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- February 2021
- Article
Do Household Wealth Shocks Affect Productivity? Evidence from Innovative Workers During the Great Recession
By: S. Bernstein, T. McQuade and R. Townsend
We investigate how the deterioration of household balance sheets affects worker productivity, and, in turn, economic downturns. Specifically, we compare the output of innovative workers who experienced differential declines in housing wealth during the financial crisis...
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- November 2020
- Case
Holaluz: Taking on the Spanish Energy Market
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg, Elena Corsi and Emer Moloney
In 2020, the three cofounders of Holaluz, a newcomer to Spain’s electricity retail market, is preparing to launch a new offering: installing and managing solar panels on households' roofs at no extra cost for the consumer, who would still benefit from the energy...
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- November 2020
- Article
Accelerator or Brake? Cash for Clunkers, Household Liquidity, and Aggregate Demand
By: Daniel Green, Brian Melzer, Jonathan Parker and Arcenis Rojas
This paper evaluates the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) by comparing the vehicle purchases and disposals of households with eligible "clunkers" to those of households with similar, but ineligible, vehicles. CARS caused roughly 500,000 purchases during the program...
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Keywords:
Automobiles;
Purchasing;
Government Incentives;
household;
Financial Liquidity;
Income;
Behavior
- 2020
- Working Paper
Uncovering Inequalities in Time-Use and Well-Being during COVID-19: A Multi-Country Investigation
By: Laura M. Giurge, Ayse Yemiscigil, Joseph Sherlock and Ashley V. Whillans
The COVID-19 global pandemic continues to alter how people spend their time, with possible downstream consequences for subjective well-being. Using diverse samples from the United States, Canada, Denmark, Brazil, and Spain (n = 30,018) and following a preregistered...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
The Pass-Through of Uncertainty Shocks to Households
By: Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani, Rodney Ramcharan, Vincent Yao and Edison Yu
Using new employer-employee matched data, this paper investigates the impact of uncertainty, as measured by idiosyncratic stock market volatility, on individual outcomes. We find that firms provide at best partial insurance to their workers. An increase in firm-level...
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Keywords:
Employment Risk;
Consumption;
Employment;
Risk And Uncertainty;
Insurance;
household;
Spending
- July 28, 2020
- Article
Economic Vulnerability of Households with Essential Workers
By: Grace McCormack, Christopher Avery, Ariella Kahn-Lang Spitzer and Amitabh Chandra
The label of “essential worker” reflects society’s needs but does not mean that society has compensated those workers for additional risks incurred on the job during the current pandemic. When an essential worker contracts severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Optimal Illiquidity
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We calculate the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and present bias (Amador, Werning, and Angeletos 2006). The government chooses mandatory contributions to respective spending/savings accounts, each with a...
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- 2020
- Chapter
Building Emergency Savings Through Employer-Sponsored Rainy-Day Savings Accounts
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, J. Mark Iwry, David C. John, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Roughly half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. When financial shocks occur during their working life, many of these households tap into their retirement savings accounts. We explore the practical considerations and challenges associated with helping households...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Predictable Financial Crises
Using historical data on post-war financial crises around the world, we show that crises are
substantially predictable. The combination of rapid credit and asset price growth over the prior
three years, whether in the nonfinancial business or the household sector, is...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Inflation with COVID Consumption Baskets
By: Alberto Cavallo
The COVID-19 Pandemic has led to changes in expenditure patterns that can introduce significant bias in the measurement of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation. I use publicly-available data on credit and debit card transactions to update the official CPI weights and...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Why is Dollar Debt Cheaper? Evidence from Peru
By: Victoria Ivashina, Bryan Gutiérrez and Juliana Salomao
In emerging markets, a significant share of corporate loans are denominated in dollars. Using novel data that enables us to see currency and the cost of credit, in addition to several other transaction-level characteristics, we re-examine the reasons behind dollar...
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- May 2020
- Article
How Quantitative Easing Works: Evidence on the Refinancing Channel
By: 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...
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Keywords:
Monetary Policy;
Mbs;
Quantitative Easing;
Lsap;
Refinancing;
Deleveraging;
Harp;
Gse;
Central Banking;
Global Range;
Financing And Loans;
Credit;
United States
- May 2020
- Article
Negotiating a Better Future: How Interpersonal Skills Facilitate Inter-Generational Investment
By: Nava Ashraf, Natalie Bau, Corinne Low and Kathleen McGinn
Using a randomized control trial, we examine whether offering adolescent girls nonmaterial resources—specifically, negotiation skills—can improve educational outcomes in a low-income country. In so doing, we provide the first evidence on the effects of an intervention...
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- February 2020
- Case
Rotoplas: Bringing More and Better Water
By: John D. Macomber and Carla Larangeira
Private companies were being turned to for potable water in the world’s megacities due to impacts of climate change including droughts and flooding. Mexico City had endured several water-related crises, with its population suffering from floods, droughts, water...
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- December 2019
- Case
Noiler
By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred
In 2019, Nigerian entrepreneur Dr. Ayoola (Ayo) Oduntan is accelerating distribution of Noiler, a genetically optimized breed of poultry, to smallholder farmers across Nigeria. The bird was bred to be productive as a source of both meat and eggs and to thrive in the...
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- 2019
- Working Paper
Thinking Outside the Box (12): The Benefits of Increased Transparency in Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance for the 180 Million Insured
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman
Economists have long noted that the tax exclusion of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) caused workers to purchase health plans that differ in price and other characteristics from those they would otherwise choose for themselves. We explore the short-term and long-term...
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- November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Hormel Foods
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
In 2019, CEO Jim Snee is weighing how to shape the image of Hormel Foods, one of the largest U.S. meat and food companies, at a time when the industry faces unprecedented scrutiny. Based in the small town of Austin, Minnesota, the nearly 130-year-old firm is best known...
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- September 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Bill Connors and The Farm, a Comcast NBCUniversal Innovation Hub (Powered by Boomtown)
By: Linda A. Hill and Eric Mankin
In 2017, Bill Connors, the President of Comcast’s Central Division, launched a startup accelerator in Comcast’s new Atlanta Regional headquarters. Comcast was America's largest cable and internet service provider, having built a profitable business bundling television...
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- September 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Burunda Prince at The Farm, a Comcast NBCUniversal Innovation Hub (Powered by Boomtown)
By: Linda A. Hill, Eric Mankin and Emily Tedards
After a successful inaugural year, Burunda Prince, the Managing Director of Comcast’s startup business accelerator The Farm, was getting ready for an eventful 2019. Comcast was America's largest cable and internet service provider, having built a profitable business...
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Keywords:
Innovation;
Accelerator;
Entrepreneur;
Startup;
Outsourcing;
Hiring;
Talent;
Culture;
Ecosystem;
Digital;
Women;
African Americans;
Leadership;
Innovation And Invention;
Entrepreneurship;
Business Startups;
Management;
Diversity;
Selection And Staffing;
Organizational Culture;
Media;
Entertainment;
Transformation;
Atlanta
- September 2019
- Technical Note
Care Economy in the U.S. (Primer)
By: Joseph B. Fuller, William R. Kerr, Manjari Raman and Carl Kreitzberg
This case describes how caregiving responsibilities influence American employees, firms, and the broader economy. It details how sociodemographic trends in the late 20th century transformed the way that Americans balance their personal and professional lives, analyzing...
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