depression - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

The Popular Stock Metric That Can Lead Investors Astray

What if a bedrock method that investors have relied on for decades to find cheap-but-promising stocks to buy low and sell high no longer works well? The book-to-market ratio has been used since at least the Great Depression to identify... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

02 Mar 2017
What Do You Think?

Is China About to Overtake the US for World Trade Leadership?

currency, triggering a chain reaction that some believe contributed to the Great Recession of 2008. Here’s their thinking: Although the depressed value of the yuan increased the cost of raw materials imported by China, it produced a huge... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

26 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

What Can the World’s Largest Refugee Camp Teach Us About the Meaning of Work?

others will receive a call the day their efforts are needed. Hussam’s team piloted the study with 300 households last spring, and the preliminary findings were promising. Refugees who worked had significantly lower rates of depression and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

02 Sep 2010
What Do You Think?

How Transparent Should Boards Be?

Gogula put it, "While protecting the short term interests of shareholders and avoiding a depression of stock prices may be a tempting recourse for a Board member to take, long-term shareholder interest is what the Board needs to take... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

07 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

The Quest for Better Layoffs

layoffs project, Malden Mills, describes how a leader handled a disastrous event: Two weeks before Christmas 1995, a fire destroyed three factory buildings at a textile company, one of the largest employers in the already economically View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

11 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: Dec. 11

leverage is to sell assets. If asset sales occur at depressed prices, then one bank's sales may impact other banks with common exposures, resulting in contagion. We propose a simple framework that accounts for how this effect adds up... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Minding the Muse: The Impact of Downsizing on Corporate Creativity

found that the creative environment, and creativity itself, remained depressed four months after the layoffs had been completed. To corroborate this conclusion, Amabile and Conti compared how many invention disclosures had been filed by... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

24 May 2004
Research & Ideas

The Watsons: IBM’s Troubled Legacy

The world's fair in New York City at the end of the depression decade was a big deal. Planning began in 1935. The fairgrounds covered 1,216.5 acres in what had been a garbage dump in Queens. By opening day, April 30, 1939, the moonscape... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow

10 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 10, 2009

estate development during his playing career, and now, as a retired player, is trying to pursue the development of a 10-unit rental apartment building in a depressed area of Philadelphia, his hometown. The case presents the process... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Not Your Father’s State-Run Capitalism

There's a trade-off, however, as it can open the door to minority investors taking a hit, say as when a government-owned company holds down the price of gasoline in order to benefit voters, but depresses profits for the shareholders of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

20 Dec 2004
Research & Ideas

The U.S. Patent Game: How to Change It

will tend to depress the share of the U.S. in innovation. Q: Your book talks about the "pauperization of the patent system." Can you elaborate on what you mean by this? A: Beginning in the early 1990s, Congress converted the... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

13 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

The Inner Life of Leaders

Managers are oriented to process, while leaders are attuned to substance. Process is concerned with establishing procedures for solving problems, while substance deals directly with the problems at hand. Process is soon related to obsessive thinking and View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

10 Dec 2007
HBS Case

One Laptop per Child

further developing their product lines to address the emerging need." "All of which must have been faintly depressing if you were the originator of the idea, now seeing your idea being imitated," continues Quelch. "On... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Computer

13 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Making Biotech Work as a Business

expressed the frustration that many people in the biotech industry feel as he clicked through the depressing data in gloomy graphs on a big screen. "It's not a very profitable sector of the economy" based on the performance of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Biotechnology; Health; Technology

14 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Andy Grove on the Confident Leader

to be clarified. You have to make them when you have to make them. And try not to get too depressed in the journey, because there's a professional responsibility. If you are depressed, you can't motivate your staff to extraordinary... View Details

Keywords: by Walter Kiechel; Technology

23 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Medical Debt Won't Make Everyone Happier

several years. RIP Medical Debt purchased this debt in March and October 2018 for less than one cent on the dollar. On average, people in this group had $2,167 in medical debt. Eliminating debt didn’t relieve financial stress, depression... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

08 May 2020
In Practice

Nonprofits Hurt by COVID-19 Must Hoard Cash to Hold On

(like 2008) but a depression (like the 1930s.) Accordingly, we must be prepared to act in ways we’ve never done before. Second, just as doctors in overburdened hospitals, we need to triage with iron discipline. Our support must go to... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

02 Feb 2012
Op-Ed

Once a Castle, Home is Now a Debtors’ Prison

sell the house, is considering abandoning it, and has cut back on maintenance, which depresses the value further. If a few houses on a block are underwater, the blight will depress the values even of... View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas P. Retsinas; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

03 Jan 2017
First Look

January 3, 2017

financial information induces a trade externality: if speculators refrain from trading, hedgers do the same, depressing the asset price. Market transparency reinforces this mechanism, by making speculators’ trades more visible to hedgers.... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

29 Mar 2016
First Look

March 29, 2016

risk management. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/216041-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 297-047 Stone Container Corporation (A) In early 1993, Stone Container was heavily burdened by debt following a series of highly leveraged... View Details