Publications

26 Jan 2021
Research & Ideas

A New Way to Cut Credit Card Debt: Pay Off One Purchase at a Time

A novel approach to repaying debt could help consumers free themselves from crushing credit card balances faster, according to new research. Rather than asking borrowers to make payments toward their total... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

Web

2018 Financial Risk and Regulation Survey - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

that under-provision of credit due to excessive regulation posed a great threat to the financial system. Figure 6: In Your View, Do Any of the Following Pose a Threat to the U.S. Financial System? These two main concerns - political risk View Details

08 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Solving an Economic Mystery Surrounding Argentina and Chile

At the end of the nineteenth century, Argentina was one of the great economic powers in the world—capitalizing on exports of beef and wheat to be a leader in the first wave of globalization. Neighboring Chile was poised for tremendous... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2017
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for March 2017

formas, dividends, debt maturity, asymmetric information, and more. Power Is Boring: The Globalized World as Explained by the Most Anarchic of Economists (Il potere è noioso: Il mondo globalizzato raccontato... View Details

30 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Where Could More Regulation Help Small Businesses? Online Lending.

paperwork, borrowers complete applications in minutes, with approval times cut to days, or even just a few minutes. And, in instances where borrowers want to shop and compare... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

June 2025
Case

TfL Pension Fund and the 2022 Gilt Market Crisis

By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Vincent Dessain, Emer Moloney and Carlota Moniz

On September 27, 2022, Padmesh Shukla, CIO of the Transport for London (TfL) Pension Fund, was keeping a careful eye on the turmoil in the U.K. sovereign bond (or gilt) market. When the new government announced the largest tax cuts the U.K. had seen in half a century,... View Details

2010
Other Unpublished Work

Why Takeover Vulnerability Matters to Debtholders

By: Joan Farre-Mensa

Recent work documents that firms that are more vulnerable to takeover have higher borrowing costs. This paper investigates the reasons behind this stylized fact. My results show that firms with few antitakeover defenses face a higher cost of debt because lenders are... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Borrowing and Debt; Cost; Equity; Banks and Banking; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Shareholder Relations; Conflict and Resolution

SSRN

August 2012 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Turkey—A Work in Progress?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

For the past 10 years, Turkey has grown its real GDP at about 6% annually. This came after a huge debt crisis in 2001-02, wherein Turkey had to borrow $16 billion more from the IMF and comport with its difficult conditionality. Today, Turkey is a middle-income country,... View Details

Keywords: Turkey; Economy; Macroeconomics; International Relations; Growth and Development Strategy; Turkey

2018
Working Paper

After the Carnival: Key Factors to Enhance Olympic Legacy and Prevent Olympic Sites from Becoming White Elephants

By: Isao Okada and Stephen A. Greyser

In recent years, the total spending on hosting the Olympic Games has snowballed. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games spent $40 billion on infrastructure development, and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics reached $50 billion. Even when the glorious but costly Olympic Games come... View Details

Keywords: Olympic Venue; Effective Reuse; White Elephant; Sustainability; Buildings and Facilities; Sports

Read Now

March 2011
Article

Institutional Demand Pressure and the Cost of Corporate Loans

By: Victoria Ivashina and Zheng Sun

Between 2001 and 2007, annual institutional funding in highly leveraged loans went up from $32 billion to $426 billion, accounting for nearly 70% of the jump in total syndicated loan issuance over the same period. Did the inflow of institutional funding in the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Financial Crisis; Credit; Debt Securities; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Investment

SSRN

Find at Harvard

April 2012
Case

Credit Rating Agency Reform in the US and EU

By: Robert C. Pozen and Brian Conroy

The purpose of this note is to explore reform options for the credit rating industry. The note examines the ways in which credit rating agencies contributed to the recent financial crisis, particularly through ratings of securitized products and sovereign debt. It... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Financial Condition; Standards; Financial Crisis; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry; United States; European Union

Web

Managing International Trade and Investment - Course Catalog

creates opportunities and constraints for transnational firms, for example examining Shell in 1990s-2000s Russia, Google in Europe, battles between financial firms and states in sovereign View Details

Web

Venture Capital and Private Equity - Course Catalog

Associates How and why investors structure deals How PE firms add value How investors screen and choose investments Getting a deal through the Investment Committee Role of debt... View Details

May 2008
Teaching Note

Subprime Meltdown: American Housing and Global Financial Turmoil

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

Teaching Note for [708042]. View Details

Keywords: Mortgages; Debt Securities; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Markets; Financial Crisis; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Central Banking; Policy; United States; Europe

February 1984 (Revised November 1993)
Case

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.--1983

Reviews changes in Du Pont's debt policy from 1965 to 1982. This period ended with a dramatic increase in Du Pont's debt level attendant upon the merger with Conoco. Students are asked to develop a new debt policy for Du Pont in the 1980s. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Policy; Borrowing and Debt

16 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research, May 16

no legal duty to protect or serve the companies whose shares they own; they are shielded by the doctrine of limited liability from legal responsibility for those companies’ debts and misdeeds; they may buy... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

1985
Chapter

Stockholder, Manager, and Creditor Interests: Applications of Agency Theory

By: Michael Jensen and Clifford W. Smith Jr.

Keywords: Agency Theory; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financing and Loans; Credit; Borrowing and Debt