Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy Casebook

Book excerpt: All managers face a business environment where international and macroeconomic phenomena matter. Understanding the genesis of financial and currency crises, stock market booms and busts, and social and labor unrest is a crucial aspect in making informed managerial decisions. Adverse macroeconomic phenomena can have a catastrophic impact on firm performance ? witness the strong companies destroyed by the Mexican tequila crisis. Yet, at the same time, such episodes also create business opportunities ? and not just for the hedge funds and speculators that profit from them. Managers that have and use a coherent framework for analyzing these phenomena will enjoy a competitive advantage. This book presents a series of case studies taught in the Harvard Business School course ?Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy.? The course addresses the opportunities created by the emergence of a global economy and proposes strategies for managing the risks that globalization entails.