Publications

Keywords: Government and Politics

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October 3, 2010
Guest Column

Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio. Mezcla de buena voluntad, esfuerzo y perseverancia

March 28, 2011
Guest Column

Modelo de excelencia en la gestión pública costarricense

August 19, 2012
Guest Column

Perspectiva del modelo de desarrollo costarricense

April 2003 (Revised February 2008)
Teaching Note

Botswana: A Diamond in the Rough (TN)

Teaching Note for (9-703-027). View Details

Keywords: Botswana

April 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Brazil: Embracing Globalization?

In 2001, Brazil stands at a crossroads. The country seems to be emerging from decades of economic stagnation. The economic situation remains tenuous, however, Brazil's leaders must now chart a forward course. Most critically, they must decide whether Brazil's future... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Development Economics; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Cooperation; Globalized Economies and Regions; Cost vs Benefits; Brazil

Educators

02 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 2

federal center and provincial governments, relations between the state and big business, economic policy, and models of economic development. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/710030-PDF-ENG Foreign Direct Investment and Ireland's Tiger Economy... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2018
Article

Worthy of Swift Trust? How Brief Interpersonal Contact Affects Trust Accuracy

By: Oliver Schilke and Laura Huang

Organizational scholars have long underscored the positive consequences of trust, yet trust can also have dysfunctional effects if it is not placed wisely. Though much research has examined conditions that increase individuals’ tendencies to trust others, we know very... View Details

Keywords: Trust; Interpersonal Communication; Judgments; Perspective

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March 2010 (Revised May 2013)
Case

Chile's Copper Surplus: The Road Not Taken (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Dante Roscini and Renee Kim

In 2008, Andres Velasco, Chile's Finance Minister, was under mounting criticisms over his fiscal policy. As the world's largest copper producer, Chile was benefiting from the rise in copper prices, which had more than tripled since 2003. Copper revenues translated into... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Metals and Minerals; Investment Funds; Policy; State Ownership; Wealth; Chile

Educators

September 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

The Productivity Decline: Demographics, Robots, or Globalization?

By: Laura Alfaro, Hayley Pallan and Sarah Jeong

In the early 21st century, there was a noticeable trend of declining productivity growth. Despite the persistent decline in productivity growth, a consensus on its explanation had not been reached. Some of the debate focused on the technicalities of productivity... View Details

Keywords: Productivity; Performance Productivity; Measurement and Metrics; Technological Innovation; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Globalization; Business and Government Relations

Educators

02 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 2

achieve actionable transparency by embedding their design in a centralized system with a shared design language and near-real-time updating, where everyone with an interest in improving the design has the right and the means to act on it.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2024
Other Unpublished Work

A Proposal for the IMF: A New Instrument of International Liquidity Provision for Emerging Markets and Developing Economies

By: Laura Alfaro, Guillermo Calvo, José de Gregorio, Augusto de la Torre, Pablo Guidotti, Enrique Mendoza, Ernesto Talvi, Liliana Rojas-Suarez and Andrés Velasco

This paper addresses a critical flaw in the international financial system: the failure to address the inherent asymmetry between countries that issue reserve currencies and those that do not, leaving the latter vulnerable during systemic liquidity crises. We propose... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Emerging Markets; Financial Markets; International Finance; Developing Countries and Economies; Latin America

2021
Working Paper

Granular Corporate Hedging Under Dominant Currency

By: Laura Alfaro, Mauricio Calani and Liliana Varela

Foreign currency use can be a source of risk associated with currency mismatches, which firms can hedge using FX derivatives. This paper uncovers five novel facts about firms’ use of foreign currency (FX) derivatives employing a unique dataset covering the universe of... View Details

Keywords: FX Derivatives; Hedging; Currency; Cash Flow; Emerging Markets; Chile

Research Summary

Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation

We develop an incomplete-contracts model to jointly study firm boundaries and the allocation of decision rights within them. Integration has an option value: it gives firm owners authority to delegate or centralize decision rights, depending on who can best solve... View Details

Research Summary

Global Supply Chains: The Looming “Great Reallocation”

Global supply chains have come under unprecedented stress as a result of US-China trade tensions, the Covid-19 pandemic, and geopolitical shocks. We document shifts in the pattern of US participation in global value chains over the last four decades, in terms of... View Details

Research Summary

Do Prices Determine Vertical Integration?*

What is the relationship between product prices and vertical integration? While the literature has focused on how integration affects prices, this paper provides evidence that prices can affect integration. Many theories in organizational economics and industrial... View Details

Research Summary

The Real Effects of Capital Controls: Financial Constraints, Exporters, and Firm Investment

In aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, emerging-market governments have increasingly restricted foreign capital inflows. The data show a statistically significant drop in cumulative abnormal returns for Brazilian firms following capital control... View Details

Research Summary

The Global Networks of Multinational Firms (with Maggie Chen)

In this paper we characterize the topology of global multinational networks and examine the macro and micro patterns of multinational activity. We construct indices of network density at both pairwise industry and establishment level and measure agglomeration in a... View Details

2022
Government Testimony

Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Panama: A New Alliance for Promoting Democracy and Prosperity in the Americas