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Skip to Main Content Cold Call A podcast featuring faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart. Subscribe on iTunes 29 Sep...
- March 2021
- Case
Revlon: Surviving Covid-19
By: Kristin Mugford and Sarah Gulick
In October 2020, Revlon faced a crossroads. While it had been struggling with high levels of debt before COVID-19, the pandemic had caused it to go further into debt. Unlike other financial crises, many consumers had stopped buying skincare or cosmetics, and sales of...
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- February 2021
- Case
Barbarians at the Gate or Turnaround Gurus? Private Equity and the Rise of the LBO
By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko
During the 1980s, leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and the private equity (PE) firms responsible for carrying them out revolutionized both investment and management in the U.S. Between 1980 and 1989, buyout activity in the U.S. surged from $1 billion per year to $60 billion....
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Keywords:
Leveraged Buyouts;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Business Conglomerates;
Restructuring;
Borrowing and Debt;
Private Equity;
Bonds;
Investment Return;
Institutional Investing;
Profit Sharing;
Business History;
Management Style;
Private Ownership;
Performance Effectiveness;
Value Creation;
Financial Services Industry;
United States
- 2021
- Working Paper
The Effects of Local Government Financial Distress: Evidence from Toxic Loans
By: Boris Vallée and Julien Sauvagnat
We examine the response from both local governments and their voters to a sudden increase in public debt burden. We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in the ex post cost of toxic loans, a notorious financial innovation adopted by a large number of local governments....
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- January 2021
- Supplement
Aster DM Healthcare: Budget Exercise
By: V.G. Narayanan and Amy Klopfenstein
In April 2020, Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, a network of clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies in the Middle East and India, must create her company’s budget for the 2021 fiscal year in light of the onset of Covid-19. The pandemic had...
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Keywords:
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Judgments;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Cost vs Benefits;
Finance;
Borrowing and Debt;
Financial Institutions;
Banks and Banking;
Financial Condition;
Financial Liquidity;
Accounting;
Budgets and Budgeting;
Management;
Crisis Management;
Health Pandemics;
Health Industry;
Asia;
India;
United Arab Emirates;
Dubai
- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Juno (A): Leveraging Student Power
By: Joshua Schwartzstein, Kathleen L. McGinn and Amy Klopfenstein
In March 2020, Chris Abkarians and Nikhil Agarwal were in the midst of preparing the annual auction for their student loan assistance startup, Juno. Both current MBA students at Harvard Business School, the duo founded Juno in 2018 to leverage student bargaining power...
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Keywords:
Decision Making;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Decisions;
Cost vs Benefits;
Education;
Higher Education;
Finance;
Borrowing and Debt;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Alignment;
Negotiation;
Agreements and Arrangements;
Negotiation Participants;
Negotiation Process;
Negotiation Tactics;
Negotiation Deal;
Negotiation Offer;
Negotiation Types;
Financial Services Industry;
Education Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
Massachusetts;
Boston
- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Supplement
Juno (B): Leveraging Student Power
By: Joshua Schwartzstein, Kathleen L. McGinn and Amy Klopfenstein
In March 2020, Juno co-founders Chris Abkarians and Nikhil Agarwal decided to pitch banks in anticipation of their annual auction while negotiating directly with private lender Eager. Responses from the majority of private lenders—including Juno’s 2019 partner—were not...
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Keywords:
Decision Making;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Decisions;
Cost vs Benefits;
Judgments;
Education;
Higher Education;
Finance;
Borrowing and Debt;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Alignment;
Negotiation;
Negotiation Deal;
Negotiation Offer;
Negotiation Participants;
Negotiation Process;
Negotiation Types;
Financial Services Industry;
Education Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
Massachusetts;
Boston
- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Supplement
Juno (C): Leveraging Student Power
By: Joshua Schwartzstein, Kathleen L. McGinn and Amy Klopfenstein
In May 2020, Juno co-founders Chris Abkarians and Nikhil Agarwal decided to hold the annual auction for their student loan assistance startup. Five lenders submitted bids, and the co-founders ultimately opted to select Eager Bank as their partner for the 2020-2021...
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Keywords:
Decision Making;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Decisions;
Cost vs Benefits;
Judgments;
Education;
Higher Education;
Finance;
Borrowing and Debt;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Alignment;
Negotiation;
Agreements and Arrangements;
Negotiation Deal;
Negotiation Offer;
Negotiation Participants;
Negotiation Process;
Negotiation Tactics;
Negotiation Types;
Financial Services Industry;
Education Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
Massachusetts;
Boston
- 2021
- Working Paper
No-fault Default, Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and Financial Institutions
By: Robert C. Merton and Richard T. Thakor
This paper analyzes the costs and benefits of a no-fault-default debt structure as an alternative to the typical bankruptcy process. We show that the deadweight costs of bankruptcy can be avoided or substantially reduced through no-fault-default debt, which permits a...
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- November 2020 (Revised February 2021)
- Case
Integrating Beam Suntory (A)
By: David G. Fubini, Rawi Abdelal and David Lane
The spring 2014 acquisition of U.S. alcoholic spirits maker Beam Inc. by Japan’s Suntory Holdings vaulted Suntory from 15th to third-largest international spirits company in the world. Yet Suntory had borrowed nearly the entire $16 billion purchase price, and relied on...
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Keywords:
Family Business;
Communication;
Borrowing and Debt;
Globalization;
Corporate Governance;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Retention;
Leadership;
Supply Chain;
Organizational Structure;
Ownership;
Relationships;
Conflict and Resolution;
Integration;
Value Creation;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Japan;
United States;
Chicago
- November 2020
- Supplement
Integrating Beam Suntory (B)
By: David G. Fubini, Rawi Abdelal and David Lane
Supplements (A) case: The spring 2014 acquisition of U.S. alcoholic spirits maker Beam Inc. by Japan’s Suntory Holdings vaulted Suntory from 15th to third-largest international spirits company in the world. Yet Suntory had borrowed nearly the entire $16 billion...
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Keywords:
Family Business;
Communication;
Borrowing and Debt;
Globalization;
Corporate Governance;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Retention;
Leadership;
Supply Chain;
Organizational Structure;
Ownership;
Relationships;
Conflict and Resolution;
Integration;
Value Creation;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Japan;
United States;
Chicago
- 2020
- Working Paper
'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt
By: Grant E. Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Stephen Bush, Zoe Chance and Michael I. Norton
Many consumers struggle to repay their credit card debt, in part because paying small portions of large bills often feels fruitless. We introduce a novel credit card payment option—repayment-by-purchase—and examine its influence on both the amount consumers’ repay and...
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- October 2020
- Article
Corporate Legal Structure and Bank Loan Spread
This study examines how a corporate legal structure may affect borrowing costs. Corporate legal structure refers to the legal fragmentation of a firm into multiple, separately incorporated entities. This fragmentation is bound to be a factor when lenders determine the...
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- 2020
- Chapter
Reserve Accumulation, Sovereign Debt, and Exchange Rate Policy
By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk
In the past decade, foreign participation in local-currency bond markets in emerging countries increased dramatically. Additionally, emerging countries are increasingly deviating from inflation targeting regimes, managing their exchange rate and engaging in...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Corporate Leadership and Creditor Recovery Rates: Evidence from Executive Gender
By: Clarissa Hauptmann, Syrena Shirley and Anywhere Sikochi
We examine the relationship between the gender of executives and corporate creditor recovery rates. Using 2,288 defaulted debt instruments, we find that female executives are associated with higher creditor recovery rates. Our findings are robust to tests that correct...
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- November 2019
- Case
Floating the Exchange Rate: In Pursuit of the Chinese Dream
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
In the decades following 2005, China faced significant financial challenges. Inflation spiraled upwards and China’s economy stagnated in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. The country’s leaders took an interventionist approach to weather the storm, controlling...
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- 2019
- Working Paper
Undisclosed Debt Sustainability
By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk
Over the past decade, non–Paris Club creditors, notably China, have become an important source of financing for low- and middle-income countries. In contrast with typical sovereign debt, these lending arrangements are not public, and other creditors have no information...
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- June 2019
- Article
Consequences of Debt Forgiveness: Strategic Default Contagion and Lender Learning
I use a unique data set of loans to small business owners to examine whether lenders face adverse consequences when they grant debt forgiveness to borrowers. I provide evidence consistent with borrowers communicating their debt forgiveness to other borrowers, who then...
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- June 2019
- Article
Debt Traps? Market Vendors and Moneylender Debt in India and the Philippines
By: Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan and Benjamin Roth
A debt trap occurs when someone takes on a high-interest rate loan and is barely able to pay back the interest, and thus perpetually finds themselves in debt (often by refinancing). Studying such practices is important for understanding financial decision-making of...
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Keywords:
Borrowing and Debt;
Household;
Personal Finance;
Decision Making;
Behavior;
India;
Philippines
- June 2019
- Article
Debt Redemption and Reserve Accumulation
By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk
In the past decade, foreign participation in local-currency bond markets in emerging countries increased dramatically. We revisit sovereign debt sustainability under the assumptions that countries can accumulate reserves and borrow internationally using their own...
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- May 2019
- Article
Corporate Debt, Firm Size and Financial Fragility in Emerging Markets
By: Laura Alfaro, Gonzalo Asis, Anusha Chari and Ugo Panizza
The post-Global Financial Crisis period shows a surge in corporate leverage in emerging markets and a number of countries with deteriorated corporate financial fragility indicators (Altman’s Z-score). Firm size plays a critical role in the relationship between...
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