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Filter Results: (10) New research on trade from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including Brexit, and analysis of the world economy's structural imbalance.
Page 1 of 10 Results

Are Free Trade and Free Markets Quaint Ideas From the Past?


SUMMING UP: Free trade and free markets are great concepts but are often corrupted by politics, globalization, and the relative power of consumers and workers, our readers suggest. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted. Should Intellectual Property be Protected in International Trade?


SUMMING UP To do business in China, American firms often lose some of their intellectual property. James Heskett's readers think that price is too high. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted. 

The world's economies are interconnected by globalization, which makes threats of tariff wars doubly dangerous, says Willy Shih. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted. Op-Ed: Trump’s Tariffs Could Harm Allies as Much as Opponents


President Trump's duties on steel and aluminum could produce immediate political gain but long-term economic pain for some American industries and global allies, says Dante Roscini. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted. Trade Creditors' Information Advantage

by Victoria Ivashina and Benjamin Iverson

Trade credit represents about a quarter of the liabilities of US firms. There are several theories explaining this fact. This study reexamines whether suppliers hold private information about their trade partners, by analyzing their behavior in bankruptcy.



SUMMING UP. It's better for the United States if China is an economic ally rather than a competitor for world trade leadership, James Heskett's readers conclude. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Why Brexit is a Big Deal

by John Quelch

The consequences of Britain's vote to leave the European Union will be far-reaching. John Quelch shares his thoughts on the ramifications of Brexit. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The ‘Mother of Fair Trade’ was an Unabashed Price Protectionist


Historian Laura Phillips Sawyer unearths the story of little-known drug store owner Edna Gleason who, in a man’s world, helped fire a progressive movement to protect small-business owners from price-slashing chains. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Coffee Economy That Bloomed Out of Nowhere


How did a world-class coffee region arise out of a land once decimated by smallpox and measles? Casey Lurtz discusses the rise of a coffee economy in a desolate region of Mexico. Open for comment; 4 Comment(s) posted. The End of Chimerica

by Niall Ferguson & Moritz Schularick

For the better part of the past decade, the world economy has been dominated by a unique geoeconomic constellation that the authors call "Chimerica": a world economic order that combined Chinese export-led development with U.S. overconsumption on the basis of a financial marriage between the world's sole superpower and its most likely future rival. For China, the key attraction of the relationship was its potential to propel the Chinese economy forward by means of export-led growth. For the United States, Chimerica meant being able to consume more, save less, and still maintain low interest rates and a stable rate of investment. Yet, like many another marriage between a saver and a spender, Chimerica was not destined to last. In this paper, economic historians Niall Ferguson of HBS and Moritz Schularick of Freie Universität Berlin consider the problem of global imbalances and try to set events in a longer-term perspective. Key concepts include: The financial crisis of 2007-2009 marks the beginning of the end of the Chimerican marriage of convenience. The end of Chimerica is desirable, though the divorce needs to be amicable and its costs kept down. Currency adjustments must become a top priority in the international political debate. The world economy's key structural imbalance is that the second-biggest economy in the world has pegged its currency to that of the largest economy at a strongly undervalued exchange rate. A policy of Sino-American competitive devaluation at the expense of U.S. allies in Europe and Japan is politically shortsighted and dangerous for global trade. A renminbi revaluation would help the reorientation of the U.S. economy and potentially allow a quicker exit from the extreme policies currently being implemented by the Fed and the Treasury, which carry uncertain risks for the inflation outlook, global liquidity, and capital flows. A renminbi revaluation would also solve at a stroke the problem of China's excessively large international reserves and dollar exposure. Historically, periodic exchange rate revaluation has been the hallmark of economic success. It is time for China—and its currency—to step up. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.