Heather Berry - Faculty Research in Knowledge@Wharton

The 100-day Dash: An Ambitious but Worrisome Start for the Obama Administration

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:19:24 EST

As President Obama wraps up his first 100 days in office, he gets high marks from several Wharton and University of Pennsylvania faculty for his reassuring leadership skills. But they also worry about the cost of his ambitious agenda, and wonder when he will start establishing priorities for what gets tackled when.

Worry in the West as Eastern and Central European Economies Head South

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:25:43 EST

The world financial crisis is unraveling the gains made by many Central and Eastern European economies during their post-Cold War resurgence. With the region no longer isolated, an economic collapse could reverberate in the West, as Central and Eastern European borrowers default on an enormous volume of loans that Western banks were all too eager to grant just a few years ago.

Dear President-elect Obama: Here's How to Get the Economy out of the Ditch

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:57:28 EST

President-elect Barack Obama must lead a nation mired in a worsening recession and burdened by the costs, both financial and human, of two wars and rising debt. Wharton faculty offer some counterintuitive advice: Now may be the time for the government to spend a lot of money.

Linking Commerce to Geopolitics: The Candidates' Views on Global Trade

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:25:57 EST

With global financial markets in turmoil, trade will most likely be an urgent concern for the next president. As part of Knowledge@Wharton's ongoing coverage of the upcoming November election, we examine the candidates' views on trade issues. So far, both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have tended to follow predictable party lines: McCain is a supporter of free trade and would back additional multilateral trade pacts, while Obama urges a reexamination of trade agreements and their effect on the environment and U.S. workers.

The Two Faces of Intellectual Property in Brazil

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:07:52 EST

Last March, the Brazilian government publicly threatened to break the patents on four anti-retroviral medications if the global companies that made those drugs did not agree to allow Brazil to produce generic equivalents or buy those patented drugs at discounted prices. Pharmaceuticals, however, are not the only sector in which the U.S. and Brazil have lately been clashing swords over intellectual property (IP) issues. Last April, the U.S. government gave Brazil an ultimatum to crack down on widespread piracy of compact discs, videos, software and other IP-protected products or lose its trading status as a most-favored nation. Yet despite the Brazilian government's hard-line stance on IP, some experts suggest that the country has recently made significant progress in the area of IP reform. The goal -- as shown by the launch of a new anti-inflammatory drug called Achéflan -- is to better promote technology innovation in the marketplace.