Publications

March 2015
Article

Monetary Policy and Long-Term Real Rates

By: Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein

Changes in monetary policy have surprisingly strong effects on forward real rates in the distant future. A 100 basis point increase in the two-year nominal yield on a Federal Open Markets Committee announcement day is associated with a 42 basis point increase in the... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Interest Rates; Economics

March–April 2015
Article

The Almighty Ruble

By: Debora L. Spar

At 1 AM Moscow time on December 16, Russia's central bank announced a massive hike in the country's interest rate, from 10.5% to 17%. It's not clear how Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his colleagues could realistically have expected to achieve anything by hiking the... View Details

Keywords: Monetary Policy; Economy; Policy; Currency; Interest Rates; Sovereign Finance; Russia

February 2015
Article

The Great Recession, Insurance Mandates, and the Use of In Vitro Fertilization Services in the United States

By: Sorapop Kiatpongsan, Robert S. Huckman and Mark D. Hornstein

Objective: To investigate the relationship between economic activities, insurance mandates, and the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the United States.

Design: We examined the correlation between the coincident index (a proxy for overall economic... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Recessions; Medical Care; In Vitro Fertilization; Health Industry; United States

Editorial

What the Greek Elections Mean for the Economy

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: Europe; European Union; Competitiveness; National Strategy; Politics; Competition; Government and Politics; European Union; Europe

January 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy

By: Jill Avery, Anat Keinan and Liz Kind

onefinestay was a two-sided marketplace that offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the... View Details

Educators

January 2015
Background Note

Note on Economic Inequality (2015)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

For over half a century, most of the world's economies have enjoyed steady growth and prosperity. However, beginning in the 1980s, and continuing essentially unabated to the present, the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in developed countries has widened,... View Details

Keywords: Economic Inequalty; Income Inequality; Growth and Development; Economics; Equality and Inequality; Society; Problems and Challenges; United States

Educators

January–February 2015
Article

Heroic Villains: Are Foreign Investors Problems or Solutions in the Ebola Crisis?

By: Debora L. Spar

For months, the news out of West Africa has been unrelentingly grim. As of early December, the devastating Ebola epidemic had infected a reported 17,942 people and killed 6,388, according to the World Health Organization (WHO); the actual toll, which would also account... View Details

Keywords: Ebola; Multinational Corporation; Epidemics; Foreign Investment; Extractive Industries; Multinational Firms and Management; Health Pandemics; Developing Countries and Economies; Government and Politics; Africa

2015
Chapter

Modularity and Organizations

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Modularity describes the degree to which a complex system can be broken apart into subunits (modules) that can be recombined in various ways. Modularity is important for organizations and the economy because the boundaries of organizational units and corporations are... View Details

Keywords: Complexity; Organizations

December 2014
Article

Clusters, Convergence, and Economic Performance

By: Mercedes Delgado, Michael E. Porter and Scott Stern

This paper evaluates the role of regional cluster composition in regional industry performance. On the one hand, diminishing returns to specialization in a location can result in a convergence effect: the growth rate of an industry within a region may be declining in... View Details

Keywords: Clusters; Economics; Industry Clusters; Economy; Growth and Development; United States

December 2014
Article

Location Strategies for Agglomeration Economies

By: Juan Alcácer and Wilbur Chung

Geographically concentrated industry activity creates pools of skilled labor and specialized suppliers, and increases opportunities for knowledge spillovers. The strategic value of these agglomeration economies may vary by firm, depending upon the relative value of... View Details

Keywords: Location Strategies; Location Choices; Agglomeration Economies; Strategy; Value Creation; Geographic Location; Industry Clusters; Microeconomics; Manufacturing Industry; United States

Article

Spatial Determinants of Entrepreneurship in India

By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Stephen O'Connell

We analyze the spatial determinants of entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. Among general district traits, quality of physical infrastructure and workforce education are the strongest predictors of entry, with labor laws and household... View Details

Keywords: Agglomeration; Development; Entrepreneurship; Manufacturing Industry; Service Industry; India; South Asia

November 2014
Teaching Plan

Diageo: Innovating for Africa

By: David E. Bell, Damien P. McLoughlin, Mary Shelman and Andrew Otazo

This teaching plan is designed to help students understand the challenges and opportunities of launching products and building businesses in developing markets. View Details

2014
Working Paper

Entrepreneurship and Business Groups: An Evolutionary Perspective on the Growth of the Koç Group in Turkey

By: Asli M. Coplan and Geoffrey Jones

This working paper examines the origins and development of the Koç Group, which grew to be the largest business group in Turkey. This enterprise was an important actor in the emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey from the... View Details

Keywords: Business Groups; Turkey; Entrepreneurship In Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; History; Government and Politics; Auto Industry; Banking Industry; Electronics Industry; Middle East; Europe

SSRN

November 2014
Article

The Dynamics of Firm Lobbying

By: William R. Kerr, William F. Lincoln and Prachi Mishra

We study the determinants of the dynamics of firm lobbying behavior using a panel data set covering 1998–2006. Our data exhibit three striking facts: (i) few firms lobby, (ii) lobbying status is strongly associated with firm size, and (iii) lobbying status is highly... View Details

Keywords: Lobbying; Political Economy; H-1B; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Policy; Immigration

November 2014
Article

The Global Agglomeration of Multinational Firms

By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie Xiaoyang Chen

The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly transforming the global landscape of industrial production. But are the emerging clusters of multinational production the rule or the exception? What drives the offshore agglomeration of... View Details

Keywords: Agglomeration; Agglomeration Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Manufacturing Industry

October 2014 (Revised May 2017)
Teaching Note

Pfizer and AstraZeneca: Marketing an Acquisition (A) & (B)

By: John A. Quelch

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Pharmaceutical Companies; Economic Impact Of Mergers; Mergers Impact On International Economies; Impact On Consumers Of Mergers; Customers; Economics; Marketing; Planning; Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Europe; North and Central America

October 2014 (Revised April 2018)
Supplement

Creditor Activism in Sovereign Debt: Argentina vs. Holdout Investors (B)

By: Laura Alfaro, Gaurav Toshniwal and Hilary White

October 2014
Case

CreditEase: Providing Credit and Financial Services for China's Underclass

By: Lena G. Goldberg, Paul Healy and Nancy Hua Dai

In 2013 Ning Tang, who in 2006 founded CreditEase as a broker of P2P loans to unbanked individuals and small businesses in China, confronts the challenges of rapid growth and expansion in a changing regulatory environment. CreditEase needs to develop technology to... View Details

Keywords: P2P Lending; HNW Products And Services; Business Growth; Business Start-ups; Government Regulation; Change Management; Credit; Microcredit; Banking; Innovation And Management; Developing Countries And Economies; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Law; Financing and Loans; Change; China

Educators