Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(7,234)
- Faculty Publications (1,383)
- March 2005 (Revised July 2007)
- Case
Capital Controls in Chile in the 1990s (A)
By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel
In 1991, Chile adopted a framework of capital controls focused on reducing the massive flows of foreign investment coming into the country as international interest rates remained low. Capital inflows threatened the Central Bank's ability to manage the exchange rate... View Details
- March 2005
- Article
Sovereign Debt As a Contingent Claim: A Quantitative Approach
By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk
We construct a dynamic equilibrium model with contingent service and adverse selection to quantitatively study sovereign debt. In the model, benefits of defaulting are tempered by higher future interest rates. For a wide set of parameters, the only equilibrium is one... View Details
- February 2005
- Case
Mahindra & Mahindra: Creating Scorpio
By: Tarun Khanna, Rajiv Lal and Merlina Manocaran
Details the emergence of a private sector automobile manufacturer in India that has created globally competitive and cheap versions of an SUV commonly available worldwide. Asks us to think about the parent corporation's next steps in leveraging this success. In... View Details
- January 2005 (Revised October 2005)
- Case
Private Capital and Public Policy: Standard & Poor's Sovereign Credit Ratings
By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Christopher Bruner
Describes Standard & Poor's sovereign credit ratings business. Provides background on the history of credit ratings agencies, the meaning of credit ratings, the expansion of the sovereign ratings business over recent decades, and the market for credit ratings. Also,... View Details
- 2005
- Article
Increasing Exploration: Evidence from International Expansion
By: Juan Alcacer, Heather Berry and Wilbur Chung
While firms balance exploitation and exploration to maximize profits, specifics of how firms pursue this balance are scarce. We focus on how firms increase their exploration after obtaining greater capabilities and experience via sequential international expansion.... View Details
Keywords: Price Bubble; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Industry Growth; Research and Development; Profit; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Disruptive Innovation; Five Forces Framework; SWOT Analysis; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; United States
- 2005
- Working Paper
Nominal versus Indexed Debt: A Quantitative Horse Race
By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk
The main arguments in favor of and against nominal and indexed debt are the incentive to default through inflation versus hedging against unforeseen shocks. We model and calibrate these arguments to assess their quantitative importance. We use a dynamic equilibrium... View Details
- December 2004 (Revised February 2005)
- Case
Exporting Spanish Olive Oil to the U.S. Market
By: Ray A. Goldberg, Hal Hogan and Miguel Angel Llano Irusta
Spain is the largest olive oil producer, yet it sells much of its product to Italy, where it is repackaged as Italian olive oil. The decision maker in the case wants to develop Spain as the olive oil leader not just in production but in quality and value added. He... View Details
Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Trade; Goods and Commodities; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Brands and Branding; Decisions; Customization and Personalization; Product Design; Product Development; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Spain; United States; Italy
- November 2004 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Marvel Enterprises, Inc.
By: Anita Elberse
The management team of Marvel Enterprises, known for its universe of superhero characters that includes Spider-Man, the Hulk, and X-Men, must reevaluate its marketing strategy. In June 2004, only six years after the company emerged from bankruptcy, Marvel has amassed a... View Details
- November 2004 (Revised July 2006)
- Case
Patrimonio Hoy
By: Arthur I Segel, Michael Chu and Gustavo Herrero
Patrimonio Hoy is a program targeting the housing needs of the low-income population by CEMEX, a major Mexican company and a leading global cement producer. Originally conceived as a project to understand the customers in the self-construction segment better, a major... View Details
- November 2004
- Article
Unemployment Benefits As a Substitute for a Conservative Central Banker
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
In the many years since their introduction, positive theories of inflation have rarely been tested. This paper documents a negative relationship between inflation and the welfare state (proxied by the parameters of the unemployment benefit program) that is to be... View Details
- October 2004 (Revised April 2005)
- Case
American Medical Association
By: Ashish Nanda
Describes the evolution of the American Medical Association from its origin in 1847 to 1997, when two-thirds of physicians chose not to join the association. View Details
- September 2004 (Revised January 2005)
- Case
Brazil's WTO Cotton Case: Negotiation Through Litigation
By: Ray A. Goldberg, Robert Lawrence and J. Katherine Milligan
Brazil has just won a case action against the U.S. cotton agriculture program at the World Trade Organization. What does this mean for future agricultural programs in the United States? For future trade policies of the United States, Brazil, and others in the global... View Details
- September 2004 (Revised May 2006)
- Case
Bohemian Crowns: Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka (A)
By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Vincent Dessain and Monika Stachowiak
Tells the story of the Czech transition from a centrally planned to a free market economy, describing the first economic reforms, the fixed-exchange rate regime, and the voucher privatization. Also explains why, in the middle of the 1990s, the Czech Republic... View Details
- September 20, 2004
- Comment
How Consumers Value Global Brands
By: Douglas Holt, John A. Quelch and Earl L. Taylor
In 2002, we carried out a two-stage research project in partnership with the market research company Research International/USA to find out how consumers in different countries value global brands. First, we conducted a qualitative study in forty-one countries to... View Details
- September 2004
- Article
Capital Controls: A Political Economy Approach
By: Laura Alfaro
This paper examines the economic consequences of political conflicts that arise when countries implement capital controls. In an overlapping-generations model, agents vote on whether to open or close an economy to capital flows. The young (workers) receive income from... View Details
- August 2004 (Revised April 2007)
- Case
Allianz (A1): An Insurer Acquiring a Bank?
By: Joseph L. Bower, Marc L. Bertoneche, Anders Sjoman and Sonja Ellingson Hout
The deal of the year in 2002, was the acquisition of Dresdner Bank by Allianz. Written from the perspectives of Allianz's CEO, Henning Schulte-Noelle, before and after the deal and a regional manager implementing the concept of a full-line financial service provider.... View Details
- August 2004
- Article
Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?
By: Rafael Di Tella, Alberto Alesina and Robert MacCulloch
We study the effect of the level of inequality in society on individual well-being using a total of 123,668 answers to a survey question about “happiness”. We find that individuals have a lower tendency to report themselves happy when inequality is high, even after... View Details
- 2004
- Working Paper
On the Origin of Strategy: Action and Cognition Over Time
By: Giovanni Gavetti and Jan W. Rivkin
- July 2004 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
Opium and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth Century
By: Geoffrey Jones, Elisabeth Koll and Alexis Gendron
This case examines the role of Jardine Matheson, a trading company founded by two Scottish merchants, in the opium trade between India and China during the nineteenth century. The two Opium Wars fought between Western powers and China, which sought to stop opium... View Details
- May 2004 (Revised June 2005)
- Background Note
Exchange Rate Regimes
By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel
There are many options for a country in the management of monetary policy. At the most basic level is the decision of whether to adopt a fixed or a floating exchange rate. Introduces the economics behind exchange rates and the debate between fixed vs. floating regimes. View Details