Publications

03 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Lehman Brothers Plus Five: Have We Learned from Our Mistakes?

system is in better shape. Professors Victoria Ivashina, David Scharfstein, and Arthur Segel, all members of the Harvard Business School Finance Unit, examine the current state of affairs. victoria Ivashina Is the US financial View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Banking; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

January 2009
Case

The Federal Reserve and the Banking Crisis of 1931

By: David A. Moss and Cole Bolton

In early October 1931, in the midst of a global economic depression, the U.S. banking system was in crisis—with bank suspensions running at near record levels. At the same time, the broader economy was sputtering, and U.S. gold reserves had come under severe pressure... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Central Banking; Business History; Crisis Management; Banking Industry; United States

2009
Working Paper

Management and the Financial Crisis (We have met the enemy and he is us...)

By: William A. Sahlman

The financial crisis of 2008-9 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Financial Crisis

July 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

San Francisco Bay Consulting

By: George P. Baker III and Karin B Monsler

San Francisco Bay Consulting leads the field of economic consulting and litigation support in the application of powerful computers and cutting edge software to manipulate and analyze large data sets. The transfer pricing system, used to facilitate the purchasing and... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Profit; Marketing; Fluctuation; Consulting Industry; Computer Industry

February 2008 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Global Talent Management at Novartis

By: Jordan Siegel

This case tackles the topic of global talent management. It can be used to analyze the performance measurement, incentive, and talent development system used at a major multinational company. This case can also be used to analyze the extent to which this system should... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Developing Countries and Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Adaptation

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Peter Tufano

Tufano is the convener for an innovative global doctoral reading group, The Financial Economics of Climate and Sustainability (FECS). This novel course, taught with professors from Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Texas, Imperial, NYU, Mannheim, and Oxford brings together... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 2 Transactions in a Task Network

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

From the 1930s through today, many economists have conceived of large technical systems for the production of goods and services as a series of transactions. This point of view has led eminent economists to assert that transactions are the fundamental unit of analysis... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; Information Technology; Organizations

SSRN

Article

Evolution and the Growth Process: Natural Selection of Entrepreneurial Traits

By: Stelios Michalopoulos and Oded Galor

This research suggests that a Darwinian evolution of entrepreneurial spirit played a significant role in the process of economic development and the dynamics of inequality within and across societies. The study argues that entrepreneurial spirit evolved... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Development Economics; Entrepreneurship; Transformation

Find at Harvard

March–April 2012
Article

The Rise and Fall of Small Worlds: Exploring the Dynamics of Social Structure

By: Ranjay Gulati, Maxim Sytch and Adam Tatarynowicz

This paper explores the interplay between social structure and economic action by examining some of the evolutionary dynamics of an emergent network that coalesces into a small-world system. The study highlights the small-world system's evolutionary dynamics at both... View Details

Keywords: Culture; System; Relationships; Globalization; Industry Clusters; Information; Networks; Competitive Strategy; Computer Industry

Find at Harvard

02 Oct 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Bitcoin

Keywords: by Rainer Böhme, Nicolas Christin, Benjamin Edelman & Tyler Moore; Banking

09 Feb 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Sustainable Cities: Oxymoron or the Shape of the Future?

Keywords: by Annissa Alusi, Robert G. Eccles, Amy C. Edmondson & Tiona Zuzul

2023
Working Paper

The Politics of Philanthropy in China

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu

This working paper looks historically at business philanthropy in China. In the West, the literature has distinguished between entrepreneurial and customary philanthropy, while the phenomenon of spiritual philanthropy has been identified in many emerging markets. This... View Details

Keywords: China; Philanthropy; Ethics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Moral Sensibility; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Economic Systems; Economic Sectors; China

24 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate Social Entrepreneurship

Keywords: by James E. Austin & Ezequiel Reficco

Research Summary

Overview

By: Aiyesha Dey

Professor Dey’s research explores governance and agency conflicts, board structure, governance regulation and corporate behavior, ownership structure, and the relation between executives’ characteristics and corporate behavior. In analyzing corporate governance... View Details

24 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Do We Tax?

fixing this gap. For 40 years, economists have drawn from the well of Utilitarian theory—which has the goal of maximizing overall well-being in society—to help design tax systems in the United States and around the world. Although the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Legal Services

2011
Article

Too Big to Live: Why We Must Stamp Out State Monopoly Capitalism

The problems of excessive economic concentration, so lucidly and incisively analysed here, are not limited to the financial services industry. For the problem is now widespread: while five firms control 80% of the banking industry, a similar or greater concentration is... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Monopoly

February 1998
Case

Creating the International Trade Organization

By: David A. Moss, George R. Appling and Andrew D Archer

In the late 1940s, officials at the U.S. State Department began campaigning for the creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO). This new organization would oversee global negotiations on trade liberalization, foreign direct investment, cartels, and commodity... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Trade; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Globalized Economies and Regions; Agreements and Arrangements; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Systems; International Relations