Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(328)
- Faculty Publications (54)
- May 2015
- Teaching Note
The United Kingdom and the Means to Prosperity
By: Laura Alfaro, Lakshmi Iyer and Hilary White
After struggling through the country's longest recession since 2008, the U.K. was expected to grow faster than any other G7 nation in 2014. Analysts wondered whether the return to growth was because, or in spite of, Prime Minister David Cameron's controversial £113... View Details
Keywords: United Kingdom; Austerity; Fiscal Deficits; Fiscal Policy; Keynesian Multiplier; Government; Government Policy; Recessions; Depression; Inequality; Government Intervention In The Markets; Stagnation; Public Finance; Economics; Macroeconomics; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Economic Growth; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Public Sector; Economy; Financial Crisis; Taxation; Government and Politics; United Kingdom
- March 2015
- Article
Vulnerable Banks
By: Robin Greenwood, Augustin Landier and David Thesmar
We present a model in which fire sales propagate shocks across bank balance sheets. When a bank experiences a negative shock to its equity, a natural way to return to target leverage is to sell assets. If potential buyers are limited, then asset sales depress prices,... View Details
- November 2014 (Revised March 2016)
- Background Note
Mental Health and the American Workplace
By: John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Mental illness has been described as an epidemic affecting nearly a quarter of all Americans in their lifetimes, often during their most productive working years. Managers who can design organizations that maximize mental health can minimize these risks and boost... View Details
Keywords: Public Health; Productivity; Competitiveness; Stress Management; Depression; Absenteeism; Presenteeism; Work Culture; Business or Company Management; Work-Life Balance; Performance Productivity; Organizational Culture; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States
- Article
Did Bank Distress Stifle Innovation During the Great Depression?
By: Ramana Nanda and Tom Nicholas
We find a negative relationship between bank distress and the level, quality, and trajectory of firm-level innovation during the Great Depression, particularly for R&D firms operating in capital intensive industries. However, we also show that because a sufficient... View Details
- Article
Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem
By: Jordi Quoidbach, June Gruber, Moira Mikolajczak, Alexsandr Kogan, Ilios Kotsou and Michael I. Norton
Bridging psychological research exploring emotional complexity and research in the natural sciences on the measurement of biodiversity, we introduce—and demonstrate the benefits of—emodiversity: the variety and relative abundance of the emotions that humans experience.... View Details
- 2013
- Book
Fortune Tellers: The Story of America's First Economic Forecasters
The period leading up to the Great Depression witnessed the rise of the economic forecasters, pioneers who sought to use the tools of science to predict the future, with the aim of profiting from their forecasts. This book chronicles the lives and careers of the men... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
Bank Failures and Output During the Great Depression
By: Jeffrey Miron and Natalia Rigol
In response to the Financial Crisis of 2008, macroeconomic policymakers employed a range of tools designed to prevent failures of large, complex financial institutions (“banks”). The Treasury and the Fed justified these actions by arguing that bank failures exacerbate... View Details
- Summer 2013
- Article
Real Estate Prices During the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression
By: Tom Nicholas and Anna Scherbina
Using new data on market-based transactions we construct real estate price indexes for Manhattan between 1920 and 1939. During the 1920s prices reached their highest level in the third quarter of 1929 before falling by 67% at the end of 1932 and hovering around that... View Details
- December 2012 (Revised July 2013)
- Case
The “Chongqing Model” and the Future of China
By: Meg Rithmire
Since opening to the global economy in 1979, but especially since entering the WTO in 2001, China's economy grew at rates around 10% annually by attracting FDI and promoting exports. After the financial crisis that began in 2008 and depressed demand in the United... View Details
- November 2012
- Case
Ahold versus Tesco—Analyzing Performance
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Penelope Rossano
The case relates to understanding and comparing the performance of two leading retail companies—Ahold and Tesco. The case introduces the tools of Dupont and Modified Dupont Decomposition. While performance as measured by return on equity has been similar for the two... View Details
- October 2012 (Revised July 2014)
- Background Note
The Role of the Government in the Early Development of American Venture Capital
By: Josh Lerner and Tom Nicholas
Whether the government or markets, or a mixture of both, can provide efficient and effective incentives for encouraging entrepreneurial activity and new venture financing is an age-old question. Public promotion efforts are controversial and in most cases they tend to... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
Did Bank Distress Stifle Innovation During the Great Depression?
By: Ramana Nanda and Tom Nicholas
We find a negative relationship between bank distress and the level, quality and trajectory of firm-level innovation during the Great Depression, particularly for R&D firms operating in capital intensive industries. However, we also show that because a sufficient... View Details
- December 2011
- Article
Did R&D Firms Used to Patent? Evidence from the First Innovation Surveys
By: Tom Nicholas
Matching 2,777 R&D firms in surveys conducted by the National Research Council between 1921 and 1938 with U.S. patents reveals that 59 percent of all firms and 88 percent of publicly-traded firms patented. These shares are much higher than those observed for modern R&D... View Details
- January 2011 (Revised April 2023)
- Course Overview Note
The Coming of Managerial Capitalism: Overview
By: Tom Nicholas
This is a course overview note for The Coming of Managerial Capitalism. CMC is chronologically organized. It starts in the late eighteenth century when America gained independence, spans the remarkable rise to industrial maturity during the nineteenth and twentieth... View Details
- June 2010 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
The Guggenheims and Chilean Nitrates
By: Geoffrey Jones and Felipe Tamega Fernandes
The case describes the growth of Guggenheim Brothers as one of the largest mining companies in the world in the early twentieth century. Global expansion led the firm to Chile, first in copper and later in natural nitrates. Chile's economic growth was driven by the... View Details
- May 2010 (Revised November 2010)
- Case
Investment Technology Group
By: Clayton S. Rose and David Lane
Investment Technology Group (ITG) CEO Robert Gasser wondered if the financial crisis had permanently affected the firm's business model. A leader in trade analytics and execution for institutional equity investors, ITG had grown since its establishment in 1987 in step... View Details
- June 2009 (Revised November 2020)
- Case
Busse Place
By: Arthur I Segel, William J. Poorvu, Richard Kessler, Justin Seth Ginsburgh and Eric Fleiss
Busse Corporate Center's largest tenant recently declared bankruptcy, leaving the building 38% occupied and significantly overleveraged. In a depressed suburban Chicago office market, Hannah Sanchez, the leasing agent, has to negotiate lease proposals with three... View Details
- April 2009 (Revised June 2010)
- Case
U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Policy Reactions (B)
By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim
In March 2009, the U.S. economy was in a severe recession not seen since the Great Depression after the subprime mortgage crisis had spiraled out of control. The situation had dramatically changed in one year since the Federal Reserve Board had helped to bailout... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised July 2009)
- Case
Forecasting the Great Depression
What is proper role of professional economic forecasting in financial decision making? The case presents excerpts from three leading economic forecasters on the eve of, and just after, the stock market crash of October 1929. The first set of excerpts is from Roger... View Details
- January 2008
- Case
The Deutsche Bank (A)
By: David A. Moss
Founded in 1870 to help finance surging German exports and imports, the Deutsche Bank soon moved into domestic banking. In fact, its founders aimed to create both a commercial bank and an investment bank under one roof—that is, a "universal bank." By the end of the... View Details