Global Reach. Global Knowledge.

Executive Education
in Asia-Pacific

Senior Executive Program for China

Begins August 2009, taking place in Beijing, Shanghai, and Boston

The Senior Executive Program for China was created by HBS, the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, and the China Europe International Business School, to specifically address the business and management demands on executives in China today.

Private Equity and Venture Capital - China

Begins October 2009 in Shanghai

This program is jointly offered by HBS and the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University (Tsinghua SEM), and explores the inner workings of private equity and venture capital investing in China and beyond.

All Global Executive Education Programs

2009

Global Capital and National Institutions: Crisis and Choice in the International Financial Architecture

Alfaro, Laura
October 2009

All managers face a business environment in which international and macroeconomic phenomena matter. International capital flows can significantly affect countries' development efforts and provide clear investment opportunities for businesses. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the world witnessed an explosion in capital flows at the global level. Gross foreign assets and liabilities stood at two or three times GDP for many countries, as compared to just two decades ago. This explosive growth, especially in emerging markets, has been fueled both by changes in world politics (e.g., the end of the Cold War, collapse of the Soviet Union, shifting political climate in China, and political changes in Latin America and Asia) and advances in technology. Private capital flows-debt finance, equity capital, and foreign direct investment (FDI)-became larger than current and past official capital flows. This new era of foreign capital mobility has also been characterized by low interest rates in industrial countries, growing external imbalances in the U.S. economy, and the rise of China, all of which posed new challenges to policy management. In 2009, the global economy remained mired in a deep crisis following the subprime meltdown in the U.S. The situation was also a true testimony of how intertwined individual economies had become over the years. The effect of policies to deal with the ongoing global crisis and new policy choices remain to be seen. Understanding these phenomena-the determinants of capital flows, the effects of foreign capital on host countries, the impact of exchange-rate movements, and the genesis of financial and currency crises-is a crucial aspect to making informed managerial decisions. The cases in this book have been designed to give students an appreciation of the critical role of institutions and policies in affecting patterns of international capital flows and the abilities of government to manage them effectively. The case studies are tied together by two broad themes: (1) the determinants and effects of international capital, and (2) policy-makers' management of these flows. The cases approach these themes by exploring institutional detail in deep local context. The cases expose students to recent key events that have shaped the way economists think about these subjects. The events covered have a clear global perspective as the cases are set in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, as well as the United States. The cases also cover events that occurred during the last three decades as not only do they affect the business environment that managers face today but they also hold important lessons. An important feature the cases reveal is the cyclical nature of international capital flows. Global Capital and National Institutions: Crisis and Choice in the International Financial Architecture is composed of three intellectual segments: (1) Determinants and Effects of International Capital Flows, (2) Policies and Strategies for Harnessing the Benefits of Financial Globalization, and (3) Challenges and Policies of Large Economies. Chapter I presents a detailed overview of the cases and readings in the module and relates the cases included to the main patterns of international capital flows in the last thirty years. Finally, the chapter also presents the key insights from the field of international economics covered in the cases as well as the current state of debate among policy-makers.

An Exploration of the Japanese Slowdown during the 1990s

Book Chapter in Japan's Bubble, Deflation and Long-term Stagnation

Comin, Diego A
March 2009

Why was the 1990s a lost decade for Japan? How is it possible that the Japanese economy stagnated for a decade if none of the shocks that arguably hit the economy seemed to have persisted for much more than three years or so? In this paper I show that the endogenous development and adoption of technologies can propagate these shocks, making their effect much more persistent. When feeding the markup shocks observed in Japan during the early 1990s, the model is able to generate time series for output, TFP, employment, consumption, and investment that track closely the actual data. In particular, the productivity slowdown in the model is as protracted as in the data. Reassuringly, I also find evidence that, as predicted by the model, the speed of technology diffusion slowed down in Japan during the 1990s and R&D expenditures also stopped growing.

Facts and Fallacies about U.S. FDI in China

Book Chapter in China's Growing Role in World Trade

Branstetter, Lee, and C. Fritz Foley
March 2009

Despite the rapid expansion of U.S.-China trade ties, the increase in U.S. FDI in China, and the expanding amount of economic research exploring these developments, a number of misconceptions distort the popular understanding of U.S. multinationals in China. In this paper, we seek to correct four common misunderstandings by providing a statistical portrait of several aspects of U.S. affiliate activity in the country and placing this activity in its appropriate economic context.

Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms As Regulators

Boudreau, Kevin J., and Andrei Hagiu
February 2009

This chapter provides a basic conceptual framework for interpreting non-price instruments used by multi-sided platforms (MSPs) by analogizing MSPs as "private regulators" who regulate access to and interactions around the platform. We present evidence on Facebook, TopCoder, Roppongi Hills, and Harvard Business School to document the "regulatory" role played by MSPs. We find MSPs use nuanced combinations of legal, technological, informational, and other instruments (including price-setting) to implement desired outcomes. Non-price instruments were very much at the core of MSP strategies.

Platforms, Markets and Innovation

Chinese General Management: Tsinghua-Harvard Text and Cases

McFarlan, F. Warren, and Guoqing Chen
January 2009

This is a text and case book for the Chinese business higher education market. It is a combination of seven chapters (six original ones) covering China's financial markets, governance in the global information economy, control, operations and supply-chain management, marketing management, and governance. These chapters are combined with seventeen field cases written in China by members of the HBS/Tsinghua faculty, which illustrate the complexity of problems facing Chinese general managers. This book is a direct outgrowth of the combined work done by HBS and Tsinghua's School of Economics and Management over the past three years in developing its "Senior Executive Program for China."

2008

China and the World: Internationalization, Internalization, Externalization

Kirby, William C., and Dayong Niu
September 2008

Beijing: Hebei People's Press, 2007

Southeast Asia and the Political Economy of Development

Book Chapter in Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis edited by Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater and Tuong Vu

Abrami, Regina M. and Richard Doner
June 2008

This chapter assesses the contribution of contemporary qualitative research on Southeast Asia to the field of political economy. Specifically, we examine Southeast Asia research on the origins of economic institutions and their influence on economic performance. We show how similar institutions vary in their impact and are influenced by local contexts. After providing a critical review of Southeast Asia-related research on the political economy of development, the chapter identifies how social and political institutions shaped the region's market-based economies, the origins of these institutional arrangements, and the origins and impact of institutions from the less-studied post-socialist economies, especially Vietnam.

Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, forthcoming

Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours

Khanna, Tarun
January 2008

China and India, occupied by a third of the world's population, are undergoing social and economic revolutions that are capturing the best minds and money of Western business. This book presents a new view of development, centered around entrepreneurial behavior by both public and private sectors. The author charts China's and India's trajectories of development-where they overlap and complement each other, and where they diverge and compete with one another. There are opportunities for Western companies to participate in this development. This book should serve as an excellent beginning of that participation. Through a series of intriguing comparisons, Khanna probes the salient, practical differences between China and India in such areas as information and transparency, the roles of capital and talent, public and private property rights, social constraints on market forces, attitudes toward expatriates abroad and foreigners at home, entrepreneurial and corporate opportunities, and the importance of urban and rural communities. The differences suggest how these two countries will develop further, how their paths will cross and diverge, what they can learn from and contribute to each other, and, ultimately, how they will reshape the world around them in terms of business, politics, and society at large.

Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2008

2007

Making Foreign Investment Safe: Property Rights and National Sovereignty

Wells, Louis T.
September 2007

New York: Oxford University Press, 2007

How Countries Compete: Strategy, Structure, and Government in the Global Economy

Vietor, Richard H.K.
March 2007

As the world globalizes, countries compete for the markets, technologies, and skills needed to raise their standards of living. These strategies can make--or break--the government's efforts to drive and sustain growth. In "How Countries Compete," Richard Vietor sheds light on ways in which governments can best set direction and provide a healthy climate for a nation's economic development and profitable private enterprise. Drawing on history, economic analysis, and interviews with executives and officials around the globe, Vietor provides concentrated examinations of different approaches to government facilitation of development. Individual chapters focus on the unique social, economic, cultural, and historical forces that shape governments' approach to economic growth. Countries discussed include: China, India, Japan, Singapore, the United States, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. Vietor challenges the widespread notion that, in market-driven economies such as the United States, a strong government can only hinder business success. A provocative resource, "How Countries Compete" offers potent insights into how the business environment has evolved in crucial nations--and what its trajectory might look like in the future.

Boston: Harvard Business School Press