Publications

Research Summary

The Baby Business: How Markets are Changing the Future of Birth

By: Debora L. Spar

It is difficult to conceive of the child as commerce. For even at the start of the 21st century, we like to believe that some things remain beyond both markets and science; that there are some things that money can't buy. In economic terms, these things are defined as... View Details

April 2024
Article

America’s Crisis of Civic Virtue

By: Arthur C. Brooks

The world is witnessing a loss of faith in both capitalism and democracy, which seemed nearly unimaginable just a generation ago. Many blame “the other party.” Others blame capitalism’s flaws, as market systems increase inequality, which is inherently undemocratic —... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Political Culture; Civil Society or Community; Economic Systems; Government and Politics; Values and Beliefs

04 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Restructure Conglomerates in Emerging Markets

way that companies in advanced economies did in the 1980s. Although well intended, this advice is flawed. Behind the recommendation that business groups should be broken up to create more focused and efficient companies lies the notion that well-functioning View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu

Teaching Interest

Overview

Globalization and Emerging Markets (Elective Course) The world order has changed significantly in the last two decades. The influence of western-style varieties of capitalism has been challenged by new forms of capitalism that rely less on private enterprise and on the... View Details

June 2007 (Revised January 2008)
Background Note

The U.S. Retirement Savings Market and the Pension Protection Act of 2006

By: Luis M. Viceira and Helen Tung

Provides an overview of the evolution of the private retirement savings market in the U.S. since 1990; the management and administration of defined-contribution (DC) plans; the existing evidence about the investment and savings decisions of participants in DC plans;... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Personal Finance; Saving; Government Legislation; Retirement; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; United States

Educators

Article

Oral History and the Business History of Emerging Markets

By: Geoffrey Jones and Rachael Comunale

This article highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral history can help fill some of the major information voids arising from the absence of a strong tradition of... View Details

Keywords: Oral History; Corruption; Business History; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics; Asia; Africa; Latin America

2021
Working Paper

Trade and the Single Car Market: The EC-Japan Elements of Consensus, 1985–1999

By: Grace Ballor

In 1991, in the midst of the program to create a liberal Single European Market and in the context of a new Joint Declaration for cooperation with Japan, the European Commission brokered a private deal to restrict Japanese imports into the European Community for nearly... View Details

Keywords: Market; Protectionism; Liberalization; Trade; Markets; International Relations; Auto Industry; Europe; European Union; Japan

February 2023
Case

Nexus Market (A): Ukraine War Ripples into Silicon Valley

By: Tsedal Neeley and Jeff Huizinga

A Silicon Valley start-up executive must navigate tensions between its Ukrainian and Russian sub-contractors as war between the two countries rages. After war erupts between Ukraine and Russia, a team of subcontracted Ukrainian software developers threatens to cut ties... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Problems and Challenges; Conflict and Resolution; Technology Industry; United States

Educators

November 2010
Supplement

Lessons Learned? Brooksley Born & the OTC Derivatives Market (B)

By: Clayton S. Rose and David Lane

This (B) case provides the 2009 reflections of former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt on CFTC Chairman Brooksley Born's 1998 efforts to consider regulating the OTC derivative market. It also provides a summary of the aspects of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that regulate these... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government Legislation; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; Public Administration Industry; District of Columbia

2018
Chapter

Between Economic Planning and Market Competition: International Law and Economics in the U.S.

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

The impact of institutional economics in shaping the American regulatory tradition has largely been dismissed as an incoherent attack on the neoclassical economic paradigm. This essay briefly reconstructs the interwar institutionalist movement, exploring the... View Details

Keywords: Economics; History; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; United States

28 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

Ground Game, Air Wars, and Other Marketing Lessons From Presidential Elections

Republican presidential candidates, but the results could help many marketing teams decide how to allocate scarce resources between mass advertising and personal selling efforts, or, as the researchers call it, between the air war and the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

18 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Media Markets and Localism: Does Local News en Español Boost Hispanic Voter Turnout?

Keywords: by Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Joel Waldfogel; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

2019
Working Paper

Labor Market Shocks and the Demand for Trade Protection: Evidence from Online Surveys

By: Rafael Di Tella and Dani Rodrik

We study preferences for government action in response to layoffs resulting from different types of labor-market shocks. We consider the following shocks: technological change, a demand shift, bad management, and three kinds of international outsourcing. Respondents... View Details

Keywords: Labor; Markets; System Shocks; Trade; Attitudes; Surveys

September 2020 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Building India's 2.0: PayNearby

By: Lauren Cohen and Spencer C. N. Hagist

Headquartered in Mumbai, India, FinTech startup Nearby Technologies has seen its flagship brand, PayNearby, rapidly flourish across most of its target market within just four years. The unprecedented success of its payment app, which allows users to access banking... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Developing Markets; Payments; Financial Inclusion; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; India

Educators

Article

Market Reaction to and Valuation of IFRS Reconciliation Adjustments: First Evidence from the UK

By: Joanne Horton and George Serafeim

We investigate the market reaction to, and the value-relevance of, information contained in the mandatory transitional documents required by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 1 (2005). We find significant negative abnormal returns for firms reporting... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Markets; Information; International Finance; Earnings Management; Stock Shares; Taxation; Goodwill Accounting; Price; Financial Reporting; Standards; Corporate Disclosure; United Kingdom

Research Summary

Overview

Abigail's research to date has focused on the financial accounting standard setting process. Specifically, her current projects investigate the impacts of regulator backgrounds, constituent preferences, and lobbying incentives in the determination of US GAAP. Her... View Details

Keywords: Financial Accounting; Political Economy; Capital Markets; Fair Value Accounting; Disclosure; International Accounting Standards

Research Summary

Overview

Dr. Burch’s research focuses on capitalism, work, and gender in the twentieth-century United States. Her work reinterprets the history of direct selling by placing it at the center, rather than on the margins, of narratives about advanced capitalism. Examining the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Political Economy; Labor History; Gender; Marketing; Sales Force Management; Direct Sales; United States

2015
Working Paper

The U.S. Experiment with Fair Trade Laws: State Police Powers, Federal Antitrust, and the Politics of 'Fairness,' 1890-1938

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

Prior to the Great Depression and President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs, considerable pressure for antitrust revision came from trade associations of independent proprietors. A perhaps unlikely leader, Edna Gleason, organized California's retail pharmacists... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Fairness; Laws and Statutes; Supply and Industry; Business and Government Relations