Publications

19 May 2022
Blog Post

HKS Policy Analysis Exercise Showcase

For MPP and joint MBA/MPP students, the Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE) is the culmination of the Harvard Kennedy School experience. In fact, many of our MPP graduates consider it to be one of the highlights of their HKS education. During... View Details

May 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Debt Policy at UST Inc.

UST, Inc. is a very profitable smokeless tobacco firm with low debt compared to other firms in the tobacco industry. The setting for the case is UST's recent decision to substantially alter its debt policy by borrowing $1 billion to finance its stock repurchase... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Consumer Products Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

Educators

Purchase

02 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

HBS COVID-19 Global Policy Tracker

Keywords: by Alberto Cavallo and Tannya Cai; Health

Research Summary

Product Policy and Pricing

By: Robert J. Dolan

Robert J. Dolan's continuing research on marketing issues focuses on pricing policy and new products. His research program encompasses the development of both cases and conceptual models. Dolan's focus is the proper utilization of customer input in the new-product... View Details

Clubs

Government & Public Policy Club

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

Article

Tariff Passthrough at the Border and at the Store: Evidence from U.S. Trade Policy

By: Alberto Cavallo, Gita Gopinath, Brent Neiman and Jenny Tang

We use micro data collected at the border and the store to characterize the price impact of recent US trade policy on importers, exporters, and consumers. At the border, import tariff passthrough is much higher than exchange rate passthrough. Chinese exporters did not... View Details

Keywords: Trade Policy; Tariffs; Exchange Rate Passthrough; Economics; Trade; Policy; Currency Exchange Rate; Price; United States

Web

Policies | MBA

Policies Application Process As you prepare your application to Harvard Business School, please be aware of the following policies: All applications and recommendations must be submitted online. Each applicant is responsible for ensuring... View Details

Web

Demonstration Policy | About

Demonstration Policy This policy outlines guidance and requirements for and restrictions on demonstrations and other forms of dissent on the Harvard Business School campus. It complements the University-Wide... View Details

November 2021
Article

Making Industrial Policy Work for Decarbonization

By: Jonas Meckling

Industrial policy has begun to move into the center of debates on climate policy. This represents a shift away from climate policy as we know it—as classic environmental policy. Industrial policy and environmental policy differ in their policy goals, policy... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Regulation; Policy; Government and Politics; Climate Change

January 1985 (Revised December 1985)
Case

Olivetti: Purchasing Policy

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Keywords: Logistics; Policy; Information Technology Industry

Research Summary

Public Policy and Markets

By: Willis M. Emmons

William (Willis) M. Emmons III is investigating the interaction of public policy, markets, business strategy, and performance at the levels of firm, industry, and society. Emmons' approach draws heavily on economic theories of industrial organization, market failure,... View Details

2020
Working Paper

HBS COVID-19 Global Policy Tracker

By: Alberto Cavallo and Tannya Cai

The HBS COVID-19 Global Policy Tracker is an initiative by the Business, Government and the International Economy (BGIE) unit at Harvard Business School (HBS) to collect and standardize economic policies implemented as a response to the coronavirus pandemic around the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Economics; Policy; Health Pandemics; Government and Politics; Global Range

2010
Working Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman

We study how trade policy affects firms' ownership structures. We embed an incomplete contracts model of vertical integration choices into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. Integration decisions are driven by a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Vertical Integration; Business and Government Relations; Boundaries; Ownership; Mathematical Methods

March 2016
Module Note

Government Policy and Distributive Justice

By: Matthew Weinzierl

This note introduces the second of two main modules in the HBS elective curriculum course, The Role of Government in Market Economies (RoGME). This module is focused on policies, such as taxes, that change the distribution of economic outcomes. Like the... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Government and Politics; Economics

Purchase

Mar 2012
Article

Macroeconomic Policy and U.S. Competitiveness

The United States is on a glide path to fiscal disaster, with experts projecting that the federal government will take in far less money than it spends--indefinitely. Our current fiscal policy is eroding competitiveness in several ways,... View Details

September 1985
Background Note

Implementing Monetary Policy

2024
Working Paper

Changing Perceptions and Post-Pandemic Monetary Policy

By: Michael D. Bauer, Carolin Pflueger and Adi Sunderam

We document that the Fed’s perceived monetary policy response to inflation shifted materially over the post-pandemic period. In forward-looking policy rules estimated from surveys of macroeconomic forecasters, the inflation coefficient rose significantly after liftoff... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Inflation and Deflation; Interest Rates; Perception; Government Administration

2024
Working Paper

Content Moderation with Opaque Policies

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Jesse M. Shapiro

A sender sends a signal about a state to a receiver who takes an action that determines a payoff. A moderator can block some or all of the sender's signal before it reaches the receiver. When the moderator's policy is transparent to the receiver, the moderator can... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Communication; Knowledge Sharing; Information Infrastructure; Media

Register to Read

December 2007
Journal Article

Industrial Policy in the United States

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Does US government policy purposefully benefit particular industries or is industrial policy absent in the USA? Based on a review of recent US policies this paper argues that the USA applies many policies with an industry-specific impact. But these policies do not... View Details

Keywords: Microeconomics; Entrepreneurship; Policy; Innovation and Invention; Supply and Industry; Business and Government Relations; United States