Publications

Find at Harvard

Article

The Economic Consequences of Bankruptcy Reform

By: Tal Gross, Raymond Kluender, Feng Liu, Matthew J. Notowidigdo and Jialan Wang

A more generous consumer bankruptcy system provides greater insurance against financial risks but may also raise the cost of credit. We study this trade-off using the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), which increased the costs of... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention And Consumer Protection Act; Borrowing and Debt; Credit

Read Now

March 2013
Article

Financial Development, Fixed Costs and International Trade

Exporting firms face significant up-front costs in product design, marketing, and distribution, which likely would be difficult to finance externally. We argue that a developed financial system can facilitate exports, and we test three implications. First, a more... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Finance

Find at Harvard

June 1998
Article

The Politics of Monetary Leadership and Followership: Stability in the European Monetary System Since the Currency Crisis of 1992

By: Rawi Abdelal

Despite widespread scepticism, there is a fundamental continuity in the stability of the European Monetary System (EMS) before and after the 1992 crisis. Although speculative pressures provoked European leaders to widen the fluctuation bands of the Exchange Rate... View Details

Keywords: Money; Leadership; System; Balance and Stability; Europe

12 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Publish or Perish: What the Research Says About Productivity in Academia

research post-tenure. Encouraging researchers to take more risks The researchers also questioned professors’ personal appetites for risk-taking, hoping to gain answers to the age-old question: How do you get scientists to take more risks?... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Education

Research Summary

Inflation, Openness, and Exchange-Rate Regimes. The Quest for Short-Term Commitment

By: Laura Alfaro

This paper further tests Romers (1993) extension of Kydland and Prescotts (1977) predictions on dynamic-inconsistency problems with regard to open economies. In a panel data set, I find that openness does not seem to play a role in the short run in restricting... View Details

2022
Working Paper

How Do Investors Value ESG?

By: Malcolm Baker, Mark Egan and Suproteem K. Sarkar

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives have risen to near the top of the agenda for corporate executives and boards, driven in large part by their perceptions of shareholder interest. We quantify the value that shareholders place on ESG using a revealed... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Governance; Financial Services Industry; United States

July 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Dharavi: Developing Asia's Largest Slum (A)

By: Lakshmi Iyer, John D. Macomber and Namrata Arora

Maharashtra state is accepting bids to redevelop Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia. A real estate developer assesses the risks and tenders a bid. The bid conditions include providing new free housing to tens of thousands of slum dwellers, which is anticipated to be... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Development Economics; Housing; Urban Development; Emerging Markets; Social Issues; Business and Government Relations; Real Estate Industry; Mumbai

September 1992 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Acid Rain: The Southern Co. (B)

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

In addition to the issues of expected cost minimization elucidated in Acid Rain: The Southern Co. (A), problems involving regulatory uncertainty are critical to the firm's Clean Air Act compliance strategy. The regulatory uncertainty affects, and is affected by, the... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Business Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Cost vs Benefits; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategic Planning; Investment Return; Government Legislation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business and Government Relations; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; United States

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

not been hedged. "SVB was forced to issue a large amount of equity, which brought a lot of attention to their situation." Banks are highly levered, which magnifies the asset risk exposures for the equity. Suppose that bank assets resemble... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

24 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Yelp Factor: Are Consumer Reviews Good for Business?

common uses of online ratings: restaurants. "Restaurants are a classic example in economics where the consumer has to make a decision based on very little information," he says. In theory, ratings sites fill in the gaps by... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

May–June 2018
Article

The Surprising Power of Questions

By: Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John

Much of an executive’s workday is spent asking others for information—requesting status updates from a team leader, for example, or questioning a counterpart in a tense negotiation. Yet unlike professionals such as litigators, journalists, and doctors, who are taught... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Communication Strategy; Information; Knowledge Sharing; Performance Effectiveness

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Begenau’s research agenda is directed at better understanding how financial markets work and how they affect the real economy. She uses quantitative analysis to build both prescriptive and descriptive models concerning financial risk in banking, and she also... View Details

17 Oct 2023
HBS Case

With Subscription Fatigue Setting In, Companies Need to Think Hard About Fees

single flat price, where customers pay a fixed rate at regular intervals no matter how much they use a product or service. A “freemium” option, in which the base tier is free, while other more advanced tiers include escalating charges.... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Consumer Products; Information; Information Technology

Research Summary

Professor Pill's current research has two dimensions. On the one hand, he is investigating the formulation and conduct of monetary policy in advanced economies, with a focus on the implementation of the single monetary policy in the euro area. On the other hand, he is... View Details

December 2013 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Breaking Bad (the Rules): Argentina Defaults, Inflates (and Grows), 1997–2015

By: Rafael Di Tella and Fernanda Miguel

In late October 2011, after losing 1 billion of dollar reserves in one month, the Argentine government began imposing a series of currency controls, limiting the ability to buy foreign currency. As of October 2011, Argentina's tax collection agency AFIP had been... View Details

Keywords: Default; Inflation; Inflation and Deflation; Currency; Governance Controls; Argentina

September 1987 (Revised November 1992)
Background Note

Note on Operating Exposure to Exchange-Rate Changes

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Describes the effects on operating cash flows of a real change in exchange rates. Describes different elements of operating exposure and includes illustrative examples. View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Fluctuation