Publications

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

2024
Working Paper

Intrinsic Motivation and Referrals Within Firms: Evidence from a Large Microfinance Institution

By: Natalia Rigol and Benjamin N. Roth

Many organizations rely on internal referrals between employees with differing comparative advantages. Yet when an employee encounters a lucrative opportunity, they may be motivated to retain it even when doing so harms efficiency. We develop a framework that... View Details

Keywords: Loan Officers; Strategic Behavior; Strategic Disclosure; Microfinance; Financial Institutions; Financing and Loans

December 2012
Background Note

Glossary of Municipal Finance Terms

A note on municipal bond structuring. View Details

Keywords: Local Government; Political Process; Debt Management; Financial Planning; Financial Management; Bonds; Urban Development; Local Range; Government Administration

May 2007
Article

Corporate Financing Decisions When Investors Take the Path of Least Resistance

By: Malcolm Baker, Joshua Coval and Jeremy Stein

We explore the consequences for corporate financial policy that arise when investors exhibit inertial behavior. One implication of investor inertia is that, all else equal, a firm pursuing a strategy of equity-financed growth will prefer a stock-for-stock merger to... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Investment; Policy; Corporate Finance

Fast Answer

International land development resources

initiative Land Deal Politics Initiative: The International Institute of Social... View Details

August 2015
Article

Poultry in Motion: A Study of International Trade Finance Practices

By: Pol Antràs and C. Fritz Foley

This paper analyzes the financing terms that support international trade and sheds light on how these terms shape the impact of economic shocks on trade. Analysis of transaction-level data from a U.S.-based exporter of frozen and refrigerated food products, primarily... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; International Finance; Financing and Loans; Trade

25 Feb 2015
HBS Seminar

Beril Toktay, Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology

2010
Book

A Call for Judgment: Sensible Finance for a Dynamic Economy

By: Amar Bhide

Our prosperity requires the enterprise of innumerable individuals and businesses who exercise their imagination and judgment—and bear responsibility for outcomes. And it is through dialogue and relationships that widespread enterprise is fostered, not merely prices in... View Details

Keywords: Recession; Banking; Banks; Finance; Economics; Macroeconomics; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

Web

About - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

in the modern financial system, and on the unprecedented growth of the financial sector prior to the crisis. Harvard researchers have also been among the first to develop comprehensive historical data on the incidence and length of... View Details

04 Mar 2020

Incorporating Climate Risk into Financial Models: Sustainable Finance

Web

Social Progress Index - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential. Our research supports the View Details

12 PM – 1 PM EDT, 07 May 2015
Webinars: Trending@HBS

The Low Risk Anomaly: Implications for Investment, Asset Allocation, and Corporate Finance

One of the basic principles of finance is that, in competitive and efficient markets, investors earn higher average returns only by taking greater risks. Asset classes follow this pattern: Stocks have returned more than bonds, and bonds have returned more than cash.... View Details

December 2000 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Promise (A): Building a Consumer Finance Company in Japan

Describes Promise, the third-largest consumer finance company in Japan. Promise was created in 1963 by an entrepreneur and has grown rapidly, especially in the 1990s when commercial banks struggled. Promise's core business consists of providing unsecured loans of up to... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Entrepreneurship; Financial Institutions; Financial Services Industry; Japan

March 2011
Teaching Note

Shenzhen Development Bank (TN)

By: Li Jin and Yuhai Xuan

Teaching Note for 210020. View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Decisions; Investment; Commercial Banking; Growth and Development; Negotiation Deal; Labor and Management Relations; Planning; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; China

December 2010
Article

Acquisitions as Exaptation: The Legacy of Founding Institutions in the U.S. Commercial Banking Industry

By: Christopher Marquis and Zhi Huang

This study focuses on the imprinting of institutional environments, particularly how founding institutions impact intra-organizational capabilities and how such imprints may have different external manifestations in subsequent historical eras. We introduce the concept... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Commercial Banking; Organizations; Theory; Policy; Government and Politics; Management Practices and Processes; Strategy; Competency and Skills; United States

November 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Innovating into Active ETFs: Factor Funds Capital Management LLC

By: Kenneth A. Froot, Lauren Cohen and Scott Waggoner

Kishore Karunakaran, President and COO of FFCM, faces a variety of challenges in launching an innovative investment management business in the rapidly evolving ETF space. View Details

Keywords: Investment Management; Institutional Investments; Entrepreneurial Finance; Financial Management; Innovation Strategy; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry; Boston

January 1994
Case

Evolving Finance Function: Judy C. Lewent at Merck & Co., Inc.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

This case examines the career path of Merck's CFO, Judy C. Lewent, as a way of tracing changes over time in Merck's finance function. It describes the adoption of innovative quantitative analytical models, changes in job definitions and in the organization of the... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Mathematical Methods; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Design; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry

April–May 2024
Article

Gone with the Big Data: Institutional Lender Demand for Private Information

By: Jung Koo Kang

I explore whether big-data sources can crowd out the value of private information acquired through lending relationships. Institutional lenders have been shown to exploit their access to borrowers’ private information by trading on it in financial markets. As a shock... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Markets; Value; Knowledge Dissemination; Financing and Loans

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