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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(762)
- People (4)
- News (182)
- Research (470)
- Events (6)
- Multimedia (5)
- Faculty Publications (280)
- 05 Aug 2024
- Research & Ideas
Watching for the Next Economic Downturn? Follow Corporate Debt
What really fuels a boom-and-bust cycle in the modern global economy? It’s not always household debt, says a new paper that parses in-depth data across 115 countries. Instead, rising corporate debt may flash the clearest warning that a... View Details
Keywords: by Rachel Layne
Olivia S. Kim
Olivia Kim is an assistant professor of business administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches the Entrepreneurial Management course in the MBA required curriculum.
Professor Kim's research examines how firms... View Details
Jorge Colmenares
Jorge Colmenares graduated from Yale College in 2020, where he studied Economics and Mathematics. Prior to graduate school, he worked as a research assistant for Profs. Lawrence Schmidt and Taha Choukhmane at MIT Sloan School of Management. His research... View Details
- April 1989 (Revised December 1998)
- Case
Masco Corp. (A)
Describes the history and corporate position of a large and successful producer of faucets and related household products. Masco is considering entry into the $14 billion furniture industry. Designed to be used with Household Furniture Industry in 1986 in a strategy... View Details
Keywords: Diversification; Market Entry and Exit; Corporate Strategy; Rank and Position; Consumer Products Industry
Porter, Michael E., and Cynthia A. Montgomery. "Masco Corp. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 389-186, April 1989. (Revised December 1998.)
- 20 Feb 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Stock Market Returns and Consumption
- Research Summary
Optimal Portfolios with Housing Derivatives
Households that contemplate moving to different cities or trading up or down in the fu-ture are exposed to substantial housing risk. In order to mitigate this risk, I derive the op-timal portfolios using housing futures. In addition to the optimum growth portfolio,... View Details
- March 2025
- Article
Optimal Illiquidity
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We study the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and present bias with naive beliefs. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each with a different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty.... View Details
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Optimal Illiquidity." Art. 103996. Journal of Financial Economics 165 (March 2025).
- 2025
- Working Paper
Climate Risk and the U.S. Insurance Gap: Measurement, Drivers and Implications
By: Parinitha Sastry, Tess Scharlemann, Ishita Sen and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva
In a world with rising risk, how much are U.S. households willing to pay for homeowners insurance, and what does their demand imply for the future of insurance markets? We provide the first estimates of household willingness to pay for homeowners insurance and the... View Details
Keywords: Climate Change; Risk and Uncertainty; Insurance; Personal Finance; Consumer Behavior; Mortgages
Sastry, Parinitha, Tess Scharlemann, Ishita Sen, and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva. "The Limits of Insurance Demand and the Growing Protection Gap." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-054, February 2025.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Credit and the Family: The Economic Consequences of Closing the Credit Gap of U.S. Couples
By: Olivia S. Kim
Marital property rights strengthen secondary earners’ economic power by giving them access to credit markets. I study how this crucial yet understudied feature of property laws influences household decision-making. The 2013 reversal of the Truth-in-Lending Act... View Details
Keywords: Household; Credit; Equality and Inequality; Income; Policy; Family and Family Relationships
Kim, Olivia S. "Credit and the Family: The Economic Consequences of Closing the Credit Gap of U.S. Couples." Working Paper. (Job Market Paper, Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Political Economy.)
Science Magazine Profiles Research on Family Planning and Fertility
Read the full paper: Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: A Study in Zambia
Read the background:
- 2022
- Working Paper
Optimal Illiquidity
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We calculate the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and naive present bias. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each witha different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty. Collected... View Details
Keywords: Illiquidity; Commitment; Flexibility; Savings; Social Security; Retirement; Government Legislation; Taxation; Saving
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Optimal Illiquidity." Working Paper, July 2022.
- 2008
- Working Paper
Reality versus Propaganda in the Formation of Beliefs about Privatization
By: Rafael Di Tella, Sebastian Galiani and Ernesto Schargrodsky
Argentina privatized most public utilities during the 1990s but re-nationalized the main water company in 2006. We study beliefs about the benefits of the privatization of water services amongst low and middle income groups immediately after the 2006 nationalization.... View Details
Keywords: Privatization; Public Ownership; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Values and Beliefs; Public Opinion; Utilities Industry; Argentina
Di Tella, Rafael, Sebastian Galiani, and Ernesto Schargrodsky. "Reality versus Propaganda in the Formation of Beliefs about Privatization." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 14483, November 2008.
- Summer 2008
- Editorial
Will the Stork Return to Europe and Japan? Understanding Fertility within Developed Nations
By: James Feyrer, Bruce Sacerdote and Ariel Dora Stern
Only a few rich nations are currently at replacement levels of fertility and many are considerably below. We believe that changes in the status of women are driving fertility change. At low levels of female status, women specialize in household production and... View Details
Feyrer, James, Bruce Sacerdote, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Will the Stork Return to Europe and Japan? Understanding Fertility within Developed Nations." Journal of Economic Perspectives 22, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 3–22.
- 27 Jan 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
A Brief Postwar History of US Consumer Finance
- 12 May 2021
- News
Small Bribes May Help People Build Healthy Handwashing Habits
- 13 Jun 2005
- Research & Ideas
Rescuing Products with Stealth Positioning
to gain a foothold in the nascent household robot category. In a March 2004 article in Harvard Business Review, I described the company's approach to the challenge of warming consumers to its imperfect early robots. Sony had spent tens of... View Details
Keywords: by Youngme Moon
- July 2023
- Article
Impacts of Electricity Quality Improvements: Experimental Evidence on Infrastructure Investments
By: Robyn C. Meeks, Arstan Omuraliev, Ruslan Isaev and Zhenxuan Wang
Hundreds of millions of households depend on electricity grid connections providing low quality and unreliable services. Understanding the impacts of and consumer response to electricity quality improvements is important for development and the environment. We... View Details
Meeks, Robyn C., Arstan Omuraliev, Ruslan Isaev, and Zhenxuan Wang. "Impacts of Electricity Quality Improvements: Experimental Evidence on Infrastructure Investments." Art. 102838. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 120 (July 2023).
- September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
- Case
Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (A)
By: Youngme E. Moon, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman
Alessio Alessi, head of distribution at family-run Alessi S.p.A., is facing price and brand confusion among customers and is considering reorganizing Alessi's worldwide network of distributors. By describing the challenges facing Alessi, an internationally acclaimed... View Details
Keywords: Family Business; Transition; Cost Management; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Distribution; Production; Problems and Challenges; Networks; Consumer Products Industry
Moon, Youngme E., Vincent Dessain, and Anders Sjoman. "Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (A)." Harvard Business School Case 504-018, September 2003. (Revised January 2004.)
- 2016
- Working Paper
The Empirical Economics of Online Attention
By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince
In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but instead for consumer attention. We model and characterize how households allocate their scarce attention in arguably the largest market for attention: the Internet. Our characterization of household... View Details
Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competition; Behavior; Resource Allocation; Household; Cognition and Thinking
Boik, Andre, Shane Greenstein, and Jeffrey Prince. "The Empirical Economics of Online Attention." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 22427, July 2016.
- 2019
- Working Paper
On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Affects Labor Supply and Gender Norms
By: Natalia Rigol, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Simone Schaner and Charity Troyer-Moore
Can greater control over earned income incentivize women to work and influence gender norms? In collaboration with Indian government partners, we provided rural women with individual bank accounts and randomly varied whether their wages from a public workfare program... View Details
Rigol, Natalia, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer-Moore. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Affects Labor Supply and Gender Norms." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 26294, September 2019.