Publications

April 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Supplement

South Africa (B): Getting Unstuck?

By: Richard H. K. Vietor and Diego Comin

15 years after ending apartheid, formal unemployment in South Africa was still at 24%. While the country had grown at 4 to 5% annually during the 2000s, the financial crisis set it back by 1 million more unemployed. Moreover, it seemed as if the nation were stuck... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Inflation and Deflation; Policy; Employment; Wages; Competition; South Africa

2012
Working Paper

Unobserved State Fragility and the Political Transfer Problem

By: Faisal Z. Ahmed and Eric Werker

Autocrats experiencing a windfall in unearned income may find it optimal to donate to other countries some of the windfall in order to make the state a less attractive prize to potential insurgents. We put forward a model that makes that prediction, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Non-Renewable Energy; International Relations; Economics

June 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Argentina's Financial System Fenced In

By: Huw Pill, Claudia Onoforio and Romina Abal

Provides an opportunity to analyze the Argentine financial crisis of 2001/2002, which culminated in the abandonment of the convertibility plan introduced by Domingo Cavallo in 1991. Focusses on the role of the financial system. View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Financial Crisis; Currency; Crisis Management; Property; Argentina

February 1, 2022
Article

Business Schools Must Do More to Address the Climate Crisis

By: Concepción Galdón, Knut Haanaes, Daniel Halbheer, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Katell Le Goulven, Mike Rosenberg, Peter Tufano and Amelia Whitelaw

Business schools have much to contribute to the fight against climate change. They are experts in organizational transformation, performance measurement, operations, marketing, leadership, and governance. A group of eight business schools has come together to find... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Business Education; Environmental Sustainability; Education Industry

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04 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Is Health Care Making You Better—or Dead?

scheduling systems, ways of responding to the customer—were totally absent. And on the other hand, the science and the doctors were so awesome. I went to MIT—I'm not a great scientist, but I know it when I... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health

30 Jan 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Credit Supply Shocks, Network Effects, and the Real Economy

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Manuel García, and Enrique Moral-Benito

30 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Retirement Planning

place an undue burden on workers who don't have the interest, time, or expertise to manage their finances. A pioneer in translating finance and mathematics into practical, Wall Street-ready models, Merton was awarded the 1997 Nobel Memorial Prize in View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services

08 Mar 2017
Blog Post

Education Sector Opportunities at HBS

Technology Innovations in Education, Managing Human Capital, and an independent project through the Social Innovation Lab. She was also able to examine the economic forces around teachers unions through her group paper in the Role View Details

Article

Does the Classic Microfinance Model Discourage Entrepreneurship Among the Poor? Experimental Evidence from India

By: Erica Field, Rohini Pande, John Papp and Natalia Rigol

Do the repayment requirements of the classic microfinance contract inhibit investment in high-return but illiquid business opportunities among the poor? Using a field experiment, we compare the classic contract which requires that repayment begin immediately after loan... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Poverty; Development Economics; Contracts

Find at Harvard

09 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

How Business Leaders Can Strengthen American Schools

sponsor of the National Math and Science Initiative, helped to scale two projects: one focusing on improved training for science, technology, and math teachers, the other on improving advanced placement test... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

2008
Working Paper

Bank Accounting Standards in Mexico. A Layman's Guide to Changes 10 Years after the 1995 Bank Crisis

By: Gustavo A. Del Angel, Stephen Haber and Aldo Musacchio

After the 1995 crisis, the Mexican banking system experienced significant changes in bank accounting standards. Most of these changes took place between 1996 and 2001, and had a significant impact in the structure and interpretation of financial information of banks.... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Accounting; Standards; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Mexico

19 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 18

under the Hood: Wealth-based Discrimination in Illicit Customer Help Authors:F. Gino and L. Pierce Publication:Organization Science 21, no. 6 (November-December 2010) Abstract This paper investigates whether an employee's perception View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Jan 2015
News

How Low Will Oil Go?

March 2009 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Denmark: Globalization and the Welfare State

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich and Benjamin Kramarz

This case describes how Denmark has balanced the impacts of globalization, including outsourcing and movement of labor, with its social welfare offerings. Reforms implemented during the past two decades drove down unemployment, promoted new company formation, and put... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Trade; Globalized Economies and Regions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employment; Welfare or Wellbeing; Denmark

02 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Explaining China's Crash

the Harvard Gazette about China’s economic woes and how they may affect global markets and investors going forward. Christina Pazzanese: Why were so many caught off-guard by this crash? Weren’t there warning signs that this might happen?... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese; Financial Services

September 1993 (Revised December 1993)
Background Note

Note on Pricing and Public Policy

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Surveys a number of essential issues related to pricing and public policy in market economies. Begins with a brief review of the price-determination process in competitive markets, then examines a range of topics involving pricing and public policy in monopoly and... View Details

Keywords: Price; Business Strategy; Policy; Valuation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Competition; Economic Systems; Monopoly; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Cost

November 2020
Article

Tackling Youth Unemployment: Evidence from a Labor Market Experiment in Uganda

By: Livia Alfonsi, Oriana Bandiera, Vittorio Bassi, Robin Burgess, Imran Rasul, Munshi Sulaiman and Anna Vitali

We design a labor market experiment to compare demand- and supply-side policies to tackle youth unemployment, a key issue in low-income countries. The experiment tracks 1700 workers and 1500 firms over four years to compare the effect of offering workers either... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Training; Competency and Skills; Developing Countries and Economies