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31 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

How Ben Franklin’s ‘Way to Wealth’ Introduced American Capitalism to the World

from Mao Tse Tung to Bangladeshi bloggers, Reinert says the essay’s initial influence was limited primarily to North America and Europe, tracking closely with the first parts of the world to enter the Industrial Revolution. “Most of my research focuses on the View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

Is there a special sauce for stimulating innovation in the energy sector, a concoction to spur cost-effective developments toward solving the climate change problem? HBS professor Rebecca Henderson doesn't claim to know all the ingredients for that special sauce. But... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

26 Jun 2000
Research & Ideas

Three Countries, Three Choices in Post-Soviet Eurasia

Why have various countries of the former Soviet Union taken such dramatically different economic paths since the Union's breakup? This has been a lingering puzzle of the post-Cold War period. Lithuania, for instance, has turned its... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

04 Feb 2008
Research & Ideas

Podcast: The Potential Partnership of India and China

powerful economic development programs that each is pursuing, these countries are poised to become dominant economic powers in short order. But there is a subtle trend occurring that could make these 2... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

11 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 11

surprisingly, local governments exercise the greatest control over urban land in cities that adopted market reforms earliest. Slavery's Scientific Management: Accounting for Mastery Author:Caitlin C.Rosenthal Publication:In Slavery's Capitalism: A New View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2024
Dictionary Entry

Jerry R. Green (1946-)

By: Eddie Dekel, John Geanakoplos and Scott Duke Kominers

Jerry Green has a deep and long-standing connection to Harvard University, and in particular with its Economics Department. This paper begins by reviewing his intellectual background, and then turns to exploring how he has influenced scholars through his wide-ranging... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Microeconomics; Theory; History; Game Theory; Decision Choices and Conditions; Education Industry; North America; United States; Cambridge; Massachusetts; Boston

Mar 2012
Article

Fixing What's Wrong with U.S. Politics

history shows it's not new. Moreover, sharp ideological battles have often proved highly productive in policy terms, delivering the best ideas from both sides. In the 1840s, for instance, state politicians who were deeply skeptical of... View Details

2012
Book

The Rise of the Modern Firm

By: Geoffrey Jones and Walter A. Friedman

This authoritative volume focuses on the rise of modern firms, from their early history to the present day. It considers the role of laws and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives and the firms they... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Economy; Business History; Archives; Contracts; Theory

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December 1998 (Revised January 1999)
Compilation

Explaining the Great Depression

By: David A. Moss and Joseph P Gownder

Although the Great Depression stands as the most punishing economic event of the 20th century, there is still remarkably little consensus about its causes. This case presents a number of prominent explanations including those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Maynard... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Crisis; Theory; Economics

June 2010 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Remaking Singapore

By: Michael E. Porter, Boon Siong Neo and Christian H.M. Ketels

Looking through the lenses of both macro and micro economic policy, this case examines how Singapore has achieved such stellar success throughout its history, from independence through 2008. The case discusses the different policy choices the Singaporean government has... View Details

Keywords: History; Development Economics; Industry Clusters; Competitive Advantage; Policy; Economic Growth; Microeconomics; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; Singapore

March 2009 (Revised January 2025)
Background Note

A Strait of Uncertainty: Taiwan's Development in the Shadow of China

By: William C. Kirby, J. Megan Greene, Tracy Yuen Manty, Daniel Fu, Yuanzhuo Wang, Noah B. Truwit and Aqib Zakaria

Relations between the People’s Republic of China (PRC), on the Chinese Mainland, and the Republic of China (ROC), on Taiwan, had improved significantly since 2008. Taiwan investment in China had played a major role in China’s economic boom in recent decades. ... View Details

Keywords: History; Development Economics; Investment; Economic Growth; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Financial Crisis; China; Taiwan

July 2024
Case

Wizards of the Coast and Magic: The Rebounding

By: Boris Groysberg and Tom Quinn

This case traces the history and growth of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. From its development in 1993 by tiny studio Wizards of the Coast, to Wizards’ acquisition by toy giant Hasbro in 1999, to its evolution into a billion-dollar brand in 2023,... View Details

13 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Making Biotech Work as a Business

create safer and more effective treatments and, of course, reap profits—industry executives, like hopeful patients, still restlessly wait for relief. Given its scientific potential, said Pisano, biotech continues to bump against several View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Biotechnology; Health; Technology

November 2003 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Ivar Kreuger and the Swedish Match Empire

By: Geoffrey Jones and Ingrid Vargas

Taught in Evolution of Global Business. Globalization and corporate fraud are the central themes of this case on the international growth of Swedish Match in the interwar years. Between 1913 and 1932, Ivar Kreuger, known as the "Swedish Match King," built a small,... View Details

Keywords: History; International Finance; Globalized Firms and Management; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Monopoly; Business and Government Relations; Sweden

2017
Chapter

High Stakes Negotiation: Indian Gaming and Tribal/State Compacts

By: Gavin Clarkson and James K. Sebenius

Although Indian tribes and the surrounding states were often bitter enemies throughout much of the history of the United States, recently tribes and states have been able to work cooperatively in a number of areas. In some instances, Congress has mandated such... View Details

Keywords: Indian Gaming; Negotiation; Regulation; Tribal Sovereignty; Sovereign Finance; Negotiation Participants; Relationships; Cooperation; Connecticut