Publications

2024
Working Paper

How Do Global Portfolio Investors Hedge Currency Risk?

By: Robin Greenwood and Alex Cheema-Fox

We use monthly portfolio data from one of the world’s largest custodian banks, with over $40 trillion assets under custody, to study how global portfolio investors hedge foreign exchange risk in their equity and fixed income portfolios over the past 25 years. The data... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Investment Funds; Currency; Risk and Uncertainty

October 2019 (Revised February 2025)
Case

A Conversation with Ellen J. Kullman, Chairman & CEO of DuPont, 2009-2015

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Ellen J. Kullman, the retired Chairman and CEO of DuPont, describes how she guided the storied science and technology company through a contentious proxy battle with activist investor Trian Partners, which acquired DuPont shares in 2013 and sought to break up the... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Transformation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; United States

December 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

By: David E. Bell and Brian Matthew Milder

In 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation joined together to form a new organization, AGRA, to tackle the historic challenge of increasing agricultural production in Africa. Launched with much fanfare and led by former U.N.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Investment Funds; Food; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business and Government Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Poverty; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa

November 2006 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Kerr-McGee

By: Robin Greenwood and André Perold

Activist investors Carl Icahn and Barry Rosenstein acquire a stake in Oklahoma-based company Kerr-McGee. They demand two board seats and ask the company to make several operational and financial changes, including the repurchase of equity and divestiture of their... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Restructuring; Equity; Investment; Management; Governance Controls; Corporate Strategy; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; United States

2009
Working Paper

Prices or Knowledge? What Drives Demand for Financial Services in Emerging Markets?

By: Shawn A. Cole, Thomas Sampson and Bilal Zia

Financial development is critical for growth, but its micro-determinants are not well understood. We test leading theories of low demand for financial services in emerging markets, combining novel survey evidence from Indonesia and India with a field experiment. We... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Saving; Knowledge Acquisition; Emerging Markets; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry; India; Indonesia

12 Sep 2007
Op-Ed

Building Sandcastles: The Subprime Adventure

market that seemed to promise endless double-digit returns. Typically, an investor bought a bundle of subprime loans from a mortgage bank. Investment banking houses such as Bear Sterns organized hedge funds. The Industrial View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas P. Retsinas; Banking; Construction; Real Estate

March 2025
Article

Optimal Illiquidity

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

We study the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and present bias with naive beliefs. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each with a different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty.... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Financial Liquidity; Personal Finance; Saving

14 Dec 2010
Op-Ed

Tax US Companies to Spur Spending

been a saving grace in ensuring that the financial crisis did not cause further damage to the economy. With traditional monetary and fiscal policy instruments seemingly exhausted, the mobilization of that... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir A. Desai

Article

The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market

By: Marco Di Maggio, Mark Egan and Francesco Franzoni

We estimate a structural model of broker choice to quantitatively decompose the value that institutional investors attach to broker services. Studying over 300 million institutional equity trades, we find that investors are sensitive to both explicit and implicit... View Details

Keywords: Financial Intermediation; Institutional Investors; Research Analysts; Broker Networks; Equity Trading; Institutional Investing

2021
Article

The Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative in Europe

By: Mark Roe, Holger Spamann, Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang

In July 2020, the European Commission published the “Study on directors’ duties and sustainable corporate governance” by EY. The Report purports to find evidence of debilitating short-termism in EU corporate governance and recommends many changes to support sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Short-termism; Hedge Funds; Shareholder Activism; Securities Regulation; Agency Costs; Political Economy; Payouts; Repurchases; Corporate Governance; Investment Funds; Investment Activism; Research and Development; Investment; European Union

SSRN

May 2022 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Third Point in 2020: Growth Is Where the Value Is?

By: Robin Greenwood, James Williams and Denise Han

In early May 2020, Daniel Loeb’s team at Third Point was evaluating a potential growth opportunity in the Walt Disney Company and whether investor activism might play a role. Battered by the effects of COVID-19, the company’s stock had initially tumbled to $86 and then... View Details

Keywords: Growth; Equity; Disney; Value; COVID-19 Pandemic; Economics; Strategy; Growth and Development; Investment Return; Opportunities; Business and Stakeholder Relations; North America

October 2011 (Revised August 2017)
Case

PunchTab, Inc.

By: Ramana Nanda, William R. Kerr and Lauren Barley

PunchTab was a Silicon Valley startup, founded in 2011, that was developing an Internet-based turnkey customer loyalty program for website owners, mobile applications developers, and brands. Founder/CEO Ranjith Kumaran must make strategic decisions about how to fund... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Investment; Investment Funds; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; San Francisco

18 Oct 2024
Blog Post

The Benefits of Living in a Dorm at HBS

is happening. Most HBS students have internships between their first and second years. Not knowing where I was going to spend my summer when I started school (spoiler that I went back to Los Angeles), I didn’t want to be locked into a... View Details

04 Oct 2016
First Look

October 4, 2016

Implications of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Embryo Transfer Guidelines: Healthcare Dollars Saved by Reducing Iatrogenic Triplets By: Lee, Malinda S., Brady T. Evans, Ariel Dora Stern, View Details

October 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Chia Network: Reimagining Programmable Money

By: William A. Sahlman and George Gonzalez

Chia Network developed a novel blockchain platform that was more eco-friendly, decentralized, and scalable than Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other blockchains. Now, company leadership must decide how to scale the startup and prioritize various partnerships, use cases, and... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

April 2008
Case

The Energy Foundation

By: Jane Wei-Skillern and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

The Energy Foundation, a philanthropic foundation established through a partnership among major donors with a mission to promote clean energy technology, is the largest funder in the U.S. focusing on the energy sector. The $60 million foundation operates through a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Networks; Expansion; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States

2021
Working Paper

The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market

By: Marco Di Maggio, Mark Egan and Francesco Franzoni

We estimate a structural model of broker choice to quantitatively decompose the value that institutional investors attach to broker services. Studying over 300 million institutional equity trades, we find that investors are sensitive to both explicit and implicit... View Details

Keywords: Financial Intermediation; Institutional Investors; Research Analysts; Broker Networks; Equity Trading; Institutional Investing; Financial Services Industry

SSRN

June 2025
Case

Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

On January 27, 2025, the head of a relatively small hedge fund named Late Apex Partners sent a highly critical letter to the board of directors of Vail Resorts, the world’s largest ski resort operator. In his letter, and the 88-slide presentation that accompanied his... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Governance; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Leading Change; Valuation; Investment Activism; Climate Change; Management Succession; Financial Management; Risk Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Travel Industry; United States; Australia; Canada