Publications

2010
Chapter

Property Rights for Foreign Capital: Sovereign Debt and Private Direct Investment in Times of Crisis

By: Louis T. Wells

Keywords: Property; Rights; International Finance; Capital; Sovereign Finance; Foreign Direct Investment; Financial Crisis

October 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

A Currency We Can Call Our Own: Populism, Banking Crises, and Exchange Rate Crises in Argentina, 1946–2002

By: Rafael Di Tella

The case describes Argentina's struggle to establish a credible monetary system under populist pressures and the recurrent use of exchange rate stabilization plans. It focuses on two episodes where there was "too little money" in the economy: during the hyperinflation... View Details

Keywords: Debt Crisis; Hyperinflation; Financial Crisis; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Argentina

16 Oct 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Government Debt Management at the Zero Lower Bound

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson, Joshua S. Rudolph & Lawrence H. Summers

February 2009
Case

Avid Radiopharmaceuticals: The Venture Debt Question

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Ann Leamon

The CEO of a promising biotech company must decide how to respond to the macro-economic slump of late 2008. He had planned to pursue an aggressive schedule, moving the firm's Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease imaging compounds through clinical trials and into the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Venture Capital; Financial Management; Investment; Health Testing and Trials; Expansion; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

February 1997 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Mexico (B): Escaping from the Debt Crisis?

By: Huw Pill

Describes the response of the Mexican authorities and the international community to the "Third World Debt Crisis" that came to the forefront of global economic concerns in the early 1980s. Focuses on the respective roles of the private sector, governments (Mexican and... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Economies and Regions; Financial Crisis; Macroeconomics; Mexico

06 Dec 2011
Op-Ed

Greater Fiscal Integration Best Solution for Euro Crisis

For the past 18 months, European policymakers have been trying to deal with a crisis that represents the biggest challenge to the European integration project since its creation after World War II. The very symbol of it, the euro, is... View Details

Keywords: by Dante Roscini

05 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Watching for the Next Economic Downturn? Follow Corporate Debt

What really fuels a boom-and-bust cycle in the modern global economy? It’s not always household debt, says a new paper that parses in-depth data across 115 countries. Instead, rising corporate debt may flash the clearest warning that a... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

April 2025
Article

Crisis Interventions in Corporate Insolvency

By: Samuel Antill and Christopher Clayton

We model the optimal resolution of insolvent firms in general equilibrium. Collateral-constrained banks lend to (i) solvent firms to finance investments and (ii) distressed firms to avoid liquidation. Liquidations create negative fire-sale externalities. Liquidations... View Details

Keywords: Insolvent Firms; Government Intervention; Liquidation; Econometric Models; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Policy

03 Aug 2011
News

No Ducking the Debt Ceiling

What debt ceiling? I haven’t been on Mars for the last two weeks, but close to it .off in the woods and on vacation, unplugged, untethered, and blissfully out of touch. So I missed the all-consuming topic that must have driven everyone... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Administration of Economic Programs; Government

10 Feb 2010
News

A Greek crisis is coming to America

Evergrande on the Edge: Implications of a Corporate Crisis

In this video, produced by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Prof. Rithmire speaks with Keith Abell about how the Chinese economy became so reliant on real estate development and debt and what the Evergrande crisis means. View Details

March 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Dubai in Crisis

By: Noel Maurer

On November 25, 2009, the small city-state of Dubai shook financial markets across the world when the Dubai World holding companies announced that it would ask its creditors to standstill its debts. After three decades of phenomenal growth, something had gone off the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Development Economics; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Dubai

Find at Harvard

October 2014 (Revised April 2018)
Supplement

Creditor Activism in Sovereign Debt: Argentina vs. Holdout Investors (B)

By: Laura Alfaro, Gaurav Toshniwal and Hilary White

June 2010 (Revised July 2012)
Supplement

Dubai: Debt, Development, and Crisis (B)

By: Aldo Musacchio, Andrew Christopher Goodman and Claire K. Qureshi

On November 25, 2009, the city state of Dubai stunned markets by announcing that Dubai World, its flagship state holding company, would seek a six month "standstill" on at least $4 billion U.S. dollars of its $26 billion in debt obligations. This case describes Dubai's... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Development Economics; Crisis Management; Dubai

17 Aug 2011
News

Americans Facing More Inequality, More Debt and Now More Trouble?

March 1983 (Revised March 1986)
Case

Mexico: Crisis of Confidence

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Keywords: Crisis Management; Borrowing and Debt; Mexico

Find at Harvard

August 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Songy 2011: Restructuring to Survive (or, Surviving to Restructure?)

By: Charles F. Wu

In 2011, Songy Partners, an Atlanta-based real estate developer, was facing three distressed investments within their portfolio each with distinct sets of challenges. Having weathered a myriad of issues during the global financial crisis that included operational... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Distressed Debt; Global Financial Crisis; Foreclosure; Partnership; Partners and Partnerships; Valuation; Global Range; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Property; Financial Crisis; Real Estate Industry; Atlanta