Publications

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19 Sep 2023
Blog Post

2023 Summer Internships in Business & Environment

response services by connecting customers’ distributed energy resource assets (DERs) to every wholesale electricity market in North America. The Product Partnerships team is responsible for conducting market research for partnership... View Details

July 2020
Teaching Note

COVID-19: The Global Shutdown

By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong

In the first months of 2020, a pandemic overwhelmed the world. COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, spread from China and created a severe public health emergency across countries. While an immediate fear of the disease’s impact on human life permeaacted... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Trade; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics; Financial Crisis; Economy; Policy; Governance; Economic Systems; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Economic Sectors

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Impact Stories - Impact Stories

Mulroney (MBA 1984); Joseph L. Badaracco (John Shad Professor of Business Ethics); By: Jen McFarland Flint; Illustrations by Pete Ryan 15 Dec 2024 HBS Magazine Agenda: Amanda E/J Morrison (MBA 2014) Re: Amanda Johnson (MBA 2014); By:... View Details

Research Summary

Debt Maturity: Is Long-Term Debt Optimal? (with Fabio Kanczuk)

We model and calibrate the arguments in favor and against short-term and long-term debt. These arguments broadly include: maturity-term premium, tax smoothing, rolling over risk and the cost from defaulting. We use a dynamic equilibrium model with tax distortion,... View Details

2010
Casebook

Global Capital and National Institutions: Crisis and Choice in the International Financial Architecture

All managers face a business environment in which international and macroeconomic phenomena matter. International capital flows can significantly affect countries' development efforts and provide clear investment opportunities for businesses. During the 1990s and early... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Capital; International Finance; Globalized Economies and Regions; Policy; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations

February 2019
Editorial

Introduction To: The Euro at Twenty

By: Laura Alfaro and Paul R. Bergin

The article introduces a special volume on the “Euro at Twenty” as the currency was first introduced January 1, 1999. The volume includes papers by renowned leaders and thinkers: Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank; Claudia Buch,... View Details

Keywords: The Euro; Currency; Europe; European Union

25 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Class of 2021 Student Profiles

Collaborating with a friend, Nouf, Fatima launched Jonnah, a nonprofit that would help women with sewing skills get the materials, space, and services necessary to run a garment business. By August 2018, they had successfully launched... View Details

fall 2010
Article

Lawsuits and Empire: On the Enforcement of Sovereign Debt in Latin America

By: Faisal Z. Ahmed, Laura Alfaro and Noel Maurer

The re-occurring phenomenon of sovereign default has prompted an enormous theoretical and empirical literature. Most of this research has focused on why countries ever chose to pay their debts (or why private creditors ever expected repayment). The problem originates... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Sovereign Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Debt Securities; Motivation and Incentives; Markets; Equity; Banking Industry; Latin America

Web

Site Credits | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Supported by The de Gaspé Beaubien Family Endowment at Harvard Business School Debra Wallace Executive Director Knowledge and Library Services Laura Linard Senior Director Baker Library Special Collections... View Details

March 2005
Article

Sovereign Debt As a Contingent Claim: A Quantitative Approach

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

We construct a dynamic equilibrium model with contingent service and adverse selection to quantitatively study sovereign debt. In the model, benefits of defaulting are tempered by higher future interest rates. For a wide set of parameters, the only equilibrium is one... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Interest Rates; Balance and Stability; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods; Management Style; Segmentation; Debt Securities; Banking Industry

Research Summary

Selection, Reallocation, and Spillover: Identifying the Sources of Gains from Multinational Production (with Maggie Chen)

Quantifying the gains from multinational production has been a vital topic of economic research. Positive productivity gains are often attributed to knowledge spillover from multinational to domestic firms. An alternative, less stressed explanation is firm selection... View Details

Keywords: Gains From Multinational Production; Firm Selection; Knowledge Spillover

28 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 28

packs expire have largely failed. Kadakia must decide, preserve the product or pivot to a new business model? Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/817002-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 817-065 Delivering the Goods at Shippo View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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Research - Private Capital Project

Samuel Gregory Hanson , Victoria Ivashina , Laura Nicolae , Jeremy C. Stein, Adi Sunderam and Daniel K. Tarullo As revealed by the failures of three regional banks in the spring of 2023, bank runs are not a... View Details

March 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

China: To Float or Not To Float? (E)- ABB Investment in China

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

In July 2005, China revalued its currency by 2.1% and adjusted its exchange rate regime toward a more market-based system. ABB, a global power and automation technologies company based out of Switzerland with operations in China, was among those companies confronted... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; International Relations; Problems and Challenges; Value Creation; China; Switzerland

Educators

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2012
Other Unpublished Work

Selection, Reallocation, and Knowledge Spillover: Identifying the Sources of Productivity Gains from Multinational Activity

By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie X. Chen

The impact of multinational activity on host-country productivity has been a major topic of economic research. A positive impact can be attributed to knowledge spillovers from foreign multinational to domestic firms or a less stressed, alternative explanation—firm... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Productivity; Supply and Industry; Knowledge; Manufacturing Industry

2016
Chapter

Trade Associations, State Building, and the Sherman Act: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1912–25

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

From its founding in 1912 through the interwar years, the Chamber’s history shows a persistent preoccupation with progressive economics and policy making. Rather than flouting the new ideas of institutional economics, which favored federal regulators overseeing data... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Fairness; Supply and Industry; Policy; Business and Government Relations; United States

September 28, 2023
Article

A Perspective on the Great Reallocation of Global Supply Chains

By: Laura Alfaro and Davin Chor

Previous optimism that cross-border supply chains would improve efficiency for firms and open up growth opportunities for countries has been tempered by concerns that global value chains now expose firms and countries to the risk of disruptions. This column analyses... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Policy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; United States

Research Summary

Optimal Reserve Management and Sovereign Debt (with Fabio Kanczuk)