Publications

22 Apr 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Government Technology Policy, Social Value, and National Competitiveness

Keywords: by Frank Nagle

1977
Working Paper

Mitigating Demographic Risk Through Social Insurance

By: Jerry R. Green

A two-period lifetime overlapping generations growth model is used to evaluate the possibility that social insurance can effectively offset economic risks associated with uncertainty about the rate of population growth. Crude measures of the seriousness of this type of... View Details

Keywords: Social Insurance; Econometric Models; Public Sector; Government Administration; Policy; Human Needs; Social Issues; Risk and Uncertainty

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February 1996 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Indianapolis: Activity-Based Costing of City Services (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A new administration in the City of Indianapolis is initially determined to privatize many municipal services. Before taking this action, however, the city managers want to know the current cost of performing these services with the municipal workers. Existing... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Public Sector; Activity Based Costing and Management; Service Delivery; Privatization; City; Indianapolis

2011
Working Paper

Management Practices Across Firms and Countries

By: Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across 20 countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing, American, Japanese, and German firms are the best... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Business Ventures; Public Sector; Private Sector; Country; Performance; Motivation and Incentives

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February 19, 2025
Article

To Break the Cycle of Low-Wage Work, Redesign the Workforce System

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Kerry McKittrick

Keywords: Public Sector; Personal Development and Career; Employees; Government Legislation

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November 2024
Article

On the Representativeness of Voter Turnout

By: Louis Kaplow and Scott Duke Kominers

Prominent theory research on voting analyzes a variety of models in which expected pivotality drives voters' turnout decisions and hence determines voting outcomes. It is recognized, however, that such work is at odds with Downs's paradox: in practice, many... View Details

Keywords: Voting Behavior; Voting Turnout; Paradox Of Voting; Pivotality; Elections; Model; Theory; Governance Transparency; Government; Democracy; Turnout; Voting; Governance; Government and Politics; Public Sector; Political Elections

22 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Online Banks Fill Funding Needs for Small Business

scale, these alternative players have the potential to fundamentally change the way in which small businesses access capital, creating greater competition, price transparency, and a better customer experience. Emerging online players are pushing innovation within the... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking; Financial Services

January 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Background Note

State, The

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

Surveys approaches to understanding the state; highlights the relationships between the state, order, and property; and offers an analytical framework for how states vary from place to place and over time. View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Governance Compliance; Framework; Economic Sectors; Policy; Private Ownership; Public Ownership; Entrepreneurship; Development Economics; Equality and Inequality

15 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Five Questions for Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner

capital sector has historically followed what might be termed the "craft" model: Procedures were very unsystematized, and venture groups were loosely organized. We believe that over the next decade, it will move to much more of... View Details

Keywords: by Carol Elsen; Financial Services

May 1998 (Revised April 2000)
Case

City of New York, The

By: Paul M. Healy

This case examines the economics of a municipality, and then explores its financial position from the perspective of a bond rating firm. View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Financial Management; Public Sector; City; Financial Statements; Government Administration

04 Jan 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Digital Commons: Tragedy or Opportunity? A Reflection on the 50th Anniversary of Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons

Keywords: by Frank Nagle

November 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Commercialization at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research (A)

A large and successful not-for-profit medical research institute must decide strategy to commercialize its discoveries. In the process, it must balance multiple conflicting demands from its stakeholders. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Public Sector; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Conflict and Resolution; Commercialization; Balance and Stability; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

07 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Government’s Positive Role in Kick-Starting Entrepreneurship

that the public sector hands out. For instance, programs geared toward boosting nascent entrepreneurs may instead end up boosting cronies of the nation's rulers or legislators. The annals of government... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

September 2024
Case

Faena: Magic in Mid-Miami Beach

By: Robin Greenwood, Denise Han, Dave Habeeb and Ruth Page

The link to this multimedia case should be provided to students in advance as preparation for classroom case discussion.

This multimedia case follows real estate developer Alan Faena as he expanded his luxury development business from Argentina to the... View Details

21 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Is a Gap in Small-Business Credit Holding Back the American Economy?

the nation's private sector workforce—about 120 million people—but since 1995 they have created approximately two-thirds of the net new jobs in our country. They are also instrumental in driving the innovation that provides a competitive... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Manufacturing

31 May 2016
HBS Case

Who Owns Space?

rapidly-evolving space sector, he argues, society will have the opportunity to determine the proper roles for government and the private sector nearly from scratch. “The idea of leveraging the private sector... View Details

Keywords: Re: Matthew C. Weinzierl; Aerospace

August 2003 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Elizabeth Parker (A)

By: Tiziana E. Casciaro, Wickham Skinner and David Krackhardt

A new political appointee with years of volunteer experience takes over a highly responsible job in the state government and is met with bureaucratic inertia. Describes a successful strategy to overcome organizational resistance to change. View Details

Keywords: Public Sector; Leading Change; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Conflict and Resolution; Power and Influence

2014
Book

Reinventing State Capitalism: Leviathan in Business, Brazil and Beyond

By: Aldo Musacchio and Sergio G. Lazzarini

In this book we describe the transformation of state capitalism from a model in which governments owned and ran corporations and broadly controlled the allocation of financial resources into two new varieties of state capitalism: Leviathan as a majority and as a... View Details

May 2017
Case

Vicki Fuller: Chief Investment Officer of New York State's $150+ Billion Employee Pension Fund

By: Steven Rogers and Valerie Mosley

Vicki Fuller traveled from a four-room tenement bordering Chicago’s infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects to speaking at conferences around the world and typically holding court wherever she went. As a teenager, she helped raise her siblings. As a Wall Street... View Details