Publications

Educators

Article

Marketing Complex Financial Products in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Rainfall Insurance in India

By: Sarthak Gaurav, Shawn A. Cole and Jeremy Tobacman

Recent financial liberalization in emerging economies has led to the rapid introduction of new financial products. Lack of experience with financial products, low levels of education, and low financial literacy may slow adoption of these products. This article reports... View Details

Keywords: Literacy; Insurance; Marketing; Decisions; Demand and Consumers; Financial Instruments; Emerging Markets; Education; Personal Finance; Agribusiness; Developing Countries and Economies; Innovation and Invention; Gujarat

12 Oct 2020
News

MBA/DBA Alum Wins Nobel Prize in Economics

news: He and fellow Stanford professor Paul Milgrom had won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Economics for their improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats. Milgrom had his phone in Do Not Disturb mode. Wilson, who lives... View Details

Keywords: Nobel Prize; negotiation; auction theory; career paths

Understanding Africa: Business, Entrepreneurship, Political Economy and the Complexities of a Continent - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Understanding Africa: Business, Entrepreneurship, Political Economy and the Complexities of a Continent Course Number 1555 Senior Lecturer Hakeem I. Belo-Osagie Spring; Q4; 1.5 credits 6 Sessions Paper This short course... View Details

International Differences in Entrepreneurship (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

Often considered one of the major forces behind economic growth and development, the entrepreneurial firm can accelerate the speed of innovation and dissemination of new technologies, thus increasing a country's competitive edge in the... View Details

09 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Leadership Lessons of the Great Recession: Options for Economic Downturns

the paper “Furloughs: An Alternative to Layoffs for Economic Downturns,” we discuss the factors leaders should consider before choosing furloughs. A key challenge to implementing furloughs in the United States is navigating the myriad... View Details

Keywords: by Sandra Sucher & Susan Winterberg; Aerospace; Electronics

Behavioral Economics for Managerial Decision Making - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Behavioral Economics for Managerial Decision Making Course Number 2236 Associate Professor Joshua Schwartzstein Spring; Q3Q4; 3.0 credits 28 Sessions Project Course Description Effective managers need sound judgment to... View Details

Space, Public And Commercial Economics (SPACE) - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Space, Public And Commercial Economics (SPACE) Course Number 1175 Professor Matthew Weinzierl Spring; Q3; 1.5 credits 14 sessions Paper Course Overview Space is a place of unparalleled possibility for humanity, and it... View Details

Article

Testing Substitutability

By: John William Hatfield, Nicole Immorlica and Scott Duke Kominers

We provide an algorithm for testing the substitutability of a length-N preference relation over a set of contracts X in time O(|X|3⋅N3). Access to the preference relation is essential for this result: We show that a substitutability-testing algorithm with access only... View Details

Keywords: Substitutability; Matching; Communication Complexity; Preference Elicitation; Marketplace Matching; Communication; Mathematical Methods; Economics

October 2019
Article

Partial Deregulation and Competition: Effects on Risky Mortgage Origination

By: Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani and Sanket Korgaonkar

We exploit the OCC's preemption of national banks from state laws against predatory lending as a quasi-experiment to study the effect of deregulation and its interaction with competition on the supply of complex mortgages. Following the preemption ruling, national... View Details

Keywords: Great Recession; Subprime; Complex Mortgages; Credit Supply; Household Debt; Preemption Rule; Competition; Mortgages; Government Legislation; Credit; Financial Crisis

2021
Other Unpublished Work

Computer-Implemented Methods and Systems for Measuring, Estimating, and Managing Economic Outcomes and Technical Debt in Software Systems and Projects: US Patent 11,126,427 B2

By: Daniel J. Sturtevant, Carliss Baldwin, Alan MacCormack, Sunny Ahn and Sean Gilliland

An interrelated set of tools and methods is disclosed for: (1) measuring the relationship between software source code attributes (such as code quality, design quality, test quality, and complexity metrics) and software economics outcome metrics (such as... View Details

Keywords: Technical Debt; Applications and Software; Economics; Measurement and Metrics; Patents

Read Now

2014
Book

Business History

By: Walter A. Friedman and Geoffrey Jones

This volume contains a selection of 42 foundational articles on the discipline of business history written between 1934 and the present day by scholars based in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. A wide-ranging editorial introduction describes the... View Details

Keywords: Economic History; Business History; History

November 2013
Article

Simplification and Saving

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

The daunting complexity of important financial decisions can lead to procrastination. We evaluate a low-cost intervention that substantially simplifies the retirement savings plan participation decision. Individuals received an opportunity to enroll in a retirement... View Details

Keywords: Retirement Savings; Simplification; Procrastination; Behavioral Economics; Saving; Motivation and Incentives; Retirement

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IFC India 2025: The Coal Dichotomy: Balancing Economic Growth and Decarbonization in India - Blog - Business & Environment

- Development While Decarbonizing: India’s Path to Net Zero IFC India 2025: Development While Decarbonizing - India’s Path to Net Zero MBA Teaching & Research News 13 Feb 2025 IFC India 2025: The Coal Dichotomy: Balancing Economic Growth... View Details

June 2020
Article

Informing Dissent

By: Hillary Greene and Dennis Yao

The first part of this commentary argues that because the production of dissent depends on the availability of information, greater attention should focus on government restrictions on access to official information. At no time is this more important than when... View Details

Keywords: Dissent; Information Monopoly; Economics Of Speech; Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA); Self-censorship; Social Pressure; Information; Government and Politics; Spoken Communication; Society

2012
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek (A): Lighting Liberia

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Anne Arlinghaus

After successful careers as lawyers Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek set out to tackle a large-scale infrastructure challenge in a complex environment by increasing Liberian citizens’ access to lighting solutions. They developed the Liberian Energy Network, which aimed... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

Phil's work aims to identify the drivers of performance for healthcare organizations and providers, and the mechanisms by which this performance can change over time. In complex healthcare settings, the optimal choice of treatment can be highly ambiguous. As a... View Details

Keywords: Primary Care; Medical Decision-making; Learning By Doing; Healthcare Organizations; Healthcare Operations; Health Economics

December 2020
Article

Multinational Firms and the Politics of International Trade in Multidisciplinary Perspective

By: Grace A. Ballor and Aydin B. Yildirim

From the technical analyses of wide ranges of scholars to the public discourse backlashes against globalization, there is a huge volume of work historicizing, quantifying, and problematizing the complex role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in international trade.... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Corporations; International Trade; Big Business; Economic Governance; Global Value Chains; Trade Policy; Corporate Regulation; Multinational Firms and Management; Trade; Policy; Governance; Globalization