Publications

SSRN

March 2020
Case

Brazil: Contesting the Rules of Government

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Jonathan Schlefer

Brazilian factions so fiercely opposed one another that for a century and a half they had contested not just state policies but the rules and structure of the state itself. Was this politics, so unlike the Western political ideal, sign of an immature or failing... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Policy; Government Administration; Government and Politics; Social Issues; Brazil

13 Nov 2020
Working Paper Summaries

The European Commission’s Sustainable Corporate Governance Report: A Critique

Keywords: by Mark Roe, Holger Spamann, Jesse Fried, and Charles Wang

January–February 2021
Article

Food and Drug Administration Guidance Documents and New Medical Devices: The Case of Breast Prostheses

By: Rachel E. Weitzman, Ariel Dora Stern and Daniel B. Kramer

As pressure mounts on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to speed its review process for novel devices, and budgetary pressures further strain its resources, the critical role of guidance documents in assuring consistent, rigorous, and scientifically grounded... View Details

Keywords: Medical Devices; FDA; Health Care and Treatment; Government Administration; Information; Standards

28 Aug 2014
Op-Ed

Government Can Do More to Unfreeze Small Business Credit

Act)-leveraged effective federal programs that already existed, while also taking action in some new areas. With the Recovery Act, the federal government significantly expanded its role as a guarantor of small business capital,... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking

2015
Chapter

Government and the Minimalist Platform: Business at the Kumbh Mela

By: John D. Macomber and Tarun Khanna

India's Kumbh Mela, a religious festival occurring once every 12 years at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, attracts over 80 million pilgrims to a temporary "pop-up megacity" over the course of two months. A team of faculty and students from five Harvard... View Details

Find at Harvard

November 1989
Teaching Note

H.J. Heinz Co.: The Administration of Policy (A), (B), (C), and (D), Teaching Note

By: Kenneth E. Goodpaster and Thomas R. Piper

Teaching Note for (9-382-034, 035, 036, and 037). View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Management Practices and Processes; Motivation and Incentives; System; Ethics; Policy; Business Divisions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Food and Beverage Industry

2011
Book

Capitalism: Its Origins and Evolution as a System of Governance

By: Bruce R. Scott

Capitalism, as defined in this book, is an indirect, three-level system of governance for economic relationships (i.e., economic, administrative, and political). Whereas economic markets can coordinate supply and demand within an existing system thanks to the invisible... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Price; Governance; Government and Politics; Books; Markets; Relationships; System

Find at Harvard

November 2014
Article

Government Green Procurement Spillovers: Evidence from Municipal Building Policies in California

By: Timothy Simcoe and Michael W. Toffel

We study how government green procurement policies influence private-sector demand for similar products. Specifically, we measure the impact of municipal policies requiring governments to construct green buildings on private-sector adoption of the U.S. Green Building... View Details

Keywords: Public Procurement; Green Building; Quality Certification; Environmental Policy; Buildings and Facilities; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Government and Politics; Green Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; California

2016
Working Paper

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Modern Administrative State, 1912–1925: Trade Associations, Codes of Fair Competition, and State Building

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

From its founding in 1912 through the interwar years, the Chamber's history shows a persistent preoccupation with progressive economics and policy-making. Rather than flouting the new ideas of institutional economics, which favored federal regulators overseeing data... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Trade; Business and Government Relations; Competition; United States

February 2002 (Revised March 2002)
Background Note

Primer on Politics and Government Management in the United States, A

By: Joseph L. Bower

Introduces the wide variety of political and organizational forces at work in federal and local governments in the United States. View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; United States

02 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Government and Financial Tech Can Fix Cash Woes for Small Businesses

products and services. Making the payrolls that support middle class families across the country. These are all things we rely on small businesses for, so we should look with more than just casual interest at how technology, and even View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills

02 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Role of Government When All Else Fails

extremely broadly (even, in some cases, onto generations that have yet to be born) and to overcome a broad range of failures in the private marketplace. This is why, in my view, government truly is the ultimate risk manager. Even with a... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

04 Jan 2017
What Do You Think?

How Much Bureaucracy is a Good Thing in Government and Business?

call these people ‘zombie managers.’ They keep on pushing papers round and round, and then the actual decision goes to a guy who does not understand the subject at all” Several respondents, some of whom have served in government agencies,... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

June 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

The Lunar Gateway, Moon vs. Mars, and the Political Governance of Space Activities

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang

In 2017, the Trump Administration made a bold claim—that they would return the next man and the first woman to the lunar surface by 2024, this time to establish a sustainable presence to enable further exploration in the solar system. With the Artemis Program, NASA has... View Details

Keywords: Space; Space Economy; Aerospace; Nasa; Governance; Policy; International Relations; Infrastructure

03 Sep 2024
Cold Call Podcast

How the US Government Is Innovating in Its Efforts to Fund Semiconductor Manufacturing

Keywords: Re: Mitchell B. Weiss; Public Administration; Public Administration

December 2016
Case

Public Mission, Private Funding: The University of California, Berkeley

By: William C. Kirby and Joycelyn W. Eby

UC Berkley, long known as one of the leading public universities in both the U.S. and the world, has seen turbulent times recently. While student enrollment and costs have increased steadily in recent years, the school, which has been fiercely proud of its public... View Details

2020
Article

Remaking the Imperial Presidency: The Mayaguez Incident of 1975 and the Contradictions of Credibility

By: Mattias Fibiger

This article argues that the Mayaguez incident of 1975 was a missed opportunity to establish a more democratic American foreign policy. President Gerald Ford managed the crisis with an eye toward domestic and international credibility. But his conception of credibility... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Policy; Presidency; Ford Administration; Government and Politics; History; Crisis Management; United States

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

Article

Spanning the Institutional Abyss: The Intergovernmental Network and the Governance of Foreign Direct Investment

By: Juan Alcacer and Paul Ingram

Global economic transactions such as foreign direct investment must extend over an institutional abyss between the jurisdiction, and therefore protection, of the states involved. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), whose members are states, represent an important... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Market Transactions; Foreign Direct Investment; Government and Politics; Risk and Uncertainty; Networks; Culture; Complexity; Public Administration Industry