Publications

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Winter 2022
Article

Vaccines and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Failure and Success

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Alex Tabarrok

The losses from the global COVID-19 pandemic have been staggering—trillions in economic costs, on top of significant losses of life, health, and well-being. The world made significant and successful investments in vaccines to mitigate the pandemic, yet there were... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Vaccination; Market Design; Health Pandemics; Loss; Outcome or Result; Opportunities; Crisis Management

2013
Working Paper

Asset Price Dynamics with Limited Attention

By: Mark Seasholes, Terrence Hendershott, Sunny X. Li and Albert J. Menkveld

This paper studies the role that limited attention and inefficient risk sharing play in stock price deviations from the efficient prices at horizons from one day to one month. We expand the Due (2010) slow-moving capital model to analyze multiple groups of investors... View Details

Keywords: Transitory Volatility; Limited Attention; Individuals; Market Makers; Asset Pricing; Financial Markets; Volatility

30 Jan 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Credit Supply Shocks, Network Effects, and the Real Economy

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Manuel García, and Enrique Moral-Benito

January 2010 (Revised March 2010)
Supplement

The Congressional Oversight Panel's Valuation of the TARP Warrants (B)

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The Congressional Oversight Panel wants to value the warrants issued to the government in connection with the TARP investments of 2008, in order to increase the transparency of options repurchases. The case describes the methodology used to value the warrants. This... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Investment; Public Opinion; Valuation; Banking Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

Research Summary

Selection, Reallocation, and Spillover: Identifying the Sources of Gains from Multinational Production (with Maggie Chen)

By: Laura Alfaro

Quantifying the gains from multinational production has been a vital topic of economic research. Positive productivity gains are often attributed to knowledge spillover from multinational to domestic firms. An alternative, less stressed explanation is firm selection... View Details

Keywords: Gains From Multinational Production; Firm Selection; Knowledge Spillover

2009
Working Paper

Technology Innovation and Diffusion as Sources of Output and Asset Price Fluctuations

By: Diego A. Comin, Mark Gertler and Ana Maria Santacreu

We develop a model in which innovations in an economy's growth potential are an important driving force of the business cycle. The framework shares the emphasis of the recent "new shock" literature on revisions of beliefs about the future as a source of fluctuations,... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Economic Growth; Asset Pricing; Technological Innovation; Mathematical Methods; System Shocks; Technology Adoption

November 2023
Article

Open Source Software and Global Entrepreneurship

By: Nataliya Langburd Wright, Frank Nagle and Shane Greenstein

This is the first study to consider the relationship between open source software (OSS) and entrepreneurship around the globe. This study measures whether country-level participation on the GitHub OSS platform affects the founding of innovative ventures, and where it... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Business Ventures; Development Economics; Innovation and Invention; Global Range

SSRN

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

U.S. Census Bureau's quinquennial Economic Census and the Service Annual Survey. These data, heretofore largely ignored, allow us to redress some of the measurement problems surrounding estimates found in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

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; Education Industry; Financial Services Industry

June 2011
Case

Steering Monetary Policy Through Unprecedented Crises

By: David Moss and Cole Bolton

In early April 2008, economic conditions in Europe appeared to be deteriorating on almost all fronts: sales figures were falling, business and consumer confidence were slumping, forecasts for European growth were being revised downward, and inflation was rising. In... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Financial Crisis; Inflation and Deflation; Financial Institutions; Interest Rates; Policy

November 2010 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Dow's Bid for Rohm and Haas

By: Benjamin C. Esty and David Lane

This case analyzes Dow Chemical Company's proposed acquisition of Rohm and Haas in 2008. The $18.8 billion acquisition was part of Dow's strategic transformation from a slow-growth, low-margin, and cyclical producer of basic chemicals into a higher-growth,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Crisis; Capital Structure; Financial Condition; Financial Management; Contracts; Lawsuits and Litigation; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Chemical Industry

June 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Greece's Debt: Sustainable?

By: George Serafeim

The case "Greece's Debt: Sustainable?" describes the Greek economic crisis, bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the debt restructuring that followed. Because of a lack of trust in Greece's ability to repay its debt, two... View Details

Keywords: Debt Crisis; Accounting; Debt Sustainability; Austerity; Solvency Opinions; Borrowing and Debt; Restructuring; Valuation; Accrual Accounting; Fair Value Accounting; Economy; Greece

17 Jul 2008
Working Paper Summaries

A Replication Study of Alan Blinder’s “How Many U.S. Jobs Might Be Offshorable?”

Keywords: by Troy Smith & Jan W. Rivkin

November 2017
Article

Credit-Induced Boom and Bust

By: Marco Di Maggio and Amir Kermani

Can a credit expansion induce a boom and bust in house prices and real economic activity? This paper exploits the federal preemption of national banks in 2004 from local laws against predatory lending to gauge the effect of the supply of credit on the real economy.... View Details

Keywords: Great Recession; Subprime; Credit Supply; Credit Expansion; Household Leverage; Household Debt; Preemption Rule; Mortgages; Laws and Statutes; Credit; Household; Borrowing and Debt; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

SSRN

Find at Harvard

17 Mar 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

the rewards were great. This initial success prompted Enron to extrapolate its business model to other markets. In 1994, Enron officials started trading wholesale electricity after Congress deregulated the industry; Enron analysts View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

December 2003
Case

Antitrust Regulations in a Global Setting: The EU Investigation of the GE/Honeywell Merger

By: Mihir A. Desai, Belen Villalonga and Mark Veblen

Helps students understand the principles underlying competition and antitrust policy in the context of the proposed GE-Honeywell merger. The U.S. Department of Justice has already approved the transaction and it is being considered by the European Commission. The... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Economy; Fairness; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Aerospace Industry

July 2016
Article

Taxation, Corruption, and Growth

By: Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, Julia Cagé and William R. Kerr

We build an endogenous growth model to analyze the relationships between taxation, corruption, and economic growth. Entrepreneurs lie at the center of the model and face disincentive effects from taxation but acquire positive benefits from public infrastructure.... View Details

Keywords: Endogenous Growth; Public Goods; Corruption; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Taxation; Economic Growth

November 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Accounting for Frequent Fliers

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Airline frequent flier programs offer members the opportunity to earn free flights by accumulating mileage. Accounting and reporting the obligations of airlines and the cost of frequent flier programs raises difficult measurement issues. In 1991, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Fair Value Accounting; Policy; Air Transportation Industry; United States