Publications

May 2021 (Revised September 2021)
Case

CPE and SUS Environmental: You've Got to Know When to Hold 'Em

By: Josh Lerner and Franko Jira

In July 2016, Di Yang and Grace Guo of the leading Chinese private equity group CPE faced a dilemma—a happy dilemma, but a challenge nonetheless. CPE’s investment in the waste-to-energy firm SUS Environment had proved to be exceedingly successful. This success had... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment Return; Growth and Development

18 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 18

un‐cited or self-cited, suggesting that incumbents are more likely to engage in incremental innovation compared to VC-backed startups. Third, we document a rising share of patenting by startups that coincided with the surge in venture capital View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Jul 2014
Op-Ed

Reform Tax Law to Keep US Firms at Home

along partisan lines, from overhauling the US corporate tax to punishing companies who choose to move elsewhere. On July 22, 2014, Mihir A. Desai, Miuzho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School, testified before... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai; Pharmaceutical

2012
Chapter

The Availability and Utilization of 401(k) Loans

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

We document the loan provisions in 401(k) savings plans and how participants use 401(k) loans. Although only about 22% of savings plan participants who are allowed to borrow from their 401(k) have such a loan at any given point in time, almost half had used a 401(k)... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Personal Finance; Retirement; Financing and Loans; Microeconomics

Read Now

07 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Debate over Taxing Foreign Profits

influence how investors diversify their portfolios; the organizational and ownership decisions firms make; firm investment[PDF] decisions; and myriad financing decisions, including capital structure and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

March 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Tokyo AFM

By: Francois Brochet

This case was written as the financial accounting portion of the final exam for a first-year MBA course at Harvard Business School. The goal was to test students' ability to apply major concepts taught during the course to an industry which they had not covered, but... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economics; Insurance; Insurance Industry; Japan

April 2005
Case

The University of Chicago Investment Office: Investing in Timber

In 2005, the University of Chicago Investment office was deciding how much capital to allocate toward timber investing. Explores the challenges associated with optimal portfolio construction when one of the invested assets is illiquid with limited historical price... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry

Student-Profile

Yueran Ma

research interests are finance and macroeconomics. Related to my experiences growing up, I am very interested in understanding financial frictions, including their origins and broader implications. I am also interested in studying... View Details

02 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Is 'Gut Feel' a Good Reason to Invest in a Startup?

overly risky.” Unlike most situations where making an important decision based on gut feel is seen as a negative, venture capitalists and angel investors often brag about the wisdom of their midsections. “They have a lot of pride in how... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

September 2006 (Revised April 2008)
Case

The Howland Long-Term Opportunity Fund

By: Andre F. Perold and David S. Scharfstein

Melissa Howland, founder of an investment firm, must choose between two competing investments, which differ in size, maturity, and rate of return. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Instruments; Investment Return; Investment Funds; Value

01 Nov 2012
News

First and Goal

yet in high school) not play tackle football. Swearengin made the difficult decision that he could no longer support tackle football for kids 13 or under; however, his recommendation to the board that the Downtown Giants switch to flag... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Finance

August 1995 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Hutton Branch Manager (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jane Palley Katz

The manager of an E.F. Hutton branch office must decide how best to approach a colleague whose aggressive and ethically problematic cash management practices have cost the branch a major institutional client. These practices had been encouraged by top management at... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Business or Company Management; Decisions; Management Skills; Cash Flow; Financial Management; Investment; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

11 Apr 2019
Blog Post

Kel Jackson, MBA 2019: "[My Job] Matters. I Didn't Want a Role that Would Box Me In."

people that’s what gets me out of bed—is feeling like I matter. People’s lives rely on what we do at Aurora.” In his new role, Jackson is most excited about implementing the strategy and finance knowledge he’s gained at HBS, because he... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

Article

Optimal Value and Growth Tilts in Long-Horizon Portfolios

By: Jakub W. Jurek and Luis M. Viceira

We develop an analytical solution to the dynamic portfolio choice problem of an investor with power utility defined over wealth at a finite horizon, who faces a time-varying investment opportunity set, parameterized using a flexible vector autoregression. We apply this... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Asset Pricing; Value