Publications

Sep 2016
Survey

Problems Unsolved & A Nation Divided

calls for a national economic strategy for America and proposes federal policy priorities that can form the core of such a strategy. Further, the report highlights corporate and personal tax reform as a... View Details

29 May 2001
Research & Ideas

Good News, Not Blues, For the Inner City

economy," is ripe for economic vitality, says HBS Professor Michael E. Porter. And, as he explained in a plenary session called "Inner City Renewal" at the HBS 2001 Global Alumni Conference, there are hundreds View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

May 2008
Article

Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries? An Empirical Investigation

By: Laura Alfaro, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan and Vadym Volosovych

We examine the empirical role of different explanations for the lack of capital flows from rich to poor countries—the "Lucas Paradox." The theoretical explanations include cross country differences in fundamentals affecting productivity and capital market... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Wealth and Poverty; Development Economics; Income; Capital Markets; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Australia; Peru

Article

Targeting Weather Insurance Markets

By: Anita Mukherjee, Shawn Cole and Jeremy Tobacman

The suitability of insurance products often depends greatly on individual circumstances. This paper examines the challenges of heterogeneity in a relatively new product, weather‐indexed insurance. This index insurance product has been launched in over a dozen... View Details

Keywords: Index Insurance; Labor Markets; Self-insurance; Self-protection; Weather; Insurance; Markets; Household; Risk Management

July 2025
Module Note

Supply and Demand for Strategists

By: Quan Le, Quan Le and Quan Le

This module note introduces students to the foundational microeconomic principles of supply and demand. It uses the example of an aluminum plant (specifically, production quantity and shutdown decisions) to discuss short-run vs. long-run decisions, marginal costs, sunk... View Details

November 2000 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Perspectives on Globalization

Conventional wisdom holds that globalization of an unprecedented size and scope is at hand. This case presents a number of perspectives on this issue. View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Government and Politics; Economics

March 2011 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Fraunhofer: Innovation in Germany

By: Diego A. Comin, J. Gunnar Trumbull and Kerry Yang

Fraunhofer is one of the largest applied research organizations in the world. With 17,000 employees and a 1.6 billion euros budget, Fraunhofer has 60 institutes in Germany that cover most fields of science. The case examines the consequences that Fraunhofer has for the... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Entrepreneurship; Financial Markets; Government and Politics; Labor; Markets; Outcome or Result; Research and Development; Competitive Strategy; Germany

10 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Unobserved State Fragility and the Political Transfer Problem

Keywords: by Faisal Z. Ahmed & Eric Werker

February 2023 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in Boston, Massachusetts

By: Laura Alfaro, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Zeke Gillman

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Boston, Massachusetts while giving a broad history of the city and surrounding area. View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Economic Growth; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Financial Services Industry; Boston; Massachusetts

January 2016
Article

Making Do with Less: Working Harder During Recessions

By: Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw and Christopher Stanton

Why did productivity rise during recent recessions? One possibility is that average worker quality increased. A second is that each incumbent worker produced more. The second effect is termed "making do with less." Using data from 2006 to 2010 on individual worker... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

Read Now

21 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Are We Thinking Too Little, or Too Much?

The most captivating item in Michael Norton's office is a Star Wars The Force Trainer, a toy that allows would-be Jedi warriors to levitate a Ping-Pong ball within a tube using only the power of focused thinking. Norton, a marketing... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

02 Dec 2019
News

Increasing Solar Power

01 Aug 2006
First Look

First Look: August 1, 2006

Innovation Life Cycle Author:George F. Westerman, Warren McFarlan, and Marco Iansiti Periodical:Organization Science 17, no. 2 (March-April 2006): 230-238. Differing bases of competition in early and later... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 10

Organizational Capabilities Authors:Robert Gibbons and Rebecca Henderson Publication:Organization Science (forthcoming) Abstract A large literature identifies unique organizational capabilities as a potent source View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2024
Article

Financial Constraints and Short-term Planning are Linked to Flood Risk Adaptation Gaps in U.S. cities

By: Shirley Lu and Anya Nakhmurina

Adaptation is critical in reducing the inevitable impact of climate change. Here we study cities’ adaptation to elevated flood risk by introducing a linguistic measure of adaptation extracted from financial disclosures of 431 US cities over 2013–2020. While cities with... View Details

Keywords: City; Natural Disasters; Climate Change; Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategic Planning

Read Now

18 Feb 2020
News

Global Ocean Trust: Protecting the Blue Planet in New Ways

March 2001 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Power to the States: "Fiscal Wars" for FDI in Brazil

By: Laura Alfaro, Yasheng Huang and Marios S. Kalochoritis

On January 6, 1999, Itamar Franco, the governor of the state of Minas Gerais, the second-largest state in Brazil, declared a 90-day moratorium on its debt payment to the federal government. The announcement triggered a run on the Brazilian currency, the Real, and... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Investment; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Brazil