Publications

The third in a four-part series, this case details the financial policies and practices at General Motors from 1990 to 1996. This part describes the firm's financial responses to the business stresses it faced in the 1992 time period. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Auto Industry; United States

March 1994 (Revised June 1995)
Background Note

Interest Rate Derivatives

Introduces and explains the six major interest rate derivative products: swaps, forward rate agreements, Eurodollar futures, bond options, caps/floors/collars, and swap options. View Details

Keywords: Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Interest Rates

February 1994 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, Inc.: Portfolio Insurance

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, a small financial advisory firm founded in 1980, has created a successful business by selling a product commonly known as portfolio insurance. Portfolio insurance is a trading strategy that institutional investors use to establish... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Insurance; Product; Financial Services Industry

April 1993 (Revised October 1995)
Case

American Barrick Resources Corporation: Managing Gold Price Risk

Managing the risk of changing prices of gold is central to the business strategy of American Barrick Resources Corp., one of North America's largest and most successful gold-mining firms. The case contrasts this firm's hedging policies with those of its rivals that do... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Business Strategy; Mining; Mining Industry; United States

January 1993 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Sally Jameson: Valuing Stock Options in a Compensation Package

Details a thinly disguised situation faced by a recent Harvard MBA graduate who was forced by a prospective employer to place a dollar value on a grant of stock options. There are two objectives: 1) Serves as an introduction to option valuation, in which students have... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Stock Options; Compensation and Benefits

November 1990 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc. (A): Entry into the Covered Warrant Business

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February 2010
Supplement

Valuing Visa? Priceless (CW)

Students must determine whether or not Visa, which had an IPO one month prior, is a good investment. The case provides an overview of multisided platform businesses and the payments industry in general. Visa's business model and economics are reviewed. View Details

Keywords: Credit Cards; Initial Public Offering; Valuation; Multi-Sided Platforms; Microeconomics

February 2009
Background Note

An Introduction to Consumer Credit

This note reviews a variety of shorter-term consumer credit products in the U.S. with an emphasis on the types of products that low- and moderate-income consumers use. Included here are the following: credit cards, bank overdraft products, payday lending, personal... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; United States

January 2007 (Revised October 2008)
Case

H&R Block 2006

Mark Ernst, the Chairman, CEO and President of H&R Block, has to decide how to respond to a competitive threat posed by a competitor's refund-lending product. Block is the largest U.S. tax preparation firm, which competes not only on its tax preparation services, but... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Taxation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competition; Financial Services Industry

September 2005 (Revised January 2009)
Case

E-Duction, Inc.

E-Ductions, a small privately held start-up, developed a new voluntary employee benefit: a payroll-deduction-linked credit card. The CLEAR card provided workers, especially low-income and credit-challenged employees, access to a card with tight credit limits, zero APR,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Credit; Credit Cards; Compensation and Benefits; Employees

2008
Working Paper

Using Financial Innovation to Support Savers: From Coercion to Excitement

We review a wide variety of programs that support savings by families, in particular by low- and moderate-income families. These programs range from ones that literally compel families to save, to those that make it hard not to save, make it easier to save, provide... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Motivation and Incentives; Programs; Income; Personal Finance; Family and Family Relationships; Performance Effectiveness

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February 2003 (Revised October 2004)
Background Note

Antamini Simulation Model

Antamini is a simulation of the value of an investment project whose outcome is uncertain. This case describes the situation facing a natural resource firm as it contemplates bidding on a copper mine in Peru. The bidder faces uncertainties about the ore deposit size... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Auctions; Investment; Mining; Mining Industry; Peru

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14 May 2024
News

What Should Business Schools Teach About the Climate Crisis?

07 Nov 2022
News

When Does Collaboration Become Collusion?

13 Aug 2021
News

New Child Tax Credit Should Be a Call to Action for Banks

March 1997
Background Note

Copper and Zinc Markets 1996

Provides background information on copper and zinc markets as of mid-1996. Discusses supply and demand conditions, forecasts of the spot prices of the metals, and contracts for future delivery (forwards, futures, and options). View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Metals and Minerals; Supply and Industry; Mining Industry