Publications

2012
Report

Competing by Saving Lives: How Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Companies Create Shared Value in Global Health

By: Mark R. Kramer, Kyle Peterson, Matthew Rehrig, Mike Stamp and Samuel Kim

Examples of how pharmaceutical and medical companies are addressing unmet health needs in low- and middle- income economies, creating shared value by providing products and services that tackle global health problems. View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Low- And Middle-income Economies; Health Care and Treatment; Global Range; Pharmaceutical Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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April 2010 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Malaysia: People First?

By: Diego A. Comin and John Abraham

On March 30, 2010, Prime Minister Najib Razak presented his new economic model (NEM) for Malaysia. With the goal of raising per capita income to over $15,000 by 2020 from the current level of $6,634, the plan included measures to improve human capital, reduce migration... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Economies and Regions; Problems and Challenges; Crime and Corruption; Developing Countries and Economies; Development Economics; Emerging Markets; Transformation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Wealth and Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Malaysia

Research Summary

Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Rangan is studying how businesses create value for the 4.2 billion low income, and poorer income residents at the base of the global income pyramid. These are individuals who live on less than $5/day. Providing food, water, sanitation, healthcare, education, skills... View Details

01 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Spreading the Health: Americans' Estimated and Ideal Distributions of Death and Health(care)

Keywords: by Sorapop Kiatpongsan and Michael I. Norton; Health

2020
Working Paper

Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation

By: Benjami Lockwood, Afras Y. Sial and Matthew C. Weinzierl

Economists typically check the robustness of their results by comparing them across plausible ranges of parameter values and model structures. A preferable approach to robustness—for the purposes of policymaking and evaluation—is to design policy that takes these... View Details

Keywords: Optimal Taxation; Robust Optimization; Taxation; Income; Policy; Design

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August 2001 (Revised July 2008)
Technical Note

A Technical Note and Discussion on Real Estate Valuation (IBET): Back of the Envelope (BOE) on Bonhomme Place: A Case within a Case

By: Arthur I Segel

Discusses real estate valuation. Reviews "back of the envelope" valuation; real estate appraisal methods, including the income method; market comparables and replacement costs; and more complex computer modeling. Also discusses other variables that could influence... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Mathematical Methods; Valuation; Real Estate Industry

November 1995 (Revised February 1996)
Case

Monsanto Company: The Coming of Age of Bio-Technology

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Thomas N. Urban Jr

Monsanto has one product, Roundup, accounting for 30% of company net income and is going off patent. How should the company position itself and its products in the future? View Details

Keywords: Patents; Product Positioning; Strategic Planning; System Shocks; Biotechnology Industry

26 Mar 2013
Working Paper Summaries

How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments

Keywords: by Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael I. Norton, Emmanuel Saez & Stefanie Stantchev

October 2010 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Bessemer Trust: Guardians of Capital

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

Henry Phipps, Jr. made his fortune in the steel industry alongside one of America's most celebrated entrepreneurs—Andrew Carnegie. His wealth was administered in the form of trusts, which he hoped would provide a stream of income for his family and their descendants... View Details

Keywords: Wealth; Asset Management; Family Business; Business History; Income; Entrepreneurship; Capital; United States

Article

Gross National Happiness As an Answer to the Easterlin Paradox?

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

The Easterlin Paradox refers to the fact that happiness data are typically stationary in spite of considerable increases in income. This amounts to a rejection of the hypothesis that current income is the only argument in the utility function. We find that the... View Details

Keywords: Wealth and Poverty; Happiness; Employment; Income; Mathematical Methods; Welfare

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September 2004
Article

Capital Controls: A Political Economy Approach

By: Laura Alfaro

This paper examines the economic consequences of political conflicts that arise when countries implement capital controls. In an overlapping-generations model, agents vote on whether to open or close an economy to capital flows. The young (workers) receive income from... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Voting; Conflict of Interests; Capital; Government and Politics; Wages; Saving; Forecasting and Prediction

December 2006 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Keggfarms (India): Which Came First, the Kuroiler(TM) or the KEGG(TM)?

Vinod Kapur has founded a unique enterprise, Keggfarms, based on a special poultry chicken he bred to address the nutritional and income needs of some of the poorest people on earth: India's rural villagers. As of November 2006, Keggfarms was supplying chicks to about... View Details

Keywords: Animal-Based Agribusiness; For-Profit Firms; Social Entrepreneurship; Competition; Expansion; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

22 Jun 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Surprising Power of Age-Dependent Taxes

Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl

July 2021
Article

Medical Debt in the U.S., 2009–2020

By: Raymond Kluender, Neale Mahoney, Francis Wong and Wesley Yin

Importance: Medical debt is an increasing concern in the US, yet there is limited understanding of the amount and distribution of medical debt, and its association with health care policies.

Objective: To measure the amount of medical debt nationally and by... View Details

Keywords: Debt; Borrowing and Debt; Health Care and Treatment; United States

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February 2018 (Revised June 2021)
Case

New Constructs: Disrupting Fundamental Analysis with Robo-Analysts

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Kyle Thomas

This case highlights the business challenges associated with a financial technology firm, New Constructs, that created a technology that can quickly parse complicated public firm financials to paint a clearer economic picture of firms, remove accounting distortions,... View Details

Keywords: Fundamental Analysis; Machine Learning; Robo-analysts; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Analysis; Information Technology; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; North America; Tennessee

07 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Debate over Taxing Foreign Profits

income taxes paid, up to the U.S. statutory rate. In effect, this means that Cummins will ultimately pay a total of the U.S. statutory rate on its overseas activities in lower tax countries and pay the local rate in higher tax countries.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

03 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

The Basics of Consumer Marketing in Asia

professor of international business at the Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology in Taiwan, per-capita income varies from $380 to $5,000 annually in different regions. "You have to realize that China is very, very... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette

November 2005
Background Note

Allemeier Commissioner

By: Henry B. Reiling and Kevin Wall

An employee who worked full time while pursuing an MBA wishes to deduct his tuition expenses in computing his federal income tax. The IRS denied the deduction as a violation of several of its policies interpreting the relevant statute. Are the expenses deductible? View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Policy; Taxation; Employees; Law

July 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Cintas y Lazos, Inc.

By: David F. Hawkins

A recent Cuban immigrant establishes a new notions store. The initial 3-month, GAAP-based income statement differs from one prepared by an economist friend. The store owner wants to know why one shows a profit and the other a loss. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Statements; Management Practices and Processes; Standards; Retail Industry; Florida