Publications

September 2007 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Norway Sells Wal-Mart

By: Robert C. Pozen and Aldo Sesia

In June 2006, Norway's Pension Fund decided to divest its position in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. after an investigation by the Fund's Ethics Council. According to a spokesperson of Norway's Finance Ministry, "The recommendation to exclude Wal-Mart cites serious and... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Ethics; Insurance; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Government and Politics; Rights; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Power and Influence; Retail Industry; Norway

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

within markets: When sentiment is high, future returns are low on relatively difficult to arbitrage and difficult to value stocks. Private capital flows appear to be one mechanism by which sentiment spreads across markets and forms global... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2015
Case

Discover Capital

By: William Sahlman, Robert White and Stephanie Puzio

"Discover Capital" provides an in-depth look at a first time search fund run by the tenacious Kelly Quann Bianucci. It provides background information about search funds and follows Kelly as she successfully raises her over-subscribed fund and begins the search... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Buyout; Loans; Acquisitions

June 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Background Note

Note on Pension Guarantee Funds

By: Robert C. Pozen and Patricia Bissett Higgins

The United States and the United Kingdom both had quasi-government agencies that provided back-up insurance for individuals participating in defined benefit ("DB") pension plans. This note compares and contrasts the United Kingdom's Pension Protection Fund ("PPF") with... View Details

Keywords: Pensions; Pension Guarantee Funds; Pension Protection Fund; Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; Employee Retirement Income Security Act; PBGC; ERISA; MAP-21; Legislation; Insurance; Saving; Retirement; Labor; Labor and Management Relations; Employees; Insurance Industry; United States; United Kingdom

September 2017 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Intermountain Healthcare: Pursuing Precision Medicine

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Kathy E. Giusti, Robert S. Huckman and Julia Kelley

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Intermountain Healthcare operates 23 hospitals and hundreds of clinics in Utah and Idaho and provides insurance to approximately 850,000 patients through its insurance arm, SelectHealth. In 2013, Intermountain, known for its commitment... View Details

Keywords: Precision Medicine; Healthcare; Innovation; Cancer; Cancer Research; Health Care; Technology; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Leadership; Disruptive Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Industry; Insurance Industry; Utah; United States; North America

17 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 17

Lehman Brothers reduced their lending to a greater extent. Nobel Laureate Panel Discussion: What Retirement Means to Me Authors:Robert C. Merton, Paul A. Samuelson, and Robert M. Solow Publication:Chap. 1 in The Future of Life-Cycle... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

interest rates is driven by four state variables: the real interest rate, temporary and permanent components of expected inflation, the "nominal-real covariance" of inflation, and the real interest rate with the real economy. The last of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Jul 2016
First Look

July 5, 2016

practical use by managers or teaching by instructors of MBAs and executive MBAs. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51126 The Climate Custodians By: Eccles, View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2018
Article

Using Online Prices for Measuring Real Consumption Across Countries

By: Alberto Cavallo, Erwin Diewert, Robert C. Feenstra, Robert Inklaar and Marcel P. Timmer

We show that online prices can be used to construct quarterly purchasing power parities (PPPs) with a closely matched set of goods and identical methodologies in a variety of developed and developing countries. Our results are close to those reported by the... View Details

Keywords: Purchasing Power Parity; International Economy; Online Prices; Billion Prices Project; Economics; Macroeconomics; Price; Internet and the Web; Spending; Economy; Global Range; Measurement and Metrics

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30 Aug 2016
First Look

August 30, 2016

variation generated by the experimental treatments, we model sales force performance to identify the effectiveness of various forms of conditional and unconditional compensation. We account for salesperson heterogeneity View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

13 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 13

taken and proposed by the U.S. and European governments. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/110048-PDF-ENG The U.S. Life Insurance Industry Robert C. Pozen and McCall MerchantHarvard... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Article

Can Big-Box Retailers Provide Local Health Care?

By: Robert S. Huckman

National retailers, most notably Walmart and Best Buy, are making big bets on their ability to fill this need for local health care. At first glance, these moves are a bit surprising given that these companies have not traditionally been focused on health care... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Local Range; Retail Industry; Health Industry

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14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

Working PapersThe Influence of Prior Industry Affiliation on Framing in Nascent Industries: The Evolution of Digital Cameras Authors:Mary J. Benner and Mary Tripsas Abstract New industries sparked by technological change are... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2015
Article

The Great Recession, Insurance Mandates, and the Use of In Vitro Fertilization Services in the United States

By: Sorapop Kiatpongsan, Robert S. Huckman and Mark D. Hornstein

Objective: To investigate the relationship between economic activities, insurance mandates, and the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the United States.

Design: We examined the correlation between the coincident index (a proxy for overall economic... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Recessions; Medical Care; In Vitro Fertilization; Health Industry; United States

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10 Mar 2015
News

Innovation and Implementation in Cardiovascular Medicine

06 Oct 2015
First Look

October 6, 2015

and challenges created by digital technology and describe some of the most pressing policy issues. As digital technologies continue to gain in momentum and importance, it has become clear that digitization has features that do not fit... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 1984
Article

A Simulation Analysis of Alternative Pricing Strategies for Dynamic Environments

By: Robert J. Dolan

Researchers of the strategic implications of the well-known demand (e.g., adoption and diffusion) and supply (e.g., experience effects) dynamics have typically sought analytical solutions. Their success in this has been achieved partly by limiting the richness of the... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Price; Mathematical Methods; Supply and Industry

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Article

Orienteering for Electioneering

By: Jonah Kallenbach, Robert Kleinberg and Scott Duke Kominers

In this paper, we introduce a combinatorial optimization problem that models the investment decision a political candidate faces when treating his or her opponents’ campaign plans as given. Our formulation accounts for both the time cost of traveling between districts... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Resource Allocation; Time Management; Analysis

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