Publications

March 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Opportunity Insights: Research and Policy for Social Mobility

By: Scott Duke Kominers, Jeffrey Huizinga and Allison Ciechanover

Opportunity Insights -- a non-profit that researches drivers of economic opportunity and develops policy solutions to help families achieve better life outcomes -- seeks to expand its impact. View Details

Keywords: Economic Opportunity; Social Mobility; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Issues; Housing; Policy; Opportunities

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

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

March 2017
Article

Land Institutions and Chinese Political Economy: Institutional Complementarities and Macroeconomic Management

By: Meg Rithmire

This article critically examines the origins and evolution of China’s unique land institutions and situates land policy in the larger context of China’s reforms and pursuit of economic growth. It argues that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has strengthened the... View Details

Keywords: China; Economic Reform; Land Politics; Macromanagement; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; China

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

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

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

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

May 1997
Case

Center for Women & Enterprise: Looking for a Director of Development with "The Scrappiness Factor"

By: Thomas J. Kosnik and Natalie Zakarian

Andrea Silbert is founder of the Center for Women & Enterprise, a nonprofit with a mission to empower women to become economically self-sufficient and prosperous through entrepreneurship. She must select a new senior sales executive, decide how to share... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Selection and Staffing; Entrepreneurship

September 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Dream: Impact Through Real Estate

By: Michael Chu and John Masko

The Canadian city of Toronto had one of the largest housing affordability problems of any city in the developed world. One company trying to address this problem was Dream, one of the largest real estate groups in Canada. In 2021, Dream had just launched a new system... View Details

April 2019
Case

American Ballet Theatre

By: Anita Elberse, Tsubasa Nakajima and Melissa Rodman

Kara Medoff Barnett, executive director of American Ballet Theatre (ABT), widely regarded as one of the world’s premier ballet companies, faces several challenges. It is June 2018. Despite its prestige, the company’s $45 million annual budget and $22 million endowment... View Details

Keywords: Performing Arts; Superstars; Talent; Talent Development; Non-profit; Contracts; Labor Economics; General Management; Arts; Entertainment; Media; Talent and Talent Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Marketing; Strategy

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

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

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

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

2014
Working Paper

Bio-Piracy or Prospering Together? Fuzzy Set and Qualitative Analysis of Herbal Patenting by Firms

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tarun Khanna

Since the 1990s, several Western firms have filed patents based on medicinal herbs from emerging markets, evoking protests from local stakeholders against 'bio-piracy'. We explore conditions under which firms and local stakeholders share rents from such patents. Our... View Details

Keywords: Rents From New Technology; Local Stakeholders; Herbal Patents; QCA; Fuzzy Set Analysis; Qualitative Case Studies; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Patents; Emerging Markets; Health Care and Treatment; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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

December 2017
Supplement

Piracy in Somalia (B)

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Alissa Davies

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

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