Publications

January 2007 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Kibera and the Kenya Slum Upgrading Project (A)

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Arthur I Segel, Marc Diaz and John Dean Shepherd

Kenya's Minister of Housing faces tremendous pressures in dealing with the pervasive housing troubles in his country. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and home to more than 800,000 residents, yet only measures two square kilometers, roughly half the size of... View Details

Keywords: Construction; Housing; Urban Development; Poverty; Kenya

October 22, 2012
Article

Interest Rate Pass-Through: Mortgage Rates, Household Consumption, and Voluntary Deleveraging

By: Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani, Benjamin Keys, Tomasz Piskorski, Rodney Ramcharan, Amit Seru and Vincent Yao

Exploiting variation in the timing of resets of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), we find that a sizable decline in mortgage payments (up to 50%) induces a significant increase in car purchases (up to 35%). This effect is attenuated by voluntary deleveraging. Borrowers... View Details

Keywords: Monetary Policy; Household Finance; Refinancing; Contract Rigidities; Debt Rigidity; MPC; Deleveraging; Personal Finance; Household; Policy; Borrowing and Debt; Macroeconomics

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August 1995 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Cricket Road, 503

By: William J. Poorvu and Donald A. Brown

In September 2003, Mason Sexton, a young, inexperienced developer, was making plans to replace a rooming house he had inherited next to the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville with a new 14-unit, 5-story apartment house. His attempts to assemble the... View Details

Keywords: Property; Entrepreneurship; Housing; Buildings and Facilities; Construction; Risk and Uncertainty; Management Practices and Processes; Real Estate Industry; United States

March 2004 (Revised July 2004)
Case

Sarbanes-Oxley Act, The

By: Lynn S. Paine and James Weber

Describes the evolution and passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 from the perspective of the senior counsel on capital markets for the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; Capital Markets; Financial Reporting; Laws and Statutes; United States

July 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Dharavi: Developing Asia's Largest Slum (A)

By: Lakshmi Iyer, John D. Macomber and Namrata Arora

Maharashtra state is accepting bids to redevelop Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia. A real estate developer assesses the risks and tenders a bid. The bid conditions include providing new free housing to tens of thousands of slum dwellers, which is anticipated to be... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Development Economics; Housing; Urban Development; Emerging Markets; Social Issues; Business and Government Relations; Real Estate Industry; Mumbai

June 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Nehemiah Strategy, The: Bringing it to Boston

By: Diana Barrett, Arthur I Segel and Sheila McCarthy

In 2003, Lee Stuart, who had successfully used the Nehemiah Strategy to create thousands of units of affordable housing in the South Bronx, was working with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization to implement the strategy in Boston. She and her colleagues faced a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Boston

2023
Working Paper

The Effects of Cryptocurrency Wealth on Household Consumption and Investment

By: Darren Aiello, Scott R. Baker, Tetyana Balyuk, Marco Di Maggio, Mark J. Johnson and Jason Kotter

This paper uses transaction-level data across millions of accounts to identify cryptocurrency investors and evaluate how fluctuations in individual crypto wealth affect household consumption, equity investment, and local real estate markets. We estimate an MPC out of... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Marginal Propensity To Consume; Household Balance Sheet; Real Estate; Etherium; Bitcoin; Investment; Housing; Spending

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06 Nov 2008
Op-Ed

Selling Out The American Dream

leveraging of assets, on irresponsible banks and mortgage brokers who fabricated applications for no downpayment home loans knowing that the risks could be readily laid off on unsuspecting third parties. But underpinning the collapse of the View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

09 Mar 2021
Cold Call Podcast

A Family Business at a Crossroads: Scaling and Succession

Keywords: Re: Christina R. Wing; Real Estate

21 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

The Geography of Corporate Giving

researchers credit to the early actions of local political leadership and governmental agencies that encouraged public-private housing partnerships. Different locales do seem to have developed different conceptions of what is appropriate... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2001 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Ninth House: e-Learning Software

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Jeff Snipes, CEO of the Ninth House Network, a San Francisco-based E-Learning company, considers a strategy shift to address a recent slump in sales and to attract more customers. The revised strategy would require creating shorter, more directed content that could be... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Operations; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Learning; Sales; Service Delivery; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; Education Industry; San Francisco

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November 1989 (Revised November 2002)
Case

American Dream, The

By: Donald A. Brown, William J. Poorvu and Richard E Crum

Explores the process of purchasing a single family house through the eyes of a young couple. The couple is trying to determine what type of home to buy as well as how to finance it. View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Financing and Loans; Decisions; Real Estate Industry

10 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Women at Work

Lynda Clarizio Every woman who works and has a life confronts unique challenges, from finding reliable and caring childcare to making time to nurture the relationship with their spouse or partner to fighting their own guilt and stereotypes of "working women."... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild

July 2001 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Lehman Brothers (C): Decline of the Equity Research Department

By: Ashish Nanda and Boris Groysberg

This case tracks the rapid decline of Lehman Brothers' equity research department from August 1992, when, beset by declining ranking, low morale, and high turnover, firm management decides to clean house and reinvest in building the department. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Leadership; Human Resources; Financial Services Industry

2023
Working Paper

Beyond the Hype: Unveiling the Marginal Benefits of 3D Virtual Tours in Real Estate

By: Mengxia Zhang and Isamar Troncoso

3D virtual tours (VTs) have become a popular digital tool in real estate platforms, enabling potential buyers to virtually walk through the houses they search for online. In this paper, we study home sellers’ adoption of VTs and the VTs’ relative benefits compared to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Real Estate Industry

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12 Sep 2007
Op-Ed

Building Sandcastles: The Subprime Adventure

To construct a house, builders need a firm foundation. For a financial empire, Wall Street wizards need only greed, gullibility, and optimism. The subprime empire began with a tangible structure: a house. For the buyer, that house was a... View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas P. Retsinas; Banking; Construction; Real Estate

April 1990
Supplement

Philip Morris Companies' ""Bill of Rights"" Sponsorship Program, Responses

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Norman Klein

Describes the reactions of public interest groups, members of the House of Representatives, and others. Further documents reactions to the choice of Philip Morris (PM) as a sponsor. Invites students to weigh the corporate pluses and minuses for PM, given these... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Behavior; Public Opinion; Segmentation