Publications

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September 2014
Article

Colonial Institutions, Trade Stocks, and the Diffusion of Elementary Education in Brazil, 1889–1930

By: Aldo Musacchio, Andre C. Martinez Fritscher and Martina Viarengo

We show how the decentralization of fiscal responsibility among Brazilian states between 1889 and 1930 promoted an unequal expansion of public schooling. We document how the variation in state export tax revenues, product of commodity booms, explains improvements in... View Details

Keywords: Institutions; Economic History; Education; Development Economics; Policy; Brazil

Find at Harvard

15 Sep 2015
First Look

September 15, 2015

an associated 90% confidence interval of (2.3%, 17.8%). Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49523 2015 The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy Information... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Launching the European Food Safety Authority

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

The first food safety commission is established for the European Union. How does it handle food safety, scientific evaluations, and people's attitudes toward scientific changes in food growing and processing--for example, genetically modified organisms? View Details

Keywords: Food; Safety; Nutrition; Policy; Food and Beverage Industry; European Union

26 Mar 2013
Working Paper Summaries

How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments

Keywords: by Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael I. Norton, Emmanuel Saez & Stefanie Stantchev

19 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Designing Cities for a Sustainable Future

Fortunately, because of their legislative power to regulate buildings, density, energy use, and transportation, cities and their mayors can be pacesetters in climate change mitigation. And because cities are discovering that the greener... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Construction; Real Estate

September 1971 (Revised September 1983)
Case

Gentle Electric Co.

By: W. Earl Sasser

Designed to illustrate various levels of complexity in determining optimum order sizes for a single item inventory policy. Students are asked to evaluate the impact of recent operational changes on the firm's ordering policy. Intended to follow the students' initial... View Details

Keywords: Change; Policy; Supply Chain; Complexity; Electronics Industry

20 Nov 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, November 20, 2018

organizations is based on value, on average. While three-quarters of their revenue remains fee-for-service, we see a remarkable change to a reimbursement system that was static for decades. In particular, survey respondents’ organizations... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

April 2014 (Revised February 2015)
Case

Saudi Arabia: Finding Stability after the Arab Spring

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Hilary White

In 2015, King Salman of Saudi Arabia was juggling several balls as the kingdom's new monarch. At home, there were pressures for liberalization, from women and youth, and pressures for more conservative religious observance and policy from the Muslim "ulema." His... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Policy; Balance and Stability; Change; Saudi Arabia

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

percent believe the technology will affect them personally. Harvard Business School faculty members share their thoughts below about how AI will reshape the workforce and the skills necessary to succeed in the years ahead. Joseph Fuller: Brace for massive workforce... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

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)

01 Nov 2021
What Do You Think?

How Long Does It Take to Improve an Organization’s Culture?

consultants who provide advice on changing an organization’s culture generally estimate that the chances of success are low, typically one in three or four attempts. Those odds aren’t encouraging. But what isn’t clear in those statistics... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Mar 2025
Blog Post

Advancing Health Care Innovation and Impact with Anita Gupta (GMP 29, 2020)

lasting impact in health care. As a physician anesthesiologist and pharmacist, I had spent years advocating for access to care, navigating complex health care systems, and working on policies to address the opioid crisis. But I knew that... View Details

18 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

When It Comes to Climate Regulation, Energy Companies Take a More Nuanced View

Common wisdom holds that oil and gas companies, electric utilities, and other industries known for their large carbon emissions generally oppose clean energy policies. Now, a study of corporate advocacy spanning 30 years reveals that many companies are more flexible... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Utilities

18 Apr 2022
HBS Case

Dick’s Sporting Goods Followed Its Conscience on Guns—and It Paid Off

“But what the Dick’s Sporting Goods case shows is that you can get it right, that you can have a positive outcome if you handle things well.” A calculated change Stack, whose father founded the company in the late 1940s in upstate New... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

2000
Working Paper

The Drivers of National Innovative Capacity: Implications for Spain and Latin America

By: Michael E. Porter, Jeffrey L. Furman and Scott Stern

In the past decade, both academic scholars and policymakers have focused increasing attention on the central role that technological innovation plays in economic growth. There are at least two distinct reasons for this increased interest. First, though economists have... View Details

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October 1987 (Revised March 1992)
Case

United Parcel Service (A)

United Parcel Service (UPS) in 1987 faced serious challenges to its long-standing policies of on-the-job training and promotion from within. Increased competition in its traditional business of ground transport found UPS lagging in computerization and in need of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Service Industry; United States