Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(382)
- Faculty Publications (75)
- April 2011 (Revised February 2016)
- Case
Jamaica's Anemic Growth: The IMF, China and the Debt(th) Trap
By: Rafael Di Tella and Natalie Kindred
This case describes the economic development problems faced by the small Caribbean-island country of Jamaica over most of the past half-century. The Jamaican economy showed relatively strong growth in the 1960s but stagnated in the 1970s. By the end of that decade,... View Details
- April 2011 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
The Greek Crisis: Tragedy or Opportunity?
By: Dante Roscini, Jonathan Schlefer and Konstantinos Dimitriou
After its 2009-2010 fiscal crisis shook the euro, could the Greek government stabilize debt, avoid default, and stay on the euro? This case looks at the Greek social and political road to fiscal crisis; the economics of that crisis and efforts to recover from it; the... View Details
- March 2011 (Revised December 2017)
- Background Note
The IMF: The Washington Consensus, the Critics, and the New Challenges as China Rises
By: Rafael M. Di Tella, Natalie Kindred and Monica Baraldi
How the International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines and carries out its mandate has evolved considerably since 1944, when it was founded to serve a vital but narrow function in maintaining the global foreign exchange system and thus enabling international trade. This... View Details
- Article
An Exploration of Optimal Stabilization Policy
By: N. Gregory Mankiw and Matthew C. Weinzierl
This paper examines the optimal response of monetary and fiscal policy to a decline in aggregate demand. The theoretical framework is a two-period general equilibrium model in which prices are sticky in the short-run and flexible in the long-run. Policy is evaluated by... View Details
- July 2010 (Revised March 2012)
- Case
China 'Unbalanced'
By: Diego A. Comin and Richard H.K. Vietor
In 2010, Wen Jiabao looked back at the financial crisis with some satisfaction. Using aggressive fiscal and monetary policy, China had weathered the crisis successfully, growing 8.7% annually in 2010. Most of the unemployed workers had returned to work, often... View Details
- 2011
- Working Paper
Cyclicality of Credit Supply: Firm Level Evidence
By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina
Theory predicts that there is a close link between bank credit supply and the evolution of the business cycle. Yet fluctuations in bank-loan supply have been hard to quantify in the time-series. While loan issuance falls in recessions, it is not clear if this is due to... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised May 2013)
- Supplement
Kinyuseisaku: Monetary Policy in Japan (B)
By: Laura Alfaro and Akiko Kanno
Toshihiko Fukui, Governor of the Bank of Japan, faced a complex situation in the fall of 2007. An economic recovery had allowed the central bank to abandon its zero interest rate policy, which had been in place for years, and raise rates to 0.5%. The Bank of Japan was... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised March 2011)
- Background Note
The Rejuvenated International Monetary Fund
By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Jonathan Schlefer
The International Monetary Fund was dismissed as almost irrelevant to the global economy, but during the 2008 financial crisis, it returned to center stage, providing financial rescues for developing countries. View Details
- 2009
- Other Unpublished Work
Steering Monetary Policy Through Unprecedented Crises
By: David Moss and Cole Bolton
In early April 2008, economic conditions in Europe appeared to be deteriorating on almost all fronts: sales figures were falling, business and consumer confidence were slumping, forecasts for European growth were being revised downward, and inflation was rising. In... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised February 2010)
- Case
Necessity and Invention: Monetary Policy Innovation and the Subprime Crisis
By: Aldo Musacchio and Dante Roscini
This case describes the efforts of Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, to improve liquidity in money markets during the subprime crisis. The case explains the four main new tools for monetary policy (or quantitative easing) the Federal Reserve has used... View Details
- October 2008
- Case
Financial Crisis in Asia: 1997-1998 (Abridged)
By: Huw Pill, Rafael M. Di Tella and Jonathan Schlefer
What caused the 1997-98 Asia Crisis: Asian nations' poor economic management, international financial contagion, close "crony" relations between local politicians and capitalists? This case examines how the crisis erupted in Thailand and spread in a chain of events... View Details
- February 2008 (Revised November 2011)
- Case
The International Monetary Fund in Crisis
By: Rawi Abdelal, David Moss and Eugene Kintgen
When Dominique Strauss-Kahn became the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in late 2007, he faced a number of significant changes. The organization had lost much of its legitimacy over the previous decade, and countries seemed increasingly reluctant to... View Details
- February 2008 (Revised April 2009)
- Case
Chronology of the Asian Financial Crisis
By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael Di Tella and Renee Kim
In July 1997, Thailand became the first Asian "tiger" economy to abandon its fixed exchange rate system in response to speculative attacks on its currency. Investors started to flee Asia, and the crisis rapidly spread to other countries. Central banks spent billions of... View Details
Keywords: Financial Crisis; Currency Exchange Rate; Central Banking; Policy; Crisis Management; Asia; Thailand
- January 2008 (Revised July 2009)
- Case
Forecasting the Great Depression
What is proper role of professional economic forecasting in financial decision making? The case presents excerpts from three leading economic forecasters on the eve of, and just after, the stock market crash of October 1929. The first set of excerpts is from Roger... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised April 2009)
- Case
Kinyuseisaku: Monetary Policy in Japan (A)
By: Laura Alfaro and Akiko Kanno
Toshihiko Fukui, Governor of the Bank of Japan, faced a complex situation in the fall of 2007. An economic recovery had allowed the central bank to abandon its zero interest rate policy, which had been in place for years, and raise rates to 0.5%. The Bank of Japan was... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised March 2009)
- Teaching Note
Kinyuseisaku: Monetary Policy in Japan (TN) (A) & (B)
By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim
Teaching Note for [708017]. View Details
- October 2007 (Revised May 2008)
- Case
Transforming Korea Inc: Financial Crisis and Institutional Reform
By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim
South Korea, as one of the Asian "tiger" economies, transformed itself into the world's 11th largest economy and major exporter by 1996, emerging from being one of the lowest income countries in the region back in the 1960s. Yet one year later in 1997, Korea was swept... 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
- July/September 2005
- Article
Le consensus de Paris: la France et les règles de la finance mondiale
By: Rawi Abdelal
This article is about the institutional foundations of the globalization of finance. These institutional foundations are both informal and formal. Until the 1980s the formal rules of the international financial architecture – most consequentially in the European Union... View Details
- November 2004
- Article
Unemployment Benefits As a Substitute for a Conservative Central Banker
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
In the many years since their introduction, positive theories of inflation have rarely been tested. This paper documents a negative relationship between inflation and the welfare state (proxied by the parameters of the unemployment benefit program) that is to be... View Details