Publications

March 2012
Article

The Incentive Bubble

By: Mihir Desai

The past three decades have seen American capitalism quietly transformed by a single, powerful idea—that financial markets are a suitable tool for measuring performance and structuring compensation. Stock instruments for managers, high-powered incentive contracts for... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Financial Markets; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Governance; Equality and Inequality; Human Capital; United States

2010
Comment

'Urgency and Betrayal: Three Attempts to Foster Private Investment in Argentina's Oil Industry,' by Nicolas Gadano

By: Louis T. Wells

Keywords: Investment; Private Sector; Government and Politics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Non-Renewable Energy; Energy Industry; Argentina

01 Dec 2012
News

Rival Visions

exemplifies energetic government and vigorous federal programs for economic growth. Gallatin symbolizes low taxes and less intrusion by government." Not surprisingly, the two men (after whom two HBS buildings are named) were political... View Details

18 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

The Rise of the Investor State: State Capital in the Chinese Economy

Keywords: by Hao Chen and Meg Rithmire

2025
Working Paper

Trade and Industrial Policy in Supply Chains: Directed Technological Change in Rare Earths

By: Laura Alfaro, Harald Fadinger, Jay Schymik and Gede Virananda

Trade and industrial policies, while primarily intended to support domestic industries, may unintentionally stimulate technological progress abroad. We document this mechanism in the case of rare earth elements (REEs)—critical inputs for manufacturing at the knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Policy; Global Value Chains; Directed Technological Change; Input-output Linkages; Innovation; Trade; Metals and Minerals; Technological Innovation; Supply Chain; Technology Industry

2024
Chapter

What Future for the Renminbi in the Global Monetary System?

By: Edoardo Campanella and Meg Rithmire

What is a realistic and positive outcome for US-China relations in the realm of global finance over the next ten years? While some policymakers, especially in the US, have feared that China holds ambitions for the renminbi (RMB) to replace the dollar as a global... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Currency; Macroeconomics; Globalized Economies and Regions; China; United States

December 2023
Article

Intermediary Balance Sheets and the Treasury Yield Curve

By: Wenxin Du, Benjamin Hebert and Wenhao Li

We document a regime change in the Treasury market post-Global Financial Crisis (GFC): dealers switched from net short to net long Treasury bonds. We construct “net-long” and “net-short” curves that account for balance sheet and financing costs, and show that actual... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Financial Markets; Financial Crisis; Asset Pricing

April 2016 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Dan Gilbert: Crazy or Crazy Like a Fox?

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz

Keywords: Detroit; Rock Ventures; Dan Gilbert; Real Estate; Buildings and Facilities; Demographics; Financial Crisis; Government and Politics; Housing; Risk and Uncertainty; Real Estate Industry; United States

August 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Teaching Note

Breaking the Buck (TN)

By: Robert C. Pozen and Elizabeth Leonard

Teaching Note for 310135. View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Problems and Challenges; Financial Markets; Investment Funds; Management

January 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Milliway Capital: Battening Down the Hatches

By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Facing the downturn in late 2008, the partners in a West-Coast venture capital firm are trying to decide how to manage their portfolio companies and whether to make new investments. Not only must they consider the particulars of each company individually, but they must... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Venture Capital; Financial Management; Investment Portfolio; Financial Services Industry; Western United States

November 2004
Teaching Note

Spain: Straddling the Atlantic (TN)

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

Teaching Note to (9-705-006). View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Transformation; Relationships; Labor; Markets; War; Economy; Spain

March 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

Incidents in Foreign Direct Investment

By: Louis T. Wells Jr. and Courtenay Sprague

Presents seven examples (i.e., incidents) of conflict concerning foreign direct investment. The incidents lay the framework for discussion of issues such as the jurisdiction of the WTO and the U.S. position, the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 and its political implications,... View Details

Keywords: Trade; International Finance; Foreign Direct Investment; Laws and Statutes; United States

May 1992 (Revised May 1993)
Supplement

Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (B)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Summarizes Carlzon's new focus externally on building alliances and acquiring travel service companies. Describes the financial problems resulting from the recession and the Gulf War crisis. Designed as an in-class handout to highlight the long-term management... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Financial Crisis; Problems and Challenges; Planning; Leadership; Alliances; Strategy; Air Transportation Industry

April 1990 (Revised August 1997)
Case

Organizational Capabilities and U.S. War Production: The Controlled Materials Plan of World War II

By: Robert D. Cuff and Richard S. Tedlow

A vehicle for the discussion of a very important set of institutional arrangements that helped enable America to mobilize its economy for World War II. View Details

Keywords: Economy; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; War; United States

May 1983
Case

Brazil and the World Economy

By: Dennis J. Encarnation III and Richard H.K. Vietor

Keywords: Development Economics; Business and Government Relations; Banks and Banking; Brazil

Find at Harvard

November 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Case

West Virginia: Finding the Right Path Forward

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl, Christine Keung and Reggie Smith

Once at the center of the American economy, the state of West Virginia had seen decades of decline as its coal industry fell on hard times. With beautiful but challenging topography, a proud but shrinking population, and a new scourge of the opioid epidemic, the... View Details

Keywords: Population Health; Geographic Location; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Problems and Challenges; Social Issues; West Virginia

August 2012 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Turkey—A Work in Progress?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

For the past 10 years, Turkey has grown its real GDP at about 6% annually. This came after a huge debt crisis in 2001-02, wherein Turkey had to borrow $16 billion more from the IMF and comport with its difficult conditionality. Today, Turkey is a middle-income country,... View Details

Keywords: Turkey; Economy; Macroeconomics; International Relations; Growth and Development Strategy; Turkey

April 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Teaching Note

BuildingBlocks International

BuildingBlocks International (BBI) plans to accomplish its mission to help children in developing countries succeed in school by bringing management expertise to local organizations. Two years after founding BBI, however, the team hasn't figured out exactly how to make... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Developing Countries and Economies; Sales

November 1997 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Herbert Hoover (A)

By: Louis T. Wells Jr.

Presents a character sketch of Herbert Hoover, along with Hoover's views on the cause of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Illustrates the political economy of the period and presents different interpretations of the course of the Great Depression. A rewritten version... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Financial Crisis; Government and Politics; Identity; Perspective