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19 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 19, 2008

survey. We find that the end-of-month inventory significantly increased in four of the six retail segments studied and that, after controlling for sales and macroeconomic factors, the positive time trends for the end-of-month inventory... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Argentina's Financial System: The Case of Banco de Galicia

By: Rafael M. Di Tella, Tarun Khanna, Huw Pill, Alexandra de Royere and Ingrid Vogel

Describes the development of Argentina's financial system after the "Tequila Crisis" that came about as a result of the speculative attack on the Mexican peso's peg to the U.S. dollar in December 1994. Although Argentina's banking system was strengthened overall due to... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Emerging Markets; Macroeconomics; Business Strategy; Banks and Banking; Financial Crisis; Family Business; Acquisition; Banking Industry; Argentina

02 Jan 2001
Research & Ideas

Can Japan Compete? [Part One]

stalled right now. As the book argues, macroeconomic reforms and stimulus packages are not going to be the answer. There's still little real change in Japan on the government side, other than some marginal improvements. The response on... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Hilah Geer

February 2023 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in New Delhi, India

By: Vikram S Gandhi and Radhika Kak

The case uses the example of Tata Motors to discuss the opportunities and challenges of doing business in India. View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Economic Sectors; Economy; Macroeconomics; Business History; India

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

January 2010 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Colombia: Strong Fundamentals, Global Risk

By: Aldo Musacchio, Richard H. K. Vietor, Jonathan Schlefer and Carolina Camacho

By mid-2009 Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had ended decades of virtual civil war and strengthened the business climate, but he faced tough economic challenges. Though he had instituted prominent market reforms and brought inflation down sharply, Colombia seemed... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Macroeconomics; Trade; Global Strategy; Infrastructure; Business and Government Relations; Colombia

June 2003 (Revised July 2003)
Teaching Note

India on the Move (TN)

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Teaching Note for (9-703-050). View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Adoption; Foreign Direct Investment; Macroeconomics; Trade; Governance Controls; Competition; Inflation and Deflation; Entrepreneurship; India; Pakistan

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52379 March 2017 Politics & Society Land Institutions and Chinese Political Economy: Institutional Complementarities and Macroeconomic Management By: Rithmire, Meg Abstract—This article... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2005 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Japan: Deficits, Demography, and Deflation

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

By 2005, Japan's debt had risen to 163% of GDP. For more than a decade, the government had run huge deficits, trying unsuccessfully to stimulate economic growth. Interest rates, meanwhile, had been zero for years. But with slow growth and banks in crisis, nothing had... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Economic Growth; Demographics; Financial Condition; Inflation and Deflation; Banks and Banking; Borrowing and Debt; Macroeconomics; Policy; Government and Politics; Welfare; Health Care and Treatment; Japan

January 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Vietnam: Sustaining the Growth of an Asian Tiger

By: Michael E. Porter and Christian H.M. Ketels

The case tracks Vietnam's economic policy choices and performance from the end of the Vietnam war to the Doi Moi economic reforms and the economic transformation that followed. Throughout this period, the country had become a darling of the international aid community.... View Details

Keywords: Conflict Management; Leadership; Policy; Transformation; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Viet Nam

Article

De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Heterogeneity in Preferences and Optimal Redistribution

By: Benjamin B Lockwood and Matthew Weinzierl

The prominent but unproven intuition that preference heterogeneity reduces redistribution in a standard optimal tax model is shown to hold under the plausible condition that the distribution of preferences for consumption relative to leisure rises, in terms of... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Income; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Taxation; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics

Find at Harvard

2008
Chapter

The Importance of Default Options for Retirement Saving Outcomes: Evidence from the United States

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

This paper summarizes the empirical evidence on how defaults impact retirement savings outcomes. After outlining the salient features of the various sources of retirement income in the U.S., the paper presents the empirical evidence on how defaults impact retirement... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Financial Condition; Retirement; Investment Funds; Microeconomics; Outcome or Result; Government and Politics; Financial Institutions; Macroeconomics; United States

March 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Norway: An Embarrassment of Riches

By: Sophus A. Reinert, Forest Reinhardt and Jens-Henrik Munthe-Kaas

Keywords: Sovereign Wealth Funds; Welfare State; Internationalization; Dutch Disease; Macroeconomics; Energy Sources; Values and Beliefs; Sovereign Finance; Immigration; Welfare; Natural Resources; Happiness; Energy Industry; Norway

May 2015
Teaching Note

The United Kingdom and the Means to Prosperity

By: Laura Alfaro, Lakshmi Iyer and Hilary White

After struggling through the country's longest recession since 2008, the U.K. was expected to grow faster than any other G7 nation in 2014. Analysts wondered whether the return to growth was because, or in spite of, Prime Minister David Cameron's controversial £113... View Details

09 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

A Playbook for Small-Business Job Creation

government can work together to create jobs.” "We've made a lot of progress on the macroeconomic front: deficit reduction, balancing the budget, what the Fed is doing, and tax policy reform," says Mills. "But that doesn't... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Financial Services

01 Feb 2012
What Do You Think?

Is Support for Small Business Misplaced?

center of economic development can be held up as a possible antidote to macroeconomic stagnation. That's why a recent article by Charles Kenny caught my eye. Kenny, a fellow at the Center for Global Development and the New America... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

19 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

Handicapping the Best Countries for Business

economy. Bad government can only lead to less competitive businesses. Q: What are you working on now? A: I am doing case development and heading our biggest required course, BGIE or Business, Government, and the International Economy. My next research project, however,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

December 2017 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Globalization Past, 1850–1914 (A)

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Federica Gabrieli

On the evening of 3 August 1914, British Foreign Secretary Lord Edward Grey contemplated whether to advise King and Parliament to declare war on Germany in the wake of the country’s invasion of Belgium or to stay out of what quickly was becoming a world war triggered... View Details

Keywords: The World; The Rise And Fall Of Globalization; World War; Globalization; War; Economics; Trade; Business Cycles; Economic Growth; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Society; History; Values and Beliefs; Macroeconomics