Publications

June 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Greece's Debt: Sustainable?

By: George Serafeim

The case "Greece's Debt: Sustainable?" describes the Greek economic crisis, bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the debt restructuring that followed. Because of a lack of trust in Greece's ability to repay its debt, two... View Details

Keywords: Debt Crisis; Accounting; Debt Sustainability; Austerity; Solvency Opinions; Borrowing and Debt; Restructuring; Valuation; Accrual Accounting; Fair Value Accounting; Economy; Greece

November 2023
Case

Gabon Special Economic Zone

By: John Macomber and Wale Lawal

Tropical rain forest covers about 80% of the West African nation of Gabon, part of the Congo Basin and the "lungs of the world." Gabon is one of the first nations to earn revenue from carbon sequestration...as long as the rain forest remains intact. There are... View Details

Keywords: Economic Development; Forestry; Wood; Carbon Credits; Supply Chain; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Forest Products Industry; Africa; Gabon

February 2007
Case

South African Airways (A)

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Laura Morgan Roberts and Laura Winig

Amid efforts to engineer a turnaround at South African Airways (SAA), the CEO confronts an impending strike at the struggling company. How should the company address questions of distributive and procedural justice in post-Apartheid South Africa, and how should the CEO... View Details

Keywords: Fairness; Crisis Management; Employees; Employment; Growth and Development; Developing Countries and Economies; Air Transportation Industry; South Africa

August 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Background Note

Evolving Trends in Global Trade

By: Dante Roscini and Annelena Lobb

The note, while not intended to be historically comprehensive, explores the regulation of international trade from the period after World War II to developments in 2010, focusing on shifts in trade theory and policy as well as economic benefits and disadvantages... View Details

Keywords: Trade Negotiations; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Governance; Negotiation; Globalization; Trade; Policy; History; Europe; Latin America; North and Central America; Asia; Africa; China

2010
Working Paper

Multinational Strategies and Developing Countries in Historical Perspective

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper offers a longitudinal and descriptive analysis of the strategies of multinationals from developed countries in developing countries. The central argument is that strategies were shaped by the trade-off between opportunity and risk. Three broad... View Details

Keywords: History; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Business and Government Relations

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March 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

The Xiamen PX Project: The Rule of Contract or Citizens in China Today

This case examines the effect of environmental activism on China's investment climate, focusing on the petrochemical sector. It shows how tensions between a country's national economic development goals and political constraints make for a more unpredictable investment... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Conflict and Resolution; China

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12 Mar 2024
HBS Case

How Used Products Can Unlock New Markets: Lessons from Apple's Refurbished iPhones

Some of Apple’s most loyal customers think nothing of upgrading to the latest iPhone every time one comes out. But what about consumers who can’t splurge on a $1,000 iPhone 15 Pro? And what about the electronic waste that would accrue if people threw away functional... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Electronics; Information Technology

24 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

The FDA: What Will the Next 100 Years Bring?

but not impede innovations targeted to specific subgroups. Q: What are you working on next? A: I recently joined the Business, Government & International Economy unit at HBS and am in the early stages of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Health

May 2016
Supplement

2016 Update: Argentina Turns the Page

By: David E. Bell, Forest Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred

This brief case is a supplement to “Cresud and Argentina” (515-043) and “Note on Agriculture in Argentina” (515-069). Set in early 2016, it describes developments in Argentina under newly elected President Mauricio Macri, including the country’s return to international... View Details

October 2020
Case

Israelis, Palestinians and the Technology Bridge Between Them: A Work in Progress

By: Elie Ofek and Lia Weiner

In Israel of 2020 the demand for software engineers was endless. Meanwhile just miles away, Palestinian universities were graduating 3,000 engineers a year, and many of them could not find jobs in the still nascent Palestinian tech sector. Could these dots be... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitics; Technology Ecosystem; Software Engineers; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Business Startups; International Relations; Cooperation; Opportunities; Problems and Challenges; Technology Industry; Israel; Palestinian state

2025
Report

High Stakes: A Framework for Geopolitical Risk Management

By: Meg Rithmire and David Fagan

This report provides a data-based assessment of how U.S. companies perceive geopolitical risk and articulates a recommended decision-making process and framework to manage such risk. The research reflected in the report indicates that various concerns related to China... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; International Relations; Business or Company Management; Risk Management

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12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

It Came in the First Ships: Capitalism in America

business corporation. There are several million corporations in the United States today, and a handful existed at the nation's official birth in 1776. The device became integral to the American economy only in the middle nineteenth... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas K. McCraw

March 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Making Impact Investing Markets: IFC (A)

By: Shawn A. Cole, John Masko and T. Robert Zochowski

In 2017, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) faced the first big investment decision in its new Scaling Solar project. Founded in 1956, IFC was an international investment body with national governments as shareholders, whose mission was to promote economic... View Details

11 Apr 2024
In Practice

Why Progress on Immigration Might Soften Labor Pains

dynamism. Marco Tabellini is an assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit at HBS. Raj Choudhury: The US gains when it welcomes skilled migrants My research focuses on... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

September 2011
Article

Political Instability: Effects on Financial Development, Roots in the Severity of Economic Inequality

By: Mark J. Roe and Jordan I. Siegel

We here bring forward strong evidence that political instability impedes financial development, with its variation a primary determinant of differences in financial development around the world. As such, it needs to be added to the short list of major determinants of... View Details

Keywords: Financial Development; Political Instability; Government and Politics; Finance; Growth and Development; Economics; Equality and Inequality

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Roe, Mark J., and Jordan I. Siegel. "Political Instability: Effects on Financial Development, Roots in the Severity of Economic Inequality." Journal of Comparative Economics 39, no. 3 (September 2011): 279–309. (We here bring forward strong evidence that political instability impedes financial development, with its variation a primary determinant of differences in financial development around the world. As such, it needs to be added to the short list of major determinants of financial development. First, structural conditions first postulated by Engerman and Sokoloff (2002) as generating long-term inequality are shown here empirically to be exogenous determinants of political instability. Second, that exogenously-determined political instability in turn holds back financial development, even when we control for factors prominent in the last decade's cross-country studies of financial development. The findings indicate that inequality-perpetuating conditions that result in political instability are fundamental roadblocks for international organizations like the World Bank that seek to promote financial development. The evidence here includes country fixed effect regressions and an instrumental model inspired by Engerman and Sokoloff's (2002) work, which to our knowledge has not yet been used in finance and which is consistent with current tests as valid instruments. Four conventional measures of national political instability — Alesina and Perotti's (1996) well-known index of instability, a subsequent index derived from Banks' (2005) work, and two indices of managerial perceptions of nation-by-nation political instability — persistently predict a wide range of national financial development outcomes for recent decades. Political instability's significance is time consistent in cross-sectional regressions back to the 1960's, the period when the key data becomes available, robust in both country fixed-effects and instrumental variable regressions, and consistent across multiple measures of instability and of financial development. Overall, the results indicate the existence of an important channel running from structural inequality to political instability, principally in nondemocratic settings, and then to financial backwardness. The robust significance of that channel extends existing work demonstrating the importance of political economy explanations for financial development and financial backwardness. It should help to better understand which policies will work for financial development, because political instability has causes, cures, and effects quite distinct from those of many of the key institutions most studied in the past decade as explaining financial backwardness.)

21 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 21

Authors: Ferguson, Niall, and Moritz Schularick Publication: International Finance 14, no. 1 (2011) Abstract For the better part of the past decade, the world economy has been marked by an economic order... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2015
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Robert Meaney and Technology for Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Renee Vuillaume

Two Valmont Industries (an international leader in infrastructure products and services) colleagues, Robert (Bob) Meaney and Richard Berkland hoped to improve the lives of small and medium-sized farmers in the developing world through modern irrigation technology. In... View Details