American Economy - Publications - Faculty & Research

10 Sep 2014
News

“An Economy Doing Half Its Job”

01 Jun 2011
News

An Economy Undermined

know was the damage — not always damage, but on balance, plenty of it — that some would do over time. In the name of profits, the workings of a free market, pure self-interest, and outright greed, the American financial system stopped... View Details

Keywords: Jeff Madrick; Finance

06 Nov 2008
Op-Ed

Selling Out The American Dream

leveraging of assets, on irresponsible banks and mortgage brokers who fabricated applications for no downpayment home loans knowing that the risks could be readily laid off on unsuspecting third parties. But underpinning the collapse of the housing bubble is a... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 18 Feb 2015
Webinars: Trending@HBS

U.S. Competitiveness: An Economy Doing Half Its Job

The HBS U.S. Competitiveness Projects report on the most recent alumni survey highlighted a troubling divergence in the U.S. economy. Middle- and working-class citizens are struggling, as are many small businesses. Professor Jan Rivkin will focus on aspects of the U.S.... View Details

19 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Political Turmoil and Mexico’s Economy

What happens to a country's economy when its government is politically unstable, such as has been the case historically in Mexico? Can business get done under a strong-arm dictatorship, or when a government is too weak to protect the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

2018
Book

American Capitalism: New Histories

By: Sven Beckert and Christine Desan

The United States has long epitomized capitalism. From its enterprising shopkeepers, wildcat banks, violent slave plantations, huge industrial working class, and raucous commodities trade to its world-spanning multinationals, its massive factories, and the centripetal... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; History; Finance; Trade; Economy; Policy; United States

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03 Apr 2019
News

Disrupting the Single-Use Plastic Economy

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

represents a distinctive departure. First—and most basically—the history of American capitalism, along with the essays gathered here, reinstalls political economy as a category for analysis. Economic life,... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

Research Summary

Competitive Transformation of Latin American Firms

Rogelio Oliva and Fernando Suárez (UAI, Chile) are studing the competitive transformation of Latin American firms. The significant change that Latin economies have undergone in the last decade has had a profound impact on business firms. In fact, a new breed of Latin... View Details

20 Apr 2012
News

The American Connection

25 Jan 2021
Book

In a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded

How did the United States become the world’s center of business growth following its founding in 1776? Surely a number of nations had powerful natural resources, stable financial and legal institutions, and dynamic entrepreneurs over that same span. Why was American... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing

25 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

A Macroeconomic View of the Current Economy

economy as a whole. Micro is about firms and individual actors and how they behave; macro is about aggregate performance of the economy: overall GDP, trade surplus or deficit, inflation. In principle, we should be able to get rid of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

September 2019
Technical Note

Care Economy in the U.S. (Primer)

By: Joseph B. Fuller, William R. Kerr, Manjari Raman and Carl Kreitzberg

This case describes how caregiving responsibilities influence American employees, firms, and the broader economy. It details how sociodemographic trends in the late 20th century transformed the way that Americans balance their personal and professional lives, analyzing... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management; Demographics; Labor; Health Care and Treatment; Family and Family Relationships; Strategy; Management; United States

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01 Mar 2008
News

An American Odyssey

prevailing beliefs.” America and his family forebears have experienced an odyssey that, one might say, is uniquely American. As best he can determine, America is descended from an enslaved African named America who escaped to freedom prior to the View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Lawrence Fouraker; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services; Finance

18 Dec 2019
News

Harvard Study on Economy Recovery Squandered

06 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Cheers to the American Consumer

than the European eccentric. Technology. Americans understand that innovation is the key to growth and wealth in a global economy where knowledge travels at lightspeed over the Internet. America's economic... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

09 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Matchmaker of the Modern Economy

Boston has always been fueled by an Enlightenment belief in scientific progress and human perfectibility. It is home to America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and college, Harvard College (1636). After the American... View Details

Keywords: by Spencer E. Ante

27 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

The Coffee Economy That Bloomed Out of Nowhere

her academic career studying the coffee economy of southern Mexico in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While her geographical focus is narrow, her research yields insights into export economies—and broad lessons for anyone... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Agriculture & Agribusiness

06 Mar 2015
Video

An Economy Doing Half Its Job - Boston, MA

10 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

American Auto’s Troubled Road

engineering and designing for 'buildability.'" Down The Road While U.S automakers retrench, Toyota is aggressively building American factories and, with other foreign automakers, adding billions of dollars to the U.S. View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

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