Publications

March 2007 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Rovna Dan: The Flat Tax in Slovakia

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella, Ane Damgaard Jensen and Vincent Marie Dessain

Explores the tax policy choices made by Slovakia and the impact of reforms. Set in 2006, looks at the decision facing new Prime Minister Robert Fico as he faces the public's "reform fatigue." Traces the development of tax and fiscal policies since Slovakia's... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Taxation; Labor; Welfare; Slovakia

Educators

03 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Lehman Brothers Plus Five: Have We Learned from Our Mistakes?

Lehman failure. None of these reforms is perfect, but they are improvements over where we were five years ago. Unfortunately, there are other areas in which we've made little or no progress since 2008. Housing finance is still basically a... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Banking; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

the infant private sector in urban China. We show that a reform that untied access to housing in urban areas from working for the state sector accounts for more than a quarter of the overall increase in labor supply to the private sector... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Jul 2020
Op-Ed

It's Time for a Bipartisan Health Plan for Employers and Employees

The recent twin economic and pandemic calamities should cause us to rethink the status quo for health insurance compensation. Must General Motors be a benefits company that happens to make cars? Is it in the best interest of employees if their employer chooses the... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger and Richard J. Boxer; Health; Insurance

December 2024
Article

Human Bias in the Oversight of Firms: Evidence from Workplace Safety Violations

By: Jonas Heese, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Andreya Pérez Silva

We study the effects of mood as a source of human bias on regulators’ oversight and enforcement decisions. We use weather at facilities at the time of an OSHA inspection to proxy for the OSHA compliance officers’ mood. We find that during periods of good mood due to... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Happiness; Working Conditions; Safety

September 2022 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Audrey Tang: Using Technology to Strengthen Democracy in Taiwan

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

Since the early days of the internet, Taiwan had a vibrant community of civic hackers and open-source programmers who engaged with social issues. Audrey Tang was one of them. She spearheaded the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan, where protestors peacefully... View Details

Keywords: Democracy; Internet; Web Technology; Digital Transformation; Digital Platform; COVID; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Governance; Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Innovation and Invention; Taiwan; China; Asia

Educators

Article

Regulatory, Legal, and Market Aspects of Smart Wearables for Cardiac Monitoring

By: Jan Benedikt Brönneke, Jennifer Müller, Konstantinos Mouratis, Julia Hagen and Ariel Dora Stern

In the area of cardiac monitoring, the use of digitally driven technologies is on the rise. While the development of medical products is advancing rapidly, allowing for new use-cases in cardiac monitoring and other areas, regulatory and legal requirements that govern... View Details

Keywords: Wearables; Regulatory Changes; Medical Technology; Medical Devices; Market Access; Market Entry and Exit; Information Technology; Health Care and Treatment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States; Germany; Belgium

2020
Working Paper

Internal Models, Make Believe Prices, and Bond Market Cornering

By: Ishita Sen and Varun Sharma

Exploiting position-level heterogeneity in regulatory incentives to misreport and novel data on regulators, we document that U.S. life insurers inflate the values of corporate bonds using internal models. We estimate an additional $9-$18 billion decline in regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Life Insurers; Capital Regulation; Internal Models; Corporate Bonds; Regulatory Supervision; Concentrated Ownership; Bonds; Capital; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance; Investment Portfolio

SSRN

2011
Book

The Fund Industry: How Your Money Is Managed

By: Robert Pozen and Theresa Hamacher

The Fund Industry explains to students and investors how to evaluate mutual funds and other collective investment vehicles. It discusses how different types of funds are managed, marketed, and regulated. It also reviews how funds invest and gather assets in countries... View Details

Keywords: Money; Financial Management; International Finance; Investment Funds; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Services Industry

2009
Working Paper

India Transformed: Insights from the Firm Level 1988-2005

By: Laura Alfaro and Anusha Chari

Using firm-level data this paper analyzes, the transformation of India's economic structure following the implementation of economic reforms. The focus of the study is on publicly-listed and unlisted firms from across a wide spectrum of manufacturing and services... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Economic Sectors; Economy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development Strategy; India

fall 2007
Article

The Design of Patent Pools: The Determinants of Licensing Rules

By: Josh Lerner, Marcin Strojwas and Jean Tirole

Patent pools are an important but little-studied economic institution. In this paper, we first make a set of predictions about the licensing terms associated with patent pools. The theoretical framework predicts that (a) pools consisting of complementary patents are... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Patents; Rights

23 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 23, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=208029 Chile: The Conundrum of Inequality Harvard Business School Case 907-411 Following the violent overthrow of the Allende regime, Chile embarked on economic reforms that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2021
Case

China Rapid Finance: The Collapse of China’s P2P Lending Industry

By: William C. Kirby, Bonnie Yining Cao and John P. McHugh

China’s peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry had over 3,000 platforms at its height in 2015. China Risk Finance (CRF) was one of the country’s P2P success stories. With over 1 million borrowers using CRF’s platform, it raised $60 million in its 2016 IPO on the New York... View Details

Keywords: Financial Services; P2P Lending; Government And Business; Regulation; Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; China

Educators

Oct 2010
Conference Presentation

How Stringent Is Private Regulatory Monitoring? The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance

By: Michael W. Toffel

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Organizations; Governance

August 1989
Article

Organizational Frame-Bending: Principles for Managing Reorientations

By: D. Nadler and Michael Tushman

Keywords: Organizations; Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

August 1984
Case

Work of a Regulatory Agency: The EPA and Toxic Substances (Condensed)

By: Joseph L. Bower

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Pollutants; Public Administration Industry