Business, Government & the International Economy
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- May 2022
- Case
TikTok and National Security: Investment in an Age of Data Sovereignty?
By: Jeremy Friedman, Sarah Bauerle Danzman and David LaneThis case covers TikTok’s purchase of Musical.ly and the reaction of the United States government, including the review of the purchase by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the reaction of the presidential administration of Donald Trump. The case delves into the mechanics of CFIUS’ legal mandate and its review process, in order to shed light on how the United States views data security in the context of rising geopolitical tensions, particularly with China and Russia. The case also looks at how China and Russia, among others, are seeking to establish their own versions of “internet sovereignty” in order to expand their domestic control and international influence. The case asks how these countervailing forces impact a company such as TikTok that seeks to become a global platform and how it can respond.
- May 2022
- Case
TikTok and National Security: Investment in an Age of Data Sovereignty?
By: Jeremy Friedman, Sarah Bauerle Danzman and David LaneThis case covers TikTok’s purchase of Musical.ly and the reaction of the United States government, including the review of the purchase by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the reaction of the presidential administration of Donald Trump. The case delves into the mechanics of CFIUS’ legal mandate and its review...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Small Campaign Donors
By: Laurent Bouton, Julia Cagé, Edgard Dewitte and Vincent PonsIn this paper, we study the characteristics and behavior of small donors, and compare them to those of large donors. We first build a novel dataset including all the 340 million individual contributions reported to the U.S. Federal Election Commission between 2005 and 2020. Due to the particular legal structure of the new online fundraising platforms first used by Democrats (ActBlue) and now Republicans (WinRed), we are able to extract contribution-level information about a majority of the small donations. This allows us to identify “small" donors, i.e. donors who give less than $200 during a two-year electoral cycle to each committee, and to differentiate them from “large" donors. The analysis of this novel dataset delivers several new insights. First, we provide evidence on the growing number of small donors in the U.S. and on the magnitude of their contributions. Second, we find that small donors include more women and more ethnic minorities than large donors—with minorities still under-represented—while they do not differ much in terms of their geographical distribution. Third, using a saturated fixed effects model to explore the determinants of contributions by small and large donors, we find that the closeness of a race,whether the candidate and the donor live in the same district or state, and, to a lesser extent, the ethnic alignment between the donor and the candidate have a positive impact on contributions. We also find that donors contribute more to more extreme candidates. These effects are lower for small donors. Finally, we show that campaign TV ads affect the number and the size of contributions, and more so for small donors.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Small Campaign Donors
By: Laurent Bouton, Julia Cagé, Edgard Dewitte and Vincent PonsIn this paper, we study the characteristics and behavior of small donors, and compare them to those of large donors. We first build a novel dataset including all the 340 million individual contributions reported to the U.S. Federal Election Commission between 2005 and 2020. Due to the particular legal structure of the new online fundraising...
About the Unit
The BGIE Unit conducts research on, and teaches about, the economic, political, social, and legal environment in which business operates. The Unit includes scholars trained in economics, political science, and history; in its work, it draws on perspectives from all three of these disciplines.
The following demonstrates one way of classifying the approaches the Unit takes to learning and teaching.
- The Unit examines the “rules” and policies established by government and other non-business institutions that affect business in the United States.
- The Unit turns to history to understand the origins of today’s business environment as well as some of the alternatives that have emerged from time to time.
- The Unit examines other countries’ business environments and their historical development.
- The BGIE group is deeply interested in the impact of globalization and the way rules are emerging to govern international economic transactions as globalization proceeds.
Recent Publications
Dandelion: Making Geothermal Heat Pumps a Real Option
- May 2022 |
- Teaching Plan |
- Faculty Research
1366 Technologies: Surviving in a Fast Changing World
- May 2022 |
- Teaching Plan |
- Faculty Research
The Crisis with Two Names: The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis - The IMF Crisis (아이엠에프 위기)
- May 2022 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
TikTok and National Security: Investment in an Age of Data Sovereignty?
- May 2022 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Small Campaign Donors
- 2022 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Of Learning and Forgetting: Centrism, Populism, and the Legitimacy Crisis of Globalization
- 2022 |
- Chapter |
- Faculty Research
Harvard Business Publishing
Seminars & Conferences
There are no upcoming events.