Publications

December 1986 (Revised November 1989)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: Manufacturing Productivity Division (A)

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine

In late summer 1986, the management of the Manufacturing Productivity Division (MPD) of Hewlett-Packard (HP) was in the process of making major market selection and product policy decisions. MPD is a small division which develops and markets manufacturing productivity... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Marketing; Product Marketing; Market Entry and Exit; Production; Research and Development; Manufacturing Industry

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01 Nov 2019
HBS Seminar

Meijun Liu, Shuo Li Liu, The University of Hong Kong, Division of information and technology & Stanford University School of Engineering

Arturo Acevedo

Keywords: Steel and Mining

2010
Chapter

The Paranoid Style in the Study of American Politics

By: David Moss and Mary Oey

What drives policy making in a democracy? The conventional view is that political actors, like economic actors, pursue their self interest, and that special interest groups dominate the policy making process by satisfying policy makers' need for money and other forms... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Government Legislation; Media; Interests; Power and Influence; Public Opinion; United States

September 2019
Article

The Effect of Enforcement Transparency: Evidence from SEC Comment-Letter Reviews

By: Miguel Duro, Jonas Heese and Gaizka Ormazabal

This paper studies the effect of the public disclosure of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) comment-letter reviews (CLs) on firms’ financial reporting. We exploit a major change in the SEC’s disclosure policy: in 2004, the SEC decided to make its CLs... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; SEC Comment-Letter Reviews; Public Enforcement; Governance; Information Publishing; Policy; Financial Reporting; Capital Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation

SSRN

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We propose a scalable, data-driven method for designing national policies for the allocation of deceased donor kidneys to patients on a waiting list, in a fair and efficient way. We focus on policies that have the same form as the one currently used in the United... View Details

2009
Report

Clusters, Cluster Policy, and Swedish Competitiveness

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Proximity enables firms to take advantage of knowledge spill-overs and exploit supplierdemand linkages with other entities engaged in related activities. Cluster strength thus seems to be one of the important determinants of prosperity differences across geographies.... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Industry Clusters; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Sweden

October 2003
Article

Capture by Threat

By: Ernesto Dal Bo and Rafael Di Tella

We analyze a simple stochastic environment in which policy makers can be threatened by “nasty” interest groups. In the absence of these groups, the policy maker’s desire for reelection guarantees that good policies are implemented for every realization of the shock.... View Details

Keywords: Political Parties; Politicians; Nash Equilibrium; Political Elections

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May 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Case

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Global Economy (A)

By: Alberto Cavallo and Christian Godwin

In April 2020, the world struggled to contain the exponential escalation of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Dozens of countries had imposed restrictions on travel, work, and social gatherings. A large share of the global population was under lockdowns and... View Details

1992
Chapter

Exchange Rate Forecasting Techniques, Survey Data, and Implications for the Foreign Exchange Market

By: J. Frankel and K. A. Froot

Keywords: Currencies; Exchange Rates; International Macroeconomics; Monetary Policy; Currency Controls; Fixed Exchange Rates; Floating Exchange Rates; Currency Bands; Currency Zones; Currency Areas; Rational Expectations; International Finance; Currency Exchange Rate; Asset Pricing; Forecasting and Prediction; Policy

02 Aug 2018
News

Learning From Henry Kissinger

March 1983 (Revised January 1989)
Case

American Home Products Corp.

American Home Products is a company with virtually no debt. Students are asked to analyze the company's debt policy and make a recommendation to the CEO. It is likely that adding debt to the capital structure would create some value for shareholders; the CEO is firmly... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Business Strategy; Borrowing and Debt; Consumer Products Industry

Fall 2013
Article

Shifts in U.S. Federal Reserve Goals and Tactics for Monetary Policy: A Role for Penitence?

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This paper considers some of the large changes in the Federal Reserve's approach to monetary policy. It shows that, in some important cases, critics who were successful in arguing that past Fed approaches were responsible for mistakes that caused harm succeeded in... View Details

Keywords: Central Banking; Policy; United States

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

2009
Other Unpublished Work

Clusters, Cluster Policy, and Swedish Competitiveness in the Global Economy

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Proximity enables firms to take advantage of knowledge spill-overs and exploit supplier demand linkages with other entities engaged in related activities. Cluster strength thus seems to be one of the important determinants of prosperity differences across geographies.... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Growth and Development; Sweden

February 1997 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Arbor Health Care Company

By: Myra M. Hart and Stephanie Dodson

A venture-funded start-up runs into trouble when health care reimbursement policies change radically. With the help of its board, the company develops a new strategy, becomes profitable, and makes a public offering. The second wave of changes introduced by Clinton... View Details

Keywords: Industry Structures; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Succession; Business Startups; Transformation; Strategy; Venture Capital; Policy; Initial Public Offering; Health Industry

Siyu Zhang is a second-year doctoral student at HBS. Zhang joined Harvard Business School in 2020 as a Research Associate and has been working on macroeconomic forecasting projects. Prior to joining HBS, he was a Data Scientist at John Hancock, where he utilized... View Details

July 2013
Case

Amul Dairy

By: Ray Goldberg and Ian McKown Cornell

In 2013, Rahul Kumar, the managing director of Amul dairy, India's leading dairy firm, had to decide how to position his firm for the future in light of India's growing population and demand for dairy. How could he maintain the firm's cooperative structure, address the... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Dairy; Policy; Corporate Strategy; Nutrition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

February 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Case

MicroStrategy's Investment in Bitcoin

By: C. Fritz Foley

At the end of the second quarter of 2020, MicroStrategy, a Virginia based provider of analytics software and services, announced plans to acquire and hold bitcoin as a part of the firm’s treasury reserve policy and corporate strategy. Within a year, the firm purchased... View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Corporate Strategy; Acquisition; Investment Portfolio; Capital Structure; Equity