Publications

SSRN

January 2013
Article

Payout Taxes and the Allocation of Investment

When corporate payout is taxed, internal equity (retained earnings) is cheaper than external equity (share issues). If there are no perfect substitutes for equity finance, payout taxes may therefore have an effect on the investment of firms. High taxes will favor... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Investment; Equity; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation

August 1985 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Paul Volcker and the Federal Reserve: 1979-1982

Describes three years of the Volcker monetary policy experiment. The Federal Reserve changed the focus by its operating procedure from an interest rate instrument to a reserve instrument and it reaffirmed its commitment to hitting its preannounced monetary growth... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Financial Institutions; United States

01 Dec 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is Quality of Labor? And How Is It Achieved?

necessary skills? And in the meantime, what should government do, if anything, to stem job and worker flows while maintaining the quality of labor of its citizens? What do you... View Details

Keywords: by by Jim Heskett

January 2006
Article

Corporate Tax Avoidance and High Powered Incentives

By: Mihir A. Desai and Dhammika Dharmapala

Keywords: Taxation; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

Keywords: Green Building; LEED Rating System; Economic And Environmental Performance; Program Evaluation And Assessment; Tradeoffs Between Process- And Performance Standards; Buildings and Facilities; Business Headquarters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Green Technology Industry

September 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Genzyme Center (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel and Aldo Sesia

Genzyme Corporation is in the midst of planning its new corporate headquarters, which incorporates many innovative green building features. After learning that the building as planned would likely earn a LEED Silver rating, an intermediate score in the LEED green... View Details

December 2017 (Revised January 2025)
Course Overview Note

Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE)

By: Matthew Weinzierl, Sophus A. Reinert and Alberto Cavallo

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; International Relations; Trade

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Privatization and the New European Economy

"Privatization and the Role of the Governments in a Global Economy," the prime candidates for state-run operations clustered around five sectors of the European economy— transportation,... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Air Transportation; Transportation

Winter 2013
Article

Fear of Rejection? Tiered Certification and Transparency

By: Emmanuel Farhi, Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

The sub-prime crisis has shone a harsh spotlight on the practices of securities underwriters, which provided too many complex securities that proved to ultimately have little value. This uproar calls attention to the fact that the literature on intermediaries has... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance

March 2012
Article

Subprime Foreclosures and the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform

By: Donald Morgan, Benjamin Iverson and Matthew Botsch

This article presents arguments and evidence suggesting that the bankruptcy abuse reform (BAR) of 2005 may have been one contributor to the destabilizing surge in subprime foreclosures. Before BAR took effect, overly indebted borrowers could file bankruptcy to free up... View Details

Keywords: Mortgages; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Borrowing and Debt; United States

25 May 2010
News

Commencement and the Winds of Change

2006, addressed graduating HBS students at this year’s Class Day. Born in Cairo, Cohen was 11 when he and his family, along with other Jewish residents, were forced to leave Egypt by the country’s government... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Finance

19 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 19, 2017

forthcoming Economic Journal (Royal Economic Society) Increasing the Electoral Participation of Immigrants: Experimental Evidence from France By: Pons, Vincent, and Guillaume Liegey Abstract—Improving the View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

March 2015
Article

Monetary Policy and Long-Term Real Rates

By: Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein

Changes in monetary policy have surprisingly strong effects on forward real rates in the distant future. A 100 basis point increase in the two-year nominal yield on a Federal Open Markets Committee announcement day is associated with a 42 basis point increase in the... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Interest Rates; Economics

December 2021
Case

The Instant Payment Mandate: The Central Bank of Brazil and Pix

By: Lauren Cohen and Spencer C. N. Hagist

João M. P. De Mello and his team at the Central Bank of Brazil are preparing a move that would seek to tilt the scales in favor of financial inclusion for the entire country. The innovation at hand is the unprecedented nation-wide instant payment scheme: Pix. The fruit... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Strategy; Banking Industry; Brazil

28 Sep 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Rankings Matter Even When They Shouldn't: Bandwagon Effects in Two-Round Elections

Keywords: by Vincent Pons and Clémence Tricaud

2005
Other Unpublished Work

Value-Added Taxes and International Trade: The Evidence

By: Mihir A. Desai and James R Hines Jr.

Keywords: Taxation; Trade; Globalized Firms and Management

30 Nov 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do Leaders Manage the Tension Between Pride and Arrogance?

can leaders do to ensure that arrogance isn’t the unintended result of efforts to build pride in an organization? Is this relevant for political as well as business leaders? How do you manage the tension between pride View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2002
Background Note

Strategy and Sources of Motion Picture Finance, The

By: Mihir A. Desai, Gabriel J. Loeb and Mark Veblen

This case considers the alternative financing mechanisms for film financing, the evolution of film finance in the United States, and the nature of tax-motivated film financing in the United States and around the world. It develops the strategy driving motion picture... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; Financial Instruments; Financial Strategy; Financing and Loans; Globalized Markets and Industries; Taxation; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

2015
Article

Regulator Leniency and Mispricing in Beneficent Nonprofits

By: Jonas Heese, Ranjani Krishnan and Frank Moers

We posit that nonprofits that provide a greater supply of unprofitable services (beneficent nonprofits) face lenient regulatory enforcement for mispricing in price-regulated markets. Consequently, beneficent nonprofits exploit such regulatory leniency and exhibit... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Business Earnings; Fairness; Governance Compliance