Publications

16 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

the global value chain, and what more might we expect? Laura Alfaro and Ester Faia: In 2012, a survey by the World Economic Forum and [the consulting firm] Accenture, devoted to assess the risk of a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Article

Economic Principles for Medicare Reform

By: Amitabh Chandra and Craig Garthwaite

In this article, we develop an economic framework for Medicare reform that highlights trade-offs that reform proposals should grapple with but often ignore. Central to our argument is a tension in administratively set prices, which may improve short-term efficiency but... View Details

Keywords: Medicare; Value-based Care; Health Care Reform; Markets In Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Value; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

10 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Going Digital: Implications for Firm Value and Performance

Keywords: by Wilbur Chen and Suraj Srinivasan

12 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

Creating Value Across Borders

on the shaky side. That difference is a critical concern in Eastern Europe and Africa. On an optimistic note, I think that entrepreneurship is going to be the most important economic driver in a lot of countries. The U.S. will continue to... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

04 Aug 2006
What Do You Think?

What Happens When the Economics of Scarcity Meets the Economics of Abundance?

education would seem to be [the need] to consider how freely available assets might support and increase the value of those nondurable, non-replicable assets a company might possess." Mark Hammer's comment should provoke further... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2018 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Fair Value Accounting at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (A)

By: Jonas Heese, Suraj Srinivasan, Francois Brochet and Christine Johnson

In May 2018, Berkshire Hathaway announced an unprecedented loss of more than $1 billion for the first quarter of 2018. Warren Buffett blamed this loss on the new accounting rules for equity securities which he criticized. In the case ‘Fair Value Accounting at Berkshire... View Details

Keywords: Equity Securities; FASB; Fair Value Accounting; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Services Industry

Article

The Economic Consequences of Bankruptcy Reform

By: Tal Gross, Raymond Kluender, Feng Liu, Matthew J. Notowidigdo and Jialan Wang

A more generous consumer bankruptcy system provides greater insurance against financial risks but may also raise the cost of credit. We study this trade-off using the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), which increased the costs of... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention And Consumer Protection Act; Borrowing and Debt; Credit

Read Now

April 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Background Note

An Economic Framework for Assessing Development Impact

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Frank J. Lysy and Carrie Ferman

Discusses the differences between private and social returns and describes an economic framework for assessing a project's social return [known as the economic rate of return (ERR)]. The framework begins by analyzing the impact of a new project on private financiers... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Microeconomics; Investment Return; Framework; Projects; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Valuation

1 Mar 2013 - 2 Mar 2013
Conference Presentation

The Value of Flexibility in Baseball Roster Construction

By: Timothy Chan and Douglas S. Fearing

Drawing inspiration from the theory of production flexibility in manufacturing networks, we provide the first optimization-based analysis of the value of positional flexibility (the ability of a player to play multiple positions) for a major league baseball team in the... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Design; Production; Resource Allocation; Groups and Teams; Adaptation; Sports

25 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

The Economic Cost of Physician Burnout

effectively be reduced with moderate levels of investment, these findings suggest substantial economic value for policy and organizational expenditures for burnout reduction programs for physicians,” the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

29 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

How Organizations Create Social Value

A recent study on the factors that contribute to successful high-performance social enterprises finds a connection between enterprises that link economic value with social value. This was the focus of a... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

Article

You Can't Always Get What You Want: The Real Exchange Rate and Manufacturing Performance in a World of Global Value Chains

By: Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger and Yanping Liu

Real exchange rate devaluations are typically seen as a viable development strategy, but the effectiveness of the approach may vary over time and across countries. This column explores this issue by focusing on the microeconomics of firm-level responses to exchange... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing Performance; Real Exchange Rate; Global Value Chains; Economics; Production; Performance

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November 2022
Article

The Psychosocial Value of Employment: Evidence from a Refugee Camp

By: Reshmaan Hussam, Erin M. Kelley, Gregory Lane and Fatima Zahra

Employment may be important to wellbeing for reasons beyond its role as an income source. This paper presents a causal estimate of the psychosocial value of employment in refugee camps in Bangladesh. We involve 745 individuals in a field experiment with three arms: a... View Details

Keywords: Psychosocial Wellbeing; Employment; Refugees; Well-being

2021
Working Paper

Being the Boss: Gig Workers' Value of Flexible Work

By: Laura Katsnelson and Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Workers who join the gig economy face a challenging trade-off. Gig work provides worktime flexibility and a sense of being one’s own boss, but gig workers forgo certain protections that employees enjoy. In this paper, we study the work patterns of a large sample of... View Details

Keywords: Gig Workers; Flexible Work Arrangements; Worker Welfare; Labor; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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January 2022
Article

Replicating Private Equity with Value Investing, Homemade Leverage, and Hold-to-Maturity Accounting

By: Erik Stafford

The contributions of asset selection and incremental leverage to buyout investment performance are more important than typically assumed or estimated to be. Buyout funds select small firms with distinct value characteristics. Public equities with these characteristics... View Details

Keywords: Replicating Portfolio; Private Equity; Investment Portfolio

March 2001
Background Note

Valuing the Option Component of Debt and Its Relevance to DCF-Based Valuation Methods

The flows-to-equity or equity cash flows valuation method is a discounted cash flow method used to estimate the equity portion of the capital structure. It is closely related to the venture capital/buyout valuation method, which estimates the IRR of the stream of cash... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Valuation; Equity

2025
Working Paper

Home Sweet Home: How Much Do Employees Value Remote Work?

By: Zoë B. Cullen, Bobak Pakzad-Hurson and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

We estimate the value employees place on remote work using revealed preferences in a high-stakes, real-world context, focusing on U.S. tech workers. On average, employees are willing to accept a 25% pay cut for partly or fully remote roles. Our estimates are three to... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Compensation and Benefits; Satisfaction; Value; Research

September 2003
Case

Valuing a Cross-Border LBO: Bidding on the Yell Group

By: Mihir A. Desai, Paolo Notarnicola and Mark Veblen

A team of private equity investors must value the leveraged buyout of a Yellow Pages business that operated in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In the process, they must wrestle with issues of how to conduct cross-border valuations and how to value a... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Cash Flow; Private Equity; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Valuation