Publications

December 1998 (Revised January 1999)
Compilation

Explaining the Great Depression

By: David A. Moss and Joseph P Gownder

Although the Great Depression stands as the most punishing economic event of the 20th century, there is still remarkably little consensus about its causes. This case presents a number of prominent explanations including those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Maynard... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Crisis; Theory; Economics

1998
Working Paper

The Rise of Consumer Bankruptcy: Evolution, Revolution, or Both?

By: David A. Moss and Gibbs A. Johnson

2012
Chapter

Lessons for the Financial Sector from 'Preventing Regulatory Capture: Special Interest Influence, and How to Limit It'

By: Daniel Carpenter, David Moss and Melanie Wachtell Stinnett

In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2007–09, regulatory capture has become at once a diagnosis and a source of discomfort. The word “capture” has been used by dozens upon dozens of authors—ranging from pundits and bloggers to journalists and leading... View Details

Keywords: Regulatory Capture; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Crisis

2008
Working Paper

Media versus Special Interests

By: Alexander Dyck, David A. Moss and Luigi Zingales

We argue that profit-maximizing media helps overcome the problem of "rational ignorance" highlighted by Downs (1957) and in so doing makes elected representatives more sensitive to the interests of general voters. By collecting news and combining it with entertainment,... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Government Legislation; Media; Interests; Power and Influence; United States

2010
Working Paper

Reversing the Null: Regulation, Deregulation, and the Power of Ideas

It has been said that deregulation was an important source of the recent financial crisis. It may be more accurate, however, to say that a deregulatory mindset was an important source of the crisis—a mindset that, to a very significant extent, grew out of profound... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Financial Markets; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics; Failure; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; United States

2010
Chapter

The Peculiar Politics of American Disaster Policy: How Television Has Changed Federal Relief

Particularly since the 1960s, the federal government has played a significant role in financing disaster losses in the United States. The federal government may thus be thought of as providing an implicit form of public disaster insurance. However, unlike many... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Policy; Government and Politics; Media; Natural Disasters; United States

02 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 2

Loan Syndication and Credit Cycles Authors:Victoria Ivashina and David S. Scharfstein Publication:American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings (forthcoming) Abstract Cyclicality in the supply of business credit has been the focus of a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Teaching Interest

United States in the World 39 - History of American Democracy

For Harvard College undergraduates and MBA students

Today we often hear that American democracy is broken - but what does a healthy democracy look like? How has American democratic governance functioned in the past, and how has it changed... View Details

1997
Chapter

The Deutsche Bank

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Germany

February 2001
Teaching Note

French Pension System, The: On the Verge of Retirement? & (Abridged)

Teaching Note for (9-798-032) and (9-799-143). View Details

Keywords: Public Administration Industry; France

August 1996 (Revised January 1998)
Teaching Note

Deutsche Bank, The TN

Teaching Note for (1-796-106). View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

April 1996
Case

Confronting the Third Industrial Revolution

Comprises three pieces. The first piece, which forms the body of the case, is adapted from a speech delivered by the author before the Harvard Business School Political Forum in early 1995. Originally entitled "The Economic Foundations of American Social Policy:... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Policy; Economy; Government and Politics; Society; United States

Educators

1998
Working Paper

Limited Liability and the Birth of American Industry: Theory Meets History

1998
Working Paper

Stop-Loss Capitalism: The Ex Ante and the Ex Post of Debtor Protection in America

September – October 2009
Article

An Ounce of Prevention: Financial Regulation, Moral Hazard, and the End of 'Too Big to Fail'

Keywords: Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Failure

09 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 9

Social Legitimacy and Global Capitalism Authors:Rawi Abdelal and John G. Ruggie Publication:Chap. 7 in New Perspectives on Regulation, edited by David Moss and John Cisternino, 151-162. Cambridge, Mass.: The... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2011
Chapter

Reversing the Null: Regulation, Deregulation, and the Power of Ideas

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Innovation and Invention; Government and Politics

Article

Leave No Risk Behind

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty

February 2016
Case

Banking and Politics in Antebellum New York

By: David Moss and Colin Donovan

After a long period of solid Democratic control, Whigs secured a majority of seats in the New York State Assembly in 1837, the same year that a major financial panic had crippled the banking system and shaken public confidence in the state's governance. The next year,... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Central Banking; Ethics; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics; History; New York (state, US)