Publications

11 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 11, 2018

Conference Proceedings More Amazon Effects: Online Competition and Pricing Behaviors By: Cavallo, Alberto Abstract—I study how online competition, with its shrinking margins, algorithmic pricing technologies, and the transparency of the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

06 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, March 6, 2018

provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. Relevance to investment performance is the most frequent motivation for use of ESG data followed by client demand and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2022

Will They Ever Return to Normal? Research by Alberto Cavallo probes the complex interplay of product shortages, prices, and inflation. Feeling Seen: What to Say When Your... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

July 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Fresh Start? Peru's Legacy of Debt and Default (A)

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and Lisa Lewis

Considers the situation facing Alberto Fujimori as he takes office in 1990. Pays particular attention to Peru's long history of international borrowing, default, and renegotiation. This history suggests that the costs imposed by foreigners on Peru when it failed to... View Details

Keywords: History; International Finance; Sovereign Finance; Economy; Borrowing and Debt; Peru

18 May 2016
Research & Ideas

Unethical Amnesia: Why We Tend to Forget Our Own Bad Behavior

General Alberto Gonzales reportedly offered some variant of “I don’t recall” more than 60 times. “Unethical amnesia is a self-defense mechanism that people use to alleviate the dissonance they experience after they act dishonestly” It may... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Something Ventured, Something Gained: A European View of Venture Capital

States. But that was then; this is now. Just in the past few years, said Lerner, "we've seen a lot more syndication transactions across the United States and Europe and more early-stage involvement by firms in England and the... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Financial Services

04 May 2007
What Do You Think?

How Do Managers Think?

in which it is carried out. Joe Schmid observed that "both medical doctors and organizational managers work in cultures that are historically problem definition poor and solution rich. Their individual rewards systems are both driven View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Investor Protection: The Czech Experience

Nova lived up to its moniker, nová meaning "new" in Czech and alluding as well to a bright star. Its wide array of programs provided a spicy alternative to the tired fare offered by the two prevailing state-run channels whose... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Media & Broadcasting; Entertainment & Recreation

06 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

What the World Could Learn from America's Immigration Backlash—100 Years Ago

individuals displaced by natural disasters could surge to 1.2 billion by 2050, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace. Beyond the United States and France, the world witnessed the United... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Tabellini

June 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Cementos Argos in the U.S.: Go Big or Go Home?

By: Jorge Tamayo, Ruth Costas, Pedro Levindo and Karina Souza

In April 2011, Colombian group Cementos Argos had to decide on whether to double down its business in the U.S., amidst the U.S. cement industry’s lowest performance in 30 years. Argos— Colombia’s leading cement producer and one of the “jewels” of Grupo GEA, the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Organization; Business Subsidiaries; Talent and Talent Management; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Crisis; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Business Strategy; Construction Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Latin America; South America; North and Central America; United States; Colombia

17 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 17, 2018

a product of the international Communist movement’s model of revolution in the developing world that envisioned new states following a “non-capitalist path of development.” In Iran, this was compounded by the use of Allende-era Chile as a... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

27 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 27

inception of a promising venture lay the foundations for its eventual ruin. The Founder's Dilemmas is the first book to examine the early decisions by entrepreneurs that can make or break a startup and its team. Drawing on a decade of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

January 2022
Technical Note

BGIE Macro Data Repository

By: Alberto Cavallo

This technical note describes an up-to-date data repository containing balance of payment, exchange rate, and aggregate macroeconomic data in a standard format used by case studies written by members of the Business, Government & the International Economy (BGIE) group... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics

March 2022
Module Note

International Macroeconomics with Global Crises

By: Alberto Cavallo

This note introduces a module of cases used at Harvard Business School (HBS) to teach fundamental concepts of international macroeconomics through the discussion of global crises. First, to provide context, it gives a brief overview of the module. Then, it describes... View Details

Keywords: International Economy; Crisis; Macroeconomics; Globalized Economies and Regions

November 2021 (Revised January 2024)
Case

The Global Great Depression, 1929-1939

By: Alberto Cavallo, Sophus A. Reinert and Federica Gabrieli

The Great Depression was, by far, the worst economic contraction of the twentieth century, and some of the most important ideas about both fiscal and monetary policy in the second half of the century were developed in response to it. The economic collapse, which... View Details

Keywords: Great Depression; Economic Conditions; Unemployment; Homelessness; Financial Crisis; History; Economy; Policy; Poverty; Social Issues; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

November 2024
Article

Price Discounts and Cheapflation During the Post-Pandemic Inflation Surge

By: Alberto Cavallo and Oleksiy Kryvtsov

We study how within-store price variation changes with inflation, and whether households exploit it to attenuate the inflation burden. We use micro price data for food products sold by 91 large multi-channel retailers in ten countries between 2018 and 2024. Measuring... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Inflation and Deflation; Price; Consumer Behavior; Personal Finance; Product Positioning

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Spring 2016
Article

The Billion Prices Project: Using Online Prices for Inflation Measurement and Research

By: Alberto Cavallo and Roberto Rigobon

New data-gathering techniques, often referred to as “Big Data” have the potential to improve statistics and empirical research in economics. In this paper we describe our work with online data at the Billion Prices Project at MIT and discuss key lessons for both... View Details

Keywords: Billion Prices Project; Online Scraped Data; Online Price Index; Economics; Research; Price; Analytics and Data Science

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May 2022
Article

When Does Product Liability Risk Chill Innovation? Evidence from Medical Implants

By: Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo

Liability laws designed to compensate for harms caused by defective products may also affect innovation. We examine this issue by exploiting a major quasi-exogenous increase in liability risk faced by U.S. suppliers of polymers used to manufacture medical implants.... View Details

Keywords: Product Liability; Innovation; Tort; Medical Devices; Vertical Foreclosure; Product; Innovation and Invention; Legal Liability; Laws and Statutes; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry