Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(424)
- Faculty Publications (87)
- November 2010
- Supplement
Lessons Learned? Brooksley Born & the OTC Derivatives Market (B)
By: Clayton S. Rose and David Lane
This (B) case provides the 2009 reflections of former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt on CFTC Chairman Brooksley Born's 1998 efforts to consider regulating the OTC derivative market. It also provides a summary of the aspects of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that regulate these... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Prosocial Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal
By: Lara B. Aknin, Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh, Elizabeth W. Dunn, John F. Helliwell, Robert Biswas-Diener, Imelda Kemeza, Paul Nyende, Claire Ashton-James and Michael I. Norton
This research provides the first support for a possible psychological universal: human beings around the world derive emotional benefits from using their financial resources to help others (prosocial spending). Analyzing survey data from 136 countries, we show that... View Details
- February 2010
- Case
Saginaw Parts Co. and the General Motors Corp. Credit Default Swap
This two-page case demonstrates how to unbundle the cost of credit extensions from product prices by observing the price of a credit default swap. It also explores how credit default swaps work, and how trade creditors are treated under U.S. bankruptcy law. Finally it... View Details
- February 2010
- Teaching Note
Saginaw Parts Co. and the General Motors Corp. Credit Default Swap (TN)
Teaching Note for [210056]. View Details
- Article
Can Mutual Fund Managers Pick Stocks? Evidence from Their Trades Prior to Earnings Announcements
By: Malcolm Baker, Lubomir Litov, Jessica Wachter and Jeffrey Wurgler
We consider measures of stock-picking skill of mutual fund managers based on the earnings announcement returns of the stocks that they hold and trade. Relative to standard approaches, this approach focuses on an especially informative subset of the returns data,... View Details
- July 2009 (Revised July 2009)
- Case
Delphi Corp. and the Credit Derivatives Market (A)
By: Stuart C. Gilson, Victoria Ivashina and Sarah Abbott
In 2005, Jane Bauer-Martin, a hedge fund manager, is considering what she should do with the fund's large investment in the publicly traded bonds of Delphi Corp., a financially troubled auto parts supplier. Delphi is General Motor's key auto parts supplier, and, like... View Details
- Article
MIT Roundtable on Corporate Risk Management
By: Robert C. Merton
Against the backdrop of financial crisis, a distinguished group of academics and practitioners discusses the contribution of financial management and innovation to corporate growth and value, along with the pitfalls and unintended consequences of such innovation.... View Details
- March 2008
- Course Overview Note
Dynamic Markets
By: Joshua D. Coval and Erik Stafford
The Dynamic Markets course at Harvard Business School is organized around the hands-on application of financial decision making in a wide variety of capital market settings. The course relies heavily on in-class simulations of a range of market settings where students... View Details
- January 2008
- Background Note
Equity Derivatives
By: Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford
The goal of these simulations is to understand the dynamic replication technique behind the Black-Scholes/Merton options model. The simulations focus on a single stock and a risk-free discount bond, which are used to replicate a contingent payoff. The underlying stock... View Details
- January 2008
- Background Note
Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs)
By: Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford
This lesson integrated Merton's (1974) contingent claims model of debt and equity claims with the CAPM, which allows us to examine the risks and pricing of credit portfolios and the derivative claims issued against them. In particular, this model is used to make... View Details
- December 2007
- Article
Applying Modern Risk Management to Equity and Credit Analysis
By: Robert C. Merton
Traditional conventions of accounting and actuarial science distort the valuation of capital risk in corporations with pension plans because under these conventions, pension assets and liabilities are not included in balance sheet calculations. The modern risk... View Details
- November 2007
- Background Note
Event Arbitrage
By: Joshua D. Coval and Erik Stafford
The event arbitrage module includes two simulation sessions. The first simulation focuses on analyzing and evaluating individual merger transactions, while the second simulation emphasizes managing a portfolio of individual positions and the limitations of arbitrage... View Details
- November – December 2007
- Article
Fundamentally Flawed Indexing
By: Andre F. Perold
A new theory of finance is being advanced as providing definitive proof that holding stocks in proportion to their market capitalizations is an inferior investment strategy. The claim is that capitalization weighting necessarily invests more in overvalued stocks and... View Details
- October 2006 (Revised October 2007)
- Case
Grosvenor Group Limited
By: Andre F. Perold, Arthur I Segel, Oliver Corlette and Soyoun Song
A global real estate investment firm is trying to decide whether to enter into a property-derivative transaction to help it effect a change in asset allocation. The market for real estate derivatives is beginning to grow quite rapidly and the firm is trying to... View Details
- September 2006 (Revised November 2007)
- Exercise
Market Making Exercise
By: Malcolm P. Baker
Students make a market in a new security, posting bid and offer prices and quantities for a new derivative security. View Details
- August 2005 (Revised April 2014)
- Teaching Note
Innocents Abroad: Currencies and International Stock Returns
By: Mihir A. Desai, Kathleen Luchs, Elizabeth A. Meyer and Mark Veblen
What do international stocks contribute to the portfolio of a U.S. investor? How do currencies interact with stock price movements in determining the benefits of international diversification? This case helps students compare the risks and returns of foreign stock... View Details
Keywords: Diversification; International CAPM; CAPM; Home Bias; Currency Risk; Exchange Rate Risk; International Stock Market Returns; Financial Services Industry; United States; Currency Exchange Rate; Stocks; Financial Markets; International Finance; Investment Return; Currency; Risk and Uncertainty; Emerging Markets; Investment Portfolio; United States; Australia; Canada; China; Germany; India; Japan; United Kingdom
- March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Competitive Exposures
By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen
How can a multinational firm analyze and manage currency risks that arise from competitive exposures? General Motors has a substantial competitive exposure to the Japanese yen. Although the risks GM faces from the depreciating yen are widely acknowledged, the company's... View Details
- March 2005 (Revised January 2006)
- Case
Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Transactional and Translational Exposures
By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen
How should a multinational firm manage foreign exchange exposures? Examines transactional and translational exposures and alternative responses to these exposures by analyzing two specific hedging decisions by General Motors. Describes General Motors' corporate hedging... View Details
- 2005
- Working Paper
Can Mutual Fund Managers Pick Stocks? Evidence from Their Trades Prior to Earnings Announcements
By: Malcolm Baker, Lubomir Litov, Jessica Wachter and Jeffrey Wurgler
We consider measures of stock-picking skill of mutual fund managers based on the earnings announcement returns of the stocks that they hold and trade. Relative to standard approaches, this approach focuses on an especially informative subset of the returns data,... View Details
- September 2004 (Revised February 2007)
- Case
Hedging Currency Risks at AIFS
By: Mihir A. Desai, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman
The American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS) organizes study abroad programs and cultural exchanges for American students. The firm's revenues are mainly in U.S. dollars, but most of its costs are in eurodollars and British pounds. The company's controllers review... View Details