Publications

2017
Working Paper

Current academic and policy debates focus on the impact of tort reforms on physicians’ behavior and medical costs. This paper examines whether these reforms also affect incentives to develop new technologies. We develop a theoretical model which predicts that the... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Laws and Statutes; Innovation and Invention; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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PhD Programs - Doctoral

students join the Business Economics program directly from an undergraduate or master's program, others have worked in economic consulting firms or as research assistants at universities or intergovernmental... View Details

08 Oct 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Federal Reserve’s Abandonment of Its 1923 Principles

Keywords: by Julio J. Rotemberg; Banking; Legal Services

16 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Growth and the Quality of Foreign Direct Investment: Is All FDI Equal?

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Andrew Charlton

July 1989 (Revised August 1990)
Background Note

New Theories of International Trade

By: David B. Yoffie and Heather A. Hazard

Explores the "new" theories of international trade--also called strategic trade policy--which were developed in the 1980s. Examines why economists and policy makers thought new approaches were necessary to explain international trade, the contributions of industrial... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Theory; Policy; Trade

2022
Working Paper

Electoral Turnovers

By: Benjamin Marx, Vincent Pons and Vincent Rollet

In most national elections, voters face a key choice between continuity and change. Electoral turnovers occur when the incumbent candidate or party fails to win reelection. To understand how turnovers affect national outcomes, we study the universe of presidential and... View Details

Keywords: Election Outcomes; Regression Discontinuity Design; Political Elections; Change; Global Range; Outcome or Result; Economy; Governance; Performance Improvement

July 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Agricultural Biotechnology and its Regulation

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

In the United States, genetically modified corn and soybeans are now widely grown and consumed. In Europe, however, they have been dubbed "Frankenstein foods," shunned by packaged food manufacturers, and subjected to a host of governmental restrictions. This case... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Genetics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Strategy; Trade; Law; Goods and Commodities; Safety; Environmental Sustainability; Government and Politics; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Europe; United States

April 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Commonwealth Care Alliance: Elderly and Disabled Care

By: Michael E. Porter and Jennifer F Baron

Individuals enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, known as dual eligibles, are among the highest-cost beneficiaries in the US. Commonwealth Care Alliance, a small nonprofit insurer and care delivery system in Massachusetts, operated under a public demonstration... View Details

Keywords: Programs; Public Sector; Alliances; Policy; Age; Service Delivery; Value; Health Care and Treatment; Welfare; Insurance Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

2019
Chapter

Spatial Agglomeration and Superstar Firms: Firm-level Patterns from Europe and U.S.

By: Laura Alfaro, Maggie X. Chen and Harald Fadinger

We characterize the agglomeration patterns of industries and plants in Europe, distinguishing Eurozone countries and the United States. Using a micro-level index, we quantify the degree of geographic concentration in industrial activities and explore how firm... View Details

Keywords: Agglomeration; Patterns; Industry Clusters; Europe; United States

23 Aug 2006
Op-Ed

The Real Wal-Mart Effect

books that purport to be balanced and coolly analytical raise questions about the company's economic impact. A case in point is Charles Fishman's The Wal-Mart Effect, which describes the company as having a "decidedly mixed View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat & Ken A. Mark; Retail

March 1996 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Portfolio Capital Flows to Emerging Markets

By: Huw Pill

Presents some data showing the magnitude, direction, and composition of capital flows to less developed countries (the so-called emerging markets) in the period 1990-1995. Some potential explanations for these flows are discussed. A number of policy responses to the... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Emerging Markets; Policy; Capital; Developing Countries and Economies

05 Oct 2016
What Do You Think?

Can the US Economy Regain the Growth and Prosperity of the Past?

productivity requires a large middle class that can afford to consume what is being produced. Solve the economic inequality problem, and we will solve the slow growth problem as well as a lot of other societal problems.” Gamaliel Pascual... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2001 (Revised June 2004)
Case

PetroChina

By: Alexander Dyck, Yasheng Huang and David Lane

In March 2000, plans for the initial public offering of shares in PetroChina were proceeding on schedule, and institutional investors were evaluating the deal. PetroChina was China's largest oil and gas company and an attractive play on China's continued economic... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; China

Research Summary

Research and Publication Interests

Michelle Craig McDonald is currently writing a Harvard Business School case study on the impact of the International Coffee Act on small producers. She is interested in early American economic development, especially the role of foreign trade and re-exported... View Details

07 Dec 2017
HBS Seminar

Eric von Hippel, MIT Sloan School of Management

2008
Casebook

The Rules of Globalization: Case Book

By: Rawi Abdelal

This is a book about the politics of the global economy — about how firms prosper by understanding those politics, or fail by misunderstanding them. Understanding the politics of globalization may once have been a luxury; it is now, for most high-level managers, simply... View Details

Keywords: Trade; International Finance; Globalized Economies and Regions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations

Find at Harvard

Himabindu "Hima" Lakkaraju is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is also a faculty affiliate in the Department of Computer Science at Harvard University, the Harvard Data Science Initiative, Center for Research on... View Details

2019
Working Paper

Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good

By: Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene and Max Bazerman

The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was... View Details

Keywords: Policy-making; Procedural Justice; Ethics; Decision Making; Fairness