By the end of 2013, Apple had $137 billion dollars in cash and marketable securities. This case explores how companies can generate such large amounts of cash and how and if they should distribute it to shareholders, especially in the face of shareholder pressure. In the process, students are asked to undertake fundamental financial analyses, including ratio analysis, a financial forecast, and a cash distribution analysis.
Read MoreInnocents Abroad: Currencies and Stock Returns→
/(w/ K. Luchs and M. Veblen) HBS Case 204-141.
What do international stocks contribute to the portfolio of a U.S. investor?
Read MoreThe Case of the Unidentified Industries - 2013→
/The case helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in its financial statements. This case consists of an exercise in which students are given balance sheet data in percentage form and other selected financial data for companies in 14 industries.
Read MoreOne Harvard - Innovation and Entrepreneurship
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Mihir Desai discusses his undergraduate course, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Read MoreTax Policies That Might Work
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Professor Mihir Desai of Harvard Business School, Professor Michael Graetz of Columbia Law School, and Richman Center Senior Fellow Andrew Stern discuss tax policies that may boost economic growth and increase tax revenues as part of a Richman Center public lecture on what tax policies we should consider.
Read MoreIndia in the Global Economy: The Next Fifteen Years
/Presented by the Columbia University Program on Indian Economic Policies, academic experts discuss India place in the global economy, and the panel attempts to project the next fifteen years for the country. This video features a panel discussion moderated by Arun Jaitley and features Rakesh Mohan, N. K. Singh, Lord Meghnad Desai, and Mihir Desai.
Watch the video here.
Read MoreA Better Way to Tax U.S. Businesses
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Harvard Business Review (July-August 2012)
Of all the policy changes that could improve the competitive position of the United States and the living standards of Americans, revamping the corporate tax code is perhaps the most obvious and least painful.
Read MoreTrade Credit and Taxes →
/(w/ C.F. Foley and J.R. Hines, Jr.) NBER Working Paper No. 18107.
This paper analyzes the extent to which firms use trade credit to reallocate capital in response to tax incentives.
Read MoreKeynote Speech at the Financial Times - Investing in a Sustainable Future Conference
/The Financial Times' Investing in a Sustainable Future conference focuses on what the leaders of some of the world's largest multinational corporations are doing to improve their organizations' ability to continue to profit and grow.
Read MoreCorporate Inversions: Tax Dodge, or Symptom of the Tax Code?→
/Corporate inversions are transactions, such as mergers or acquisitions, that involve a U.S. and foreign headquartered firm and result in the newly formed firm being headquartered outside the U.S. As a result, it can legally lower its U.S. taxes and enjoy parity with its foreign based competitors.
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Mihir Desai's academic publications have appeared in leading economics, finance, and law journals. His work has emphasized the appropriate design of tax policy in a globalized setting, the links between corporate governance and taxation, and the internal capital markets of multinational firms. His research has been cited in The Economist, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, and several other publications.