Publications

Research Summary

Corporate Governance and International Competitiveness

By: W. Carl Kester

W. Carl Kester's research involves comparisons of national or broad regional systems of corporate governance (e.g., German, Japanese, Anglo-American), and the influence these systems exert on corporate investment and international competitiveness. Kester has found... View Details

Research Summary

Public Policy and Markets

By: Willis M. Emmons

William (Willis) M. Emmons III is investigating the interaction of public policy, markets, business strategy, and performance at the levels of firm, industry, and society. Emmons' approach draws heavily on economic theories of industrial organization, market failure,... View Details

2008
Working Paper

Fixing Market Failures or Fixing Elections? Agricultural Credit in India

By: Shawn A. Cole

This paper integrates theories of political budget cycles with theories of tactical electoral redistribution to test for political capture in a novel way. Studying banks in India, I find that government-owned bank lending tracks the electoral cycle, with agricultural... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Political Elections; State Ownership; Banking Industry; India

Teaching Interest

Economic Analysis of Public Policy

Teaching Fellow, Spring 2015
Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government View Details

Keywords: Policy

March 1981 (Revised February 1983)
Background Note

Note on Home Government Policies toward External Credit by Banks from France, Germany, and Japan

2020
Working Paper

Tariff Passthrough at the Border and at the Store: Evidence from U.S. Trade Policy

By: Alberto Cavallo, Gita Gopinath, Brent Neiman and Jenny Tang

We use micro data collected at the border and the store to characterize the price impact of recent US trade policy on importers, exporters, and consumers. At the border, import tariff passthrough is much higher than exchange rate passthrough. Chinese exporters did not... View Details

Keywords: Trade Policy; Tariffs; Exchange Rate Passthrough; Economics; Trade; Policy; Inflation and Deflation; United States; China

12 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

The Three Components of Family Governance

strengthening business-family communication and bond. A family constitution—the family's policies and guiding vision and values that regulate members' relationship with the business. This written document can be short or long, detailed or... View Details

February 1994 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Competitive Information Policy at Pratt & Whitney

By: Lynn S. Paine

Officials at United Technologies Corp. (UTC) must decide on an ethics policy to govern competitive intelligence gathering. The flow of competitor information into the Pratt & Whitney division has declined sharply since adoption of UTC's code of ethics. A rewritten... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Competition; Information Management; Business or Company Management; Law

November 2021
Article

Making Industrial Policy Work for Decarbonization

By: Jonas Meckling

Industrial policy has begun to move into the center of debates on climate policy. This represents a shift away from climate policy as we know it—as classic environmental policy. Industrial policy and environmental policy differ in their policy goals, policy... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Regulation; Policy; Government and Politics; Climate Change

06 Aug 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Fixing Market Failures or Fixing Elections? Agricultural Credit in India

Keywords: by Shawn A. Cole; Banking

May 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Debt Policy at UST Inc.

UST, Inc. is a very profitable smokeless tobacco firm with low debt compared to other firms in the tobacco industry. The setting for the case is UST's recent decision to substantially alter its debt policy by borrowing $1 billion to finance its stock repurchase... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

Research Summary

Risk Management as a Function of Government

By: David A. Moss

Professor Moss's academic work in this area explores how and why governments manage private-sector risks. Based on historical and institutional research, he argues that risk management constitutes a critical function of government with far-reaching implications. ... View Details

Article

Tariff Passthrough at the Border and at the Store: Evidence from U.S. Trade Policy

By: Alberto Cavallo, Gita Gopinath, Brent Neiman and Jenny Tang

We use micro data collected at the border and the store to characterize the price impact of recent US trade policy on importers, exporters, and consumers. At the border, import tariff passthrough is much higher than exchange rate passthrough. Chinese exporters did not... View Details

Keywords: Trade Policy; Tariffs; Exchange Rate Passthrough; Economics; Trade; Policy; Currency Exchange Rate; Price; United States

2010
Working Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman

We study how trade policy affects firms' ownership structures. We embed an incomplete contracts model of vertical integration choices into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. Integration decisions are driven by a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Vertical Integration; Business and Government Relations; Boundaries; Ownership; Mathematical Methods

10 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate Governance and Internal Capital Markets

Keywords: by Zacharias Sautner & Belén Villalonga

January 1985 (Revised December 1985)
Case

Olivetti: Purchasing Policy

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Keywords: Logistics; Policy; Information Technology Industry

August 2020 (Revised October 2021)
Case

India 2020 – Governance and Growth

By: Richard H. K. Vietor

In January 2012, the government of India faced significant challenges to achieving three key objectives of high growth, inclusive development, and improved governance. The economy was experiencing a growth slowdown, persistently high inflation, and infrastructure and... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Government and Politics; Problems and Challenges; Economic Growth; India

November 2019 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Russia: A Drama In Three Acts

By: Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella, Galit Goldstein, Sogomon Tarontsi and Lavinia Teodorescu

The collapse of central authority in the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a period of revolutionary transformations for the states that emerged in its wake. The leaders of Russia, the USSR's successor, struggled to reestablish central authority while also seeking to... View Details

2009
Other Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Andrew F. Newman and Harald Fadinger

We examine how trade policy affects firms' organizational choices. We embed a model of firms' vertical integration decisions into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. In the model, integration decisions are driven by a trade-off... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Vertical Integration; Boundaries