Publications

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Victoria Ivashina is the Lovett-Learned Professor of Finance and Head of the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. She also serves as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy... View Details

Keywords: banking; federal government; financial services; investment banking industry; private equity (LBO funds); private equity (other)

October 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Appalachian Mountain Club: Transforming Governance

By: Walter J. Salmon and Jaan Elias

Starting in 1988, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) began a controversial transformation in management and governance. For its first 112 years, the AMC's structure had resembled that of a country club--volunteer leaders directed the club's operations and its small,... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Transformation; Corporate Governance; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Labor and Management Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

April 2025
Article

Crisis Interventions in Corporate Insolvency

By: Samuel Antill and Christopher Clayton

We model the optimal resolution of insolvent firms in general equilibrium. Collateral-constrained banks lend to (i) solvent firms to finance investments and (ii) distressed firms to avoid liquidation. Liquidations create negative fire-sale externalities. Liquidations... View Details

Keywords: Insolvent Firms; Government Intervention; Liquidation; Econometric Models; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Policy

Research Summary

Innovation and Productivity

In this stream of research, Professor Steinwender examines how firms adjust their innovative behavior and productivity in response to changes in the external environment. Analyzing Spanish firm-level data, she finds that two mechanisms proposed in the economic... View Details

08 Dec 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Are There Too Many Safe Securities? Securitization and the Incentives for Information Production

Keywords: by Samuel G. Hanson & Adi Sunderam; Financial Services

27 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on 2010’s Biggest Business Developments

where I sit as an economist, it's still all about the economy and the long-term impact of the problems laid bare by the Great Recession. During the financial crisis, the world came to the apparently shocking realization that debt... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

July – August 2009
Article

The Descent of Finance

What if the current recession turns out to be like the Great Depression of 1929-1933? Four years from now, the United States might find itself with a still-shrinking economy, half as many banks as in 2009, a third as many hedge funds, and retail banking resembling a... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; International Finance; Globalized Economies and Regions; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry

April 2010
Case

Groupe Ariel S.A.: Parity Conditions and Cross-Border Valuation

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and James Quinn

Groupe Ariel evaluates a proposal from its Mexican subsidiary to purchase and install cost-saving equipment at a manufacturing facility in Monterrey. The improvements will allow the plant to automate recycling and remanufacturing of toner and printer cartridges, an... View Details

Keywords: Exchange Rates; Securities Analysis; Project Evaluation; International Finance; Debt Securities; Currency Exchange Rate; Cash Flow; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Capital Budgeting; Europe; Mexico

28 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 28

decline in sales and profits in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial market crisis and economic recession and is now overburdened with debt. To regain its competitiveness, the company has to significantly reduce its debt by billions of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 22, 2007

J. Gomes, Laurence J. Kotlikoff, and Luis M. Viceira Abstract Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2018
Working Paper

Towards a New Approach for Upgrading Europe's Competitiveness

By: Christian Ketels and Michael E. Porter

The traumatic experience of the European sovereign debt crisis, followed by the outcome of the British referendum on leaving the European Union, has sent shockwaves through Europe. For the first time since the signing of the Treaties of Rome six decades ago, the very... View Details

Keywords: Competitiveness; Economy; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Europe; European Union

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July 2005 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Japan: Deficits, Demography, and Deflation

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

By 2005, Japan's debt had risen to 163% of GDP. For more than a decade, the government had run huge deficits, trying unsuccessfully to stimulate economic growth. Interest rates, meanwhile, had been zero for years. But with slow growth and banks in crisis, nothing had... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Economic Growth; Demographics; Financial Condition; Inflation and Deflation; Banks and Banking; Borrowing and Debt; Macroeconomics; Policy; Government and Politics; Welfare; Health Care and Treatment; Japan

September 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Empresas ICA and the Mexican Road Privatization Program

By: Willis M. Emmons III and Monica Brand

Mexico's largest construction company, Empresas ICA, makes an initial public offering to international equity investors in April 1992 to help fund its participation in an ambitious new private-sector approach to highway development. Under the new program, launched by... View Details

Keywords: Construction; Transportation Networks; Infrastructure; Privatization; Private Equity; Investment; Initial Public Offering; Private Sector; Government and Politics; Policy; Construction Industry; Mexico

Find at Harvard

June 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

South Africa – a 'Just Energy Transition'

By: Richard Vietor

South Africa, like most other countries, is in the process of reducing its carbon emissions to comply with COP26 and, hopefully, reach net zero emissions by 2050. However, because South Africa relies almost wholly on coal (93%) for electricity, and on coal for... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Economic Development; Climate Change; Coal Mining; Emission Reduction; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Law; Labor and Management Relations; Labor Unions; Natural Resources; Energy Policy; Energy Sources; South Africa

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Faculty & Research

sector. The proposed transaction centered on Ping Identity Corporation (“Ping”), a fast-growing identity access management (IAM) software company that was being taken private by Thoma Bravo. Blue Owl was invited to play a leading role in an $875 million View Details

Research Summary

Corporate Restructuring and Business Insolvency: Economic Impact and Best Practices

By: Stuart C. Gilson

Stuart C. Gilson is studying how severe financial distress impacts corporate policies and economic resource allocation. He is also studying how managers can best respond to financial distress in order to preserve and grow value. He is undertaking this research... View Details

03 Dec 2008
What Do You Think?

Can Housing and Credit be “Nudged” Back to Health?

creating "a modern version of alchemy," turning packages of poorly-rated mortgages into triple-A-rated collateral debt obligations, complete with supposed insurance against risk. The problem was that even financial experts... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

April 1988 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Gaz de France

By: W. Carl Kester

The treasurer of Gaz de France is an aggressive, proactive manager of his company's liability structure, running one of the largest swap books of any non-financial corporation in the world. Currency futures, interbank forwards, and currency options are also frequently... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Borrowing and Debt; Currency Exchange Rate; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Policy; Management; Organizational Structure; Energy Industry; Europe