Publications

October 2012
Case

Brazil 2003: Inflation Targeting and Debt Dynamics (Abridged)

By: Laura Alfaro and Rafael Di Tella

In October 2002, Brazilians elected a left-wing president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, for the first time in that country's history. As markets faltered in response, Lula sought to reaffirm his commitment to fiscal discipline, a floating exchange rate, and inflation... View Details

Keywords: Brazil; Inflation; Emerging Markets; Inflation and Deflation; Brazil

Forthcoming
Article

Calling All Issuers: The Market for Debt Monitoring

By: Huaizhi Chen, Lauren Cohen and Weiling Liu

95% of long-term municipal bonds have callable features, and yet we find new evidence of a substantial fraction of local governments exercising these valuable options sub-optimally, with significant delays – resulting in sizable losses. Using data from 2001 to 2019, we... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Financial Institutions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Administration; Financing and Loans

Register to Read

15 Apr 2024
News

Corporate Debt and Financial Crises

19 Jul 2011
News

Social Security Reform Is the Key to the Debt Ceiling Debate

2024
Working Paper

The Effects of Medical Debt Relief: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments

By: Raymond Kluender, Neale Mahoney, Francis Wong and Wesley Yin

Two in five Americans have medical debt, nearly half of whom owe at least $2,500. Concerned by this burden, governments and private donors have undertaken large, high-profile efforts to relieve medical debt. We partnered with RIP Medical Debt to conduct two randomized... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Outcome or Result; Well-being; Personal Finance

Read Now

December 1986 (Revised October 1987)
Case

Mexican Debt and Agricultural Policy

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Agribusiness; Policy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Mexico

Find at Harvard

06 Apr 2011
News

Has the Federal Government Already Shut Down?

July 19, 2011
Article

A Debt Plan Republicans Can Support

By: Robert C. Pozen

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Government and Politics

Find at Harvard

July 2021
Article

Multinationality and Capital Structure Dynamics: A Corporate Governance Explanation

By: Daniel Gyimah, Nana Abena Kwansa, Anthony K. Kyiu and Anywhere Sikochi

This paper examines the impact of corporate governance on capital structure dynamics. Using ordinary least squares regressions on 17,496 firm-year observations for 2,294 U.S. multinational companies (MNCs) over the period 1990–2018, we find that MNCs with strong... View Details

Keywords: Multinationality; Speed Of Adjustment; Corporate Governance; Multinational Firms and Management; Capital Structure

Find at Harvard

Read Now

February 2016
Case

Debt and Democracy: The New York Constitutional Convention of 1846

By: David Moss and Dean Grodzins

On September 23, 1846, delegates to New York State's constitutional convention prepared to vote on a proposal that its principal proponent, Michael Hoffman, conceded would be “a serious change in our form of government.” The proposal would place tight restrictions on... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Governance; Laws and Statutes; Government and Politics; History; New York (state, US)

October 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Appalachian Mountain Club: Transforming Governance

By: Walter J. Salmon and Jaan Elias

Starting in 1988, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) began a controversial transformation in management and governance. For its first 112 years, the AMC's structure had resembled that of a country club--volunteer leaders directed the club's operations and its small,... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Transformation; Corporate Governance; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Labor and Management Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

14 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Time that Government Reopens for Business

Europe may be in for a scare. Q:: Speaking of horror shows, let's get back to the threat of the government default on its debt obligations on October 17. Why does that option keep coming up for debate? A:... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

20 Jul 2021
News

Americans’ Medical Debts Are Bigger Than Was Known, Totaling $140 Billion

22 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Student Loan Debt Leads to Better Jobs, Stronger Consumers

Student loan debt is not only crippling Americans financially, it is holding them back from pursuing better opportunities. When student debt is erased, a huge burden is lifted and people take big steps to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Awards

Brattle Prize. Distiguished paper

By: Robin Greenwood

Awarded a 2015 Brattle Prize for Distinguished Paper in Corporate Finance for “A Comparative-Advantage Approach to Government Debt Maturity” with Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein (Journal of Finance, August 2015). View Details

April 2007 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Aid, Debt Relief, and Trade: An Agenda for Fighting World Poverty (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Eric D. Werker and Renee Kim

At the 2005 Group of Eight summit, world leaders agreed to relieve the world's poorest countries' debt burdens and double aid to Africa by 2010. The announcement raised questions whether debt relief would really help the poor. By examining past aid trends and policies... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; International Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Poverty; Welfare; Africa

Article

Inflation and Taxes in a Growing Economy with Debt and Equity

By: M. Feldstein, Jerry R. Green and Eytan Sheshinski

Our tax system was designed for an economy with little or no inflation. The current paper shows that inflation causes capricious changes in the effective rate of tax on capital income and therefore in the real net rate of return that savers receive. This is not only a... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Inflation and Deflation; Economy

Read Now

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is Government Just Stupid? How Bad Decisions Are Made

medical care, defense, education and so on guarantees that fewer taxpayer dollars and government resources will be available for other initiatives. It may also mean that the national debt will increase,... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, Jonathan Baron & Katherine Shonk

April 2015 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Japan's Missing Arrow?

By: Laura Alfaro and Hilary White

In late December 2014, Shinzo Abe was elected to another term as the prime minister of Japan. His re-election was largely interpreted as a vote of confidence for his economics policies, collectively referred to as "Abenomics." Comprised of three "arrows," including... View Details