Mihir A. Desai

Professor of Law

Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, Harvard Business School

Research Interests

• Tax Policy
• Public Economics
• International Finance

Education

• Brown University B.A. 1989, Economics and History
• Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration MBA 1993
• Harvard University Ph.D. 1998, Political Economy

Appointments

• Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, Harvard Business School, 2008
• Nomura Visiting Professor of International Financial Systems, HLS, 2009
• Professor of Law, 2011

Biographical Statement

Mihir A. Desai is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, Senior Associate Dean for Planning and University Affairs, and the Chair of Doctoral Programs at Harvard Business School. He received his Ph.D. in political economy from Harvard University; his MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School; and a bachelors degree in history and economics from Brown University. In 1994, he was a Fulbright Scholar to India. Professor Desai's areas of expertise include tax policy, international finance and corporate finance. His academic publications have appeared in leading economics, finance and public economics 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. He is also the author of International Finance: A Casebook (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2006) which features his many case studies on international corporate finance. He is a Research Associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research's Public Economics and Corporate Finance Programs, and is the co-director of the NBER's India program. He is also on the Advisory Board of the International Tax Policy Forum. Professor Desai teaches a second-year elective on International Financial Management and he co-teaches Public Economics (EC 1410) at Harvard College. He received the Student Association Award for teaching excellence from the HBS Class of 2001. His professional experiences include working at CS First Boston, McKinsey & Co., and advising a number of firms and governmental organizations.

Representative Publications

• Desai, Mihir A. & Li Jin. "Institutional Tax Clienteles and Payout Policy," 100 Journal of Financial Economics 68 (2011).
  
• Desai, Mihir A. "The Decentering of the Global Firm," 32 World Economy 1271 (2009).
  
• Desai, Mihir A., Alexander Dyck & Luigi Zingales. "Theft and Taxes," 84 Journal of Financial Economics 591 (2007).
  

Bibliography

View bibliography