Publications

April 2005
Case

The University of Chicago Investment Office: Investing in Timber

In 2005, the University of Chicago Investment office was deciding how much capital to allocate toward timber investing. Explores the challenges associated with optimal portfolio construction when one of the invested assets is illiquid with limited historical price... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry

March 2011 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Wealth Management Crisis at UBS (A)

By: Paul M. Healy

The case describes the challenges that UBS faced as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for tax fraud, that claimed that UBS had helped some 52,000 U.S. residents hide billions of dollars in untaxed assets in secret Swiss accounts between... View Details

September 1987
Article

Short-term and Long-term Expectations of the Yen/Dollar Exchange Rate: Evidence from Survey Data

By: J. Frankel and K. A. Froot

Keywords: Currencies; Exchange Rates; Asset Pricing; International Macroeconomics; Monetary Policy; Currency Controls; Fixed Exchange Rates; Floating Exchange Rates; Currency Bands; Currency Zones; Currency Areas; Rational Expectations; Japan; United States

December 1986
Article

Understanding the U.S. Dollar in the Eighties: The Expectations of Chartists and Fundamentalists

By: J. Frankel and K. A. Froot

Keywords: Currencies; Exchange Rates; Asset Pricing; International Macroeconomics; Monetary Policy; Currency Controls; Fixed Exchange Rates; Floating Exchange Rates; Currency Bands; Currency Zones; Currency Areas; Rational Expectations; History; Performance Expectations; Economics; United States

August 2020
Article

Financial Market Risk Perceptions and the Macroeconomy

By: Carolin E. Pflueger, Emil Siriwardane and Adi Sunderam

We propose a novel measure of risk perceptions: the price of volatile stocks (PVS), defined as the book-to-market ratio of low-volatility stocks minus the book-to-market ratio of high-volatility stocks. PVS is high when perceived risk directly measured from surveys and... View Details

Keywords: Risk-centric Business Cycles; Cross-section Of Equities; Real Risk-free Rate; Real Investment; Financial Markets; Risk and Uncertainty; Perception; Investment

March 2014
Teaching Note

Barclays Bank, 2008

By: Lucy White

In the midst of the financial crisis, Barclays (the world's 4th largest bank by assets) is forced by UK regulators to raise more capital. Should it take up the UK government's offer to invest, or take funding from investors from the Middle East? Students may price the... View Details

Keywords: Government And Business; Option Contract; Corporate Finance; Bank Capital; Bank Regulation; Finance; Banking Industry; Europe; North and Central America

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 8: Linking Performance to Markets

By: Robert Simons

This module reading shows how to link profit plans and other performance measurement systems to both internal and external markets. Starting with the transfer of goods and services within a firm, the module discusses the different methods of designing transfer pricing... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Transfer Pricing; Activity Based Costing; Return On Investment; Residual Income; EVA; Strategy; Cost Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Markets; Investment Return

Research Summary

The Cross Section of Expected Firm (Not Equity) Returns

This paper provides the first comprehensive study of expected firm (unlevered equity) returns. After accounting for the debt component of the firm return, I find that many of the cross sectional determinants of expected equity returns, such as the book-to-market... View Details

November 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Barclays Bank, 2008

By: Lucy White, Steve Burn-Murdoch and Jerome Lenhardt

In the midst of the financial crisis, Barclays (the world's 4th largest bank by assets) is forced by UK regulators to raise more capital. Should it take up the UK government's offer to invest, or take funding from investors from the Middle East? Students may price the... View Details

Keywords: Government And Business; Option Contract; Corporate Finance; Bank Capital; Bank Regulation; Finance; Banking Industry; Europe; North and Central America

06 Jun 2016
News

Your Investment Tool Is Failing You

Ishita Sen

Ishita Sen is an assistant professor of business administration in the Finance Unit. She teaches the Finance I course in the MBA required curriculum. Professor Sen’s research focuses on financial intermediation, asset pricing, and insurance markets. In her current... View Details

Article

Market Integration in Developed and Emerging Markets: Evidence from the CAPM

By: Robert Bruner, Wei Li, Mark Kritzman, Simon Myrgren and Sebastien Page

Beta, as measured by the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), is widely used for pricing stocks, determining the cost of capital, and gauging the extent to which markets are integrated. The CAPM model assumes that equilibrium conditions prevail. The choice of which... View Details

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Teaching

Overview

By: Lauren H. Cohen

Family Enterprises - Family Offices - FinTech - Innovation - Patent Landscape - Asset Pricing - Behavioral Finance - Asset Management View Details

August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Mike Mayo Takes on Citigroup (A)

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The case details the conflict between Mike Mayo, an influential banking analyst and Citigroup about what Mayo considers aggressive accounting policies. Mike Mayo questions Citigroup's lack of a valuation allowance against their Deferred Tax Assets despite Citi's recent... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Taxation; Capital; Financial Reporting; Corporate Disclosure; Valuation; Banks and Banking; Financial Strategy; Money; Conflict Management; Capital Budgeting; Asset Management; Banking Industry

February 2022 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Aleph Farms: A New Culture of Meat

By: Elie Ofek and Jeff Huizinga

Aleph Farms, an Israeli food-tech start-up, was hoping to play a major role in disrupting the conventional meat sector. Compared to intensive agricultural practices, Aleph’s cultured (or lab-grown) meat solution held the promise of considerably reducing greenhouse gas... View Details

18 Aug 2009
News

Disclose the fair value of complex securities

12 Apr 2023
News

Step Change

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, my name is Julia Hanna. I'm a writer and editor for the HBS Alumni Bulletin. In 2019, I met Egyptian alumna Amal Enan (MBA 2014) when she was on campus for her 5th reunion. Enan had already held a... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

December 2005 (Revised July 2006)
Case

What Should the Federal Reserve Do? Thoughts of Greenspan and Bernanke

By: Lakshmi Iyer and Noel Maurer

Presents remarks by Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke on monetary policy, explicit inflation targets, and the relative merits of asset price targeting. View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Asset Pricing; Central Banking; Financial Strategy; Policy; Banking Industry