Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government

Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government
Name	Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government
Established	2000
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Parent institution	Harvard Kennedy School
Director	Austan Goolsbee
Focus	Public policy, finance, ethics

Contents

Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government is a research center within Harvard Kennedy School that studies interactions among corporation, financial market, public policy, regulatory agency, and civil society actors, drawing on interdisciplinary methods from Harvard University affiliates. The center fosters collaborations among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers including affiliates from Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Harvard College, and external partners such as Brookings Institution and Council on Foreign Relations. It supports research, convenings, and curriculum development that inform debates involving institutions like the Federal Reserve System, Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and international bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Overview

The center situates its work at the intersection of corporation governance, financial crisis of 2007–2008, climate change, globalization, and public-private partnership practice, engaging scholars from Kenneth Rogoff, Lawrence Summers, Ben Bernanke, Jeffrey Sachs, and Joseph Stiglitz networks. Its mission aligns with curricular offerings at John F. Kennedy School of Government and collaborates on projects linked to Harvard Business Review, The Economist, Financial Times, and policy outlets like The Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Institute. The center leverages relationships with alumni from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, McKinsey & Company, and Bain & Company to bridge academic and practitioner communities.

Founded in 2000 following gifts from philanthropists associated with Rahmat Mossavar-Rahmani and linked donors active in New York City finance, the center emerged during debates following the Asian financial crisis and amid policy shifts influenced by Bill Clinton administration economic teams. Early collaborations included projects with Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations Development Programme. Over time the center responded to events such as the Enron scandal, the 2008 United States financial crisis, and regulatory reforms like the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, expanding partnerships with think tanks including Peterson Institute for International Economics and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Research programs address topics tied to systemic risk, corporate social responsibility, energy transition, supply chain disruption, and financial regulation, producing work cited alongside studies from National Bureau of Economic Research, Institute for New Economic Thinking, World Economic Forum, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The center hosts fellowship programs that attract scholars from Columbia University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, and international institutions such as London School of Economics and University of Oxford. It sponsors policy labs and case-based seminars modeled on practices at Harvard Business School and curricular exchanges with Yale School of Management and Princeton University.

Leadership includes faculty appointments drawn from Harvard Kennedy School faculty such as Austan Goolsbee, and frequent collaborators from Harvard Business School like Michael E. Porter and Raghuram Rajan, along with visiting fellows from Federal Reserve Board, European Central Bank, European Commission, and former officials from U.S. Department of the Treasury and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The center’s advisory boards have featured leaders from BlackRock, State Street Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Apple Inc., and ExxonMobil, and eminent scholars associated with Milton Friedman and Amartya Sen traditions.

The center convenes conferences, symposiums, and roundtables featuring participants from United Nations, World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund, European Union, and national governments including delegations from China, India, Brazil, United Kingdom, and Canada. Public-facing events have included keynote addresses by policymakers such as Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, and corporate leaders from Walmart, Tesla, Inc., Microsoft, and Amazon (company), and media partnerships with The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and BBC News. The center publishes working papers and policy briefs that circulate among institutions like Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office.