Publications

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October 2017
Article

American Danger: United States Empire, Eurafrica, and the Territorialization of Industrial Capitalism, 1870–1950

By: Sven Beckert

During the last third of the nineteenth century, a debate emerged in a number of European countries on the “American danger.” Responding to the rapid rise of the United States as the world’s most important economy, some European observers feared their nations’... View Details

Keywords: Atlantropa; Colonial Expansion; Economic Nationalism; Second Great Divergence; Economics; Global Range; History; United States; Europe; Africa

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February 2019
Background Note

Mexican Farmworkers in the United States

By: Forest Reinhardt and Jonathan Schlefer

This note discusses the centuries-long history and current situation of Mexican farmworkers north of the border—documented or undocumented, resident or temporary, and increasingly indigenous. The story provides the background for discussion of dilemmas facing... View Details

Keywords: Migrant Farmworkers; Mexican Farmworkers; Agribusiness; Labor; History; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

Mar 2012
Article

Fixing What's Wrong with U.S. Politics

history shows it's not new. Moreover, sharp ideological battles have often proved highly productive in policy terms, delivering the best ideas from both sides. In the 1840s, for instance, state politicians who were deeply skeptical of... View Details

October 2001 (Revised December 2001)
Case

EU Takeover Directive

By: Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka

The draft 13th Company Law Directive, originally written in the 1980s and first formally proposed in 1990, was intended to harmonize the takeover laws of the member states of the European Union (EU). From its inception, though, this bill was controversial. Nations... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Mergers and Acquisitions; Laws and Statutes; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Germany; United Kingdom; European Union

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22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How Business Strategy Tamed the “Invisible Hand”

1930s, where it was noticed that direct labor costs tended to decrease by a constant percentage as the cumulative quantity of aircraft produced doubled. Learning effects figured prominently in wartime production planning efforts. World... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

Ethan C. Rouen

Ethan Rouen is an associate professor of business administration in the Accounting and Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches the elective course Reimagining Capitalism. From 2020 to 2022, he served as the faculty co-chair of the View Details

Research Summary

Technology Adoption

How large are cross-country differences in technology adoption? How important are they to explain the large observed cross-country differences in per capita income? What factors accelerate of slowdown the adoption of technology? What factors affect the shape of the... View Details

26 Mar 2020
News

Coronavirus Is Widening the Corporate Digital Divide

21 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 21, 2010

PublicationsA History of Irish Economic Thought Authors:Thomas Boylan, Renee Prendergast, and John Turner, eds. Publication:London: Routledge, 2010 Abstract For a country that can boast a distinguished tradition of political economy... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 1991 (Revised December 2018)
Compilation

Slavery

By: Thomas K. McCraw

Explores the general history of slavery in the United States. Through detailed exhibits and a text consisting of excerpts from six first-hand observations of slavery, this note is designed to present the ethics, economics (especially the perverse incentive systems),... View Details

Keywords: Slavery; Human Capital; History; Ethics; Social Issues; Motivation and Incentives; United States

December 2001
Case

Van Bolton: Resolving a Labor-Management Dispute

Describes the challenges facing Van Bolton, the head of a large airline, as he works with the head of the company's pilots' union to negotiate issues relating to the acquisition of a smaller airline. Bolton must find ways to surmount a history of adversarial... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Process; Negotiation Participants; Labor Unions; Acquisition; Air Transportation Industry

August 2005 (Revised April 2015)
Background Note

Employment At Will: A Legal Perspective

By: Lynn S. Paine and Christopher M. Bruner

Provides a brief overview of the employment-at-will doctrine, an important concept unique to the U.S. legal system and business landscape. Briefly surveys the history and development of this doctrine and certain limitations and exceptions to it, as well as some of the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Resignation and Termination; Employment; Common Law; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; United States

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Cable TV: From Community Antennas to Wired Cities

converted from hot-to cold-type printing technologies, and captured the labor cost savings afforded by new techniques. Nieva de Figueiredo, in her study of the post-war U.S. newspaper industry, explains that the demands of managing... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas R. Eisenmann; Media & Broadcasting; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation

11 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 11

surprisingly, local governments exercise the greatest control over urban land in cities that adopted market reforms earliest. Slavery's Scientific Management: Accounting for Mastery Author:Caitlin C.Rosenthal Publication:In Slavery's Capitalism: A New View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2021 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Best Buy's Corie Barry: Confronting the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: William W. George and Amram Migdal

This case examines the leadership of Corie Barry, the new CEO of Best Buy, with a focus on actions the company took in 2020 to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. The case includes a history of Best Buy’s strategy and leadership, including the transitions between the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Change; Disruption; Volatility; Communication; Competency and Skills; Customers; Decision Making; Ethics; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Cash Flow; Financial Condition; Financial Liquidity; Goods and Commodities; Corporate Governance; Health Pandemics; Human Resources; Executive Compensation; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Resignation and Termination; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Invention; Jobs and Positions; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Job Design and Levels; Job Interviews; Job Offer; Labor; Employment; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Law; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Management; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Risk Management; Operations; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Logistics; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Supply Chain; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Outcome or Result; Personal Development and Career; Retirement; Work-Life Balance; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Labor and Management Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Science; Strategy; Retail Industry; North and Central America; United States; Minnesota

The epic story of the rise and fall of the empire of cotton, its centrality to the world economy, and its making and remaking of global capitalism.

Cotton is so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible, yet understanding its history is key to understanding the... View Details

03 Dec 2015
News

The 10 Best Books of 2015

January 2010
Article

Breakthrough Inventions and Migrating Clusters of Innovation

By: William R. Kerr

We investigate the speed at which clusters of invention for a technology migrate spatially following breakthrough inventions. We identify breakthrough inventions as the top one percent of U.S. inventions for a technology during 1975-1984 in terms of subsequent... View Details

Keywords: History; Technological Innovation; Patents; Labor; Immigration; United States