Publications

August 1988 (Revised October 1988)
Background Note

Business Plan

Describes the various uses for a business plan and focuses on writing a business plan to attract financing for a new venture. View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Business Startups; Borrowing and Debt; Venture Capital; Management

August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Molycorp: Morgan Brothers' Reverse Convertible Notes (C)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In August 2011, Morgan Brothers Bank was issuing a $2.5 million reverse convertible note with payoffs linked to the price of Molycorp's common stock. These financially engineered securities were just one of many kinds of structured notes available in the retail market.... View Details

Keywords: Structured Products; Reverse Convertible Notes; Replication; Option Pricing; Bond Pricing; Financial Engineering; Valuation; Metals and Minerals; Debt Securities; Finance; Investment; Mining Industry; Financial Services Industry; Canada; California

August 2010 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Paradise Travel Advisory Service

By: Paul W. Marshall, Charles Anthony Miller and Collins Pettus Ward

New managers in a troubled company are faced with developing and implementing a plan to increase revenue in a travel service business. View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Revenue; Problems and Challenges; Travel Industry

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22 Dec 2015
First Look

December 22, 2015

2015 The $13 Trillion Question: How America Manages Its Debt The Optimal Maturity of Government Debt By: Greenwood, Robin, Samuel Gregory Hanson Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

19 Jul 2016
First Look

July 19, 2016

in press Journal of Systems and Software Technical Debt and System Architecture: The Impact of Coupling on Defect-related Activity By: MacCormack, Alan, and Daniel J. Sturtevant Abstract—Technical debt is... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2017
Supplement

Centerbridge Partners and Great Wolf Resorts (B)

By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

The case examines the aftermath of the March 2015 Centerbridge Partners acquisition of Great Wolf Resorts, a North American family-oriented indoor water parks and hotel operator, from a private equity (PE) competitor, Apollo Global Management. View Details

February 2006
Case

Fraikin SA

By: W. Carl Kester, Vincent Marie Dessain and Monika Stachowiak

Provides an example of a so-called "whole business" securitization. In early 2004, Fraikin, France's leading industrial vehicle rental company, compares several alternatives for refinancing a large bridge loan within a year. Presents three primary options: a classic... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Transportation; Renting or Rental; Transportation Industry; Service Industry; France

03 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 3

educational products to primary and secondary schools in the United States. The company planned to file Chapter 11 in order to address its excessive debt load but needed to arrange debtor in possession financing to provide liquidity while... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 1997 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Argentina's YPF Sociedad Anonima (D): The International Platform

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In March 1995, YPF (the former Argentine state-owned oil and gas utility, privatized in late 1993) acquired the Dallas-based Maxus Energy Corp., one of the world's largest independent oil and gas exploration companies. YPF's first acquisition is nearly bankrupt, with... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Globalization; Borrowing and Debt; Privatization; Managerial Roles; Energy Industry; Argentina; Texas

01 Sep 2015
First Look

First Look -- September 1, 2015

research in finance and economics. We propose two tests to evaluate how well measures of financial constraints actually capture constraints. We find that firms typically classified as constrained do not in fact behave as if they were constrained: they have no trouble... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 7

2015 Journal of Financial Economics The Ownership and Trading of Debt Claims in Chapter 11 Restructurings By: Ivashina, Victoria, Benjamin Iverson, and David C. Smith Abstract—What is the ownership structure of bankrupt View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 8, 2008

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=208088 Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) Harvard Business School Note 208-113 This lesson integrated Merton's (1974) contingent claims model of View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Harvard Business School Faculty Comment on Crisis in Japan

with the task of fashioning an appropriate fiscal response. Bold recovery plans would seem to be in order, but how that response is financed holds great import for Japan's economic future. With government deficits equaling 10% of GDP, and national View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

Article

Credit Access and Social Welfare: The Rise of Consumer Lending in the United States and France

By: Gunnar Trumbull

Research into the causes of the 2008 financial crisis has drawn attention to a link between growing income inequality in the United States and high household indebtedness. Most accounts trace the U.S. idea of credit-as-welfare to the period of wage stagnation and... View Details

Keywords: Household Finance; Welfare State; Credit; Personal Finance; Welfare; Borrowing and Debt; France; United States

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April 2022
Supplement

PG&E and the First Climate Change Bankruptcy

By: Stuart C. Gilson

Keywords: Chapter 11; Utilities; Liabilities; Restructuring; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Debt Securities; Legal Liability; Climate Change; Utilities Industry; United States

April 2012
Article

Corporate Ownership Structure and Bank Loan Syndicate Structure

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma, Paul Malatesta and Yuhai Xuan

Using a novel data set on corporate ownership and control, we show that the divergence between the control rights and cash-flow rights of a borrowing firm's largest ultimate owner has a significant impact on the concentration and composition of the firm's loan... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Financing and Loans; Cash Flow; Borrowing and Debt; Accounting; Crisis Management; Relationships; Law; Contracts; Banking Industry

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31 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Why Competition May Not Improve Credit Rating Agencies

In the run-up to the global financial crisis, credit rating agencies gave high marks to such risky financial vehicles as collateralized debt obligations, which few people understood. It has been argued that these ratings misled investors... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

April 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Teaching Note

Parmalat Uruguay (A) & (B)

By: Paul W. Marshall and Jim Sharpe

This teaching note is for cases Parmalat Urguguay A & B. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Restructuring; Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Negotiation; Performance Improvement; Financial Services Industry; Uruguay