Publications

February 2009
Journal Article

Domestic Effects of the Foreign Activities of U.S. Multinationals

By: Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James R. Hines Jr.

Do firms investing abroad simultaneously reduce their domestic activity? This paper analyzes the relationship between the domestic and foreign operations of American manufacturing firms between 1982 and 2004 by instrumenting for changes in foreign operations with GDP... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Global Range; Local Range; Multinational Firms and Management; Compensation and Benefits; Operations; Manufacturing Industry; United States

SSRN

July 2009
Article

How Is Foreign Aid Spent? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

By: Eric D. Werker, Faisal Z. Ahmed and Charles Cohen

We use oil price fluctuations to test the impact of transfers from wealthy OPEC nations to their poorer Muslim allies. The instrument identifies plausibly exogenous variation in foreign aid. We investigate how aid is spent by tracking its short-run effect on aggregate... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Aid; Money

29 Apr 2012
News

American Recovery?

Research Summary

Paper - Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Taxation, Welfare and Lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910 (Job Market Paper)

This paper examines the effect of government intervention via taxation on domestic welfare. A case-study of Brazilian market power on rubber markets during the boom years of 1870-1910 shows that the government generated 1.3% of GDP through an export tax on rubber... View Details

2021
Article

Leisure Beliefs and the Subjective Well-being of Nations

By: Lucia Macchia and A.V. Whillans

Here, we construct a data set of 79 countries (N = 220,000) and explore whether differences in the prioritization of time (leisure) vs. money (work) explain cross-country differences in happiness. Consistent with our predictions, countries whose citizens value leisure... View Details

Keywords: Leisure; Work; Subjective Well-being; Public Policy; Employment; Happiness; Governance; Policy

We use oil price fluctuations to test the impact of transfers from wealthy OPEC nations to their poorer Muslim allies. The instrument identifies plausibly exogenous variation in foreign aid. We investigate how aid is spent by tracking its short-run effect on... View Details

March 1993 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Singapore

By: Forest L. Reinhardt and Edward Prewitt

Since winning independence in 1965, Singapore achieved some of the world's highest rates of economic growth. A large part of GDP and employment came from direct investment by multinational companies in low-cost assembly work, but in the 1990s Singapore's rising wage... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Decision Choices and Conditions; Development Economics; Economic Growth; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Employment; Wages; Singapore

24 Jan 2011
News

Harvard Business School Introduces Program to Help Realize Opportunities in Emerging Markets

February 2011 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Brazil: Leading the BRICs?

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich and Aldo Musacchio

Brazil's new president, Dilma Rousseff, had announced plans to sustain GDP growth above 5% annually and continue the country's leadership role among emerging economies. Between 2003 and 2010, Brazil benefited from strong economic growth and stable policies under the... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Intellectual Property; Infrastructure; Economic Growth; Trade; International Relations; Economic Systems; Globalization; Corporate Strategy; Brazil; Russia; India; China; United States

12 Jul 2016
First Look

July 12, 2016

Schreger Abstract—Government forecasts of GDP growth and budget balances are generally more over optimistic than private sector forecasts. When official forecasts are especially optimistic relative to private forecasts ex ante, they are... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2016
Working Paper

Bias in Official Fiscal Forecasts: Can Private Forecasts Help?

By: Jeffrey A. Frankel and Jesse Schreger

Government forecasts of GDP growth and budget balances are generally more over optimistic than private sector forecasts. When official forecasts are especially optimistic relative to private forecasts ex ante, they are more likely also to be over optimistic relative to... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Macroeconomics

May 14, 2014
Editorial

In Terms of Social Progress, America Is Not #1—It's #16

By: Michael E. Porter

As Americans, we like to think of ourselves as a world leader. After all, the United States has the largest economy in the world and is near the very top in GDP per capita. We are used to thinking that we lead on social issues like education, access to information, and... View Details

Keywords: Society

June 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

"One Country, Two Systems"? Italy and the Mezzogiorno (A)

By: Bruce R. Scott and Jamie Matthews

GDP per person in northern Italy caught up with average incomes in Britain, France, and Germany in the 1970s, but incomes in southern Italy (the Mezzogiorno) fell further behind. This was partly due to cultural and societal differences that dated to the Renaissance,... View Details

Keywords: History; Development Economics; Crime and Corruption; Social Issues; Economy; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; Italy

21 Sep 2018
News

America traded one recession for a far more serious one

Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem

This 105 page report analyzes the structure and dynamics of the commercial internet by classifying individually the internet-dependent revenues and employment of the 412 largest firms that participate in the ecosystem, and rolling up smaller firms and individuals. The... View Details

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

Forthcoming
Article

The Evolution of Financial Services in the United States

By: Robin Greenwood, Robert Ialenti and David Scharfstein

This article surveys the literature on the historical growth and transformation of the U.S. financial sector. The sector expanded rapidly between 1980 until 2006, when its contribution to GDP rose from 4.8% to 7.6%. After the Global Financial Crisis, the size of the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Growth and Development; Economic Sectors

03 Jun 2014
News

‘Victims’ of churn are accessories to the crime

April 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Background Note

Note on Mobile Healthcare

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

Delivering health care to the global population was a challenge. Health care costs accounted for ten percent of world GDP by 2013. In the U.S., health care costs were expected to top $3.1 trillion in 2014. New technologies, shortages of trained personnel and... View Details