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- All HBS Web
(792)
- People (4)
- News (182)
- Research (466)
- Events (6)
- Multimedia (5)
- Faculty Publications (281)
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- February 2014 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter
By: Eric Van den Steen and David Lane
In 2013, Aldi—the world's 8th largest retailer—planned to accelerate its US expansion. Aldi was a German-based hard discounter that sold a limited assortment of private-label groceries and household items in barebones stores. Despite its presence with 1200 stores in 32... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric, and David Lane. "Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter." Harvard Business School Case 714-474, February 2014. (Revised December 2016.)
- 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.)
- 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.)
- 27 Jan 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
A Brief Postwar History of US Consumer Finance
- 29 Apr 2009
- Working Paper Summaries
Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
- 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
- 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.
- November 2001
- Background Note
Poison Pill, The
This case presents the history of the "poison pill" as an antitakeover defense. It includes excerpts from the crucial case of Moran vs. Household International. View Details
Subramanian, Guhan. "Poison Pill, The." Harvard Business School Background Note 902-123, November 2001.
- 2010
- Working Paper
Who Selected Adjustable-Rate Mortgages? Evidence from the 1989-2007 Surveys of Consumer Finances
We find evidence that households selecting adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) during the recent decade were disproportionately those who were less suspicious or who may have had difficulty understanding complicated ARM features that became commonplace prior to the... View Details
Bergstresser, Daniel B., and John Beshears. "Who Selected Adjustable-Rate Mortgages? Evidence from the 1989-2007 Surveys of Consumer Finances." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-083, March 2010.
- 2020
- Chapter
Building Emergency Savings Through Employer-Sponsored Rainy-Day Savings Accounts
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, J. Mark Iwry, David C. John, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Roughly half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. When financial shocks occur during their working life, many of these households tap into their retirement savings accounts. We explore the practical considerations and challenges associated with helping households... View Details
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, J. Mark Iwry, David C. John, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Building Emergency Savings Through Employer-Sponsored Rainy-Day Savings Accounts." In Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 34, edited by Robert A. Moffitt, 43–90. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020.
- 2006
- Working Paper
The Effect of Dividends on Consumption
By: Malcolm Baker, Stefan Nagel and Jeffrey Wurgler
Classical models predict that the division of stock returns into dividends and capital appreciation does not affect investor consumption patterns, while mental accounting and other economic frictions predict that investors have a higher propensity to consume from stock... View Details
Baker, Malcolm, Stefan Nagel, and Jeffrey Wurgler. "The Effect of Dividends on Consumption." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 12288, June 2006. (First Draft in 2005.)
- Article
Present Bias Causes and Then Dissipates Auto-enrollment Savings Effects
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Peter Maxted
Present bias causes procrastination, which leads households to stick with auto-enrollment defaults. However, present bias also engenders overconsumption. Separation from each employer generates a rollover of 401(k) balances to an individual retirement account (IRA)... View Details
Keywords: Present Bias; Procrastination; Personal Finance; Decision Making; Social Psychology; Retirement
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, David Laibson, and Peter Maxted. "Present Bias Causes and Then Dissipates Auto-enrollment Savings Effects." AEA Papers and Proceedings 112 (May 2022): 136–141.
- September 2009
- Article
Spousal Control and Intra-Household Decision Making: An Experimental Study in the Philippines
By: Nava Ashraf
Using an experimental design I elicit causal effects of spousal observability and communication on financial choices of married individuals in the Philippines. Making choices public moves men from putting money into their own account to consumption; communication with... View Details
Keywords: Intra-household; Bargaining; Experiments; Economic Development; Saving; Governance Controls; Decision Choices and Conditions; Personal Finance; Family and Family Relationships; Household; Gender
Ashraf, Nava. "Spousal Control and Intra-Household Decision Making: An Experimental Study in the Philippines." American Economic Review 99, no. 4 (September 2009): 1245–1277. (Online Appendix.)
- Article
From Wealth to Well-Being? Money Matters, but Less than People Think
By: Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton and Elizabeth W. Dunn
While numerous studies have documented the modest (though reliable) link between household income and well-being, we examined the accuracy of laypeople's intuitions about this relationship by asking people from across the income spectrum to report their own... View Details
Aknin, Lara B., Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn. "From Wealth to Well-Being? Money Matters, but Less than People Think." Journal of Positive Psychology 4, no. 6 (2009): 523–527.
- September 2023
- Article
Customer Churn and Intangible Capital
By: Scott R. Baker, Brian Baugh and Marco Sammon
Intangible capital is a crucial and growing piece of firms’ capital structure, but many of its distinct components are difficult to measure. We develop and make available several new firm-level metrics regarding a key component of intangible capital – firms’ customer... View Details
Keywords: Customer Base; Transaction Data; Customer Churn; Intangible Capital; Capital Structure; Measurement and Metrics; Customers
Baker, Scott R., Brian Baugh, and Marco Sammon. "Customer Churn and Intangible Capital." Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics 1, no. 3 (September 2023): 447–505.
- December 2018 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
Bulb 2015: Foundation
By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock
In late August 2015, Amit Gudka and Hayden Wood, co-founders of Bulb, Ltd (Bulb), were ready to offer affordable renewable energy to the United Kingdom’s 27 million households. They hoped to capitalize on the hundreds of thousands of customers switching their energy... View Details
Keywords: Green Energy; Start-up; Launch; Customer Acquisition; Customer Churn; Customer Engagement; Electricity; Resources; Growth Strategy; B-Corp; Entrepreneurial Journey; Entrepreneurial Management; Start-ups; Renewable Energy; Business Startups; Business Plan; Business Model; Working Capital; Customers; Growth and Development Strategy; United Kingdom
Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "Bulb 2015: Foundation." Harvard Business School Case 719-440, December 2018. (Revised June 2021.)
- Spring 2013
- Article
The Growth of Finance
By: Robin Greenwood and David S. Scharfstein
The U.S. financial services industry grew from 4.9% of GDP in 1980 to 7.9% of GDP in 2007. A sizeable portion of the growth can be explained by rising asset management fees, which in turn were driven by increases in the valuation of tradable assets, particularly... View Details
Greenwood, Robin, and David S. Scharfstein. "The Growth of Finance." Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 2 (Spring 2013): 3–28.
- July 2021
- Article
Energy Efficiency and Electricity Reliability
By: Eliana Carranza and Robyn C. Meeks
Overloaded electrical systems are a major source of unreliable power. Using a randomized saturation design, we estimate the impact of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) on electricity reliability and household electricity consumption in the Kyrgyz Republic. Greater... View Details
Keywords: Energy; Technology Adoption; Green Technology; Consumer Behavior; Utilities Industry; Kyrgyzstan
Carranza, Eliana, and Robyn C. Meeks. "Energy Efficiency and Electricity Reliability." Review of Economics and Statistics 103, no. 3 (July 2021): 461–475.
- July 2014
- Article
Smart Money? The Effect of Education on Financial Outcomes
By: Shawn A. Cole, Anna Paulson and Gauri Kartini Shastry
Household financial decisions are important for household welfare, economic growth and financial stability. Yet, our understanding of the determinants of financial decision-making is limited. Exploiting exogenous variation in state compulsory schooling laws in both... View Details
Cole, Shawn A., Anna Paulson, and Gauri Kartini Shastry. "Smart Money? The Effect of Education on Financial Outcomes." Review of Financial Studies 27, no. 7 (July 2014): 2022–2051.