News & Highlights

  • MAY 2023
  • EVENT

Professor Ashley V. Whillans on “Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life”

On May 11, the HBS Asia-Pacific Research Center hosted a Happiness Talk Series featuring HBS Professor Ashley V. Whillans’ book Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life. Yi Cai, Committee Member, HBS Club of Shanghai and Patient Digital Health Business Lead at Viatris China, discussed the strategies that will help people make the shift to time-smart living and, in the process, build a happier, more fulfilling life with Professor Ashley V. Whillans. Approximately 120 Harvard alumni and friends joined the event.
  • APRIL 2023
  • EVENT

6th Annual HBS Women's Leadership Forum: “Facing the Glass Cliff: Women's Leadership in Crisis”

On April 21, 2023, the Harvard Center Shanghai and Harvard Business Review China successfully organized the 6th Annual HBS Women’s Leadership Forum. With the theme “Facing the Glass Cliff: Women's Leadership in Crisis,” we aimed to explore the advantages and responsibilities of female leaders in the time of crises, as well as the role of women in shaping breakthroughs and innovations for the future. More than 100 people were in attendance.
  • MARCH 2023
  • EVENT

ChatGPT Conversation between Professor Feng Zhu and Kunlun Tech CEO Han Fang

In March, Harvard Center Shanghai, in collaboration with HBS Club of Shanghai, hosted a ChatGPT discussion featuring Professor Feng Zhu and Kunlun Tech CEO, Han Fan. The event shed light on the opportunities and challenges brought by ChatGPT, the new business models, and the future development of AI in China. The event was attended by over 70 Harvard alumni and friends.
  • FEBRUARY 2023
  • EVENT

Alumni Events in Seoul, Singapore, Jakarta, and Manila with Professor Paul Gompers on his New Book

In February, the Asia-Pacific Research Center collaborated with the Harvard Business School Clubs of Korea and Singapore, and the Harvard Clubs of Indonesia and the Philippines to host alumni events in Seoul, Singapore, Jakarta, and Manila. Professor Paul Gompers presented his book, Advanced Introduction to Private Equity, to HBS alumni and supporters. Co-written with the University of Chicago Professor Steven A. Kaplan, the book provides valuable insights on private equity for academics, students, young professionals, and industry veterans. The event was attended by a significant number of Harvard alumni and friends.

New Research on the Region

  • October 2023
  • Article
  • Review of Financial Studies

Stock Market Stimulus

By: Robin Greenwood, Toomas Laarits and Jeffrey Wurgler

We study the stock market effects of the arrival of the three rounds of “stimulus checks” to U.S. taxpayers and the single round of direct payments to Hong Kong citizens. The first two rounds of U.S. checks appear to have increased retail buying and share prices of retail-dominated portfolios. The Hong Kong payments increased overall turnover and share prices on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. We cannot rule out that these price effects were permanent. The findings raise novel questions about the role of fiscal stimulus in the stock market.

  • August 2023
  • Case

Self-Driving Cars and the Ethics of Autonomy

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Tom Quinn

As autonomy became a more significant part of modern life – most notably in autonomous vehicles (AVs), such as Teslas – ethical debates about whether and how to impart ethics to machines heated up. Utilitarians pointed out that autonomous vehicles crashed much less often than human-driven cars, making their adoption a net positive in terms of lives saved; deontologists worried about the implications of programming a car to swerve to kill its passengers instead of pedestrians, for example, among other high-stakes “trolley problems.” Ethical issues abounded across different levels of automation and across borders. How should AVs be programmed for complex, uncertain, ethically challenging situations? Was there anything innately human about moral reasoning, or could companies imbue AVs with sound ethical frameworks?

  • August 2023
  • Teaching Material

Kunshan, Incorporated: The Making of China’s Richest Town

By: William C. Kirby and Noah B. Truwit

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 313-103. The case is designed to give the students an understanding of the local Chinese entrepreneurial state and how foreign and Chinese firms have worked with it to create China’s richest small city. The major themes are—local state entrepreneurship and state-led capitalism without SOEs, Party stewardship of private economic development, ownership and compensation of land, the emergence and centrality of development zones, and the alignment of foreign and local interests (e.g., Taiwan and Duke University).

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Shanghai Staff

Nancy Dai
Managing Director and Executive Director, Harvard Center Shanghai; Executive Director, Asia-Pacific Research Center
→ Biography
Shu Lin
Senior Researcher
Tracy Qin
Assistant Manager for Administration
Sia Zhou
Senior Program Coordinator

Singapore Staff

Adina Wong
Assistant Director, Research

Hong Kong Staff

Billy Chan
Researcher
Kitty Chow
Executive Secretary
Dawn Lau
Associate Director
Connie Yeung
Assistant Director, Administration