Publications

Article

Credit Access and Social Welfare: The Rise of Consumer Lending in the United States and France

By: Gunnar Trumbull

Research into the causes of the 2008 financial crisis has drawn attention to a link between growing income inequality in the United States and high household indebtedness. Most accounts trace the U.S. idea of credit-as-welfare to the period of wage stagnation and... View Details

Keywords: Household Finance; Welfare State; Credit; Personal Finance; Welfare; Borrowing and Debt; France; United States

Find at Harvard

03 Oct 2005
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of Globally Organized Labor?

series of labor-manager-owner conflicts—beginning with an air traffic controllers' strike in the United States in the 1980s—in which organized labor has suffered one defeat after another, often losing jobs... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

February 2007
Case

South African Airways (A)

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Laura Morgan Roberts and Laura Winig

Amid efforts to engineer a turnaround at South African Airways (SAA), the CEO confronts an impending strike at the struggling company. How should the company address questions of distributive and procedural justice in post-Apartheid South Africa, and how should the CEO... View Details

Keywords: Fairness; Crisis Management; Employees; Employment; Growth and Development; Developing Countries and Economies; Air Transportation Industry; South Africa

12 Feb 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Do Bonuses Enhance Sales Productivity? A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Bonus-Based Compensation Plans

Keywords: by Doug J. Chung, Thomas Steenburgh & K. Sudhir

11 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

How AI Could Ease the Refugee Crisis and Bring New Talent to Businesses

the 26 Swiss cantons, each of which can only accept a certain number of arrivals based on their population sizes. Because of differences in the European labor market, the researchers investigated whether the asylum seekers in Switzerland... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology; Information Technology

12 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 12

http://papers.nber.org/papers/W15551 Labor Regulations and European Private Equity Authors:Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr Abstract European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Business and the Global Poor

report on the social value they are creating for the poor. In conclusion, companies should not look to the poor merely to exploit their untapped purchasing power or dip into low-cost labor pools. Over the long term, such a cursory and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

December 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Yellow Corporation: On the Verge of Bankruptcy

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

Yellow Corporation, one of the country’s oldest and largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, was nearing its 100th anniversary in 2024. Whether it would reach that milestone, however, was uncertain as the company was attempting to restructure its operations to... View Details

Keywords: Labor Unions; Labor and Management Relations; Capital Structure; Restructuring; Financial Management; Ethics; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Strategy; Truck Transportation; Change Management; Transportation Industry; Shipping Industry; United States

December 2001 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Netherlands:The, A "Third Way?"

By: Bruce R. Scott and Jamie Matthews

The economic success of The Netherlands in the 1960s can be attributed to Dutch wages that were kept substantially below those in neighboring countries. But increased pressures in the 1970s led to a wage explosion, which in turn pushed unemployment and disguised... View Details

Keywords: Wages; History; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Macroeconomics; Economic Systems; Employment; Performance Productivity; Jobs and Positions; Economic Growth; Netherlands

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

January 2025
Teaching Plan

Knowledge Transfer: Toyota, NUMMI, and GM

By: Willy Shih

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 625-003. New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. It was an opportunity for GM to learn about the Toyota Production System, which was quite different from the mass production... View Details

Keywords: Culture Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Joint Ventures; Transformation; Selection and Staffing; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Sharing; Labor Unions; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Production; Labor and Management Relations; Auto Industry; Japan; United States

July 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Knowledge Transfer: Toyota, NUMMI, and GM

By: Willy Shih

New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. It was an opportunity for GM to learn about the Toyota Production System, which was quite different from the mass production processes American automakers used at the... View Details

Keywords: Culture Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Joint Ventures; Transformation; Selection and Staffing; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Sharing; Labor Unions; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Production; Labor and Management Relations; Auto Industry; Japan; United States