Publications

Research Summary

The NYSE Trading Floor and Spatial Dependence in Stock Returns

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is organized by physical posts. Each post has at most thirty panels, and each panel tracks up to thirty stocks. I demonstrate that there is spatial dependence in return correlations. Specifically, returns for... View Details

2010
Working Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman

We study how trade policy affects firms' ownership structures. We embed an incomplete contracts model of vertical integration choices into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. Integration decisions are driven by a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Vertical Integration; Business and Government Relations; Boundaries; Ownership; Mathematical Methods

2018
Working Paper

Hot or Not? What Makes Product Categories Attractive to Fair Trade and Eco-labeling Organizations

By: Kristin Sippl

This paper probes extant theory on product diversification in the empirical realm of fair trade and eco-labeling organizations (i.e., certification organizations). While much is known about diversification in for-profit firms, less is known about the more complex... View Details

Keywords: Hybrid Organizations; Fair Trade; Eco-labeling; Goods and Commodities; Diversification; Strategy

January 1995 (Revised March 1997)
Case

A Bankruptcy Problem from the Talmud

Describes a problem of bankruptcy, following the treatment in the 2,000-year-old Babylonian Talmud. A person dies, leaving a number of debts that total more than the size of the estate. The question is: How should the estate be divided among the creditors? The case... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Economics

2009
Other Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Andrew F. Newman and Harald Fadinger

We examine how trade policy affects firms' organizational choices. We embed a model of firms' vertical integration decisions into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. In the model, integration decisions are driven by a trade-off... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Vertical Integration; Boundaries

August 2015
Article

Poultry in Motion: A Study of International Trade Finance Practices

By: Pol Antràs and C. Fritz Foley

This paper analyzes the financing terms that support international trade and sheds light on how these terms shape the impact of economic shocks on trade. Analysis of transaction-level data from a U.S.-based exporter of frozen and refrigerated food products, primarily... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; International Finance; Financing and Loans; Trade

Find at Harvard

2024
Working Paper

What Do Bank Trading Desks Do?

By: Lina Lu and Jonathan Wallen

Bank trading desks earn profits from intermediating customer trading volume. Across a broad set of asset markets, we document that the trading desks of large U.S. dealer banks behave as financial intermediaries that profit from toll-taking as in Duffie et al. (2005).... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Profit; Financial Markets

20 Jul 2021
Research & Ideas

Bankruptcy Spells Death for Too Many Businesses

melting ice cube and assets in bankruptcy that are losing value really quickly." Because the data includes judges’ names on individual filings, Antill was able to determine how specific jurists ruled. He... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Teaching Interest

Managing International Trade and Investment

By: Dante Roscini

Managing International Trade and Investment (MITI) is designed for students who expect to engage directly or indirectly in commerce and in strategic or financial investments across national borders. It covers concepts that are relevant to a number of operating and... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Investment; Foreign Direct Investment

March 2009
Background Note

Note on the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA)

By: Stuart C. Gilson

In 2005, new legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by the President that introduced a number of major amendments to U.S. bankruptcy law, affecting both business and consumer bankruptcies. This legislation, called the Bankruptcy Abuse... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Restructuring; Personal Finance; Laws and Statutes; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Finance

February 1998
Case

Creating the International Trade Organization

By: David A. Moss, George R. Appling and Andrew D Archer

In the late 1940s, officials at the U.S. State Department began campaigning for the creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO). This new organization would oversee global negotiations on trade liberalization, foreign direct investment, cartels, and commodity... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Trade; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Globalized Economies and Regions; Agreements and Arrangements; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Systems; International Relations

July 1989 (Revised August 1990)
Background Note

New Theories of International Trade

By: David B. Yoffie and Heather A. Hazard

Explores the "new" theories of international trade--also called strategic trade policy--which were developed in the 1980s. Examines why economists and policy makers thought new approaches were necessary to explain international trade, the contributions of industrial... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Theory; Policy; Trade

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

In this excerpt taken from the chapter entitled "From Trade to Investment," HBS visiting professor Geoffrey Jones traces the transition of the British trading... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

15 Jul 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Poultry in Motion: A Study of International Trade Finance Practices

Keywords: by Pol Antras & C. Fritz Foley; Agriculture & Agribusiness

December 2020
Teaching Note

Latam Airlines and COVID-19: Seeking Bankruptcy Protection in the United States

By: Laura Alfaro

2010
Article

International Trade and National Security in Historical Perspective

By: Sophus A. Reinert

Keywords: Trade; National Security

July 2006
Case

Citigroup: Euro Zone Bond Trading (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Christopher Bruner and Aldo Sesia

Describes the development and execution of a bond trading strategy by a London-based team of Citigroup eurozone bond traders. The trades, which involved two of Europe's leading electronic trading platforms, gave rise to a European-wide controversy over the traders'... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Financial Markets; Bonds; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Decision Making; Lawfulness; Business Strategy; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Europe