Publications

09 Dec 2019
News

Why Immigrants Make Great Entrepreneurs

01 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 1

Entrepreneurship in India Authors:Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr, and Stephen O'Connell Abstract We analyze the spatial determinants of entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. Among... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, August 8, 2017

subsumed by the other three. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53024 August 2017 Obstetrics & Gynecology Relationship Between Labor and Delivery Unit Management Practices and Maternal Outcomes By:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2016
Article

Taxation, Corruption, and Growth

By: Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, Julia Cagé and William R. Kerr

We build an endogenous growth model to analyze the relationships between taxation, corruption, and economic growth. Entrepreneurs lie at the center of the model and face disincentive effects from taxation but acquire positive benefits from public infrastructure.... View Details

Keywords: Endogenous Growth; Public Goods; Corruption; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Taxation; Economic Growth

March 2022
Article

Winner Takes All? Tech Clusters, Population Centers, and the Spatial Transformation of U.S. Invention

By: Brad Chattergoon and William R. Kerr

U.S. invention has become increasingly concentrated around major tech centers since the 1970s, with implications for how much cities across the country share in concomitant local benefits. Is invention becoming a winner-takes-all race? We explore the rising spatial... View Details

Keywords: Clusters; Invention; Agglomeration; Artificial Intelligence; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Applications and Software; Industry Clusters; AI and Machine Learning

Find at Harvard

March 2023 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Independent Governance of Meta’s Social Spaces: The Oversight Board

By: Jesse M. Shapiro, Natalia Rigol, Benjamin N. Roth and William R. Kerr

Julie Owono is a member of the Oversight Board, an outside entity with the authority to make binding decisions on tricky moderation questions for Meta's companies. She considers the Board's impact, and its future. View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Social Media; Fairness; Governing and Advisory Boards; Technology Industry; Communications Industry

Educators

26 Oct 2018
News

High-skilled immigration and the growing concentration of US innovation

27 Sep 2016
First Look

September 27, 2016

the challenges inherent in those data and research as well as possible opportunities to do better. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50652 How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions? By: Gompers, Paul A., View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 23

and Rakesh Khurana Harvard Business Publishing, 2010 An abstract is unavailable at this time. Book: http://hbr.org/product/handbook-of-leadership-theory-and-practice/an/12326-HBK-ENG The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2022
Working Paper

House Prices, Home Equity and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. Census Micro Data

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

During 1992-2007, house price growth is strongly correlated with local entrepreneurship. We show with Census Bureau data that most of this entry is related to construction and real estate; these entrants tend to be small and short-lived. Using a 1998 Texas reform that... View Details

Keywords: House Prices; Collateral Channel; Entry; Demography; Mortgages; Entrepreneurship

SSRN

October 2019
Teaching Note

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

A Teaching Note for the "Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?" case study (HBS#820-048). The case discusses recent controversies regarding how Google manages temporary help agency workers, workers supplied by vendors, and independent contractors ("TVCs"). Such TVCs reportedly... View Details

Article

Local Industrial Conditions and Entrepreneurship: How Much of the Spatial Distribution Can We Explain?

By: Edward L. Glaeser and William R. Kerr

Why are some places more entrepreneurial than others? We use Census Bureau data to study local determinants of manufacturing startups across cities and industries. Demographics have limited explanatory power. Overall levels of local customers and suppliers are only... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Geographic Location; Employment; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain; Manufacturing Industry

1996
Article

Limits on Interest Rate Rules in the IS Model

By: William R. Kerr and Robert G. King

There has been a substantial amount of research on interest rate rules. This literature finds that the feasibility and desirability of interest rate rules depends on the structure of the model used to approximate macroeconomic reality. We employ a series of... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Macroeconomics; Interest Rates; Price; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Performance Expectations

May 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Managing the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

By 2019, leaders from the public and private sector had become increasingly anxious about how advanced technologies and aging global populations could affect labor markets, workplaces, and workers’ lives. Some analysts forecasted that hundreds of millions of workers... View Details

Keywords: Labor Markets; Workplace; Employment; Technological Innovation; Demographics; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities

Educators

11 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 11

they made by history, or do they make it? In Indispensable, Harvard Business School professor Gautam Mukunda offers an enticingly fresh look at how and when individual leaders really can make a difference. View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2025
Article

Workplace Segregation Between College and Non-college Workers

By: Francis Dillon, Edward L. Glaeser and William Kerr

We measure the level and growth of education segregation in American workplaces from 2000 to 2020. American workplaces show an educational segregation, measured by the degree to which the establishment has mostly workers of similar education levels, that is... View Details

Keywords: Isolation; Segregation; Mobility; Education; Demographics; Equality and Inequality; Labor

August 2018
Article

Growth Through Heterogeneous Innovations

By: Ufuk Akcigit and William R. Kerr

We build a tractable growth model where multi-product incumbents invest in internal innovations to improve their existing products, while new entrants and incumbents invest in external innovations to acquire new product lines. External and internal innovations generate... View Details

Keywords: Endogenous Growth; Innovation; Citations; Scientists; Entrepreneurs; External; Internal; Patents; Innovation Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; Research and Development; Science

Find at Harvard

November 2024
Case

Dr. Bombay Ice Cream

By: William R. Kerr, Alexis Brownell and Michael Liu

This case examines the creation, launch, and rapid growth of Dr. Bombay Ice Cream, a joint venture between Happi Co., a consumer packaged goods incubator, and entertainment mogul Snoop Dogg, with his son, Cordell Broadus. The brand was inspired by a Bored Ape Yacht... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Distribution Channels; Disruptive Innovation; Food and Beverage Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

Educators

2017
Working Paper

Digital Labor Markets and Global Talent Flows

By: John Horton, William R. Kerr and Christopher Stanton

Digital labor markets are rapidly expanding and connecting companies and contractors on a global basis. We review the environment in which these markets take root, the micro- and macro-level studies of their operations, their ongoing evolution and recent trends, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Talent and Talent Management; Labor