Publications

08 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Poverty, Social Divisions and Conflict in Nepal

Keywords: by Quy-Toan Do & Lakshmi Iyer

2013
Chapter

The Global and the Local in the Beauty Industry: A Historical Perspective

By: G. Jones

This chapter explores the impact of the global beauty industry on beauty ideals. It shows that as the industry internationalized from the late nineteenth century, there was a homogenization of beauty ideals and practices around the world. Western and white beauty... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Globalization; History; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; North and Central America; South America

July 2020
Case

Mortgage Backed Securities and the Covid-19 Pandemic

By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira and Dean Xu

In April 2020, global financial markets were still reeling as the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly across the world. Global equity markets had initially fallen by 30% in response to the pandemic, and high-yield credit markets had dropped by nearly 20%. In contrast,... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Mortgage-backed Securities; Health Pandemics; Financial Markets; Assets; Resource Allocation; Financial Instruments; Decision Making

03 Oct 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Cartels and Competition: Neither Markets nor Hierarchies

Keywords: by Jeffrey Fear

2018
Working Paper

The Impact of Pensions and Insurance on Global Yield Curves

By: Robin Greenwood and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen

We document a strong effect of pension and insurance company (P&I) assets on the long end of the yield curve. Using data from 26 countries, the yield spread between 30-year and 10-year government bond yields is negatively related to the ratio of pension assets (in... View Details

Keywords: Pension Funds; Investment Funds; Insurance; Assets; Interest Rates; Bonds

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20 Mar 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Catering to Characteristics

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood & Samuel Hanson; Technology

December 2018 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Husk Power: Scaling the Venture

By: Benjamin N. Roth, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Natalia Rigol

In January 2018, Manoj Sinha—founder and CEO of Husk Power—was contemplating raising $20 million to scale operations for a second time. From 2007 through 2013, Husk built 80 biomass waste plants that provided electricity to 250,000 villagers and shop owners spread... View Details

Keywords: Scaling; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Growth and Development Strategy; Energy Industry; India

Teaching Interest

Digital Marketing Strategy

By: John A. Deighton

When the tools of marketing change, strategies change too. The focus of this course is on firms trying to navigate the transition from offline to online market-making and strategy development. Our concern is primarily with corporations that have products and... View Details

20 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono

according to Koehn, are universal and ring true whether she's teaching the case to advertising execs or second-year students in the MBA program. They include: Take smart (and onging) stock of how you are using your people, your authority, and your resources. Bono... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

January 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Fixed Income Arbitrage in a Financial Crisis (A): US Treasuries in November 2008

Investment manager James Franey confronts an apparent arbitrage opportunity during the global financial crisis of 2008 when he notices a wide yield spread between two U.S. Treasury bonds that mature on the same date. Franey must decide if there is an opportunity, how... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Valuation; Interest Rates; Financial Crisis; Financial Services Industry; United States

2008
Book

On Competition

By: M. E. Porter

Competition is one of society's most powerful forces for making things better in many ﬁelds of human endeavor. The study of competition and the creation of value, in their full richness, have preoccupied me for several decades. Competition is pervasive, whether it... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Practice; Competitive Strategy; Theory; Value Creation

Find at Harvard

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

New Challenges for Long-Term Investors

long-term bonds are the relevant asset for long-term investors. Thus these investors should care about long-term interest rates. The Fed has control over short-term interest rates, but it is less clear... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

Research Summary

A major area of Professor Torfason's research is the behavior of individual social network structures. He studies the violation of norms – specifically the use of excessive force in conflict situations – within the empirical context of a large online... View Details

Research Summary

Political Risk, Foreign Intervention and International Arbitration

The Empire Trap: America's Attempts to Protect Property Rights Overseas, 1898-2008, is a history of the U.S. government's attempts to protect the property rights of American investors when they venture outside the boundaries of the United... View Details

Research Summary

Capitalism as a System of Governance

My research interest is in further exploration of the analytic utility of an original conception of capitalism as an indirect, three level system of governance for the economic relationships within political entities, and mostly within nation states. This three level... View Details

2010
Working Paper

Lawful but Corrupt: Gaming and the Problem of Institutional Corruption in the Private Sector

By: Malcolm S. Salter

This paper describes how the gaming of society's rules by corporations contributes to the problem of institutional corruption in the world of business. "Gaming" in its various forms involves the use of technically legal means to subvert the intent of society's rules in... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Civil Society or Community; Competitive Advantage; Earnings Management; Trust; Law; Performance; Investment Funds; Private Sector; Behavior; Relationships; Goals and Objectives