Publications

21 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Debate Financial Reform Legislation

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act slated to be signed this week by U.S. President Barack Obama has been called the most sweeping set of rules for banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression. But what do... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

March 2010 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Russia: Revolution and Reform

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Sogomon Tarontsi

The collapse of central authority in the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a period of revolutionary transformations for the states that emerged in its wake. The leaders of Russia, the USSR's successor, since then have struggled to reestablish central authority while... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Economic Systems; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Public Administration Industry; Russia

25 Mar 2010
News

On Health Care Reform

2011
Chapter

The Economics of Housing Finance Reform

By: David S. Scharfstein and Adi Sunderam

This paper analyzes the two leading types of proposals for reform of the housing finance system: (i) broad-based, explicit, priced government guarantees of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and (ii) privatization. Both proposals have drawbacks. Properly-priced... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Housing; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics

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25 Jan 2012
News

Is Tax Reform Viable?

My Beautiful Capital Gain An investor ponders taxes and the 99 Percent Will President Obama succeed in passing the "Buffett Rule"? This past year was a very good one for me: a large media company purchased the enterprise in which I had made a relatively small... View Details

Keywords: Administration of Economic Programs; Government

January 2014 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Legislative Choices for U.S. Corporate Tax Reform

By: Robert C. Pozen and Eric Lonstein

This case asks students to wear the hat of a policymaker to explore the politically charged issues around corporate tax reform in the U.S. View Details

Keywords: Tax Accounting; Policy-making; Political Economy; Policy; Taxation; United States

November 2018 (Revised July 2023)
Case

The Weir Group: Reforming Executive Pay (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Federica Gabrieli

In February 2018, the Remuneration Committee together with the full Board of Directors of the Scotland-based engineering company The Weir Group had to decide whether to seek a shareholder vote at the upcoming Annual General Meeting in April on a proposal to reform the... View Details

18 Mar 2015
Panel Discussion

Education Reform and Bureaucracy: The Challenges of Institutionalizing Reforms in India

By: Akshay Mangla

December 2013 (Revised December 2014)
Case

Reform in the Chicago Public Schools

By: Matthew Weinzierl and Katrina Flanagan

In 2012, the Chicago Teachers' Union went on strike over proposed reforms by the city's mayor, Rahm Emanuel. At the heart of the reforms, and the strike, was frustration over many decades of underperformance in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and a surge of... View Details

Keywords: Public Education; Public Goods; Samuelson Rule; Externalities And Pigouvian Corrections; Tiebout Sorting And Efficiency; Education; Labor Unions; Public Administration Industry; Education Industry; Chicago

22 Mar 2011
News

Why liberals should back Social Security reform

2017
Working Paper

The Financial Regulatory Reform Agenda in 2017

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson, Jeremy C. Stein and Adi Sunderam

We take stock of the post-crisis financial regulatory reform agenda. We highlight and summarize areas of clear progress, where post-crisis reforms should either be maintained or built upon. We then identify several areas where the new regulations could be streamlined... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States

29 Sep 2011
News

The myth of corporate tax reform

February 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Stock Reform of Shenzhen Development Bank

By: Li Jin, Li Liao, Aldo Sesia and Jianyi Wu

Shenzhen Development Bank, China's first publicly traded company, was undergoing the non-tradable share reform. Its current controlling shareholder, private equity firm Newbridge Capital LLC, needs to negotiate with its diverse minority shareholders to find a... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Private Equity; Investment; Corporate Governance; Managerial Roles; Emerging Markets; Negotiation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Conflict of Interests; Banking Industry; China

01 Jun 2010
News

Paulson Advocates Regulatory Reform

PAULSON: “We were staving off economic Armageddon.” Hank Paulson (MBA ’70) is on a mission. As Treasury Secretary, the former Goldman Sachs CEO found himself in the distasteful position of championing massive taxpayer-funded bailouts for the nation’s leading financial... View Details

Keywords: federal bailouts; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance; Administration of Economic Programs; Government

07 Mar 2016
News

The Trump-Obama Corporate Tax Reform Fail

January 2011
Article

Does Intellectual Property Rights Reform Spur Industrial Development?

By: Lee G. Branstetter, Ray Fisman, C. Fritz Foley and Kamal Saggi

An extensive theoretical literature generates ambiguous predictions concerning the effects of intellectual property rights (IPR) reform on industrial development. The impact depends on whether multinational enterprises (MNEs) expand production in reforming countries... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Intellectual Property; Rights; Production; Expansion; United States

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1979
Article

Approximating the Efficiency Gain of Tax Reforms

By: Jerry R. Green and Eytan Sheshinski

Proper analysis of tax reform requires evaluation of the welfare effects induced by a change from one tax system to another. We present two methods for estimating these changes using only local information pertaining to an initial equilibrium with distortive taxes. It... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Change; Analysis