Publications

SSRN

April 2002
Article

The Determination of Unemployment Benefits

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert J. MacCulloch

While much empirical research exists on labor market consequences of unemployment benefits, there is remarkably little evidence on the forces determining benefits. We present a simple model where workers desire insurance against unemployment risk and benefits increase... View Details

Keywords: Unemployment; Compensation and Benefits

March 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Transactional and Translational Exposures

By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen

How should a multinational firm manage foreign exchange exposures? Examines transactional and translational exposures and alternative responses to these exposures by analyzing two specific hedging decisions by General Motors. Describes General Motors' corporate hedging... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Currency Exchange Rate; Expansion; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Financial Management; Investment Funds; Risk and Uncertainty; International Finance; Auto Industry

Educators

Purchase

2010
Chapter

Crime Distribution and Victim Behavior during a Crime Wave

By: Rafael Di Tella, Sebastian Galiani and Ernesto Schargrodsky

The study of how crime affects different income groups faces the difficulty that crime-avoiding activities vary across these groups. Thus, a lower victimization rate in one group may not reflect a lower burden of crime, but rather a higher investment in crime... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Wealth and Poverty; Selection and Staffing; Crime and Corruption; Income; Leading Change; Information Management; Argentina

11 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Measurement Errors of Expected Returns Proxies and the Implied Cost of Capital

Keywords: by Charles C.Y. Wang

29 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 29

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1471435 Systemic Risk and the Refinancing Ratchet Effect Authors:Amir E. Khandani, Andrew W. Lo, and Robert C. Merton Abstract The confluence of three trends in the U.S. residential... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Overview

The focus of Professor Gross’ research agenda is U.S. technological innovation, innovation policy, and the effects of technological change on economic activity. He is also interested in learning about what drives individual creative behavior. Methodologically, he is... View Details

2014
Chapter

Remapping the Flow of Funds

By: Juliane Begenau, Monika Piazzesi and Martin Schneider

This article argues that quantitative analysis of credit market positions would benefit tremendously if the additional information about the structure of payment streams were more readily available. Most available data on credit market positions, such as the Flow of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Credit

12 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Crashes and Collateralized Lending

Keywords: by Jakub W. Jurek & Erik Stafford; Banking; Financial Services

March 2022
Article

Contractual Restrictions and Debt Traps

By: Ernest Liu and Benjamin N. Roth

Microcredit and other forms of small-scale ﬁnance have failed to catalyze entrepreneurship in developing countries. In these credit markets, borrowers and lenders often bargain over not only the interest rate but also implicit restrictions on types of investment. We... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Entrepreneurship; Developing Countries and Economies; Financing and Loans

March 1991 (Revised May 1991)
Case

TBIRD: The Thai Business Initiative in Rural Development

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

During the period of 1987 to 1990, while Thailand had one of the fastest growing economies in the world (average growth rate of 12%), the income disparity between its rural and urban population (especially Bangkok City) was growing increasingly worse. Mechai... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Management Skills; Programs; Wealth and Poverty; Thailand

We test the effectiveness of self-help peer groups as a commitment device for precautionary savings, through two randomized field experiments among 2,687 microentrepreneurs in Chile. The first experiment finds that self-help peer groups are a powerful tool to... View Details

Fall 2024
Article

The Problem of Good Conduct Among Financial Advisers

By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru

Households in the United States often rely on financial advisers for investment and savings decisions, yet there is a widespread perception that many advisers are dishonest. This distrust is not unwarranted: approximately one in fifteen advisers has a history of... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Behavioral Finance; Trust; Financial Services Industry

December 2011
Article

Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing?

By: Lauren Cohen, Joshua Coval and Christopher J. Malloy

This paper employs a new empirical approach for identifying the impact of government spending on the private sector. Our key innovation is to use changes in congressional committee chairmanship as a source of exogenous variation in state-level federal expenditures. In... View Details

Keywords: Spending; Private Sector; Taxation; Innovation and Invention; Interest Rates; Business and Government Relations; Investment; Employment; Power and Influence

15 Sep 2014
News

How Keeping a Diary Can Surprise You

April 2017
Case

China Construction Bank's Transformation

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Nancy Hua Dai

On March 29, 2017, Wang Hongzhang, Chairman of China Construction Bank, was considering the next steps in the bank’s transformation. In the challenging backdrop of economic slowdown, deep structure adjustment, interest rate liberalization, entry of financial players... View Details

Keywords: Banking; China; Financial Institutions; Strategy; Transformation; Banks and Banking; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; China

Educators

26 Sep 2018
News

HBS Prof Pens Book On Talent Pipeline & The Threats It Faces

22 Apr 2020
Research Event

How Investors Are Sizing Up Climate Change’s Risks—and Opportunities

Until a few years ago, climate change’s potential impact seemed abstract for many investors. Now, as sea levels rise, hurricanes intensify, and droughts threaten food supplies, many investors are confronting its financial realities. But it’s not a simple calculation.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services

September 1998 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Petrolera Zuata, Petrozuata C.A.

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Mathew M Millett

Petrozuata is a proposed $2.5 billion oil-field development project in Venezuela. The case is set in 1997 as the project sponsors, Conoco and PDVSA (Venezuela's national oil company), are planning to meet with various development agencies and rating agencies regarding... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Valuation; Project Finance; Capital Markets; Investment; Projects; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; Venezuela

Educators

Purchase

2016
Working Paper

Entrepreneurship and Public Health Insurance

By: Gareth Olds

I examine the relationship between public health insurance and firm formation. Developing a variant of regression discontinuity, I find the Child Health Insurance Program lowered the child uninsured rate by 40% and increased self-employment by 15%. Monte Carlo evidence... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Entrepreneurship