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• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2020

  Generation Investment Management

  Vikram S. Gandhi and Sarah Mehta

  In January 2020, sustainable investment firm Generation Investment Management (Generation), was debating whether to terminate coverage of John Deere, one of its 47 portfolio companies. Generation believed that the type of mechanized agriculture enabled by John Deere’s products was a vital tool for improving crop yield and farm productivity, and for feeding the world’s growing population at scale. As time had passed, however, Generation’s partners and analysts had grown increasingly concerned about the broader impacts of agriculture, which accounted for up to 90% of freshwater consumption and generated about 24% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. These concerns, coupled with emerging consumer trends that might reduce long-term demand for John Deere’s products, had led Generation to consider removing the company from its focus list of potential portfolio companies.

  Keywords: Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Finance; Equity; Governance; Private Equity; Public Equity; Financial Markets; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Institutional Investing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom; England; London;

  Citation:

  Gandhi, Vikram S., and Sarah Mehta. "Generation Investment Management." Harvard Business School Case 820-033, March 2020.  View Details

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• Article | World Development | March 2020

  A Revolution in Economics? It's Just Getting Started...

  Shawn A. Cole, William Pariente and Anja Sautmann

  We have each experienced thrills and pain while supporting the mission of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, which facilitated many of the experiments described in the 2019 Nobel Prize citation. J-PAL in many ways seeks to fulfill what Angrist and Pischke called the “Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics.” Even though (or perhaps because) we have conducted many RCTs, we share many of the concerns that critics have highlighted: high cost, long time lags, and limits to generalizability. Yet, we are quite optimistic that the impact and reach of experimental work in economics and policy will only grow. We see two complementary developments which will make RCTs cheaper, faster, larger, and ultimately substantially more insightful. First, a new research literature seeks to improve the design of experiments, and what we can learn from them, through improved methodologies, meta-analyses, and improved understanding of heterogeneity. Second, the rise of administrative data rapidly opens new frontiers of investigation, in particular the possibility of ‘closed-loop’ data environments, in which interventions can be delivered and evaluated digitally, often on very large samples, and often iteratively.

  Keywords: randomized control trials; Economics; Research; Innovation and Invention;

  Citation:

  Cole, Shawn A., William Pariente, and Anja Sautmann. "A Revolution in Economics? It's Just Getting Started..." Art. 104849. World Development 127 (March 2020).  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2018 (Revised February 2020)

  Financial Inclusion at Omidyar Network

  Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Lindsay Reimers Brumme, James Barnett, Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Lindsay Reimers Brumme and James Barnett

  A team of investors at Omidyar Network explore two different investment possibilities in the budding financial inclusion space using their investment framework to consider capital alternatives available for both investments, each of which carries highly divergent financial and impact potential.

  Keywords: impact investing; Micro Finance; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Portfolio; Microfinance; Africa; Philippines;

  Citation:

  Gandhi, Vikram S., Caitlin Lindsay Reimers Brumme, and James Barnett. "Financial Inclusion at Omidyar Network." Harvard Business School Case 318-004, January 2018. (Revised February 2020.)  View Details

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