Publications

February 2016 (Revised August 2017)
Case

Battle Over a Bank: Defining the Limits of Federal Power Under a New Constitution

By: David Moss and Marc Campasano

In late February, 1791, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton submitted a report to President Washington defending his recent proposal for a national bank, which he hoped would bolster the American economy and assist the federal government in managing its finances.... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Central Banking; Laws and Statutes; Government and Politics; History; Public Administration Industry; United States

2023
Working Paper

The Market for Sharing Interest Rate Risk: Quantities and Asset Prices

By: Umang Khetan, Jane Li, Ioana Neamtu and Ishita Sen

We study the extent of interest rate risk sharing across the financial system using granular positions and transactions data in interest rate swaps. We show that pension and insurance (PF&I) sector emerges as a natural counterparty to banks and corporations: overall,... View Details

Keywords: Interest Rates; Investment Funds; Banks and Banking; Insurance; Investment Banking; Risk and Uncertainty

SSRN

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August 2000 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Dell's Working Capital

By: Richard S. Ruback and Aldo Sesia

Dell Computer Corp. manufactures, sells, and services personal computers. The company markets its computers directly to its customers and builds computers after receiving a customer order. This build-to-order model enables Dell to have much smaller investment in... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Working Capital; Manufacturing Industry; Computer Industry

Portrait Project

Mike Laffin

felt like the “right” thing to do. The Marines promised leadership through stories about Marine legends and commercials of Marines bravely charging into battle. I learned it wasn’t just about that. It was about tutoring a Marine working towards a college degree or... View Details

Web

Agents of Change: The Founding of the AASU - The Golden Age of Black Business

Herndon returned to Atlanta to oversee the growth of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company (today the Atlanta Life Financial Group), founded by his father Alonzo. Herndon continued his family's tradition of philanthropy with major View Details

07 Feb 2024

2+2 Program Information Session

Calling all college students! This virtual information session, hosted by a member of the MBA Admissions Team, will outline the enriching journey of the HBS MBA program, the admissions process, and financial aid. View Details

Web

Research & Teaching - Creating Emerging Markets

industries, it enables comparative research on the evolution of business in emerging markets over recent decades. For example: What similarities and differences may be observed between entrepreneurs in the financial services industry in... View Details

15 Dec 2023
News

The Musts of 2023

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. At fall reunions, we set up shop on campus and asked alumni about what media moved them this year. What changed their minds or their hearts. And their answers ran... View Details

October 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

The University of Notre Dame Endowment

By: Andre F. Perold and Paul Michael Buser

The Endowment Model of Investing, which was based on creating high risk-adjusted performance through diversification, a long time horizon, top-notch outside managers, and illiquid investments, had served Notre Dame and other large universities well over the past... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Higher Education; Asset Management; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Risk Management; Performance Evaluation; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

05 Jun 2009
What Do You Think?

What Does Slower Economic Growth Really Mean?

markets and in the case of the U.S., the dollar, and the Treasury's ability to borrow at reasonable rates of interest. But is all growth similarly useful? For example, is growth in the production of food, steel, or for that matter information the equivalent of growth... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Financial Services; Financial Services; Financial Services

13 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Leadership Roles

program at Harvard correcting this pattern. I often wish there was an Owner-President Management program for the leaders of families! Families that own business have similar management problems. Many business families could do a better job of managing their View Details

Keywords: by John A. Davis

18 Nov 2022
HBS Case

What Does It Take to Safeguard a Legacy in Asset Management?

Last year, the pioneering Black-owned global asset management firm Brown Capital Management found itself at a crossroads. The secret to its success had been a deliberately diverse hiring strategy, but with the looming retirement of its founder, safeguarding those... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

2023
Working Paper

Complexity and Hyperbolic Discounting

By: Benjamin Enke, Thomas Graeber and Ryan Oprea

A large literature shows that people discount financial rewards hyperbolically instead of exponentially. While discounting of money has been questioned as a measure of time preferences, it continues to be highly relevant in empirical practice and predicts a wide range... View Details

Keywords: Hyperbolic Discounting; Present Bias; Bounded Rationality; Cognitive Uncertainty; Behavioral Finance

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June 2018
Article

Cost of Experimentation and the Evolution of Venture Capital

By: Michael Ewens, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

We study how technological shocks to the cost of starting new businesses have led the venture capital model to adapt in fundamental ways over the prior decade. We both document and provide a framework to understand the changes in the investment strategy of VCs in... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Investing; Abandonment Option; Technological Innovation; Venture Capital; Investment

December 2011
Article

Economics Education and Greed

By: Long Wang, Deepak Malhotra and J. Keith Murnighan

The recent financial crisis, and repeated corporate scandals, raise serious questions about whether a business school education contributes to what some have described as a culture of greed. The dominance of economic-related courses in MBA curricula led us to assess... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Ethics; Attitudes; Business Education; Economics; Education

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Article

Employee Selection as a Control System

By: Dennis Campbell

Theories from the economics, management control, and organizational behavior literatures predict that when it is difficult to align incentives by contracting on output, aligning preferences via employee selection may provide a useful alternative. This study... View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Governance Controls; Employees; Selection and Staffing; Motivation and Incentives; Decision Making; Business Model

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January 2006
Case

Jack Strang at SequenceLabs

By: Mukti Khaire, John J. Gabarro and Lynda M. Applegate

How can entrepreneur manage his firm if things go wrong despite having a great idea, a solid team, and financial backing? Jack Strang founded a biotech firm with his friend Peter Evans, to develop molecular pathway-based "cures" for metabolic disorders. The idea was... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Venture Capital; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Growth and Maturation; Failure; Biotechnology Industry