Filter Results:
(1,758)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,758)
- People (2)
- News (516)
- Research (952)
- Events (10)
- Multimedia (43)
- Faculty Publications (552)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,758)
- People (2)
- News (516)
- Research (952)
- Events (10)
- Multimedia (43)
- Faculty Publications (552)
- July 2018
- Article
Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit-Based Taxation
This article incorporates into modern optimal tax theory the classical logic of benefit‐based taxation in which an individual's benefit from the activities of the state is tied to his or her income‐earning ability. First‐best optimal policy is characterized... View Details
Weinzierl, Matthew. "Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit-Based Taxation." Economic Journal 128, no. 612 (July 2018): F37–F64. (Also Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-101, April 2014.)
- April 1996 (Revised January 2006)
- Case
Times Mirror Company PEPS Proposal Review
By: Peter Tufano
Times Mirror Co. (TMC) owns a substantial block of Netscape common stock purchased prior to Netscape's IPO, on which it has substantial unrealized gains. TMC is restricted from selling the stock in a public offering and is therefore considering a proposal by Morgan... View Details
Keywords: Risk Management; Stocks; Taxation; Corporate Finance; Telecommunications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States
Tufano, Peter, and Cameron Poetzscher. "Times Mirror Company PEPS Proposal Review." Harvard Business School Case 296-089, April 1996. (Revised January 2006.)
- September 2014
- Article
Metropolitan Blueprints of Colonial Taxation? Lessons from Fiscal Capacity Building in British and French Africa, 1880-1940
By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg
The historical and social science literature is divided about the importance of metropolitan blueprints of colonial rule for the development of colonial states. We exploit historical records of colonial state finances to explore the importance of metropolitan identity... View Details
Keywords: Colonial Administration; Quantitative Sources; Governance; Money; Taxation; Trade; History; Africa
Frankema, Ewout, and Marlous van Waijenburg. "Metropolitan Blueprints of Colonial Taxation? Lessons from Fiscal Capacity Building in British and French Africa, 1880-1940." Journal of African History 55, no. 3 (September 2014): 371–400.
- 2018
- Working Paper
Corporate Refinancing, Covenants, and the Agency Cost of Debt
By: Daniel Green
How valuable are restrictive debt covenants in reducing the agency costs of debt? I exploit the revealed preference decision to refinance fixed-coupon bonds, which weighs observable interest rate savings against the unobservable costs of a change in restrictive... View Details
Keywords: Covenants; Refinancing; Corporate Bonds; Agency Costs; Debt Policy; Borrowing and Debt; Bonds; Interest Rates
Green, Daniel. "Corporate Refinancing, Covenants, and the Agency Cost of Debt." Working Paper, 2018. (Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Finance.)
- 2016
- Report
Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided: The State of U.S. Competitiveness 2016
In this report, the authors synthesize their views on U.S. competitiveness and unveil the findings of the 2016 HBS surveys on U.S. competitiveness. Specifically, the report documents the faltering performance of the U.S. economy and the erosion of America’s business... View Details
Keywords: U.S. Competitiveness; Competitive Strategy; Macroeconomics; Government and Politics; United States
Porter, Michael E., Jan Rivkin, Mihir Desai, and Manjari Raman. "Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided: The State of U.S. Competitiveness 2016." Report, U.S. Competitiveness Project, Harvard Business School, September 2016.
- December 2013 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Breaking Bad (the Rules): Argentina Defaults, Inflates (and Grows), 1997–2015
By: Rafael Di Tella and Fernanda Miguel
In late October 2011, after losing 1 billion of dollar reserves in one month, the Argentine government began imposing a series of currency controls, limiting the ability to buy foreign currency. As of October 2011, Argentina's tax collection agency AFIP had been... View Details
Di Tella, Rafael, and Fernanda Miguel. "Breaking Bad (the Rules): Argentina Defaults, Inflates (and Grows), 1997–2015." Harvard Business School Case 714-036, December 2013. (Revised March 2024.)
- 2012
- Article
Signing at the Beginning Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest Self-reports in Comparison to Signing at the End
By: L. Shu, N. Mazar, F. Gino, D. Ariely and M. Bazerman
Many written forms required by businesses and governments rely on honest reporting. Proof of honest intent is typically provided through signature at the end of the document, e.g., tax returns or insurance policy forms. Still, people sometimes cheat to advance their... View Details
Keywords: Nudge; Morality; Honesty; Self-report; Policy-making; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Reports; Policy
Shu, L., N. Mazar, F. Gino, D. Ariely, and M. Bazerman. "Signing at the Beginning Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest Self-reports in Comparison to Signing at the End." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 38 (September 18, 2012): 15197–15200.
- April 2010
- Article
Endowments, Fiscal Federalism, and the Cost of Capital for States: Evidence from Brazil, 1891-1930
By: Andre C. Martinez Fritscher and Aldo Musacchio
There is a large literature looking at the determinants of country risk (defined as the difference between the yield of a sovereign's bonds and the risk-free rate). In this paper, we contribute to the discussion by arguing that an important explanatory factor is the... View Details
Keywords: Bonds; Performance Capacity; Taxation; Revenue; Governance; Geographic Location; Trade; Price; Cost of Capital; Risk and Uncertainty; Public Administration Industry; Brazil
Martinez Fritscher, Andre C., and Aldo Musacchio. "Endowments, Fiscal Federalism, and the Cost of Capital for States: Evidence from Brazil, 1891-1930." Financial History Review 17, no. 1 (April 2010). (Winner of the Gerry Feldman Young Scholar Prize for the best paper of (a) young scholar(s) of the European Association of Banking and Financial History, 2010-2011.)
- August 2017
- Article
Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?
By: Shlomo Benartzi, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, Maya Shankar, Will Tucker-Ray, William J. Congdon and Steven Galing
Governments are increasingly adopting behavioral science techniques for changing individual behavior in pursuit of policy objectives. The types of “nudge” interventions that governments are now adopting alter people’s decisions without coercion or significant changes... View Details
Keywords: Nudge; Nudge Unit; Choice Architecture; Behavioral Science; Behavioral Economics; Savings; Pension Plan; Education; College Enrollment; Energy; Electricity Usage; Preventive Health; Influenza Vaccination; Flu Shot; Open Materials; Behavior; Governance; Economics; Policy; Power and Influence
Benartzi, Shlomo, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, Maya Shankar, Will Tucker-Ray, William J. Congdon, and Steven Galing. "Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?" Psychological Science 28, no. 8 (August 2017): 1041–1055.
- 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
Musacchio, Aldo, Andre C. Martinez Fritscher, and Martina Viarengo. "Colonial Institutions, Trade Stocks, and the Diffusion of Elementary Education in Brazil, 1889–1930." Journal of Economic History 74, no. 3 (September 2014): 730 –766.
- 2012
- Article
Patent Policy, Patent Pools, and the Accumulation of Claims in Sequential Innovation
By: Gaston Llanes and Stefano Trento
We present a dynamic model where the accumulation of patents generates an increasing number of claims on sequential innovation. We compare innovation activity under three regimes—patents, no-patents, and patent pools—and find that none of them can reach the first best.... View Details
Llanes, Gaston, and Stefano Trento. "Patent Policy, Patent Pools, and the Accumulation of Claims in Sequential Innovation." Economic Theory 50, no. 3 (August 2012): 703–725.
- Article
Informal Family Insurance and the Design of the Welfare State
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
We study unemployment benefit provision when the family also provides social insurance. In the benchmark case, more generous State transfers crowd out family risk-sharing one-for-one. An extension gives the State an advantage in enforcing transfers through taxes... View Details
Di Tella, Rafael, and Robert MacCulloch. "Informal Family Insurance and the Design of the Welfare State." Economic Journal 112, no. 477 (February 2002): 481–503.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Optimal Illiquidity
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We calculate the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and naive present bias. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each witha different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty. Collected... View Details
Keywords: Illiquidity; Commitment; Flexibility; Savings; Social Security; Retirement; Government Legislation; Taxation; Saving
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Optimal Illiquidity." Working Paper, July 2022.
- 2014
- Working Paper
Return on Political Investment in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004
By: Hui Chen, Katherine Gunny and Karthik Ramanna
Prior literature raises a "puzzle" of high rates of return on corporate political investment, but evidence for this puzzle is largely descriptive in nature. We exploit the setting of the American Jobs Creation Act's passage in 2004 to provide more robust estimates of... View Details
Chen, Hui, Katherine Gunny, and Karthik Ramanna. "Return on Political Investment in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 15-050, December 2014.
- November 2023
- Case
Gabon Special Economic Zone
By: John Macomber and Wale Lawal
Tropical rain forest covers about 80% of the West African nation of Gabon, part of the Congo Basin and the "lungs of the world." Gabon is one of the first nations to earn revenue from carbon sequestration...as long as the rain forest remains intact. There are... View Details
Keywords: Economic Development; Forestry; Wood; Carbon Credits; Supply Chain; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Forest Products Industry; Africa; Gabon
Macomber, John, and Wale Lawal. "Gabon Special Economic Zone." Harvard Business School Case 224-012, November 2023.
- June 2013 (Revised February 2014)
- Case
FanMode: Launching a Global Sports Venture
By: Shikhar Ghosh, William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell
Neven Murugan is developing FanMode, an app that allows sports fans all over the world to broadcast their reactions in real time into stadiums where their team is playing. It also provides social networking across sports fans. The company is growing, and its founders... View Details
Keywords: App Development; Location Choices; Structure Of The Firm; Global; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United Kingdom; South Africa
Ghosh, Shikhar, William R. Kerr, and Alexis Brownell. "FanMode: Launching a Global Sports Venture." Harvard Business School Case 813-190, June 2013. (Revised February 2014.)
- August 2020 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
George Soros: The Stateless Statesman
By: Geoffrey Jones and Wendy Ying
This case traces the business career and philanthropic activities of George Soros. The Hungarian-born Soros made a fortune as a hedge fund investor after establishing Quantum Fund on the tax haven island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles in 1973 where he was... View Details
Keywords: Hedge Fund; Philanthropy; Populism; Finance; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Political Elections; Personal Development and Career; Leadership Style; Financial Services Industry; Europe; Hungary; United Kingdom; North and Central America; United States
Jones, Geoffrey, and Wendy Ying. "George Soros: The Stateless Statesman." Harvard Business School Case 321-012, August 2020. (Revised November 2022.)
- December 2008
- Case
Merrimack Tractors and Mowers: LIFO or FIFO?
By: William J. Bruns Jr., Sharon Bruns and Susan S. Hameling
At Merrimack Tractors and Mowers in 2008, product manufacturing costs are increasing faster than competitors' costs, and as a result earnings are likely to fall below those reported in 2007. The company president and the company controller have discussed this problem,... View Details
Keywords: International; Financial; Reporting; Standards; Inventory; Business Ethics; Assets; Valuation; Ethics; Taxation; Financial Reporting; Manufacturing Industry
Bruns, William J., Jr., Sharon Bruns, and Susan S. Hameling. "Merrimack Tractors and Mowers: LIFO or FIFO?" Harvard Business School Brief Case 083-217, December 2008.
- 04 Feb 2008
- Research & Ideas
Putting Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector
The social sector is big business. In the United States alone some 1.5 million nonprofits and other social ventures have combined revenues of $700 billion and control assets valued at $2 trillion—a seemingly substantial arsenal to tackle problems in crucial areas such... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
- November 1993 (Revised April 2007)
- Case
Continental Airlines--1992 (Abridged)
By: Stuart C. Gilson
The CEO is preparing a recommendation to the board regarding several potential outside investments in the company, which is currently operating in bankruptcy. In making his decision, the CEO has to consider various financial and strategic factors, including possible... View Details
Keywords: Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment; Taxation; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Aerospace Industry; United States
Gilson, Stuart C. "Continental Airlines--1992 (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 294-058, November 1993. (Revised April 2007.)