Publications

October 2008
Teaching Note

Samoa Tala (TN)

By: Joshua D. Coval, Bhagwan Chowdhry and Konark Saxena

Teaching Note for [209053]. View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Risk Management; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Microfinance; Strategy; Borrowing and Debt; Currency; Cash Flow; Samoa

25 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 25

member, its economic boom and subsequent bust in 2008, and its policy response. After implementing significant economic and political reforms in order to qualify for EU membership in 2004, Latvia had turned its sights toward joining the single-currency eurozone,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 12, 2018

money using their mobile phones. Mobile money has grown quickly, but high stockout rates of currency persist due to suboptimal inventory decisions made by contracted employees (called agents). In partnership with a Tanzanian mobile money... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Article

On the Political Economy of Temporary Stabilization Programs

By: Laura Alfaro

This paper provides a political economy explanation for temporary exchange-rate-based stabilization programs by focusing on the distributional effects of real exchange-rate appreciation. I propose an economy in which agents are endowed with either tradable or... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; Economy; Balance and Stability; Programs; Currency Exchange Rate; Cash; Value; Distribution

10 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 10

losing 1 billion of dollar reserves in one month, the Argentine government began imposing a series of currency controls, limiting the ability to buy foreign currency. As of October 2011, Argentina's tax collection agency AFIP had been... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Jun 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Inventory Management for Mobile Money Agents in the Developing World

Keywords: by Karthik Balasubramanian, David F. Drake, and Douglas Fearing; Financial Services; Banking

February 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Alphatec Electronics Pcl

By: Stuart C. Gilson, C. Fritz Foley and Perry Fagan

The newly appointed CEO of an important high-technology company in Thailand must lead the company through a complicated debt restructuring. Due to the collapse of the Thai currency, the company's debt burden, like that of most Thai companies, has skyrocketed because it... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Valuation; Management Teams; Restructuring; Laws and Statutes; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Technology Industry; Electronics Industry; Thailand; United States

December 1981 (Revised July 1991)
Case

Ocean Drilling, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Piper

Management must choose between two mutually exclusive bids to build two drilling rigs. Both bids involve attractive export credit financing denominated in foreign currencies. View Details

Keywords: Credit; Currency; Financing and Loans; Bids and Bidding; Natural Environment

March 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

China: To Float or Not To Float? (D)- Bank of America's Strategic Investment in China Construction Bank

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

With its $3 billion investment in Chinese state bank China Construction Bank, Bank of America--the second U.S. bank behind Citigroup in terms of assets and market capitalization--was one of several foreign banks directly participating in China's banking sector reform.... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Banks and Banking; Foreign Direct Investment; International Relations; Banking Industry; China; United States

25 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 25

Institutional Investors Frame Their Losses: Evidence on Dynamic Loss Aversion from Currency Portfolios Authors:Kenneth A. Froot, J. Arabadjis, S. Cates, and S. Lawrence Publication:Journal of Portfolio Management (forthcoming) Abstract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Institutional Portfolio Flows and International Investments

By: K. A. Froot and T. Ramadorai

Keywords: Loss Aversion; International Investment; Portfolio Investment; Asset Allocation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Currency; Investment; Risk Management; Behavioral Finance; Asset Pricing

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21 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 21

Japan after World War II. Trade surpluses with the United States played a major role in propelling growth. But there were two key differences. First, the scale of Chinese currency intervention was without precedent, as were the resulting... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2011
Article

Higher Risk, Lower Returns: What Hedge Fund Investors Really Earn

By: Ilia Dichev and Gwen Yu

The returns of hedge fund investors depend not only on the returns of the hedge funds they hold but also on the timing and magnitude of their capital flows in and out of the funds. We use dollar-weighted returns (a form of IRR) to assess the properties of actual... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Investment Return; Capital Markets; Market Timing; Currency

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June 1991 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Second Bank of the United States: Banks and Banking Before the Second Bank of the United States

Describes the problems of early banking, early attempts at central banking, achieving a sound uniform currency, and economic growth. Illustrates the problems of developing a sound money economy in a developing country and shows the difficulties of branch management in... View Details

Keywords: Currency; Business History; Central Banking; Communication; Economic Growth; Banking Industry; United States

12 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 12, 2017

sovereign-debt models, asset-valuation effects occasioned by currency fluctuations act to absorb global shocks and render consumption smoother. Countries do not accumulate reserves to be depleted in “bad” times. Instead, issuing domestic... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

19 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 19

virtual currency including electronic payments. Since its inception in 2009 by an anonymous group of developers, Bitcoin has served tens of millions of transactions with total dollar value in the billions. Users have been drawn to Bitcoin... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 3

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/715432-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 715-019 A Currency We Can Call Our Own: Populism, Banking Crises, and Exchange Rate Crises in Argentina, 1946-2002 The case describes Argentina's... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2025
Case

Untapped Global: Financing Africa's Missing Middle

By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli

In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details

2022
Chapter

CIP Deviations, the Dollar, and Frictions in International Capital Markets

By: Wenxin Du and Jesse Schreger

The covered interest rate parity (CIP) condition is a fundamental arbitrage relationship in international finance. In this chapter, we review its breakdown during the Global Financial Crisis and its continued failure in the subsequent decade. We review how to measure... View Details

Keywords: Interest Rates; International Finance; Financial Crisis; Currency