Governors across the United States have reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing state-level executive actions to address a range of issues provoked by the crisis. Although it is too early to gauge the long-term effects of the pandemic and states’ responses to it, this Kenan Insight provides a preliminary analysis of actions governors have taken thus far, to help inform policymaking going forward.
In recent months, mechanisms that have allowed for high-skilled foreign nationals to study and work in the U.S. have been put on the policy chopping block. In this Kenan Insight, we discuss why high-skilled foreign workers are critical to America's economic health, and why policies must continue to support their entry into the U.S.
Business incubators are taking on a greater role in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems, but debate continues over whether, how and in what situations they work. In this Kenan Insight, we explore what makes incubators successful and how communities can determine if one is right for them.
The arrival of two approved COVID-19 vaccines provides a clear path to the end of the pandemic that held most of 2020 hostage. But a recent resurgence of the virus and skyrocketing rates of infection indicate that a full return to normalcy—including the pre-pandemic work environment— is still months in the future. In this Kenan Insight, we examine the relevant factors that will determine when and how we go back to the office.
For more than a year, researchers across the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC) Kenan-Flagler Business School (KFBS) and School of Medicine (SOM) worked with Sharecare, Inc. (Sharecare) to establish a framework for measuring the true value of corporate well-being interventions and develop a measurement tool to quantify their impact over time. The goal of the research was to assess the value of implementing corporate well-being interventions to improve employee health and lower direct medical costs to employers.
The North Carolina Community Action Association (NCCAA) commissioned a study to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its efforts to combat poverty and facilitate self-sufficiency in low-income communities throughout the state. We conducted focus groups with individuals served by Community Action Agencies (CAAs) and conducted a corresponding set of key informant interviews with identified leaders in five communities across the state. The research focused on five themes. We generated eight key takeaways from our content analysis of the focus group transcripts and nine key takeaways from our content analysis of the transcripts emanating from our Zoom sessions with community key informants.
Theoretically, wealthier people should buy less insurance, and should self-insure through saving instead, as insurance entails monitoring costs. Here, we use administrative data for 63,000 individuals and, contrary to theory, find that the wealthier have better life and property insurance coverage.
We study the interaction of flexible capital utilization and depreciation for expected returns and investment of firms. Empirically, an investment strategy that buys (sells) equities with low (high) utilization rates earns 5% p.a.
Virginia’s rapid population growth over the past three decades has been uneven, creating demographic winners and losers, and masks several demographic headwinds that will constrain future growth and competitiveness if left unaddressed, including slowing rates of total and foreign-born population growth, white population decline, deaths of despair, and declining labor force participation among prime working age males and females in the state.
In May 2023 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) issued proposed emission standards (the Rules) for existing and new Fossil Fuel-Fired Electricity Generating units. Issued under EPA’s Section 111 authority wherein the Agency asserts the right under the Clean Air Act and subsequent court rulings to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, the new standards, if sustained, would accelerate retirements of coal plants. The Rules also impact utility plans to operate existing and to build new natural gas plants.
As AI and related technologies – such as machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision – rapidly evolve, it's necessary to examine their limitations and ethical complexities. Eric Ghysels, Edward Bernstein Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Finance & Faculty Director of Rethinc. Labs previews our AI Innovations Forum co-hosted with SAS.
Each day, 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose. For Americans under the age of 50, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death. As grim as these statistics are, they only hint at the devastating effect of the nation's opioid crisis. In addition to a record number of lives lost, opioids are destroying families, workplaces, and communities around the country, and taking a steep economic toll on existing systems.
Academics and practitioners alike recognize that user-generated content (UGC), such as blog posts, help not only predict but also boost performance (e.g., sales). However, the role of competition in the UGC domain is not well understood.
The hypercompetitive aspects of modern business environments have drawn organizational attention toward agility as a strategic capability. Information technologies are expected to be an important competency in the development of organizational agility.
A panel of experts convened by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and its affiliated Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise will be offering a press briefing via webinar examining the origins of innovation and how UNC and its affiliated programs are helping systems and individuals cope with the current crisis. Join Tuesday, April 7, at 11 a.m. EDT.
There is an emerging field for economists centered on quantum money and the use of quantum computing in economic models. Quantum money is an early invention of the quantum communication literature, recently implemented in an experimental setting. Quantum money offers the privacy and anonymity of physical cash, the option to transact without the involvement of a third party, and the efficiency and convenience of a debit card payment. Quantum speed-ups, including function approximation, linear systems analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, matrix inversion, principal component analysis, linear regression, interpolation, numerical differentiation, and true random number generation, can now be used to solve and estimate economic models. Join us for our next discussion as Isaiah Hull, a Senior Economist with Sweden’s Central Bank introduces quantum money and highlights the common misconceptions about what is achievable with quantum computing in economic models.
For hospitals, a corollary to the popular adage “what gets measured gets managed” could be “measure more accurately to manage costs better.” That seems to be true even in industries like healthcare, where corporations and the government have been struggling for years to control hydra-like costs. UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School accounting professor Eva Labro and Lorien Stice-Lawrence (PhD ’17) found one way to significantly cut hospital costs is to upgrade accounting systems in their forthcoming paper in Management Science.
Brad Staats, professor of operations at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and faculty director of the Center for the Business of Health, outlines his latest research on people-centric operations. Staats and his colleagues looks at how a merging of organizational behavior and operations can be capitalized upon to create systems that help people thrive and be productive.
Faculty Director of the Rethinc. FinTech Lab, Eric Ghysels was featured as the keynote speaker at the 2nd Crypto Asset Lab Conference. The conference, which took place on Tuesday, October 27th, focuses on all aspects of bitcoin and crypto assets, especially those pertaining to investment, banking, finance, monetary economics, and regulation. Topics included cryptocurrency adoption and transition dynamics, digital cash and payment systems, economics and/or game theoretic analysis of cryptocurrency protocols, economic and monetary aspects of cryptocurrencies and the legal, ethical and societal aspects of (decentralized) cryptocurrencies.
On October 14, 2016, the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School hosted a conference titled What’s Next, America. Convened fewer than four weeks prior to the presidential election, the objective of the forum was to allow influential business leaders, academics and policy makers to examine issues critical to the U.S. economy now and in the future. The conference offered actionable solutions to the most important economic issues facing the next administration.