Kenan Institute Chief Economist Gerald Cohen kicks off 2025 with a rundown of five issues that will be top of mind for business leaders and policymakers, accompanied by his analysis.
In addition to academic presentations, the Conference on Market-Based Solutions for Reducing Wealth Inequality took participants out of the classroom and into the community for a walking tour and on-site discussions in nearby Durham, N.C.
Unethical behavior deeply embedded within an organization can affect employee morale and impact bigger issues, such as performance, turnover, and healthcare and legal costs.
Apprenticeship programs have not historically been successful in reaching a diverse array of people. A report by the institute-affiliated NCGrowth examines trends within apprenticeship and offers a set of best practices to continue diversifying these programs
...challenges and exciting opportunities for business today. We also disseminate cutting-edge research to academic partners, business leaders and policymakers, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and drive economic progress. In...
We evaluate sell-side equity analysts’ multiyear forecasted income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements, and the profitability, efficiency and leverage ratios that they imply.
Designing modern call centers requires an understanding of callers’ patience and abandonment behavior. Using a Cox regression analysis, we show that callers’ abandonment behavior may differ based on their contact history, and changes across their different contacts.
The goal of this paper is to conduct a survival analysis to determine the causal impact of federal R&D subsidies on firms’ long-term survival.
Last month our home state of North Carolina was named “America’s Top State for Business” by CNBC (see the full ranking here). It wasn’t long after when some commentators pointed out that Oxfam had recently ranked N.C. as the worst state for workers. The extreme juxtaposition of rankings made me wonder if this was a coincidence or if there are systematic factors that make states good for businesses and bad for workers. Perhaps “right-to-work” laws, lax worker protection regulation or regional wage differences attract businesses looking to take advantage of areas with weak labor bargaining power. This in turn leads to business growth and thus job migration to states that are less desirable for individual workers. At the end of the day, economic planning should have the best interest of residents in mind when crafting business policy, so it seems worth unpacking what drives the rankings.
From investigating ways to improve the customer experience at centers housing families of children undergoing cancer treatment to examining how socioeconomic status affects individuals’ ability to accurately predict the viability of their financial investments, students in the Kenan Scholars MBA program showcased a wide range of business interests during the presentation of their capstone research projects on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at the Kenan Center.
Attributing greater value to missing earnings estimates than to beating them signals a trend toward short-term demands and rewards. But what if a firm wishes to make costly investments that could yield long-term business resilience?
Profound demographic changes of all kinds are radically transforming America’s social, economic and political institutions. Perhaps one of the most troubling is something our affiliated Urban Investment Strategies Center Director Dr. Jim Johnson calls the End of Men.
The passage of U.S. tax reform legislation in 2017 had an effect not only on companies based in the U.S., but on foreign firms as well, with Chinese companies seeing the biggest negative impact and companies in South America generally benefiting, according to a new study that looks at daily stock market returns around key dates leading up to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA).
...both current and forecasted national trends – but for far too long, our nation’s microeconomic data has been lacking. The American Growth Project is here to help. DATA Growth, employment,...
As the Consumer Price Index rises, businesses sound the alarm over supply-chain bottlenecks, and federal stimulus checks spur spending, the chatter around inflation is increasing. In this Kenan Insight, we explore what this potential perfect storm for an inflation spike could have on a recovering U.S. economy.
First, the good news. Given what we know about current economic conditions, it is likely that the consumer inflation rate has peaked in the U.S. for the current cycle. Recent inflation reports on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Implicit Price Deflator, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure, show a jump to new 40-year highs in March but signs of moderation in coming months. For example, consumer goods with very large 12-month cost runups such as used cars and food away from home are starting to see prices moderate. Likewise, prices of important household goods like apparel, furnishings, prescription drugs and recreation commodities (think TVs and Pelotons) are flattening. Furthermore, some important energy prices such as crude oil and gasoline have stabilized in April after jumps in the first quarter. So, while inflation will surely remain elevated for some time, it is unlikely to get much worse.
Co-brands are strategically advantageous partnerships which can also involve risk. For example, Papa John’s gained access to the largest television audience in the US by sponsoring the National Football League (NFL), but later blamed stagnant sales on how the NFL’s handled players’ well-publicized protests of inequitable policing. What implications did Papa John’s prioritization of sales over fairness have for NFL consumption? To answer this question, the current research tests for changes in Sunday watch party rituals (SWPR), when U.S. consumers gather to socialize while watching live NFL games.
Private equity firms now manage commitments of nearly US$3.4t globally, up from less than US$500b in 2000, and in a significant shift new capital from private markets has surpassed for capital raised in public markets for the first time ever.
Building resiliency is essential for managing today's distinct risks, yet how do businesses develop the agility and adaptability that would make them more resilient? That's the focus of the 2024 Kenan Institute Grand Challenge.
In honor of University Research Week, Kenan Institute Director of Research Christian Lundblad discusses the importance of research from the perspective of Kenan-Flagler faculty, and how the school's international reputation is inextricably tied to the quality, relevance and creativity of its collective research agenda.