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General Management

General Management

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Overview Faculty Curriculum Awards & Honors Doctoral Students
    • September 2025
    • Article

    Sticky Capital Controls

    By: Miguel Acosta-Henao, Laura Alfaro and Andrés Fernández

    There is much ongoing debate on the merits of capital controls as effective policy instruments. The differing perspectives are due in part to a lack of empirical studies that look at the intensive margin of controls, which in turn has prevented a quantitative assessment of optimal capital control models against the data. We contribute to this debate by addressing both positive and normative features of capital controls. On the positive side, we build a new dataset using textual analysis, from which we document a set of stylized facts of capital controls along their intensive and extensive margins for 21 emerging markets. We document that capital controls are “sticky;” that is, changes to capital controls do not occur frequently, and when they do, they remain in place for a long time. Overall, they have not been used systematically across countries or time, and there has been considerable heterogeneity across countries in terms of the intensity with which they have been used. On the normative side, we extend a model of capital controls relying on pecuniary externalities augmented by including an (S, s) cost of implementing such policies. We illustrate how this friction goes a long way toward bringing the model closer to the data. When the extended model is calibrated for each of the countries in the new dataset, we find that the size of these costs is large, thus substantially reducing the welfare-enhancing effects of capital controls compared with the frictionless Ramsey benchmark. We conclude with a discussion of the structural interpretations of such costs, which calls for a richer set of policy constraints when considering the use of capital controls in models of pecuniary externalities.

    • September 2025
    • Article

    Sticky Capital Controls

    By: Miguel Acosta-Henao, Laura Alfaro and Andrés Fernández

    There is much ongoing debate on the merits of capital controls as effective policy instruments. The differing perspectives are due in part to a lack of empirical studies that look at the intensive margin of controls, which in turn has prevented a quantitative assessment of optimal capital control models against the data. We contribute to this...

    • July 24, 2025
    • Article

    How to Build a Life: The Psychological Secret to Longevity

    By: Arthur C. Brooks

    • July 24, 2025
    • Article

    How to Build a Life: The Psychological Secret to Longevity

    By: Arthur C. Brooks

    • 2025
    • Chapter

    An Appraisal on 'Teaching the Early History of IB at Harvard Business School'

    By: Geoffrey Jones

    This chapter reviews new research about the origins of International Business as an academic discipline. Contrary to conventional wisdom that it originated in economics departments in the 1960s, this research highlights the importance of teaching at Harvard Business School, going back to the 1920s. However the decision to close the International Business group at HBS in 1973 shows the fragility of non-mainstream subject areas in business schools. Larger subjects and their faculty are gatekeepers to appointments and promotions, who shut out and marginalize smaller, newer and more innovative subject areas in favor of incumbent vested interests.

    • 2025
    • Chapter

    An Appraisal on 'Teaching the Early History of IB at Harvard Business School'

    By: Geoffrey Jones

    This chapter reviews new research about the origins of International Business as an academic discipline. Contrary to conventional wisdom that it originated in economics departments in the 1960s, this research highlights the importance of teaching at Harvard Business School, going back to the 1920s. However the decision to close the International...

About the Unit

The General Management Unit is concerned with the leadership and management of the enterprise as a whole. This concern encompasses:

  • the personal values and qualities of effective general managers and enterprise leaders;
  • the philosophies, values, and strategies that inform successful enterprises; and
  • the relation of enterprise to the broader community and other external constituencies.

The Unit's work is conceived and carried out principally in four interest groups, each of which has its own leadership, research agenda, and teaching programs:

  • Management Policy and Process
  • Management Information Systems
  • Society and Enterprise
  • Leadership, Values, and Corporate Responsibility

Recent Publications

Sticky Capital Controls

By: Miguel Acosta-Henao, Laura Alfaro and Andrés Fernández
  • September 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of International Economics
There is much ongoing debate on the merits of capital controls as effective policy instruments. The differing perspectives are due in part to a lack of empirical studies that look at the intensive margin of controls, which in turn has prevented a quantitative assessment of optimal capital control models against the data. We contribute to this debate by addressing both positive and normative features of capital controls. On the positive side, we build a new dataset using textual analysis, from which we document a set of stylized facts of capital controls along their intensive and extensive margins for 21 emerging markets. We document that capital controls are “sticky;” that is, changes to capital controls do not occur frequently, and when they do, they remain in place for a long time. Overall, they have not been used systematically across countries or time, and there has been considerable heterogeneity across countries in terms of the intensity with which they have been used. On the normative side, we extend a model of capital controls relying on pecuniary externalities augmented by including an (S, s) cost of implementing such policies. We illustrate how this friction goes a long way toward bringing the model closer to the data. When the extended model is calibrated for each of the countries in the new dataset, we find that the size of these costs is large, thus substantially reducing the welfare-enhancing effects of capital controls compared with the frictionless Ramsey benchmark. We conclude with a discussion of the structural interpretations of such costs, which calls for a richer set of policy constraints when considering the use of capital controls in models of pecuniary externalities.
Keywords: Capital Controls; Macroprudential Policies; Stickiness; Intensive; (S, S) Costs; Capital; Management; Macroeconomics; Governance Controls; Mathematical Methods
Citation
Read Now
Related
Acosta-Henao, Miguel, Laura Alfaro, and Andrés Fernández. "Sticky Capital Controls." Art. 104104. Journal of International Economics 157 (September 2025).

How to Build a Life: The Psychological Secret to Longevity

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • July 24, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Citation
Register to Read
Related
Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: The Psychological Secret to Longevity." The Atlantic (July 24, 2025).

How to Build a Life: How to Be More Charismatic, but Not Too Much More

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • July 17, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Citation
Register to Read
Related
Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: How to Be More Charismatic, but Not Too Much More." The Atlantic (July 17, 2025).

How to Build a Life: How to Keep on the Sunny Side of Life

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • July 10, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Citation
Register to Read
Related
Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: How to Keep on the Sunny Side of Life." The Atlantic (July 10, 2025).

How to Build a Life: The Ciceronian Secret to Happiness

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • July 3, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Citation
Register to Read
Related
Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: The Ciceronian Secret to Happiness." The Atlantic (July 3, 2025).

Financing for Small Businesses in the U.S.

By: Brian Trelstad and Jonah Zahnd
  • July 2025 |
  • Background Note |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Educators
Related
Trelstad, Brian, and Jonah Zahnd. "Financing for Small Businesses in the U.S. ." Harvard Business School Background Note 325-107, July 2025.

An Appraisal on 'Teaching the Early History of IB at Harvard Business School'

By: Geoffrey Jones
  • 2025 |
  • Chapter |
  • Faculty Research
This chapter reviews new research about the origins of International Business as an academic discipline. Contrary to conventional wisdom that it originated in economics departments in the 1960s, this research highlights the importance of teaching at Harvard Business School, going back to the 1920s. However the decision to close the International Business group at HBS in 1973 shows the fragility of non-mainstream subject areas in business schools. Larger subjects and their faculty are gatekeepers to appointments and promotions, who shut out and marginalize smaller, newer and more innovative subject areas in favor of incumbent vested interests.
Keywords: Harvard Business School; International Business; Business Education
Citation
Purchase
Related
Jones, Geoffrey. "An Appraisal on 'Teaching the Early History of IB at Harvard Business School'." Chap. 10 in The Historical Evolution of International Business: Growth Trajectory of an Academic Field of Study, edited by Lilac Nachum and Attila Yaprak, 227–232. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.

The Business of Thinness

By: Geoffrey Jones and Bahia El Oddi
  • June 2025 |
  • Background Note |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Educators
Related
Jones, Geoffrey, and Bahia El Oddi. "The Business of Thinness." Harvard Business School Background Note 325-138, June 2025.
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