Globalization
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- 23 Nov 2015
- Book
The Historian Who Came in from the Cold
While much has been written about the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Jeremy S. Friedman’s Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World is the first book to explore in detail the significance of the “Second Cold War” that China and the Soviet Union fought in the shadow of the communist and capitalist struggle. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 20 Oct 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Internalizing Global Value Chains: A Firm-Level Analysis
Manufacturing activities that used to be performed in close proximity are increasingly fragmented across firms and countries. This paper provides strong evidence that considerations driven by contractual frictions critically shape firms' ownership decisions along their value chains.
- 28 Sep 2015
- Research & Ideas
Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries
Improving access to financial services for the poor in developing countries seems an unmet market need. So why are so many mobile money efforts failing? Rajiv Lal says the problem begins with Marketing 101. Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 02 Sep 2015
- Research & Ideas
Explaining China's Crash
After a decade of massive growth, China’s stock market began a precipitous summer slide that that hasn't slowed yet. Dante Roscini explains what's deflating markets worldwide. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 20 Jul 2015
- Research & Ideas
Globalization Hasn’t Killed the Manufacturing Cluster
In today's global markets, companies have many choices to procure what they need to develop, build, and sell product. So who needs a manufacturing cluster, such as Detroit? Research by Gary Pisano and Giulio Buciuni shows that in some industries, location still matters. Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 02 Jul 2015
- Op-Ed
The Future of the Greek Economy
Before last weekend's referendum in Greece, Laura Alfaro, Dante Roscini, and George Serafeim explored the country's economic, social, and political crisis. Their insights still stand, even as Greece's situation changes hour by hour. Open for comment; 4 Comment(s) posted.
- 15 May 2015
- Research & Ideas
Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom
Women whose moms worked outside the home are more likely to have jobs themselves, are more likely to hold supervisory responsibility at those jobs, and earn higher wages than women whose mothers stayed home full time, according to research by Kathleen McGinn and colleagues. Open for comment; 33 Comment(s) posted.
- 27 Apr 2015
- Lessons from the Classroom
Leadership Lessons From Outer Space
Beaming in from space via teleconference, International Space Station Commander Terry Virts discusses leadership, technology, and thunderstorms with professors and students at Harvard Business School. Open for comment; 2 Comment(s) posted.
- 22 Apr 2015
- Op-Ed
Reforming Greece: Myths and Truths
Greece has largely its leaders to blame for the country's economic crisis, but Europe could help the entire region with some well-targeted aid, says George Serafeim. Open for comment; 1 Comment(s) posted.
- 29 Jan 2015
- Op-Ed
The Fall of Greece
When the Syriza party emerged victorious in Greece's national election last week, many citizens rejoiced at the promise of an easing of austerity measures. Professor George Serafeim believes having fresh people in government is a positive development, but fears they could point the country backward, away from competition and free-market forces. Open for comment; 10 Comment(s) posted.
- 08 Dec 2014
- Research & Ideas
A Manager’s Guide to International Strategy
In a new book on international strategy, David Collis details the four strategic questions that need to be answered by managers in multinationals. Open for comment; 3 Comment(s) posted.
- 01 Dec 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Big Influence of Small Countries in the United Nations Secretariat
Who calls the shots at the United Nations Secretariat? A new study by Eric Werker and Paul Novosad on the nationalities of senior staff draws surprising conclusions about the influence of smaller countries compared with world powers. Open for comment; 2 Comment(s) posted.
- 01 Oct 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Who Runs the International System? Power and the Staffing of the United Nations Secretariat
National governments frequently pull strings to get their citizens appointed to senior positions in international institutions. For the United Nations' executive arm, the Secretariat—which plays a plays a key role in agenda-setting for the various deliberative UN organs, as well as managing global peace-keeping operations—there is keen competition among nations over the staffing of approximately 80 senior positions. Which nations therefore have been successful in controlling this institution? What factors have allowed them to do so? In this paper the authors examine the nationality of the most senior officials in the United Nations Secretariat over the last sixty years. Findings show that democracies, countries that invest in bilateral diplomacy, and economically/militarily powerful countries are the most effective at placing staff in the Secretariat. Furthermore, Western Europe and its offshoots have retained control over a disproportionate share of positions in the Secretariat even while their share of global GDP and population has fallen. Key concepts include: The power to control international institutions is of significant concern to governments around the world. The United Nations is arguably the world's most representative international organization. Even so, it was set up by a particular set of nations, the victors of the second world war, with the goal of sustaining a certain kind of world order. In spite of significant changes in the balance of global economic power over the past decades, the post-World War II balance of control at the United Nations has been largely sustained. Nordic countries are in a far more influential international position than the size of their population or economy would suggest. Top positions are dominated by rich democracies: the five most overrepresented countries in the Secretariat are Sweden, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, and Ireland. The United States is overrepresented, and China is significantly underrepresented. In spite of the decline in US influence, the Secretariat remains pro-American relative to the world at large. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 27 Aug 2014
- Lessons from the Classroom
Learning From Japan’s Remarkable Disaster Recovery
Harvard Business School students make an annual trek to businesses in the Japanese area wrecked by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Their objectives: learn all they can about human resilience and share their own management knowledge. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 02 May 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Profits and Economic Development
"Without development there is no profit, without profit no development," wrote economist and political scientist Joseph Schumpeter in his landmark book The Theory of Economic Development. An open question, however, has been whether excess profits—known as rents—are good for development. Economic theory thus far supports both sides of the argument, yielding conflicting advice for competition policy and anticorruption efforts. This paper examines the question by analyzing a comprehensive industry—level dataset of manufacturing sectors—and by applying methods of the competition-and-growth scholarship of economist Philippe Aghion and colleagues. This approach allows the analysis of industry-level profitability (as opposed to individual firms) and the overall growth of the economy. Evidence suggests that rents, as measured by a high-markup that is also an indication of low competition, seem to slow growth in productivity or output. The effect is strongest in poor countries. Higher rents are associated with a slower removal of tariffs, implying that firms rent-seek to prevent competition and maintain their high margins. This investment in rent-seeking may be in lieu of investment in innovation or new productive assets, which slows the overall growth of the sector. Furthermore, in industries in which high profits should be essential in generating growth, those sectors that would otherwise need external finance but in a country with weak financial markets, the negative impact of rents on growth is especially strong. Findings also show that countries with more rents in the manufacturing sector grow slower even when other controls are introduced. Key concepts include: What may be good for the players in one industry may not be good for the economy at large. A country's average mark-up is a strong negative predictor of future economic growth. Poor countries grow faster than rich countries because of the benefits of catch-up, but those countries also tend to have higher rents, which slows growth. Developing countries have a tailwind from being poor in the catch-up sense, but a headwind from being poor through an inferior political economy of rent-seeking business. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 25 Apr 2014
- Research & Ideas
To Pay or Not to Pay: Argentina and the International Debt Market
Argentina's escalating financial crisis seems rocketing toward disaster. The fix? Finance Professor Laura Alfaro, who served as Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy in Costa Rica, recommends a radical solution sure to anger banks and fund managers: absolute sovereign immunity, Open for comment; 2 Comment(s) posted.
- 25 Mar 2014
- Research & Ideas
China’s Economic System has Difficult Road Overcoming its Political System
It's fashionable to be bullish on China. But the new book "Can China Lead?" urges a more cautious view on the prospects of the country, where government bureaucracy stifles innovation. Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 25 Mar 2014
- Research & Ideas
Book Excerpt: ‘Can China Lead?’
Creativity and innovation can be nurtured in different educational and institutional settings, but does China have a good institutional framework for innovation? An excerpt from Can China Lead? Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 24 Mar 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Surprising Link Between Language and Corporate Responsibility
Research by Christopher Marquis shows that a company's degree of social responsibility is affected by a surprising factor—the language it uses to communicate. Closed for comment; 21 Comment(s) posted.
The Globalization of Angel Investments: Evidence across Countries
Examining a cross-section of 13 angel groups who considered transactions across 21 countries, this study finds that angel investors have a positive impact on the growth of the firms they fund, their performance, and survival, while the selection of firms that apply for angel funding varies across countries.