Billion Prices Project - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Jun 2014
News

Roads to Recovery

FAA administrator Jane Garvey said the agency's $40 billion GPS revamp is making strides but is "very dependent on the budgeting process." "Maintenance is not a vision. It's hard to rally support for it." —Rosabeth Moss Kanter Problem:... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Transportation; Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction; Construction; Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development; Government

19 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Doomsday Coming for Catastrophic Risk Insurers?

Natural disasters are a different story: though they occur much less frequently, when they do happen it's akin to thousands or even tens of thousands of pipes bursting and homes burning all at once. Hurricane Irene, for instance, inflicted an estimated $6.6 View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Financial Services

04 Sep 2019
News

Case Study: Up in the Air

in central and eastern Europe, each employing five to 500 software engineers, are often locked out of larger enterprise deals. What’s more, their target clients and projects are relatively small, which means valuable resources are left on... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

08 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Will the Japan Disaster Remake the Landscape for Green Energy in Asia?

Even before the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan, many parts of Asia had already begun investing in "green" energy. But the disaster has certainly upped the urgency of the discussions. “It's driven a lot of people to have a bit of a... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Energy; Utilities

25 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 25

outstanding. The increased debt from the deal would increase the risk to the company and to the existing bonds, and the bonds' prices would fall significantly as a result. Students can use discounted cash flow techniques to value the LBO.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

A Playbook for Small-Business Job Creation

experience as a policy maker—as well as 25 years of experience as an investor and small business owner—to the U.S. Competitiveness Project at Harvard Business School. Mills left the SBA last summer and accepted a two-year fellowship at... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Financial Services

18 Oct 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Venture Capital’s Disconnect with Clean Tech

Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death." The case discusses the Department of Energy's attempt to bolster the green economy by investing more than $32 billion in clean-energy efforts, including $16.8 million for to energy... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities; Financial Services

Profile

Sheila Lirio Marcelo

and address her doubts about the law. A chance to work on a technology-based project triggered two results: she became intrigued with technology and realized that business, not law, was her calling. Marcelo decided to pursue a joint... View Details

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

It's Climate Week in New York City. The schedule features a UN Climate Summit, a People's Climate March, the Clinton Global Initiative, substantial criticism of the whole endeavor, and plenty of agitated interaction. There is a lot of noise here. How can businesses cut... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

02 Mar 2023
News

Carbon's Second Act

markets and the pricing of carbon becomes enormously important. DM: Matheson has seen this play out before. From 2006 to 2011, VC firms invested more than $25 billion in clean energy companies and ultimately... View Details

19 Sep 2016
News

Sustainable Farming in the Arid World

inputs. Our flagship project is a $200 million farm in Australia where we grow tomatoes specifically for an end-retailer. We fix the price with that retailer over a 10-year period and we do so growing only... View Details

29 Sep 2022
News

Securing a Resilient Future for Senegal

through the ministry’s work, launched a $1.3 billion economic resilience plan, representing 7 percent of GDP, the second largest in Africa (second to South Africa). Senegal was one of the first African countries to come up with a... View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

Profile

Zihan Lin

the hands-on, boy-stuff of the mechanical with the mission of medicine." By the time Zi entered the graduate stage of his education, he had a firm focus "on two concentrations: design methodology and medical devices." In fact, his academic View Details

01 Dec 2008
News

Back to the Future

$4 a gallon, stunning American motorists. The results were predictable: Prices for everything skyrocketed, and an already recessionary U.S. economy, soon to be slammed by the mortgage and credit crises, began slouching toward the 1930s.... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Transportation Equipment Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Oil and Gas Extraction; Mining

20 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2008

middlemen and defaulted on their loans. The risk of such events may explain, at least partly, why many seemingly more profitable export crops are not adopted. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-065.pdf Catering through Nominal Share View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Dec 2024
News

Kelp Is on the Way

Petrochemicals are all around us—from ubiquitous plastic packaging to the inconspicuous lining of your takeaway coffee cup, and in everyday products like soaps, deodorants, and toothpaste. But that will change, according to Matthew Perkins (MBA 2009). When industries... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Illustration by Melinda Beck; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities

01 Mar 2018
News

Making Sense of the Modern Startup

that related to risk. Here’s a bunch of people giving money at 50 percent to projects that really should only be charged 10 percent. Well, if markets work correctly, after a little while people will come rushing in, bidding up the View Details

Keywords: Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (PMD 51, 1986)

15 Feb 2023
News

Grand Ambitions in the Great Plains

Kenny (MBA 2019), the director of strategy and projects at Carbon Capture Inc. She's describing the technology at the heart of the young company's ambitious decarbonization efforts. MORE Hear all three episodes of this series Skydeck... View Details

27 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 27, 2007

Midway" within Microsoft, the console project was intended to counter the perceived threat to the Windows franchise posed by Sony expanding the original PlayStation into a broad entertainment platform with the PlayStation 2. Seamus... View Details