Publications

March 2008 (Revised March 2010)
Module Note

Global Capital and National Institutions: Crisis and Choice in the International Financial Architecture

By: Laura Alfaro

This module note presents a series of case studies taught in the Harvard Business School course Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy (IMaGE). The course addresses the opportunities created by the emergence of a global economy and proposes strategies for... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; International Finance; Globalized Economies and Regions; Macroeconomics

30 Jul 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Networks and the Macroeconomy: An Empirical Exploration

Keywords: by Daron Acemoglu, Ufuk Akcigit & William Kerr

23 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID Was Supposed to Increase Bankruptcies. Instead, They've Gone Down.

Bankruptcy filings in the United States were expected to soar during this year’s economic recession, induced by COVID-19. Instead, they dropped 27 percent year-over-year through August, driven by an unexpected drop in consumer and small... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

18 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Industrial Decarbonization: Confronting the Hard Challenges of Cement

Cities like Cairo; Chongqing, China; Delhi; and Kinshasa, Congo are experiencing population explosions accompanied by unprecedented demand for homes, offices, factories, and infrastructure. In the United States, the Biden Administration’s policy-driven infrastructure... View Details

Keywords: by by Janelle Conaway; Green Technology; Energy; Industrial Products; Manufacturing

Research Summary

The Political Power of Weak Interests

By: Gunnar Trumbull

One of the most broadly accepted theoretical claims of public policy is the proposal that interests shared by a large set of actors tend to be under-represented in public policy. From Mancur Olson to George Stigler to James Q. Wilson, our most influential theorists... View Details

September 2004
Article

Capital Controls: A Political Economy Approach

By: Laura Alfaro

This paper examines the economic consequences of political conflicts that arise when countries implement capital controls. In an overlapping-generations model, agents vote on whether to open or close an economy to capital flows. The young (workers) receive income from... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Voting; Conflict of Interests; Capital; Government and Politics; Wages; Saving; Forecasting and Prediction

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

2012
Discussion Paper

Labor Productivity and Quality Change in Singapore: Achievements in 1974-2011 and Prospects for the Next Two Decades

By: Koji Nomura and Tomomichi Amano

Labor productivity growth in Singapore that has grown at a rate of over 3.0 percent per year since 1970s considerably slowed down to 0.5 percent on average per annum in the latter half of the 2000s. The purpose of this paper is to ask, first, to what extent Singapore’s... View Details

Keywords: Labor; Performance Productivity; Quality; Economic Growth; Singapore

2009
Report

Nordic Globalization Barometer 2009: Global Pressure—Nordic Solutions?

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Less than a year after the first Nordic Globalization Barometer has been launched, the state of the world economy has changed dramatically. A deep financial crisis is taking its toll on investors, borrowers, and the financial institutions that serve them. A deep... View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Financial Crisis; Financial Markets; Globalized Economies and Regions; Competitive Strategy; Scandinavia

2000
Working Paper

The Drivers of National Innovative Capacity: Implications for Spain and Latin America

By: Michael E. Porter, Jeffrey L. Furman and Scott Stern

In the past decade, both academic scholars and policymakers have focused increasing attention on the central role that technological innovation plays in economic growth. There are at least two distinct reasons for this increased interest. First, though economists have... View Details

02 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Government and Financial Tech Can Fix Cash Woes for Small Businesses

30, 60 or 90 days repay the loan with cash from customer receipts, all in the same system. In the ongoing conversation of how we drive long-term economic growth and competitiveness, it’s important to focus on how we help more small... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills

25 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

A Macroeconomic View of the Current Economy

on how the economic system works and what history teaches us, business readers might turn to A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know, by Harvard Business School professor David A. Moss, who... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2004 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Jerry Rao: Diaspora and Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy

Focusing on one entrepreneur, Jerry Rao, this case examines the international career paths of Indian business professionals and engineers since the development of public policies beginning in the 1960s to attract them to developed countries like the United States.... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Diasporas; Entrepreneurship; Globalized Economies and Regions; Personal Development and Career; Opportunities; Information Technology Industry; India

January 1984 (Revised April 1993)
Background Note

Introduction to U.S. Political Economy: Antecedents to the New Deal

Provides background information on developments in the U.S. economy and policy over several decades preceding the Hoover Administration. View Details

Keywords: Policy; Macroeconomics; United States

Find at Harvard

2011
Chapter

Clusters and Competitiveness: Porter's Contribution

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

While clusters have been known to exist at least since the days of Marshall, Michael Porter's work, first in The Competitive Advantage of Nations (Porter, 1990) and then in On Competition (originally published in 1998; updated edition in Porter, 2008), has undoubtedly... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Framework; Policy; Industry Clusters; Practice; Competitive Advantage

August 2023 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Beyond the Barricades: Chile 2023

By: Debora Spar, Willis Emmons, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Ruth Costas

Chile, often considered among Latin America's greatest economic success stories, suffered a shocking wave of protests in October 2019, as its citizens demanded reforms across healthcare and education systems, and protested inequality and rising costs of living. As... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Public Opinion; Equality and Inequality; Public Administration Industry; Chile; Latin America; South America

May 2005 (Revised October 2022)
Case

The Octopus and the Generals: The United Fruit Company in Guatemala

By: Geoffrey Jones and Marcelo Bucheli

Examines the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954 in a U.S.-backed coup in support of the United Fruit Co. Over the previous half century, United Fruit had built a large vertically integrated tropical fruit business that owned large banana... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Policy; International Relations; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Central America; Guatemala; United States

2019
Working Paper

Government Technology Policy, Social Value, and National Competitiveness

By: Frank Nagle

This study seeks to better understand the impact that government technology procurement regulations have on social value and national competitiveness. To do this, it examines the impact of a change in France’s technology procurement policy that required government... View Details

Keywords: Social Value; Competitiveness; Government Administration; Information Technology; Acquisition; Policy; Value

SSRN

2024
Working Paper

Immigrant Entrepreneurship: New Estimates and a Research Agenda

By: Saheel Chodavadia, Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Louis Maiden

Immigrants contribute disproportionately to entrepreneurship in many countries, accounting for a quarter of new employer businesses in the US. We review recent research on the measurement of immigrant entrepreneurship, the traits of immigrant founders, their economic... View Details

Keywords: Immigrant Employment; Immigration; Entrepreneurship; Demographics; Innovation and Invention