Publications

March 1992 (Revised November 1993)
Background Note

Trading the Right to Pollute: Developing the Market for Pollution Allowances

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Examines the issues underlying the formation of the market for tradeable pollution allowances, following the requirement of Title IV of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act. Examines the implications that these trade the allowances hold for the U.S. electric... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Pollutants; Trade; Utilities Industry

March 2016 (Revised September 2021)
Case

South Africa: A Fractured Rainbow?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

Twenty years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa's democracy persists, albeit with problems. A tripartite coalition — the African National Congress, the labor unions, and the Communist Party — still controls the political system but with diminishing economic... View Details

Keywords: Politics; Development; Productivity; Labor; Labor Unions; Infrastructure; Government and Politics; Economic Growth; Performance Productivity; Economy; Social Issues; South Africa

Educators

Research Summary

Wearing a Red Hat ¨C The Impact of Activist Industrial Policy on Software Development in China

The idea that the government should steer economic development by strategically hand-picking and managing certain industries is controversial but appeals to many developing countries that are eager to upgrade their industries. In this paper, I study China's recent... View Details

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

Educators

10 Apr 2025
Blog Post

IFC India 2025: SELCO - Decentralized Renewable Energy to Develop While Decarbonizing

technologies. Over our ten days in India, we explored numerous decarbonization solutions, but for true climate action to succeed in India, it must be inclusive. SELCO is achieving this by using DRE to catalyze economic View Details

September 2008
Article

What T. R. Took: The Economic Impact of the Panama Canal, 1903-1937

By: Noel Maurer and Carlos Yu

The Panama Canal was one of the largest public investments of its time. In the first decade of its operation, the canal produced significant social returns for the United States. Most of these returns were due to the transportation of petroleum from California to the... View Details

Keywords: History; Development Economics; International Relations; Investment Return; Negotiation Deal; Panama; United States

26 Oct 2010
Other Presentation

Anchor Institutions and Urban Economic Development: From Community Benefit to Shared Value

By: Michael E. Porter

ProfessorMichael E. Porter: Initiative for a Competitive Inner CityCopyright View Details

Keywords: Economics; Growth and Development; United States

December 2017
Case

Piracy in Somalia (A)

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Alissa Davies

A Somali fisherman stands on a beach in early 2011, considering his options: should he embark in his tiny fishing vessel or join a nearby pirate crew? His war-ravaged country, entering its 20th year of civil war, was in the midst of a famine that had claimed hundreds... View Details

Keywords: Pirates; Foreign Aid; Civil War; Private Property; Human Rights; Economic Development; Globalization; War; Property; Crime and Corruption; Rights; Development Economics; Moral Sensibility; Shipping Industry; Somalia

Educators

13 Nov 2006
Other Presentation

Clusters and Economic Development: Towards a New Model for Regions and Inner Cities

By: Michael E. Porter

Presentation delivered at the Brownfields Conference, Boston, MA. View Details

Keywords: Economics; Growth and Development; Society; United States

Abstract

Using detailed data on recipients of bachelor's degrees from MIT between 2006 and 2012, I examine the selection of students into finance or science and engineering (S&E). I find that academic achievement in college is negatively correlated with... View Details

1994
Book

The Making of Global Enterprises

By: G. Jones

This volume presents new insights on the history of international business. Two main themes are addressed: how and when has global business developed over the last century? and what has been its impact on host economies? The volume includes a pioneering study by Mira... View Details

Keywords: Economic History; Business Subsidiaries; Economy; Trade; Globalized Firms and Management; Information Technology

2024
Other Unpublished Work

A Proposal for the IMF: A New Instrument of International Liquidity Provision for Emerging Markets and Developing Economies

By: Laura Alfaro, Guillermo Calvo, José de Gregorio, Augusto de la Torre, Pablo Guidotti, Enrique Mendoza, Ernesto Talvi, Liliana Rojas-Suarez and Andrés Velasco

This paper addresses a critical flaw in the international financial system: the failure to address the inherent asymmetry between countries that issue reserve currencies and those that do not, leaving the latter vulnerable during systemic liquidity crises. We propose... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Emerging Markets; Financial Markets; International Finance; Developing Countries and Economies; Latin America

2011
Working Paper

Leviathan as a Minority Shareholder: A Study of Equity Purchases by the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), 1995-2003

By: Sergio G. Lazzarini and Aldo Musacchio

There is a growing literature comparing the performance of private vs. state-owned companies. Yet, there is little work examining the effects of having the government as a minority shareholder of private companies. We conduct such a study using data for 296 publicly... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Ownership Stake; State Ownership; Private Ownership; Performance Evaluation; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; Brazil

11 Mar 2014
Interview

The Looming Challenges of US Competitiveness: Implications for Philadelphia

By: Michael E. Porter

The third installment of the Fox School's Innovation Leadership Speaker Series featured Professor Michael E. Porter, William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School. Dr. Porter addressed the factors driving innovation and competitiveness in a given... View Details

Keywords: Competitiveness; Economic Analysis; Economics; Philadelphia

2012
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek (A): Lighting Liberia

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Anne Arlinghaus

After successful careers as lawyers Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek set out to tackle a large-scale infrastructure challenge in a complex environment by increasing Liberian citizens’ access to lighting solutions. They developed the Liberian Energy Network, which aimed... View Details

spring 2007
Article

Corporate Legitimacy and Advertising: British Companies and the Rhetoric of Development in West Africa, 1950-1970

Around 1960, the first independent African nations emerged, marking the beginning of the momentous political event that, among other things, would change the visual representations and the copy of advertisements. Development, modernity, and industrialization became... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Developing Countries and Economies; Africa; Great Britain