894 Posts Found

Humans have evolved four priorities or “drives,” according to HBS professor emeritus Paul R. Lawrence: the drive to acquire, to defend, to bond, and to comprehend. In an excerpt from his new book, Driven to Lead: Good, Bad, and Misguided Leadership, Lawrence describes how the four drives impact globalization.

Content: Article | Author: Paul R. Lawrence | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Economics, International

In trying to make sense of economic uncertainty, it pays to look beyond conventional wisdom for an explanatory theory of the hidden fundamentals that can drive or hinder growth. Hence this interview.

Mark Anderson is the editor, publisher, and chief correspondent of the Strategic News Service newsletter, one of the most incisive publications in its field. Ostensibly about the future of the computer and communications industries, … [ Read more ]

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Art Kleiner, Mark Anderson | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, Trends / Analysis

Marketers have been applying behavioral economics—often unknowingly—for years. A more systematic approach can unlock significant value.

Content: Article | Author: Ned Welch | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Marketing / Sales

A clearer view of economics means looking beyond the invisible hand.

Content: Article | Author: Michael E. Raynor | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subject: Economics

The classic trading system of exchange is identified with David Ricardo, the early nineteenth-century economist who first analytically clarified it.

As practiced today, Ricardo’s classic system results in win-win exchanges when both trading partners are either (1) industrialized nations with modern impulse/check/balance governments, no excessive unemployment, and reasonably effective control of corporate abuses or (2) less-developed nations roughly equal in power and with some control … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Paul R. Lawrence | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Economics

The impact of increases in the minimum wage has long caused controversy in political and management circles. Supporters of regular increases argue that those raises are necessary to keep working people from falling below the poverty line. Opponents contend that the increases actually prevent less qualified workers from entering the labor pool because employers can no longer afford to hire them.

Unfortunately, little data existed to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Kellogg Insight | Subject: Economics

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Annie Leonard | Subjects: Economics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

When the world financial system failed in 2008, world governments intervened decisively. Guided by economics teams with impeccable credentials, they intended not only to “stimulate” the economy, but to “jolt” it back to borrowing and spending as usual. All of these actions were taken from a playbook devised by British economist John Maynard Keynes, by far the most influential social thinker of the past century.

But … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Hunter Lewis | Subject: Economics

Joseph Stiglitz is an American economist and a member of Columbia University faculty. He is a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal (1979) and the Nobel Prize in Economics (2001).

Former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, he is famous for his critical view of globalization and international institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In 2000 Stiglitz … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Charlie Rose, Joesph E. Stiglitz | Source: PBS | Subject: Economics

Financial Times world trade editor Beattie combines economic history, psychology and political analysis to identify the factors that predispose economies to sickness or health. The author takes a human interest, Freakonomics-style approach to such economic riddles as why Islamic nations stay mired in poverty (he argues that one reason might be the Qur’an’s dictum against usury and interest-earning) and why Africa is dependent on exporting … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Alan Beattie | Subject: Economics

You can show very elegantly that the market will efficiently price two-quart botttles of ketchup at twice the price of a one-quart bottle; the problem is that the one-quart bottle may be mispriced.

Content: Quotation | Author: Larry Summers | Source: The Wilson Quarterly | Subject: Economics

“…the Laffer Curve simply reveals that higher tax rates will lead to less taxable income (or that lower tax rates will lead to more taxable income) and that it is an empirical matter to figure out the degree to which the change in tax revenue resulting from the shift in the tax rate is offset by the change in tax revenue caused by the shift … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Dan Mitchell | Subjects: Economics, Finance

A somewhat controversial, but nonetheless interesting attempt to explain exactly what money is, how it is created, etc.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Paul Grignon | Subjects: Economics, Finance

The economist Hyman Minsky has reminded us, “Each state nurtures forces that lead to its own destruction.” All of history testifies to the truth of this observation. Greater liquidity leads firms to borrow more than before. But higher levels of debt mean increasing vulnerability to adversity and negative shocks in an ever-changing world. For these reasons, as Minsky put it, stability leads inevitably to instability. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter L. Bernstein | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Economics, Finance

Markets can and do allocate resources efficiently, of course. But only under appropriate conditions—when there is lots of competition and information, for instance, and when people can make individually rational choices. Many market-solutions-for-everything advocates seem to have overlooked the point that such conditions don’t always exist.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Economics

Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami. From inside the corner office at Lehman Brothers to secret meetings in South Korea, and the corridors of Washington, Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics grappling with … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Andrew Ross Sorkin | Subjects: Economics, Finance

As part of his continuing series Making Sense of financial news, Paul Solman has a unique look at the legacy of economist John Maynard Keynes, who first introduced the concept of government intervention in the economy, and his countertenor Friedrich Hayek. [Hat tip to FinanceProfessor.com]

Content: Multimedia Content | Source: PBS | Subject: Economics

The important thing is that over time, scientific progress transforms things that used to have to be dealt with in a problem-solving mode down to the pattern-recognition space; and from pattern recognition into the rules-based mode. This is the mechanism by which less-trained people are enabled to do more sophisticated things. This is always the way disruption happens. It enables a larger population of less-experienced … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Clayton M. Christensen | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, Innovation, IT / Technology / E-Business

Capitalism has taught us that markets are always more efficient than hierarchical managerial coordination. But… in the absence of sufficient information… management has to provide the coordinating mechanism between what the supplier provides and what the user needs… Management always beats markets when there is not sufficient information.

Content: Quotation | Author: Clayton M. Christensen | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics, Management

Irrationality is the focus of behavioral economists, who appear to be gaining greater credibility in macroeconomic circles since the housing bubble of 2008 and the ensuing global financial meltdown. They are also at the center of an age-old debate recently reignited by columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman in a September 6 New York Times Magazine article titled, “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?,” … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Economics