Publications

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November 2004
Case

Deere & Company

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

John Deere & Co. wants to improve shareholder value and provide incentives to do so. The task is difficult in a volatile agriculture and construction industry. It also wants to be more global and provide machinery that traces commodities from the field to the consumer. View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Volatility; Machinery and Machining; Multinational Firms and Management; Goods and Commodities; Goals and Objectives; Strategic Planning; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Construction Industry

18 Jun 2018
Working Paper Summaries

A Measure of Risk Appetite for the Macroeconomy

Keywords: by Carolin E. Pflueger, Emil Siriwardane, and Adi Sunderam

January 2009 (Revised January 2011)
Background Note

The Great Moderation, Dead or Alive?

By: Diego A. Comin

The Great Moderation is a significant decline in the volatility of fluctuations in most macroeconomic variables that the United States and other developed and developing economies have experienced at least since the mid-1980s. This case describes the basic facts,... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Business Cycles; Macroeconomics; United States

January 2002
Case

Metromove.com Business Plan

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Sheila Marcelo

Enables analysis of a business plan in a volatile market. Also enables analysis of the decisions entrepreneurs must make as they start a new business, develop the concept, choose partners, and find funding. View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business or Company Management; Partners and Partnerships

31 Aug 2020
Working Paper Summaries

The Pass-Through of Uncertainty Shocks to Households

Keywords: by Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani, Rodney Ramcharan, Vincent Yao, and Edison Yu

Video

What's Behind China's Wild Stock Ride?

2024
Working Paper

Transitory and Permanent Cash Flow Shocks in Debt Contract Design

By: Le Ma, Anywhere Sikochi and Yajun Xiao

We examine how lenders design contracts to account for transitory and permanent cash flow shocks facing borrowers. We find that volatile transitory cash flow shocks are associated with fewer liquidity covenants, indicating financial flexibility that enables firms to... View Details

Keywords: Debt Covenants; Cash Flow Shocks; Debt Contracting; Likelihood Of Default; Cash Flow; System Shocks

SSRN

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31 Jul 2012
News

What's the long-term impact of the EU’s carbon market crisis?

Research Summary

Capital flows in a Globalized Economy: The Role of Policies and Institutions (joint with Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan and Vadym Volosovych)

By: Laura Alfaro

We describe the patterns of international capital flows in the period 1970-2000. We then examine the determinants of capital flows and capital flow volatility during this period. We find that institutional quality is an important determinant of capital flows.... View Details

January 2008
Background Note

Equity Options

By: Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford

The goal of this simulation is to understand the reliance of option values on volatility. When an investor trades an option, they are essentially trading volatility. Therefore, much of the focus in this lesson is on forecasting volatility. Students are able to use two... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Forecasting and Prediction; Stock Options; Investment Return; Price; Market Transactions; Mathematical Methods; Value

March 1996
Case

FASB and Employee Stock Options, The

Summarizes the accounting principles governing employee stock options, including the recently issued accounting standard SFAS 123, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation. Presents the theoretical issues involved with valuation and measurement of employee stock-based... View Details

Keywords: Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Accounting

15 Jan 2020
Video

Rahmi M. Koç

Rahmi Koç, former Chair of of Koç Holding, the largest diversified business group in Turkey, relates how difficult it is to bring foreign investments to Turkey, in part due to its location in a volatile region... View Details

November 1996 (Revised September 1997)
Case

BancZero New Product Development

By: Marco Iansiti and Alberto Moel

The Mexico City office of a large U.S. bank is asked by clients to develop currency swaps, a derivative financial product. This case deals with the new product development process in financial services, and the problems and issues that are raised in product development... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Banks and Banking; Financial Instruments; Situation or Environment; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Volatility; Banking Industry; Mexico City; United States

26 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

David, Goliath, and Disruption

As elegantly described by HBS professor Clayton M. Christensen in his 1997 bestseller, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, so-called disruptive technologies are upstart innovations that manage to penetrate the market share of some... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

January 2008
Article

Venture Capital Investment Cycles: The Impact of Public Markets

By: Paul Gompers, Anna Kovner, Josh Lerner and David Scharfstein

It is well documented that the venture capital industry is highly volatile and that much of this volatility is associated with shifting valuations and activity in public equity markets. This paper examines how changes in public market signals affected venture capital... View Details

Keywords: Market Cycles; Venture Capital; Investment; Experience and Expertise; Public Equity; Volatility; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

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04 Sep 2015
News

The Dawning of the Age of Flex Labor

December 2011
Article

Data Impediments to Empirical Work on Health Insurance Markets

By: Leemore S. Dafny, David Dranove, Frank Limbrock and Fiona Scott Morton

We compare four datasets that researchers might use to study competition in the health insurance industry. We show that the two datasets most commonly used to estimate market concentration differ considerably from each other (both in levels and in changes over time),... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Analytics and Data Science; Market Participation; Insurance Industry

29 Aug 2011
News

Nine Do's and Don'ts for Dealing with the Disgruntled

June 1980 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Southwest Lumber Distributors

By: David E. Bell

Concerns a lumber wholesaler who has been asked to give a forward price commitment. The market price has been volatile and the type of wood is different from that traded on the futures market. The question is: What to do about customer's request? View Details

Keywords: Customers; Markets; Price; Forest Products Industry