Federal Trade Commission - Publications - Faculty & Research

21 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Debate Financial Reform Legislation

be ineffective, since nothing in this legislation or prior law prevents banks from proprietary trading outside the United States. Another instance of poor regulatory design is the new Consumer Financial Products View Details

Keywords: by Staff

18 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

The Bias of Wall Street Analysts

example, the trading commissions that remain are largely driven by big institutional investors who have brokerages execute their trades. Sell-side analysts have incentives to hype stocks to generate View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

16 Jul 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Obamacare

important first step. But AHCT's executives also knew if they were going to really be effective, they'd have to make it as easy as possible to sign up. The federal law allowed for commissions for brokers who... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

05 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

Are Stockbrokers Illegally Leaking Confidential Information to Favored Clients?

information Leaking information about stock trades might be both unethical and illegal, Di Maggio maintains, due to a fiduciary duty called “best price execution.” As the Securities and Exchange Commission... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

27 Jul 2019
Op-Ed

Does Facebook's Business Model Threaten Our Elections?

When the FTC announced in July a $5 billion penalty and other actions against the company over privacy disgressions, the Federal Trade Commission said it well: “ through at... View Details

Keywords: by George Riedel

02 Nov 2020
What Do You Think?

Is Antitrust Just a Quaint Notion in the Digital Age?

merger of Office Depot and Staples, ending a marriage that would have reduced the number of big box office supply specialty chains to two, the other being Office Max. In seeking to stop the merger, the Federal View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail; Technology; Telecommunications; Communications; Consumer Products; Service

05 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

If Your Customers Don't Care What You Charge, What Should You Charge?

found, in the retail gas markets they studied, was that accounting for increased consumer inertia led to an estimated 3.3 percent post-merger price increase, compared with the 5.9 percent increase predicted by a static model typically used by the View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Energy

29 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Decoding Insider Information and Other Secrets of Old School Chums

Security and Exchange Commission mandated that publicly traded companies had to disclose all material information to their investors at the same time. The researchers found that after the introduction of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

15 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Post-CrowdStrike, Six Questions to Test Your Company's Operational Resilience

crisis is just as crucial as the response.” Over 60 percent of tech outages result in at least $100,000 in total losses, and 15 percent cost upward of $1 million, according to the Uptime Institute, a technology trade group. In severe... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and Anita Lynch

20 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 20, 2007

institutions, in chronological order. The first story deals with a policy-making process at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The second deals with an administrative legal proceeding regarding anti-trust enforcement by the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Advertising: It’s Not ‘Mad Men’ Anymore

the twentieth century, companies relied on a "full-service" agency for most or all of their advertising service needs, including both creative development and media planning and buying. Agencies were compensated primarily by commissions... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

20 Dec 2004
Research & Ideas

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

about the increasing severity of the patent system's problems, and the negative effects that they were having on firms. While these issues had been widely recognized by practitioners, and had been the subject of weighty, footnote-laden reports by such bodies as the... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

13 Sep 2016
First Look

September 13, 2016

Augustine Heard & Company, a commission house focused on trade between China and the United States, in 1840. He welcomed his four nephews into the family business as it expanded in the increasingly... View Details

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

The State of the Markets

(that total half the value of the U.S. market). "On the trading level," says Seifert, " we need a liquidity pool that gives us low-cost, cross-border access. To accomplish this, we are merging institutions and employing a... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

28 Aug 2014
Op-Ed

Government Can Do More to Unfreeze Small Business Credit

businesses. But small business credit was hit hard during the recent recession and has been slow to recover. Beginning in early 2009, the federal government acted quickly to unfreeze credit markets with programs ranging from loan... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking

26 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 26

incremental progress, for motivating workers. Additional research showed that managers underestimate the importance of facilitating progress as a motivational tool. Read the article: http://hbr.org/2010/01/the-hbr-list-breakthrough-ideas-for-2010/ar/1 Regional View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

The Airbnb Effect: Cheaper Rooms for Travelers, Less Revenue for Hotels

times." Hotels fight back Lodging groups have not taken Airbnb's incursions lightly. Starting in 2016, the American Hotel and Lodging Association backed efforts by the Federal Trade View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Travel

17 Nov 2015
First Look

November 17, 2015

Police Powers, Federal Antitrust, and the Politics of 'Fairness', 1890–1938 By: Sawyer, Laura Phillips Abstract—Prior to the Great Depression and President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, considerable pressure for antitrust... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

The Potential Downside of Win-Win

to market, $2.05 to $2.55 per pill. Because such agreements restrain competition, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and similar entities in other countries treat them as... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman

09 Feb 2016
First Look

February 9, 2016

Statistics Trade Credit and Taxes By: Desai, Mihir, C. Fritz Foley, and James R. Hines Jr. Abstract—This paper analyzes the extent to which firms use trade credit to reallocate capital in response to tax... View Details