Many Americans expect newly inaugurated President Joe Biden to achieve progress in improving the quality of the environment. In this Kenan Insight, we explain why we support these expectations, examining what Biden has already done in his brief tenure, the feasibility of the plans he’s outlined thus far, and whether (and how) he can propel the U.S. to a leadership role in sustainability.
American Community Survey data are used to develop typologies of the generational dynamics and living arrangements of the estimated 1.6 million U.S. older adult households who will likely encounter the most difficulty aging in place. Policy recommendations and strategies are offered to address the specific barriers and challenges that must be overcome in order for these older adults to successfully live out their lives in their homes and community.
Join NCGrowth-SmartUp on Wednesday, May 27, as we discuss mental health amidst COVID-19. Joined by a panel of experts, we’ll explore resources and strategies to help business owners and their essential workers manage stress and anxiety in this turbulent time.
Much has been made about the labor force participation rate, or the percentage of Americans over 16 who are working or actively looking for work — and for good cause, given the number of unfilled vacancies at U.S. firms. If fewer Americans are working, it is going to be harder for firms to staff all of their openings. Currently, 62.2% of adult Americans are working or looking for work. This compares with a historical average of 63.9% in 2019. With 259 million adult Americans, this 1.7 percentage point decrease in the labor force participation rate translates to a missing 4.4 million workers. And the narrative to date has primarily focused on how many Americans made changes following the COVID-19 pandemic (in response to lockdowns, layoffs, health concerns or care responsibilities) and the sizable fraction of these Americans who are still sitting on the sidelines. Given the steady drumbeat of news about how firms are unable to fill all their positions, there is much interest in how and when we expect these workers to return to the labor force. So, when can we expect them to join the labor pool?
Taming the rising costs of prescription drugs has been a focus of U.S. healthcare reform for the past decade. High drug prices limit patient access while also contributing to higher overall healthcare costs. Recently, issues of how drug list prices are set, who reaps the benefits, and how those costs are passed on to patients have come under increased scrutiny.
Small businesses are an undeniable engine of growth for the United States, comprising 99 percent of all U.S. firms and driving nearly half our total economic activity. Yet small business owners across the country lack sufficient capital to succeed, grow and scale. The Kenan Institute has conducted a new analysis on the role of the Small Business Administration’s SBIC program in providing capital to the often-overlooked small businesses operating outside of metropolitan centers, as well as those owned by women and underrepresented minorities. You can access an overview of our findings, as well as key takeaways for business and policy leaders, by clicking below.
Older adults prefer to age in their homes rather than in an institution. However, in order to successfully age in place, age-friendly modifications are usually necessary to prevent life-threatening accidental falls and exposure to other environmental risks or hazards that unfortunately are all too common among older adults living in their own homes today.
As a magnet for both population and employment growth, North Carolina has a propitious opportunity to create an inclusive and equitable entrepreneurial and small business ecosystem to support the state’s newfound prosperity.
The Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise welcomed nearly 200 undergraduate business students, MBA candidates and members of the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School community to the Kenan Center Dining Room for the institute’s annual open house event on Tuesday, Aug. 28.
We have little knowledge about the prevalence of irreproducibility in the accounting literature. To narrow this gap, we conducted a survey among the participants of the 2019 JAR Conference on their perceptions of the frequency, causes, and consequences of irreproducible research published in accounting journals.
Watson, a Kenan Institute Distinguished Fellow, will discuss key findings from the economics literature and their implications for where to focus immigration reform efforts.
Google Scholar tells us that, over a quarter of a million studies examine the relationship between CEO compensation and firm performance. Aguinis et al. (2018) take much of that work to task. Observing that the distribution of CEO compensation is skewed, they question any work that assumes a normal distribution. Correcting the flaw, Aguinis et al. (2018) conduct their own investigation of this important relationship. Contrary to previous work, they find no consistent empirical relationship between pay and performance. The authors review and discuss their work with a clear eye on its implications for improving our understanding of these relationships.
With a recent report from the United Nations warning that climate change has already begun to cause irreversible damage, experts during the 2022 Kenan Institute Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Conference discussed the role innovation can – and should – be playing to combat these ill effects. This week’s insight explores the topic through Q&A with Dr. Eric Toone, executive managing director and technology lead at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Dr. Jacqueline Pless, the Fred Kayne (1960) Career Development Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Based on five studies with a total of 993 married, heterosexual male participants, we found that marriage structure has important implications for attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors related to gender among heterosexual married men in the workplace.
Firms continue to strive for greater representation on corporate boards. One California law, attempting to mandate such greater representation, has encountered a recent setback. Two experts discuss obstacles to more diverse corporate leadership and offer approaches for surmounting them.
As a once-orderly world grows messier in the post-pandemic era, UNC Kenan-Flagler's Christian Lundblad discusses strategic planning for low-probability, high-impact events.
...Carolina CEO Leadership Forum have developed a new dashboard that aggregates real-time, non-standard economic and public health data to guide critical policy decisions on reopening the state’s economy amid COVID-19....
Last Friday, just seven hours before the Tar Heels took down the Butler Bulldogs in the Sweet Sixteen, sophomore business major and Kenan Scholar Parker Smith led a group of Kenan Scholars and Kenan Institute faculty on a tour of the Dean Smith Center and Carolina Basketball Museum.
Please join us for an exclusive conversation with Andreessen Horowitz Managing Partner Scott Kupor on Monday, Oct. 21 from 4–5 p.m. The event is part of the Dean’s Speaker Series, hosted by Kenan-Flagler Business School Dean Doug Shackelford.