Publications

2025
Working Paper

The Political Economy of Firm Networks: CEO Ideology and Global Trade

By: Elisabeth Kempf, Mancy Luo and Margarita Tsoutsoura

We examine how the political ideology of corporate leaders shapes cross-border firm networks. Exploiting changes in ideological alignment between U.S. firm CEOs and foreign governments around close foreign elections, we show that U.S. firms are more likely to... View Details

Keywords: Global Trade; Firm Networks; Political Ideology; Elections; Political Economy; Political Elections; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Trade

SSRN

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September 2015
Technical Note

The On-Demand Economy

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, James Weber and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

This note describes the emerging on-demand economy, also referred to as the sharing economy. The note highlights several companies including Uber and Airbnb that exemplify this new mode of competition, a model that threatens to disrupt traditional firms. Uber provides... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Reform; Disruption; Disruptive Innovation; Strategy; Technological Innovation; Labor; Employment; Working Conditions; Human Capital; Rights; Organizational Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Service Industry

Educators

13 Oct 2014
News

How Uber and the Sharing Economy Can Win Over Regulators

Keywords: sharing economy; Uber; Air BNB; government legislation; public policy; regulation; Hospitality

10 Sep 2014
News

“An Economy Doing Half Its Job”

25 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

A Macroeconomic View of the Current Economy

economy as a whole. Micro is about firms and individual actors and how they behave; macro is about aggregate performance of the economy: overall GDP, trade surplus or deficit, inflation. In principle, we should be able to get rid of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 1998 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Austin, Texas: Building a High-Tech Economy

By: Bruce R. Scott and Srinivas Sunder

Members of the community decide to try to diversify the economy of Austin, Texas, by welcoming high-technology firms and by augmenting the electrical engineering faculty at University of Texas--Austin. View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Diversification; Information Technology; Policy; Government and Politics; Engineering; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Higher Education; Texas

Research Summary

On the Political Economy of Stabilization Programs

By: Laura Alfaro

This paper provides a political economy explanation for temporary exchange-rate-based stabilization programs by focusing on the distributional effects of real exchange-rate appreciation. I propose an economy in which agents are endowed with either tradable or... View Details

2011
Chapter

Financing the Venturesome Economy

By: Amar Bhidé

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November 1973 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Economy Shipping Co. (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Piper

Shipping company must choose among several mutually exclusive investment projects. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment; Projects; Shipping Industry

Educators

23 Nov 2007
News

Russia's economy not competitive?

Oct 05 2015
Interview

Leading in Your Economy

30 Sep 2010
News

Diversifying the Nigerian Economy

Keywords: Finance; Administration of Economic Programs; Government

27 Mar 2009
News

Building up Jerusalem's economy

17 Dec 2009
News

When the economy crashes

05 Oct 2015
Video

Leading in Your Economy

An Economy Doing Half Its Job

This report presents the findings of HBS' 2013-14 survey on U.S. competitiveness. While HBS alumni saw strengths in elements of the business environment that influence firms' success, the weaknesses in elements that drive prosperity for the average American indicate... View Details

May – June 1997
Article

How Do Economies Grow?

By: Bruce R. Scott

Keywords: Economy

2015
Book

Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy

By: Avi Goldfarb, Shane Greenstein and Catherine Tucker

As the cost of storing, sharing, and analyzing data has decreased, economic activity has become increasingly digital. But while the effects of digital technology and improved digital communication have been explored in a variety of contexts, the impact on economic... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Economics