Publications

Educators

2009
Working Paper

India Transformed: Insights from the Firm Level 1988-2005

By: Laura Alfaro and Anusha Chari

Using firm-level data this paper analyzes, the transformation of India's economic structure following the implementation of economic reforms. The focus of the study is on publicly-listed and unlisted firms from across a wide spectrum of manufacturing and services... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Economic Sectors; Economy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development Strategy; India

19 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Political Turmoil and Mexico’s Economy

What happens to a country's economy when its government is politically unstable, such as has been the case historically in Mexico? Can business get done under a strong-arm dictatorship, or when a government is too weak to protect the rights of its citizens? In research... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

07 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Dividends from Schumpeter’s Noble Failure

reviews, and three books, including the brilliant Theory of Economic Development (1911; English translation, 1934).1 Schumpeter struggled mightily with the research and writing of Business Cycles. As he told... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas K. McCraw

February 2008
Case

Monitor's Opportunities in India (A)

By: Juan Alcacer and Jan W. Rivkin

The CEO of a strategy consulting firm must decide which of the firm's functions, if any, to move to India. In particular, he wonders whether business research--currently conducted by highly paid consultants in developed countries--can be conducted more efficiently and... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Consulting Industry; India

Educators

January 2018
Article

Innovation Incentives and Biomarkers

By: Ariel Dora Stern, Brian M. Alexander and Amitabh Chandra

Previously, we have discussed the importance of economic incentives in shaping markets for precision medicines. Here we consider incentives for biomarker development, including discovery and establishment. Biomarkers can reveal valuable information regarding diagnosis... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Markets

02 Sep 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Legislators' Response to Changes in the Electorate: The Great Migration and Civil Rights

Keywords: by Alvaro Calderon, Vasiliki Fouka, and Marco Tabellini

September 2014
Article

Metropolitan Blueprints of Colonial Taxation? Lessons from Fiscal Capacity Building in British and French Africa, 1880-1940

By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg

The historical and social science literature is divided about the importance of metropolitan blueprints of colonial rule for the development of colonial states. We exploit historical records of colonial state finances to explore the importance of metropolitan identity... View Details

Keywords: Colonial Administration; Quantitative Sources; Governance; Money; Taxation; Trade; History; Africa

Register to Read

February 2018
Article

Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns

By: William R. Kerr

This study tests the importance of Ricardian technology differences for international trade. The empirical analysis has three comparative advantages: including emerging and advanced economies, isolating panel variation regarding the link between productivity and... View Details

Keywords: Exports; Comparative Advantage; Technological Transfer; Innovation; Networks; Patents; Residency; Technology Adoption; Trade; Research and Development; Immigration; United States

2013
Working Paper

Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns

By: William R. Kerr

This study tests the importance of Ricardian technology differences for international trade. The empirical analysis has three comparative advantages: including emerging and advanced economies, isolating panel variation regarding the link between productivity and... View Details

Keywords: Exports; Comparative Advantage; Technological Transfer; Innovation; Networks; Patents; Residency; Technology Adoption; Trade; Research and Development; Immigration; United States

SSRN

16 Feb 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Platform Competition Under Partial Belief Advantage

Keywords: by Hanna Halaburda & Yaron Yehezkel; Consumer Products

25 Mar 2016
HBS Seminar

Curtis Keith, Harvard University, Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator

August 2008 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll: The MTV Approach to Tackling HIV/AIDS

By: Tarun Khanna, Sonali R. Bloom and David E. Bloom

This case explores the role that MTV, with its heavy diet of music and general youth-oriented media content, plays in spreading public-service messaging to contain the scourge of HIV/AIDS worldwide. There is a focus especially on its efforts in several emerging... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Developing Countries and Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Emerging Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Strategy; Health Industry; Africa

Educators

April 4, 2009
Article

The Return of State-Owned Enterprises: Should We Be Afraid?

By: Aldo Musacchio and Francisco Flores-Macias

The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 has prompted many industrialized states worldwide to increase their stakes in private corporations. This wave of partial nationalizations has come amidst full-scale expropriations in developing countries such as Venezuela,... View Details

Keywords: History; Private Ownership; State Ownership; Financial Crisis; Business and Government Relations

August 2011
Article

Independent Invention During the Rise of the Corporate Economy in Britain and Japan

By: Tom Nicholas

Independent inventors accounted for approximately half of all patents in Britain and Japan by 1930, despite the rise of the corporate economy and the spread of industrial R&D. A mixture of patent renewal and historical citations data reveals that the quality of... View Details

Keywords: Independent Innovation and Invention; Development Economics; Research and Development; Patents; System; Motivation and Incentives; Tokyo; London; United States

14 Feb 2007
Op-Ed

Tata-Corus: India’s New Steel Giant

was to supplement the customer-facing front-end in the developed markets, with a lower-cost back-end in an emerging market. That is, TCL was trying to buy a sales and marketing structure and a set of brands. Much like Tata is with Corus.... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna

2008
Working Paper

Do Legal Origins Have Persistent Effects Over Time? A Look at Law and Finance around the World c. 1900

By: Aldo Musacchio

How persistent are the effects of legal institutions adopted or inherited in the distant past? A substantial literature argues that legal origins have persistent effects that explain clear differences in investor protections and financial development around the world... View Details

Keywords: History; Law; Development Economics; Investment; Corporate Governance; Finance; Business and Government Relations