Publications

2024
Other Unpublished Work

A Proposal for the IMF: A New Instrument of International Liquidity Provision for Emerging Markets and Developing Economies

By: Laura Alfaro, Guillermo Calvo, José de Gregorio, Augusto de la Torre, Pablo Guidotti, Enrique Mendoza, Ernesto Talvi, Liliana Rojas-Suarez and Andrés Velasco

This paper addresses a critical flaw in the international financial system: the failure to address the inherent asymmetry between countries that issue reserve currencies and those that do not, leaving the latter vulnerable during systemic liquidity crises. We propose... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Emerging Markets; Financial Markets; International Finance; Developing Countries and Economies; Latin America

October 2014 (Revised April 2018)
Supplement

Creditor Activism in Sovereign Debt: Argentina vs. Holdout Investors (B)

By: Laura Alfaro, Gaurav Toshniwal and Hilary White

August 2007
Teaching Note

Creditor Activism in Sovereign Debt: "Vulture" Tactics or Market Backbone (TN)

By: Laura Alfaro and Ingrid Vogel

Teaching Note to 706057. View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Financing and Loans; Bonds; Contracts; Investment Activism

25 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

To Pay or Not to Pay: Argentina and the International Debt Market

Back then, Argentina tried to fend off creditors by adopting a hard-line attitude about reducing its debt obligations. When it initiated a bond exchange offer in 2005 and told its creditors to "take it or leave it," the republic... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro

2015
Working Paper

Corporate Sponsorship in Culture—A Case of Partnership in Relationship Building and Collaborative Marketing by a Global Financial Institution and a Major Art Museum

By: Ragnar Lund and Stephen A. Greyser

Purpose: This paper examines cultural sponsorship from a partnership and relationship marketing perspective. It studies a case of how a partnership between two international institutions, a bank and a museum, adds value to both in terms of interaction with... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Partners and Partnerships; Marketing Strategy; Culture; Banks and Banking

2016
Working Paper

Credit Migration and Covered Interest Rate Parity

By: Gordon Y Liao

I document economically large and persistent discrepancies in the pricing of credit risk between corporate bonds denominated in different currencies. The discrepancies amount to 50-100 basis points on trillions of dollars of debt notional. I relate this violation of... View Details

Keywords: Market Segmentation; Debt Issuance; Covered Interest Rate Parity; Cross-currency Basis; Credit Risk; Financial Markets; Credit

2024
Article

Supply and Demand and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel Hanson and Dimitri Vayanos

We survey the growing literature emphasizing the role that supply-and-demand forces play in shaping the term structure of interest rates. Our starting point is the Vayanos and Vila (2009, 2021) model of the term structure of default-free bond yields, which we present... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Interest Rates; Bonds; Financial Markets

Article

The Collapse of First Executive Corporation: Junk Bonds, Adverse Publicity, and the Run on the Bank Phenomenon

By: S. C. Gilson, H. DeAngelo and L. DeAngelo

In April 1991, regulators seized the major subsidiaries of First Executive Corporation (FE), an insurer that invested heavily in junk bonds. During the junk bond market turmoil of 1989–1990, adverse publicity fueled a bank run at FE, forcing a $4 billion portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Bonds; Banks and Banking

Find at Harvard

January 1994 (Revised July 2000)
Exercise

Walt Disney Company's Sleeping Beauty Bonds--Duration Analysis

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Walt Disney Co. issues a 100-year bond. This case describes the terms of the bond and immediate capital market reaction. View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Bonds; Valuation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

May 2005 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Nexgen: Structuring Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs)

A client asks Luc Giraud, CEO of the structured finance solutions provider Nexgen Financial Solutions, to put together a solution that allows the client to add AAA-rated bonds to its portfolio. The client cannot find suitably priced top-rated bonds in the market and... View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Risk and Uncertainty; Debt Securities; Bonds; Financial Services Industry

May 2018
Article

U.S. Treasury Premium

By: Wenxin Du, Joanne Im and Jesse Schreger

We quantify the difference in the convenience yield of U.S. Treasuries and government bonds of other developed countries by measuring the deviation from covered interest parity between government bond yields. We call this wedge the “U.S. Treasury Premium.” We document... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Investment Return; Interest Rates; Financial Crisis

July 1997
Case

Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities (TIPS)

Explores the development of a new product offering based on the first issuance of "real" bonds in the United States. Looks at a specific organization's efforts to position itself to profit from this market development. Follows naturally from a case on nominal bonds. View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Bonds; Inflation and Deflation; United States

February 1997 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Launching the BMW Z3 Roadster

By: Robert J. Dolan and Susan M. Fournier

James McDowell, vice president of marketing at BMW North America, Inc., must design Phase II communication strategies for the launch of the new BMW Z3 Roadster. The program follows an "out-of-the-box" prelaunch campaign centered on the placement of the product in the... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Innovation and Invention; Auto Industry; North America

January 1987 (Revised November 1991)
Case

R.J. Reynolds International Financing

By: W. Carl Kester and William B. Allen

Reynolds must source a substantial portion of the financing of its Nabisco acquisition in offshore bond markets. Morgan Guaranty has proposed a yen/dollar dual currency Eurobond that could be hedged into dollars. This structure is compared to Eurodollar Bonds, Euroyen... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Capital Markets; Currency Exchange Rate; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Bonds; Financing and Loans

2018
Working Paper

The Impact of Pensions and Insurance on Global Yield Curves

By: Robin Greenwood and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen

We document a strong effect of pension and insurance company (P&I) assets on the long end of the yield curve. Using data from 26 countries, the yield spread between 30-year and 10-year government bond yields is negatively related to the ratio of pension assets (in... View Details

Keywords: Pension Funds; Investment Funds; Insurance; Assets; Interest Rates; Bonds

SSRN

March 1992 (Revised December 1992)
Case

Salomon and the Treasury Securities Auction

By: Dwight B. Crane

Set in June 1991, two months prior to Salomon Brothers' announcement that the firm had violated the Treasury Department's rules governing the auctions of new Treasury securities. Salomon Vice Chairman John Meriwether must decide how to address problems that continue to... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Managerial Roles; Ethics; Market Transactions; Bonds; Investment Banking; Crisis Management; Auctions; Legal Liability; Banking Industry

19 Mar 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Carry Trade and Exchange-Rate Regimes

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Fabio Kanczuk

February 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Case

MicroStrategy's Investment in Bitcoin

By: C. Fritz Foley

At the end of the second quarter of 2020, MicroStrategy, a Virginia based provider of analytics software and services, announced plans to acquire and hold bitcoin as a part of the firm’s treasury reserve policy and corporate strategy. Within a year, the firm purchased... View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Corporate Strategy; Acquisition; Investment Portfolio; Capital Structure; Equity