Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,339)
- Faculty Publications (462)
- 2023
- Working Paper
The Party and Firm
By: Joris Mueller, Jaya Y. Wen and Cheryl Wu
This project documents the rise of the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on
firms in China over the last decade. We propose novel quantitative measures of Party
influence and present recent trends in those measures. We corroborate qualitative work
and find a sharp... View Details
- 2023
- Book
The State and Capitalism in China
By: Meg Rithmire, Margaret M. Pearson and Kellee S. Tsai
This element explains China's political economic evolution from state socialist economy to a reform era state capitalism model to a more politicized, risk management approach we call "party-state capitalism." We emphasize the internal and external sources of perceived... View Details
- June 2023
- Case
Accounting for Loan Losses at JPMorgan Chase: Predicting Credit Costs
By: Jonas Heese, Jung Koo Kang and James Weber
The case examines the accounting for loan losses at a large bank, how a bank sets its Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL) on its financial statements. ALLL, and the rules that set them, determine when banks would and would not extend loans, which significantly... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
The Politics of Philanthropy in China
By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu
This working paper looks historically at business philanthropy in China. In the West, the literature has distinguished between entrepreneurial and customary philanthropy, while the phenomenon of spiritual philanthropy has been identified in many emerging markets. This... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
El Dorado Lost: Local Elites, Real Estate and the Education Business in China
By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu
This working paper examines the evolving, complex and multifaceted relationship between the real estate industry and the education sector in China. The current crises in the private education and real estate sectors caused by policy shifts reflect the inter-meshing of... View Details
- March 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
Nigeria: Africa's Giant
"Nigeria: Africa’s Giant" delves into the economic development and state building record of Africa’s most populous country. Despite being one of the continent’s largest oil-exporters, Nigeria’s economy has been struggling, and poverty is widespread. The country’s... View Details
- 2023
- Article
Bridging the Gap with the ‘New’ Economic History of Africa
By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg
This review article seeks to build bridges between mainstream African history and the more historically oriented branch of the ‘new’ economic history of Africa. We survey four central topics of the new economic history of Africa—growth, trade, labor, and inequality—and... View Details
Keywords: Economic Growth; Trade; Labor; Equality and Inequality; Development Economics; History; Africa
- February 2023
- Module Note
Illiberalism and Interdependence
By: Meg Rithmire
This module note explains the themes of Illiberalism and Interdependence, the cases and readings used to teach these themes, and how the themes fit into the MITI course. After decades of international political economy scholarship focusing on the impact of rules, there... View Details
- February 2023
- Case
Success Academy Charter Schools
By: Robin Greenwood, Joshua D. Coval, Denise Han, Ruth Page and Dave Habeeb
This stand-alone multimedia case follows the story of Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy, a network of high-performing charter schools in New York City. As a New York City councilor between 1999 and 2006, Moskowitz became frustrated over the inertia and dysfunction in... View Details
- February 2023
- Case
Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse
By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,... View Details
Keywords: Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Market Design; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Business Strategy; Economics; Economy; Economic Systems; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Digital Platforms; Markets; Price; Innovation and Management; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Video Game Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California; North America; South America; Asia; Europe
- February 2023 (Revised May 2023)
- Case
CalPERS Private Equity 2.0
By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Alys Ferragamo
Yup Kim, the Head of Investments, Private Equity at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), reflected on the pension fund’s private equity strategy. In July of 2022, the fund was in the midst of a multi-year turnaround strategy with the goal to... View Details
- January 2023
- Case
Natura: Weathering the Pandemic at Brazil's Cosmetic Giant
By: Brian Trelstad, Pedro Levindo and Carla Larangeira
Brazil's Natura, a multi-brand cosmetics group, has taken several measures to safeguard the livelihoods of its thousands of employees and millions of sales representatives during the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. The company has also made strides in its efforts... View Details
Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; ESG Reporting; Acquisition; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Social Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Global Strategy; Corporate Governance; Health Pandemics; Human Resources; Human Capital; Crisis Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Distribution Channels; Supply Chain; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Customer Ownership; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Networks; Partners and Partnerships; Science-Based Business; Reputation; Human Needs; Social Issues; Strategy; Equality and Inequality; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Brazil; Latin America
- January 2023
- Case
Thomas Buberl: Refounding AXA
By: Hubert Joly, Mihir Desai and Amram Migdal
In 2022, AXA and its CEO Thomas Buberl faced new types of challenges, including systemic risks such as climate change, geopolitical instability, public health crises, and social tensions caused by economic risks. AXA was one of the world’s largest insurers. Since... View Details
Keywords: Change; Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Trends; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Insurance; Management; Management Succession; Risk Management; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Planning; Strategic Planning; Risk and Uncertainty; Society; Human Needs; Social Issues; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Insurance Industry; Europe; France; Paris
- January 2023
- Article
Inequality Regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa from Precolonial Times to the Present
By: Ewout Frankema, Michiel de Haas and Marlous van Waijenburg
While current levels of economic inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa receive ample attention from academics and policymakers, we know little about the long-run evolution of inequality in the region. Even the new and influential ‘global inequality literature’ that is... View Details
- 2022
- Working Paper
Credit and the Family: The Economic Consequences of Closing the Credit Gap of U.S. Couples
By: Olivia S. Kim
Marital property rights strengthen secondary earners’ economic power by giving them access to credit markets. I study how this crucial yet understudied feature of property laws influences household decision-making. The 2013 reversal of the Truth-in-Lending Act... View Details
- December 2022 (Revised August 2023)
- Case
Circles.Life at a Crossroads of Growth
By: Juan Alcácer and Adina Wong
In June 2022, the founders of Singapore mobile operator Circles.Life had a crucial decision to make. Circles.Life developed a new business model in mobile telecommunications—a digital telco—built around its proprietary operating system. After expanding its brand in... View Details
- December 8, 2022
- Article
The New China Shock: How Beijing’s Party-State Capitalism Is Changing the Global Economy
By: Margaret M. Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee S. Tsai
In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008, China began to move away from the market-based approach that had shaped its economic policies for three decades, and toward something that might be termed “party-state capitalism,” which involves a high degree of... View Details
- 2022
- Chapter
Buying Time? The Vietnam War and Southeast Asia
By: Mattias Fibiger
This article examines the “buying time thesis”—the idea that the American war in Vietnam bought time for the rest of Southeast Asia to build up political, economic, military, and diplomatic defenses against communism. It finds that there is some truth to claims that... View Details
Keywords: Vietnam War; Impact; Legacy; Geopolitics; War; History; Government and Politics; Southeast Asia
- November 2022
- Article
Measuring Inequality beyond the Gini Coefficient May Clarify Conflicting Findings
By: Kristin Blesch, Oliver P. Hauser and Jon M. Jachimowicz
Prior research has found mixed results on how economic inequality is related to various outcomes. These contradicting findings may in part stem from a predominant focus on the Gini coefficient, which only narrowly captures inequality. Here, we conceptualize the... View Details