novel evidence suggesting that securities class action lawsuits, a central pillar of the U.S. litigation and corporate governance system, can constitute an obstacle to valuable corporate innovation. We first establish that valuable innovation output... View Details
Keywords: Class-action Litigation; Turnover; Lawsuits and Litigation; Innovation and Invention; Risk and Uncertainty
Kempf, Elisabeth, and Oliver Spalt. "Attracting the Sharks: Corporate Innovation and Securities Class Action Lawsuits." Management Science 69, no. 3 (March 2023): 1323–1934.
- 2021
- Working Paper
Proxy Advisory Firms and Corporate Shareholder Engagement
By: Aiyesha Dey, Joshua White and Austin Starkweather
We examine the influence of proxy advisors on firms’ shareholder engagement behavior. Our analyses exploit a quasi-natural experiment using Say-On-Pay voting outcomes near a threshold that triggers a review of engagement activities by Institutional Shareholder Services... View Details
Keywords: Proxy Advisors; ISS; Shareholder Engagement; Disclosure; Business and Shareholder Relations; Executive Compensation; Corporate Disclosure
Dey, Aiyesha, Joshua White, and Austin Starkweather. "Proxy Advisory Firms and Corporate Shareholder Engagement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-137, June 2021. (Revised February 2022.)
- October 22, 2012
- Article
Interest Rate Pass-Through: Mortgage Rates, Household Consumption, and Voluntary Deleveraging
By: Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani, Benjamin Keys, Tomasz Piskorski, Rodney Ramcharan, Amit Seru and Vincent Yao
Exploiting variation in the timing of resets of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), we find that a sizable decline in mortgage payments (up to 50%) induces a significant increase in car purchases (up to 35%). This effect is attenuated by voluntary deleveraging. Borrowers... View Details
Keywords: Monetary Policy; Household Finance; Refinancing; Contract Rigidities; Debt Rigidity; MPC; Deleveraging; Personal Finance; Household; Policy; Borrowing and Debt; Macroeconomics
Di Maggio, Marco, Amir Kermani, Benjamin Keys, Tomasz Piskorski, Rodney Ramcharan, Amit Seru, and Vincent Yao. "Interest Rate Pass-Through: Mortgage Rates, Household Consumption, and Voluntary Deleveraging." American Economic Review 107, no. 11 (November 2017): 3550–3588. (Note: this is a combined version of working papers Monetary Policy Pass-Through: Household Consumption and Voluntary Deleveraging by M. Di Maggio, A. Kermani and R. Ramcharan previously Revise & Resubmit at American Economic Review and Mortgage Rates, Household Balance Sheets, and the Real Economy by B. Keys, T. Piskorski, A. Seru, and V. Yao previously Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Political Economy.)
- Article
The Effects of Media Slant on Firm Behavior
By: Vishal P. Baloria and Jonas Heese
The media can impose reputational costs on firms because of its important role as an information intermediary and its ability to negatively slant coverage. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment that holds constant the information event across firms, but varies the... View Details
Keywords: Media Slant; Reputational Capital; Strategic Corporate Decisions; Media; News; Communication Strategy; Reputation
Baloria, Vishal P., and Jonas Heese. "The Effects of Media Slant on Firm Behavior." Journal of Financial Economics 129, no. 1 (July 2018): 184–202.
- April 2011
- Article
Local Dividend Clienteles
We exploit demographic variation to identify the effect of dividend demand on corporate payout policy. Retail investors tend to hold local stocks, and older investors prefer dividend-paying stocks. Together, these tendencies generate geographically varying demand for... View Details
Keywords: Business Headquarters; Demographics; Investment; Geographic Location; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations
Becker, Bo, Zoran Ivkovic, and Scott Weisbenner. "Local Dividend Clienteles." Journal of Finance 66, no. 2 (April 2011): 655–684.
- July 2010
- Article
The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention
By: William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln
This study evaluates the impact of high-skilled immigrants on U.S. technology formation. We use reduced-form specifications that exploit large changes in the H-1B visa program. Higher H-1B admissions increase immigrant science and engineering (SE) employment and... View Details
Keywords: Engineering; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Immigration; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Business and Government Relations; Science; United States
Kerr, William R., and William F. Lincoln. "The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention." Journal of Labor Economics 28, no. 3 (July 2010): 473–508. (Winner of H. Gregg Lewis Prize for Best Paper in Journal of Labor Economics 2010-2011.)
- 2008
- Working Paper
The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization
By: Maria Guadalupe and Julie Wulf
This paper establishes a causal effect of competition from trade liberalization on various characteristics of organizational design. We exploit a unique panel dataset on firm hierarchies (1986-1999) of large U.S. firms and find that increasing competition leads firms... View Details
Keywords: Trade; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy
Guadalupe, Maria, and Julie Wulf. "The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-067, November 2008.
- November 2001
- Case
Sigma Networks, Inc.
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Christina L. Darwall
Sigma Networks, a venture capital-based telecommunications start-up, provides metropolitan area networks (MANs) that use fiberoptic lines to connect local Internet service providers (e.g., ISPs, hosting firms) with a long-haul ("backbone") network. MANs represent a... View Details
Keywords: Business Startups; Customers; Capital Budgeting; Venture Capital; Strategic Planning; Technology Networks; Telecommunications Industry
Eisenmann, Thomas R., and Christina L. Darwall. "Sigma Networks, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 802-103, November 2001.
- August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
Brita Products Company, The
By: John A. Deighton
Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details
Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Acquisition; Retention; Safety; Natural Environment; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Equity; Demand and Consumers; United States
Deighton, John A. "Brita Products Company, The." Harvard Business School Case 500-024, August 1999. (Revised January 2002.) (request a courtesy copy.)
- 2025
- Working Paper
Prices and Concentration: A U-shape? Theory and Evidence from Renewables
By: Michele Fioretti, Junnan He and Jorge Tamayo
We show that when firms compete via supply functions, transferring high-cost
capacity to the largest, most efficient firm—thereby diversifying its production technologies
while increasing concentration—can lower prices by prompting the leader
to expand output and... View Details
Keywords: Diversified Production Technologies; Concentration Levels; Market Power; Supply Function Equilibrium; Hydropower; Energy Transition; Renewable Energy; Price; Competition; Supply and Industry; Energy Industry; Colombia
Fioretti, Michele, Junnan He, and Jorge Tamayo. "Prices and Concentration: A U-shape? Theory and Evidence from Renewables." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-049, April 2025.
- Forthcoming
- Article
Black Empowerment and White Mobilization: The Effects of the Voting Rights Act
By: Andrea Bernini, Giovanni Facchini, Marco Tabellini and Cecilia Testa
How did southern whites respond to the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA)? Leveraging
newly digitized data on county-level voter registration by race between 1956 and
1980, and exploiting pre-determined variation in exposure to the federal intervention,
we document that... View Details
Bernini, Andrea, Giovanni Facchini, Marco Tabellini, and Cecilia Testa. "Black Empowerment and White Mobilization: The Effects of the Voting Rights Act." Journal of Political Economy (forthcoming). (Also available on Vox EU and VoxDev. Featured on HBS Working Knowledge.)
- December 2024
- Article
Proxy Advisory Firms and Corporate Shareholder Engagement
By: Aiyesha Dey, Austin Starkweather and Joshua White
We study how Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) affect firms’ engagement with shareholders. Our analyses exploit a quasi-natural experiment using say-on-pay voting outcomes near a threshold that triggers ISS to review engagement activities. Firms receiving ISS... View Details
Dey, Aiyesha, Austin Starkweather, and Joshua White. "Proxy Advisory Firms and Corporate Shareholder Engagement." Review of Financial Studies 37, no. 12 (December 2024): 3877–3931.
- December 2024
- Article
Are Bankruptcy Professional Fees Excessively High?
By: Samuel Antill
Chapter 7 is the most popular bankruptcy system for U.S. firms and individuals. Chapter 7 professional fees are substantial. Theoretically, high fees might be an unavoidable cost of incentivizing professionals. I test this empirically. I study trustees, the most... View Details
Antill, Samuel. "Are Bankruptcy Professional Fees Excessively High?" Review of Financial Studies 37, no. 12 (December 2024): 3595–3647. (Lead Article and Editor's Choice.)
- 2023
- Working Paper
Can Digitalization Improve Public Services? Evidence from Innovation in Energy Management
By: Robyn C. Meeks, Jacquelyn Pless and Zhenxuan Wang
This paper examines how digitalization impacts public service provision through a study of the U.S. power sector. We exploit the staggered timing of electric utilities’ investments in “smart” meters and find that electricity losses per unit sold decrease by 3.6%. This... View Details
Keywords: Electric Utility; Energy Management; Smart Meters; Energy; Climate Change; State Ownership; Private Ownership; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; United States
Meeks, Robyn C., Jacquelyn Pless, and Zhenxuan Wang. "Can Digitalization Improve Public Services? Evidence from Innovation in Energy Management." MIT CEEPR Working Paper Series, No. 2023-22, December 2023.
- 2017
- Working Paper
Learning by Doing: The Value of Experience and the Origins of Skill for Mutual Fund Managers
By: Elisabeth Kempf, Alberto Manconi and Oliver Spalt
Learning by doing matters for professional investors. We develop a new methodology to show that mutual fund managers outperform in industries where they have obtained experience on the job. The key to our identification strategy is that we look "inside" funds and... View Details
Kempf, Elisabeth, Alberto Manconi, and Oliver Spalt. "Learning by Doing: The Value of Experience and the Origins of Skill for Mutual Fund Managers." SSRN Working Paper Series, No. 2124896, May 2017.
- May 2017
- Article
Distracted Shareholders and Corporate Actions
By: Elisabeth Kempf, Alberto Manconi and Oliver Spalt
Investor attention matters for corporate actions. Our new identification approach constructs firm-level shareholder "distraction" measures, by exploiting exogenous shocks to unrelated parts of institutional shareholders' portfolios. Firms with "distracted" shareholders... View Details
Keywords: Investors; Business and Shareholder Relations; Executive Compensation; Stocks; Mergers and Acquisitions
Kempf, Elisabeth, Alberto Manconi, and Oliver Spalt. "Distracted Shareholders and Corporate Actions." Review of Financial Studies 30, no. 5 (May 2017): 1660–1695.
- Article
Core Earnings: New Data and Evidence
By: Ethan Rouen, Eric C. So and Charles C.Y. Wang
Using a novel dataset, we show that components of firms' GAAP earnings stemming from ancillary business activities or transitory shocks are significant in frequency and magnitude. These components have grown over time and are dispersed across various sections of the... View Details
Keywords: Core Earnings; Transitory Earnings; Non-operating Earnings; Quantitative Disclosures; Equity Valuation; Big Data; Business Earnings; Financial Reporting; Valuation; Analytics and Data Science
Rouen, Ethan, Eric C. So, and Charles C.Y. Wang. "Core Earnings: New Data and Evidence." Journal of Financial Economics 142, no. 3 (December 2021): 1068–1091.