Publications

01 Jun 2023
News

Pet Project

Illustration by Shane Cluskey Like pet owners everywhere, Katie Spies (MBA 2019) would do anything for her dog. In 2014, when her Italian greyhound, George, started experiencing seizures and other health problems that didn’t respond to... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade; Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores; Retail Trade

August 2018
Article

The Effect of Graphic Warnings on Sugary-Drink Purchasing

By: Grant Donnelly, Laura Y. Zatz, Daniel Svirsky and Leslie John

Governments have proposed text warning labels to decrease consumption of sugary drinks – a contributor to chronic diseases like diabetes. However, they may be less effective than more evocative, graphic warning labels. We field-tested the effectiveness of graphic... View Details

Keywords: Policy Making; Preferences; Food; Health; Policy; Information; Labels; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making; Performance Effectiveness

06 Aug 2018
News

Think You’re Having a Heart Attack? If You’re a Woman, Insist on a Female Physician

June 2019
Article

Debt Redemption and Reserve Accumulation

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

In the past decade, foreign participation in local-currency bond markets in emerging countries increased dramatically. We revisit sovereign debt sustainability under the assumptions that countries can accumulate reserves and borrow internationally using their own... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Debt; Local-currency Bonds; Foreign Reserves; Sovereign Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Bonds; Financial Markets; Developing Countries and Economies

December 2009
Article

Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment

By: Laura Alfaro and Andrew Charlton

We use a new firm-level dataset that establishes the location, ownership, and activity of 650,000 multinational subsidiaries. Using a combination of four-digit-level information and input-output tables, we find the share of vertical FDI (subsidiaries that provide... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Competency and Skills; Foreign Direct Investment; Geographic Location; Multinational Firms and Management; Industry Structures; Production

Web

AASU50 - Alumni

Awarded W.E.B. Du Bois Medals Invocation, by Laura Morgan Roberts Spheres of Influence: A Portrait of Black MBA Program Alumni (HBS Research Findings) Spheres of Influence: A Portrait of Black MBA Program... View Details

October 2003 (Revised February 2010)
Case

The Duke Heart Failure Program

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Laura Feldman

Duke University Health System has for the past five years operated a specialized clinic for the management of congestive heart failure, a very common and costly condition in the surrounding community. Nurse practitioners, whose work is guided by highly specified... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Medical Specialties; Time Management; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Outcome or Result; Health Industry

Web

Nonprofit Strategy & Governance | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Linos, Laura Jakli & Melissa Carlson 2021 | American Political Science Review 115, no. 1 As government welfare programming contracts and NGOs increasingly assume core aid functions, they must address a long-standing challenge—that people... View Details

August 21, 2018
Article

Patient–Physician Gender Concordance and Increased Mortality Among Female Heart Attack Patients

By: Brad Greenwood, Seth Carnahan and Laura Huang

We examine patient gender disparities in survival rates following acute myocardial infarctions (i.e., heart attacks) based on the gender of the treating physician. Using a census of heart attack patients admitted to Florida hospitals between 1991 and 2010, we find... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Health Care and Treatment; Gender; Outcome or Result

2018
Chapter

Transportation Cost and the Geography of Foreign Investment

By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie Chen

Falling transportation costs and rapid technological progress in recent decades have precipitated an explosion of cross-border flows in goods, services, investments, and ideas led by multinational firms. Extensive research has sought to understand the geographic... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Cost; Transportation; Geographic Scope; Geographic Location

Article

Deregulation, Misallocation, and Size: Evidence from India

By: Laura Alfaro and Anusha Chari

This paper examines the impact of the deregulation of compulsory industrial licensing in India on firm size dynamics and reallocation of resources within industries. Following deregulation, resource misallocation declines, and the left-hand tail of the firm size... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Size; Emerging Markets; Supply and Industry; Manufacturing Industry; India

April 2007 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Aid, Debt Relief, and Trade: An Agenda for Fighting World Poverty (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Eric D. Werker and Renee Kim

At the 2005 Group of Eight summit, world leaders agreed to relieve the world's poorest countries' debt burdens and double aid to Africa by 2010. The announcement raised questions whether debt relief would really help the poor. By examining past aid trends and policies... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; International Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Poverty; Welfare; Africa

2005
Working Paper

Nominal versus Indexed Debt: A Quantitative Horse Race

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

The main arguments in favor of and against nominal and indexed debt are the incentive to default through inflation versus hedging against unforeseen shocks. We model and calibrate these arguments to assess their quantitative importance. We use a dynamic equilibrium... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Taxation; Risk and Uncertainty; Inflation and Deflation; System Shocks; Developing Countries and Economies; Mathematical Methods

June 2018 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Renegotiating NAFTA

By: Laura Alfaro, Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason and Sarah Jeong

January 1, 2019 marked the 25th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Twenty-five years after the landmark trade pact was signed by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, considerable debate surrounded it. Trade and trade agreements were a... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Negotiation; Agreements and Arrangements; Cost vs Benefits; Auto Industry; United States; Mexico; Canada

March 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Policy Reactions (A)

By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim

By March 2008, the U.S. Government and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board had taken various policy measures over the last few months to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis that threatened to drag the economy into a recession. The Bush administration approved a fiscal... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Inflation and Deflation; Central Banking; Mortgages; Policy; Business and Government Relations; United States

Article

Debt Maturity: Is Long-Term Debt Optimal?

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

We model and calibrate the arguments in favor and against short-term and long-term debt. These arguments broadly include: maturity premium, sustainability, and service smoothing. We use a dynamic equilibrium model with tax distortions and government... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Investment Return; Development Economics; Taxation; Risk and Uncertainty; Cost; Interest Rates; Developing Countries and Economies; Welfare; United States; Brazil

2021
Working Paper

Elusive Safety: The New Geography of Capital Flows and Risk

By: Laura Alfaro, Ester Faia, Ruth Judson and Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr

A confidential dataset with industry-level disaggregation of U.S. cross-border claims and liabilities, shows U.S. securities to be increasingly intermediated by tax-haven-financial-centers (THFC) and less regulated funds. These securities are risky, in... View Details

Keywords: Tax Havens; Financial Centers; Geography Of Flows; Profit Shifting; Tax Avoidance; Risk; Safe Assets; Hetergeneous Firms; Endogenous Entry; Endogenous Monitoring; Regulatory Arbitrage; Assets; Safety; Risk and Uncertainty; Capital; Global Range