Publications

December 2018 (Revised May 2021)
Background Note

Making UK Energy Smarter

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

This case describes the history of the United Kingdom's domestic energy industry and the country's efforts to create a more competitive, greener, and distributed power sector. On July 24, 2017, the United Kingdom government and the industry regulator, the Office of Gas... View Details

2013
Working Paper

Testing Coleman's Social-Norm Enforcement Mechanism: Evidence from Wikipedia

By: Mikolaj J. Piskorski and Andreea Gorbatai

Since Durkheim, sociologists have believed that dense network structures lead to fewer norm violations. Coleman (1990) proposed one mechanism generating this relationship and argued that dense networks provide an opportunity structure to reward those who punish norm... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Information Publishing; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Issues; Societal Protocols

SSRN

July 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Agricultural Biotechnology and its Regulation

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

In the United States, genetically modified corn and soybeans are now widely grown and consumed. In Europe, however, they have been dubbed "Frankenstein foods," shunned by packaged food manufacturers, and subjected to a host of governmental restrictions. This case... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Genetics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Strategy; Trade; Law; Goods and Commodities; Safety; Environmental Sustainability; Government and Politics; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Europe; United States

14 Nov 2019
Book

Lifting the Lid on Turkey's Hidden Business History

Turkey’s economic development story has always been something of a black box for scholars to understand, perhaps in part because many of the most successful business enterprises there have been in family hands and largely closed to public scrutiny. The authors of a new... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

17 Nov 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Self-Interest: The Economist's Straitjacket

Keywords: by Robert Simons

9 May 2011 - 11 May 2011
Conference Presentation

How Firms Respond to Mandatory Information Disclosure

By: Anil Doshi, Michael Toffel and Glen W. S. Dowell

When new institutional pressures arise, which organizations are particularly likely to resist or acquiesce? When subjected to new information disclosure mandates, an increasingly popular form of market-based government regulation, which types of organizations are... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Environmental Regulation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation

September 2010 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Citigroup 2007: Financial Reporting and Regulatory Capital

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Edward J. Riedl and Sharon Katz

This case introduces 1) financial statements for banks, 2) basic regulatory capital calculations, and 3) actions Citigroup must consider under a scenario of continued losses/fair value declines in 2008 (leading to potential violation of regulatory capital). View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Financial Crisis; Capital; Financial Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Banking Industry; United States

2010
Working Paper

Reversing the Null: Regulation, Deregulation, and the Power of Ideas

By: David Moss

It has been said that deregulation was an important source of the recent financial crisis. It may be more accurate, however, to say that a deregulatory mindset was an important source of the crisis—a mindset that, to a very significant extent, grew out of profound... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Financial Markets; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics; Failure; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; United States

2009
Working Paper

Labor Regulations and European Private Equity

By: Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr

European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures (e.g., unemployment insurance benefits) for providing worker insurance. Employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor adjustments than other labor... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Taxation; Insurance; Investment; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Europe

June 2009
Article

Level Playing Fields in International Financial Regulation

By: Lucy White and Alan Morrison

We analyze the desirability of level playing fields in international financial regulation. In general, level playing fields impose the standards of the weakest regulator upon the best-regulated economies. However, they may be desirable when capital is mobile because... View Details

Keywords: Economy; International Finance; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Banking Industry

Find at Harvard

January 2007 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Lobbying for Love? Southwest Airlines and the Wright Amendment

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Dennis A. Yao, Libby Cantrill and Patricia Wu

The fall of 2004 brought exciting news to Love Field, the Texas headquarters of Southwest Airlines. Delta Airlines, one of Southwest's main competitors, had announced that it would dramatically decrease service from the nearby Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW)... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Legislation; Business and Government Relations; Opportunities; Competitive Advantage; Air Transportation Industry; Texas

March 2002 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Saudi Arabia: Getting the House in Order

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Rebecca Evans

Provides a vehicle to explore Islamic development and political issues within BGIE (business, government, and international economy). Set in early 2002, the case focuses on Crown Prince Abdullah's efforts to liberalize a failing rentier state, that had been dependent... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Development Economics; Non-Renewable Energy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; International Relations; Leading Change; Saudi Arabia; Middle East

01 Dec 2007
News

Faculty Books

The CEO Within: Why Inside Outsiders Are the Key to Succession Planning by Joseph L. Bower (HBS Press) Professor Bower explains how companies can develop internal candidates for the CEO role by grooming “inside outsiders” — leaders with the perspective of someone who... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

01 Jun 2015
News

Research Brief: If State Pensions Clean Up Their Books, Who Pays?

When the financial crisis hit in 2008, it became apparent that many states had played fast and loose with their pension funding. Some states slashed benefits, others contemplated bankruptcy. You might think state governments, burned badly once, would be eager to clean... View Details

Keywords: Erin Peterson

01 Sep 2013
News

Faculty Books

Manufacturing Morals: The Values of Silence in Business School Education by Michel Anteby (University of Chicago Press) How does HBS try to ensure that its faculty and students embrace proper business standards? Associate Professor Anteby finds that silence plays a... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

2024
Working Paper

Product Liability Litigation and Innovation: Evidence from Medical Devices

By: Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo

We examine the relationship between product liability litigation and innovation by systematically combining data on product liability lawsuits with data on new product introductions in a panel dataset of leading medical device firms. We first document a decline in... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

May 2024
Article

The Health Risks of Generative AI-Based Wellness Apps

By: Julian De Freitas and G. Cohen

Artifcial intelligence (AI)-enabled chatbots are increasingly being used to help people manage their mental health. Chatbots for mental health and particularly ‘wellness’ applications currently exist in a regulatory ‘gray area’. Indeed, most generative AI-powered... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Well-being; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Applications and Software

December 2010
Case

Financing Higher Education in Australia

By: David A. Moss and Stephanie Lo

Even before Australian lawmakers abolished university tuition in 1973, students in Australia had long benefited from low tuition and large government subsidies. By the early 1980s, however, the nation's universities faced growing budget challenges and an apparent... View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Higher Education; Borrowing and Debt; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Education Industry; Australia