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- September 2009
- Article
Are You Having Trouble Keeping Your Operations Focused?
As a business broadens over time, it can lose the operational edge that led to its original success. Core strengths atrophy, efficiency or quality suffers, and sharper rivals close in to take advantage of the loss of focus. In his classic article "The Focused Factory"... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Breakthrough Inventions and Migrating Clusters of Innovation
By: William R. Kerr
We investigate the speed at which clusters of invention for a technology migrate spatially following breakthrough inventions. We identify breakthrough inventions as the top one percent of US inventions for a technology during 1975-1984 in terms of subsequent citations.... View Details
- Article
Optimal Taxation in Theory and Practice
By: N. Gregory Mankiw, Matthew C. Weinzierl and Danny Yagan
We highlight and explain eight lessons from optimal tax theory and compare them to the last few decades of OECD tax policy. As recommended by theory, top marginal income tax rates have declined, marginal income tax schedules have flattened, redistribution has risen... View Details
- September – October 2009
- Article
U.S. Energy Policy: Overcoming Barriers to Acting
By: Max Bazerman
Energy policy is on everyone's mind these days. The U.S. presidential campaign focused on energy independence and exploration (drill, baby, drill), climate change, alternative fuels, even nuclear energy. But there is a serious problem endemic to America's energy... View Details
- August 26, 2009
- Comment
Where Cash for Clunkers Ran Off the Road
By: John A. Quelch
Today, let us celebrate the end of an unjustifiable drain on the U.S. taxpayer: the Cash for Clunkers (C4C) program.
True, C4C greatly boosted the number of consumers visiting car dealers. Doubtless, some new cars were sold to consumers who thought they... View Details
True, C4C greatly boosted the number of consumers visiting car dealers. Doubtless, some new cars were sold to consumers who thought they... View Details
- August 2009 (Revised October 2009)
- Case
Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?
By: Tarun Khanna, Aldo Musacchio and Rachna Tahilyani
- August 2009
- Teaching Note
U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Policy Reactions (TN) (A) and (B)
By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim
Teaching Note for [708036] and [709045]. View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Input Constraints and the Efficiency of Entry: Lessons from Cardiac Surgery
By: David M. Cutler, Robert S. Huckman and Jonathan T. Kolstad
Prior studies suggest that, with elastically supplied inputs, free entry may lead to an inefficiently high number of firms in equilibrium. Under input scarcity, however, the welfare loss from free entry is reduced. Further, free entry may increase use of high-quality... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Input Constraints and the Efficiency of Entry: Lessons from Cardiac Surgery
By: David M. Cutler, Robert S. Huckman and Jonathan T. Kolstad
Prior studies suggest that, with elastically supplied inputs, free entry may lead to an inefficiently high number of firms in equilibrium. Under input scarcity, however, the welfare loss from free entry is reduced. Further, free entry may increase use of high-quality... View Details
- July 31, 2009
- Other Article
India's Pockets of Prosperity?: Special Economic Zones Are Attractive on Paper, But They Pose Thorny Political Problems
By: Laura Alfaro, Lakshmi Iyer and Semil Shah
- July 2009
- Supplement
Who Killed Bhavani Manjula?--A Story of Microfinance in Andhra Pradesh (B)
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee
The (B) case updates the readers on the outcome of the situation described in the (A) case. It provides data on the growth of microfinance in the region. It introduces the possibility of tighter regulation on the industry through the passage of a "microfinance" bill. View Details
- July 2009 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Dharavi: Developing Asia's Largest Slum (A)
By: Lakshmi Iyer, John D. Macomber and Namrata Arora
Maharashtra state is accepting bids to redevelop Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia. A real estate developer assesses the risks and tenders a bid. The bid conditions include providing new free housing to tens of thousands of slum dwellers, which is anticipated to be... View Details
- July 2009 (Revised June 2010)
- Supplement
Executive Pay and the Credit Crisis of 2008 (B)
By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem
As the recession lingered on into 2009, the U.S. government sought to limit executive pay and excessive risk. The debate raged over what constituted excessive risk and how best to mitigate it. This case describes the government restrictions on executive pay for TARP... View Details
- July 2009 (Revised December 2009)
- Case
Diageo and East African Breweries Ltd.: Tapping New Markets for Social Good
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird
James Musyoki, Lemmy Mutahi, and Ken Kariuki, all from East African Breweries Limited (EABL), a subsidiary of London-based Diageo, heard the disheartening news in the first week of December 2008. For the second time in six months, the Kenyan Finance Ministry had raised... View Details
- 2009
- Chapter
Government as Risk Manager
By: Tom Baker and David Moss
We explain the four basic ways to manage risk: prevention, risk shifting, risk spreading, and loss control. We set out five principles of effective government risk management gleaned from extensive historical study: (1) link responsibility and control, (2) manage moral... View Details
- July – August 2009
- Article
Restoring American Competitiveness
By: Gary P. Pisano and Willy C. Shih
For decades, U.S. companies have been outsourcing manufacturing in the belief that it held no competitive advantage. That's been a disaster, maintain Harvard professors Pisano and Shih, because today's low-value manufacturing operations hold the seeds of tomorrow's... View Details
- 2009
- Chapter
The Principles of Embedded Liberalism: Social Legitimacy and Global Capitalism
By: Rawi Abdelal and John G. Ruggie
In this essay we revisit the principles of “embedded liberalism” and argue for their relevance to the contemporary global economy. The most essential principle is the need for markets to enjoy social legitimacy, because their political sustainability ultimately depends... View Details
- June 2009
- Case
The Rise of President Barack Hussein Obama
By: David A. Thomas, Laura Morgan Roberts and Stephanie Creary
This case profiles President Barack Hussein Obama's rise to the presidency as an "improbable candidate." The case illustrates the ways in which he overcame criticism from those who questioned his credibility and his values, and skepticism from those who were unsure... View Details
Keywords: Ethnicity; Race; Political Elections; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Creativity; Trust