Publications

September 2012
Teaching Note

Vodafone Japan (A), (B) and (C) (TN)

By: Juan Alcacer

The series of three cases is used in Harvard Business School's (HBS) elective course "Competing Globally" as the second case in the first module (Why?: Strategies to create value globally) (See "Competing Globally: Course Note for Instructors", HBS 713-422). The module... View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications; Technological Innovation; Technology Strategy; Operations Strategy; Information Technology; Operations; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Japan

May 26, 2021
Article

The Challenge of Rebuilding U.S. Domestic Supply Chains

By: Willy C. Shih, Robert S. Huckman and James Wyner

Massachusetts-based Shawmut scrambled to expand production to meet the soaring demand for N95 masks and hospital gowns during the pandemic. Its experience illustrates a crucial point that policymakers should take to heart: Once a country loses its industrial commons... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Health Pandemics; Production; Management; United States

02 Dec 2017
News

Do Employers Overestimate the Value of a College Degree?

18 Aug 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Emerging Markets and the Future of Business History

Keywords: by Gareth Austin, Carlos Dávila, and Geoffrey Jones

24 Oct 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India

Keywords: Re: William R. Kerr; Manufacturing

2010
Report

State of the Region Report 2010: The Top of Europe Recovering—Regional Lessons from a Global Crisis

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The 2010 State of the Region Report, the seventh in this series of annual evaluations of competitiveness and cooperation across the Baltic Sea Region, takes the Region's economic temperature in the first year after the full onslaught of the global crisis. The focus of... View Details

Keywords: Trends; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Policy; Performance Effectiveness; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Baltic Countries

November 2007 (Revised February 2009)
Background Note

Myths and Lessons of Modern Chinese History

By: William C. Kirby and Brittany Crow

China is an ancient civilization, but it is really a very young country. How we understand modern China is rooted in our understanding of history. Thus, the authors examine several myths surrounding important historical themes, including unity, economic and political... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Globalization; Government and Politics; History; China

December 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

BASF: Co-Creating Innovation (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2016, BASF's chief executive officer and chief technology officer reflected on the co-creation innovation program started almost 18 months ago as part of BASF's 150th anniversary celebration. Five hundred project ideas had been created, of which 100 had already... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Knowledge Sharing; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Chemicals; Environmental Sustainability; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

What Would It Take to Unlock Microfinance's Full Potential?

In the 50 years since modern microfinance was introduced as a tool to fight poverty, institutions have distributed hundreds of millions of loans to people in developing countries. Such loans are repaid at rates often as high as 98... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Financial Services

International Differences in Entrepreneurship (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

Often considered one of the major forces behind economic growth and development, the entrepreneurial firm can accelerate the speed of innovation and dissemination of new technologies, thus increasing a country's competitive edge in the... View Details

2011
Working Paper

Divide and Rule or the Rule of the Divided? Evidence from Africa

By: Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou

We investigate jointly the importance of contemporary country-level institutional structures and local ethnic-specific pre-colonial institutions in shaping comparative regional development in Africa. We utilize information on the spatial distribution of African... View Details

Keywords: Ethnicity; Development Economics; Geography; Government and Politics; Africa

09 Sep 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Quantity vs. Quality: Exclusion by Platforms with Network Effects

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Technology

2019
Working Paper

Labor Market Shocks and the Demand for Trade Protection: Evidence from Online Surveys

By: Rafael Di Tella and Dani Rodrik

We study preferences for government action in response to layoffs resulting from different types of labor-market shocks. We consider the following shocks: technological change, a demand shift, bad management, and three kinds of international outsourcing. Respondents... View Details

Keywords: Labor; Markets; System Shocks; Trade; Attitudes; Surveys

Article

The Price Impact of Joining a Currency Union: Evidence from Latvia

By: Alberto Cavallo, Brent Neiman and Roberto Rigobon

Does membership in a currency union matter for a country’s international relative prices? The answer to this question is critical for thinking about the implications of joining (or exiting) a common currency area. This paper is the first to use high-frequency... View Details

Keywords: Currency Union; Exchange Rate; Law Of One Price; Currency Exchange Rate; Price; Latvia

April 2007
Case

ABN AMRO Bank N.V.: Global Change Agents

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Lance P. Pierce and Ryan Leo Raffaelli

ABN AMRO Global Banking Group developed its risk management function in response to expansion, and increasingly focused on environmental and social risks. The head of the function needed to influence policies and business decisions in a highly decentralized context in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Banks and Banking; Expansion; Change; Governing and Advisory Boards; Social Enterprise; Leadership Development; History; Banking Industry; Service Industry; Brazil; India; United States

2017
Chapter

Multinational Activity in Emerging Markets: How and When Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Growth?

By: Laura Alfaro

Among the prominent economic trends in recent decades is the exponential increase in flows of goods and capital driven by technological progress and a falling number of restrictions. A key driver of this phenomenon has been the cross-border production, foreign... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Activity; Growth; Spillovers; Complementarities; Foreign Direct Investment; Emerging Markets; Growth and Development; Multinational Firms and Management

2012
Chapter

The Political Economy of Foreign Aid, Bilateral

By: E. Werker

Despite its developmental justification, aid is deeply political. This paper examines the political economy of aid allocation first from the perspective of the donor country, and then the political economy of aid receipt and implementation from the perspective of the... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Aid; Bilateral Foreign Aid; Political Economy; International Finance; Resource Allocation; Government and Politics; Economics

June 2019
Article

Debt Redemption and Reserve Accumulation

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

In the past decade, foreign participation in local-currency bond markets in emerging countries increased dramatically. We revisit sovereign debt sustainability under the assumptions that countries can accumulate reserves and borrow internationally using their own... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Debt; Local-currency Bonds; Foreign Reserves; Sovereign Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Bonds; Financial Markets; Developing Countries and Economies

2022
Book

Ripe for Revolution: Building Socialism in the Third World

By: Jeremy Friedman

A historical account of ideology in the Global South as the postwar laboratory of socialism, its legacy following the Cold War, and the continuing influence of socialist ideas worldwide.

In the first decades after World War II, many newly independent... View Details

Keywords: Socialism; Economic Systems; Globalization; Government and Politics; Developing Countries and Economies