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• Background Note | HBS Case Collection | February 2020 (Revised June 2020)

  China Commerce 2020

  William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and Nathaniel Schwalb

  China's digital commerce platforms engage billions of consumers daily across a number of routine tasks from banking, retail purchases, travel, gaming, payments, and more. These platforms are the most sophisticated/informed and highest performing/capable in the world. While often business leaders refer to Amazon as a leader in digital exchange, this case highlights the vital areas where the Chinese platforms lead. Of special note is the merging of the retailers' on and offline capabilities into a unified consumer experience. Retailers like Walmart China have fundamentally altered their business model and federated with these Chinese platforms to build a better consumer experience, sell more, and manage costs and investment. While not all of these practices are globalizing, the non-China platforms are copying them fast to reach the new global standards. Leaders need to be informed and respond.

  Keywords: e-commerce; platforms; Strategy; Leadership; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; China;

  Citation:

  Kerr, William R., Daniel O'Connor, and Nathaniel Schwalb. "China Commerce 2020." Harvard Business School Background Note 820-014, February 2020. (Revised June 2020.)  View Details

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• Article | Review of Economic Studies | May 2020

  How Quantitative Easing Works: Evidence on the Refinancing Channel

  Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani and Christopher Palmer

  We document the transmission of large-scale asset purchases by the Federal Reserve to the real economy using rich borrower-linked mortgage-market data and an identification strategy based on mortgage market segmentation. We find that central bank QE1 MBS purchases substantially increased refinancing activity, reduced interest payments for refinancing households, led to a boom in equity extraction, and increased aggregate consumption. Relative to QE-ineligible jumbo mortgages, QE-eligible conforming mortgage interest rates fell by an additional 40 bp and refinancing volumes increased by an additional 56% during QE1. We estimate that households refinancing during QE1 increased their durable consumption by 12%. Our results highlight that the transmission of unconventional monetary policy to the real economy depends crucially on the composition of assets purchased and the degree of segmentation in the market.

  Keywords: monetary policy; MBS; quantitative easing; LSAP; refinancing; deleveraging; HARP; GSE; Central Banking; Global Range; Financing and Loans; Credit; United States;

  Citation:

  Di Maggio, Marco, Amir Kermani, and Christopher Palmer. "How Quantitative Easing Works: Evidence on the Refinancing Channel." Review of Economic Studies 87, no. 3 (May 2020): 1498–1528.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2018 (Revised April 2020)

  Fluidity: The Tokenization of Real Estate Assets

  Marco Di Maggio, David Lane and Susie Ma

  In December 2018, the blockchain startup Fluidity was about to participate in its first tokenization deal, which would create digital access to property rights in a 12-unit Manhattan condominium complex. The deal was proof-of-concept for Fluidity, which hoped to develop a business digitizing securities issuance for other real estate assets on the basis of its technical facility with blockchain technology, and in conjunction with its broker-dealer partner, Propellr. A successful transaction would only prompt larger and more urgent strategic questions, however. Among them was the appropriate revenue model for Fluidity—whether to grow by providing its technical services to broker-dealers, by going into tokenized securities issuance, or by harnessing its trading technology to facilitate a secondary market in tokenized securities.

  Keywords: Blockchain; tokenization; data security; revenue model; Finance; Technological Innovation; Strategy;

  Citation:

  Di Maggio, Marco, David Lane, and Susie Ma. "Fluidity: The Tokenization of Real Estate Assets." Harvard Business School Case 219-057, December 2018. (Revised April 2020.)  View Details

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