Publications

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November 1992 (Revised December 1994)
Case

BEA Associates: Enhanced Equity Index Funds

By: Andre F. Perold

BEA's enhanced index fund product uses derivatives and cash market securities to find the most efficient way to "track an index." The considerations involve transaction costs, custodial fees, withholding taxes on dividends, and fees from securities lending. In this... View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Investment Portfolio; Management; Investment Banking; Competitive Advantage; Cost Management

05 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 5, 2010

Affect Credit Ratings? Authors:Bo Becker and Todd Milbourn Abstract The credit rating industry has historically been dominated by just two agencies, Moody's View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: December 20

negotiations. Initially, legitimacy appeared to derive from an expanding membership and the lowering of tariffs in progressively more categories of goods and services. More... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

January 2013 (Revised April 2017)
Supplement

Maxum Petroleum, Inc.

By: W. Carl Kester

Maxum seeks an oil-price hedging strategy that yields substantial cash during oil price spikes, is affordable under ordinary circumstances, and is easily managed. It is striving to avoid a repeat of the challenging situation encountered in 2008 when spiking oil prices... View Details

Keywords: Hedging; Options; Commodities; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Risk Management; Futures and Commodity Futures; Financial Strategy; Volatility

October 1994
Case

Bankers Trust: Global Investment Bank

By: Andre F. Perold and Kuljot Singh

In October 1992, Eugene Shanks, president of Bankers Trust New York Corp., and Brian Walsh, head of the Global Investment Bank (GIB) business unit, are considering a proposal for a large and complex financing involving the North Sea Oil Co. (NSOC). The financing... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Risk Management; Value Creation; Business History; Capital Markets; Financing and Loans; Financial Markets; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry; Energy Industry

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Begenau’s research agenda is directed at better understanding how financial markets work and how they affect the real economy. She uses quantitative analysis to build both prescriptive and descriptive models concerning financial risk in banking, and she also... View Details

12 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 12, 2006

Working PapersHow Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Economic Growth? Exploring the Effects of Financial Markets on Linkages Authors:Laura Alfaro, Areendam Chanda, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, and Selin Sayek. Abstract The empirical... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Debate Financial Reform Legislation

everything I might have wanted, but the legislative process seldom produces that. Certain elements of this reform are positive and helpful, including the creation of a formal resolution authority and a... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

21 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 21, 2009

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/ b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=609046 Note: Credit Rating Agencies Harvard Business School Note 209-056 The note examines the role of credit rating agencies... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 5

gatekeeping institutions, from credit rating agencies to supply-chain auditors, are important players in contemporary regulatory regimes. Yet little is known about what influences the decisions of the individual accountants, auditors,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2004 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Hedging Currency Risks at AIFS

By: Mihir A. Desai, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman

The American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS) organizes study abroad programs and cultural exchanges for American students. The firm's revenues are mainly in U.S. dollars, but most of its costs are in eurodollars and British pounds. The company's controllers review... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Revenue; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Currency; Currency Exchange Rate; Education Industry; North and Central America

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

or fail to analyze the utter breakdown in board governance and Enron's internal controls, and the failure of credit rating agencies to blow the whistle," he says.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies at General Motors: Competitive Exposures

By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen

How can a multinational firm analyze and manage currency risks that arise from competitive exposures? General Motors has a substantial competitive exposure to the Japanese yen. Although the risks GM faces from the depreciating yen are widely acknowledged, the company's... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Currency Exchange Rate; Competition; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; International Finance; Financial Management; Investment Funds; Risk and Uncertainty; Auto Industry

24 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Activity-Based Costing

minutes to handle an inquiry, and 50 minutes to perform a credit check. Deriving cost-driver rates. The cost-driver rates can now be calculated by multiplying the two input... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & Steven R. Anderson

June 1995 (Revised May 1996)
Teaching Note

B.F. Goodrich-Rabobank Interest Rate Swap, The TN

By: Andre F. Perold and Wai Lee

Teaching Note for (9-284-080). View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Rubber Industry

05 Jun 2009
What Do You Think?

What Does Slower Economic Growth Really Mean?

services? The latter grew so rapidly in the U.S. in recent years (with every mortgage backed security and credit default swap transaction counted, resulting in substantial... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

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