Publications

19 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 19, 2006

own and control the use of property in accord with their own interests, and where the invisible hand of the pricing mechanism coordinates supply and demand in markets in a way... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2024
Case

Post-Wirecard: BaFin under Mark Branson

By: Jonas Heese, Carlota Moniz and Daniela Beyersdorfer

In November 2023, Mark Branson, the head of Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), reflected on the efficacy of the reforms initiated since the Wirecard scandal. BaFin had been discredited after Wirecard’s downfall in 2020. The press had derided it... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Administration; Failure; Trust; Financial Services Industry; Public Administration Industry; Germany

September 2020
Article

Regulatory Sandboxes: A Cure for mHealth Pilotitis?

By: Abhishek Bhatia, Rahul Matthan, Tarun Khanna and Satchit Balsari

Mobile health (mHealth) and related digital health interventions in the past decade have not always scaled globally as anticipated earlier despite large investments by governments and philanthropic foundations. The implementation of digital health tools has suffered... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; mHealth; Digital Health; Design Thinking; Regulation; Intervention; Regulatory Sandbox; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Design; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; India

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31 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 31, 2017

whether review times or product novelty predicted adverse event reporting. Longer review times were associated with a lower probability of any subsequent reports and a lower probability of reports involving... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

29 Apr 2016
News

The First Five Years: Kelly McKenna (MBA 2015)

have absolutely no control over the two biggest influences on your speed—wind and water. But you learn to take clues as to what either the wind or the water might do, depending on factors like temperature, cloud patterns, wind direction,... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Internal Models, Make Believe Prices, and Bond Market Cornering

By: Ishita Sen and Varun Sharma

Exploiting position-level heterogeneity in regulatory incentives to misreport and novel data on regulators, we document that U.S. life insurers inflate the values of corporate bonds using internal models. We estimate an additional $9-$18 billion decline in regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Life Insurers; Capital Regulation; Internal Models; Corporate Bonds; Regulatory Supervision; Concentrated Ownership; Bonds; Capital; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance; Investment Portfolio

SSRN

May 2007
Case

Free the Grapes--Direct-to-Consumer Shipping in the Wine Industry

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Dennis A. Yao, Patricia Wu and Libby Cantrill

While wine tourism in the United States was booming, the majority of consumers who tasted a Cabernet Sauvignon in one of Napa Valley's tasting rooms were not permitted to ship the wine directly to their home. In 2002, direct-to-consumer shipping was either banned or... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Lawsuits and Litigation; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Article

Anger and Regulation

By: Rafael Di Tella and Juan Dubra

We study a model in which agents experience anger when they see a firm that has displayed insufficient concern for the welfare of its clients (i.e., altruism) making high profits. Regulation can increase welfare, for example, through fines (even with no changes in... View Details

Keywords: Altruism; Populism; Public Relations; Profit; Consumer Behavior; Perception; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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09 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 9, 2008

discussion of how ownership concentration constrains restructuring alternatives, how hedge fund investors might confront controlling shareholders, and how the mispricing of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2012 (Revised August 2012)
Case

MF Global: Where's the Money?

By: Clayton S. Rose, Pamela Chan and Raghav Chopra

When MF Global failed in October of 2011, it was discovered that $1.6 billion of segregated customer assets was missing. Safeguarding these assets was the firm's responsibility, and in the words of one SEC official, its "sacred obligation." What is known about the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Firms; Customer Obligations; Bankruptcy; Regulation; Financial Crisis; Brokerage; Asset Management; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Management; Crisis Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Services Industry

September 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

The Dubai Ports World Debacle and its Aftermath

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

Describes the political ramifications in the United States of Dubai-based DP World's acquisition of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). Because P&O operated some port terminals in the United States, DP World obtained clearance from the... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Legislation; National Security; Business and Government Relations; Ship Transportation; Dubai; United States

June 2023
Article

Regulatory Limits to Risk Management

By: Ishita Sen

Variable annuities, the largest liability of U.S. life insurers, are investment products containing long-dated minimum return guarantees. I show that guarantees with similar economic risks are treated differently by regulation and these differences impact insurers’... View Details

Keywords: Interest Rate Risk; Variable Annuities; Capital Regulation; Reinsurance; Derivatives; Risk Management; Interest Rates; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

SSRN

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16 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 16

between bundling and indirect network effects, we find that they act as substitute strategies, with a lower relative effectiveness for bundling when network effects are stronger. 2013 pub From Social Control to Financial Economics: The... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

02 Dec 2015
What Do You Think?

What Will It Take to Achieve Gender Equality in Leadership?

are totally different. They control access to leadership positions, yet those positions are often filled by those most familiar—that is, those who most resemble men.” She went on to suggest that as male leaders observe their daughters... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

own childhood leads people to experience feelings of moral purity and to behave prosocially. In Experiment 1, participants instructed to recall memories from their childhood were more likely to help the experimenter with a supplementary... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 24, 2018
Article

End the Corporate Health Care Tax

By: Mark R. Kramer and John Pontillo

Imagine if a single piece of legislation could effectively eliminate all U.S. corporate taxes, subsidize hundreds of millions of dollars in new corporate investment, increase the take-home pay of most U.S. employees, ease state and local budgets, and reduce the U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Taxation; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Taxation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States

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2011
Working Paper

Quantity vs. Quality: Exclusion by Platforms with Network Effects

By: Andrei Hagiu

This paper provides a simple model of platforms with direct network effects, in which users value not just the quantity (i.e., number) of other users who join, but also their average quality in some dimension. A monopoly platform is more likely to exclude low-quality... View Details

Keywords: Multi-sided Platforms; Exclusion; Quality And Quantity; Cost; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Network Effects; Market Participation; Digital Platforms; Monopoly; Quality; Motivation and Incentives; Strategy