Publications

06 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 6

productive. The authors have studied when 161 countries adopted 104 technologies over the past 200 years, and they conclude that profound economic advantages-as measured by per capita income-accrue to early adopters of technology. Read... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2018
Working Paper

Show or Tell? Improving Agent Decision Making in a Tanzanian Mobile Money Field Experiment

By: Jason Acimovic, Chris Parker, David F. Drake and Karthik Balasubramanian

When workers make operational decisions, the firm's global knowledge and the workers’ domain-specific knowledge complement each other. Oftentimes workers have the final decision-making power. Two key decisions a firm makes when designing systems to support these... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Decision Making; Training; Performance Improvement; Money; Mobile Technology; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Services Industry

SSRN

04 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 4

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-004.pdf What Should GAAP Look Like? A Survey and Economic Analysis (revised) Authors:S.P. Kothari, Karthik Ramanna, and Douglas J. Skinner Abstract Based on extant literature, we articulate a positive... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Technical Note

Business and Government: Campaign Contributions and Lobbying in the United States

By: Karthik Ramanna, Sandra J. Sucher and Ian McKown Cornell

This note on business-government relations introduces students to the state of campaign contributions and lobbying by corporations in the United States. The note develops two hypotheses as to the impact of corporate political engagement: (i) a vehicle to facilitate... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics; Public Administration Industry; United States

December 2010
Article

Implications for GAAP from an Analysis of Positive Research in Accounting

By: S.P. Kothari, Karthik Ramanna and Douglas J. Skinner

Based on extant literature, we review the positive theory of GAAP. The theory predicts that GAAP's principal focus is on control (performance measurement and stewardship) and that verifiability and conservatism are critical features of a GAAP shaped by market forces.... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Standards; International Accounting; Financial Markets; Financial Reporting

SSRN

Find at Harvard

2007
Working Paper

Evidence from Goodwill Non-impairments on the Effects of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting

By: Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts

SFAS 142 requires firms to use unverifiable fair-value estimates to determine goodwill impairments. Standard setters suggest managers will use the discretion given by such estimates to convey private information on future cash flows, while agency theory predicts... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Goodwill Accounting; Standards; Agency Theory

SSRN

Read Now

21 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 21

characterizes the financial world. They also overlook the role of natural selection. To be sure, natural selection in the financial world is not exactly analogous to the processes first described by Darwin and elaborated on View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 18

attempt to answer the latter question by attempting to institutionalize empathy as part of its delivery of care. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/612031-PDF-ENG China or the World? A Financial Reporting Strategy... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2012 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Rospil.info

By: Paul Healy, Karthik Ramanna and Matthew Shaffer

What should business leaders do about corruption? In December 2011, four HBS alumni met to debate how to engage the unprecedented protests against Vladimir Putin's corrupt government, which had erupted in Russia in response to alleged fraud in the recent parliamentary... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crime and Corruption; Government and Politics; Social and Collaborative Networks; Blogs; Information Industry; Russia

07 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 7

Simons. By posing these provocative questions, you identify critical gaps in your strategy execution processes, focus on the most important choices you must make, and understand what's at stake in each one. In this concise guide, Simons... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 20

IFRS in China Karthik Ramanna, G.A. Donovan, and Nancy DaiHarvard Business School Case 110-037 In 2005, China announced plans to "converge with," but not completely adopt, IFRS. China also began to lobby for changes to specific... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2012 (Revised March 2014)
Case

I Paid a Bribe (Dot) Com

By: Karthik Ramanna and Rachna Tahilyani

Anti-corruption web platform "ipaidabribe.com" leverages the transparency and anonymity of the Internet to encourage private citizens in India who have been the victims of corruption to self-report details of bribes paid, including the bribe amount, the name of the... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Internet and the Web; Ethics; Service Industry; India

28 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 28, 2010

Review (forthcoming) Abstract Companies in Victorian Britain operated in a laissez-faire legal environment from the perspective of outside investors, implying that such investors were not protected by the legal system. This article seeks... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 13

matching candidates are attractive by reducing the competition among agents on the same side of the market. An agent who sees fewer candidates knows that these candidates also see fewer potential matches, and so are more likely to accept... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

16 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 16

routinely think about the problem. We conclude by exploring implications of this finding for professional conduct and public policy. Working PapersImplications for GAAP from an Analysis of Positive Research in Accounting Authors:S.P.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 15

the market by setting the welfare-maximizing level of trade when the difference in the degree of asymmetric information between buyers and sellers is significant. However, if this difference is below a certain threshold, then even the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2015
Other Unpublished Work

Do Managers Have a Role to Play in Sustaining the Institutions of Capitalism?

By: Rebecca Henderson and Karthik Ramanna

In a capitalist system based on free markets, do managers have responsibilities to the system itself? If they do, should these responsibilities shape their behavior when they engage in the political processes that structure the institutions of capitalism? The... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Lobbying; Leadership; Economic Systems; Managerial Roles; Business and Government Relations

Read Now

2013
Working Paper

Managers and Market Capitalism

By: Rebecca Henderson and Karthik Ramanna

In a capitalist system based on free markets, do managers have responsibilities to the system itself? If they do, should these responsibilities shape their behavior when they are engaging in the political process in an attempt to structure the institutions of... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Economic Systems; Managerial Roles; Government and Politics