Adjunct Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
Fellow, The Brookings Institution, and 2025 Kenan Institute Distinguished Fellow
We are pleased to report that we have completed a spectacular year of growth and high-impact for the Kenan Scholars program.
Kenan Institute Chief Economist Gerald Cohen discusses the power of productivity and what that means for the U.S. economy.
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.
Allison, currently Executive in Residence at the Wake Forest School of Business, spoke to a full house at the Kenan Center on Wednesday, Feb. 13, as part of an exclusive conversation on leadership with UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School students.
Unemployment insurance has been a lifeline for millions of Americans who have found themselves out of work in the wake of the economic shutdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. But with federal, state and local government coffers strained, the time has come for short-time compensation (STC) and partial unemployment insurance programs to receive a closer look. In this Kenan Insight, we explore how these little-known initiatives can benefit both employees and employers and provide relief to an ailing U.S. economy.
The latest report from the Department of Labor showed continued robust job growth. Employers added 431,000 jobs in March. The news of sustained job gains speaks to the strength of the U.S. economy. Moreover, the labor force participation rate inched up slightly to 62.4% in March, from 62.3% in February, indicating more Americans are reentering the workforce. We still have a long way to go to resolve the imbalance between job openings and unemployed people, however, and this means that current issues of worker burnout will also linger.
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.
There’s no escaping the growing interest in environmental, social and corporate governance investing, but not everyone agrees on how to define, measure or report the variety of factors considered under ESG. Professor Laura Starks of the University of Texas McCombs School of Business spoke on the subject in May at the Alternative Investments Conference, sponsored by the Institute for Private Capital. Starks’ keynote speech, highlighted here, examined the knowns and unknowns of ESG investing as well as new regulations that may be coming.
The debate surrounding returns of private equity vs. public markets continues with a recent paper by AQR. What do the latest data tell us?
A $2 million grant from the Truist Foundation will fund the Anchor Institutions Create Economic Resilience program or AICER, housed at CREATE, an economic development center at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School's Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.
Greater focus on social justice has brought systemic inequities in the corporate sector to light, leading companies to step up their efforts in attracting and retaining a diverse workforce – but many challenges remain in implementing those goals. Following a joint report between the Kenan Institute and EY, this week’s Kenan Insight breaks down some challenges companies may face while trying to reach their diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
The explosive growth in ESG investing has created confusion among investors. As part of our yearlong series on stakeholder capitalism, we unpack what they should expect from ESG and try to reconcile it with both financial theory and empirical evidence. The bottom line is a bit complicated.
The pandemic taught us that equity investors would be wise to seek to invest in firms with resilient supply chains. But is there a reliable way to identify firms whose supplier-customer relationships are less vulnerable to disruptions?
The EHR revolution has significantly transformed healthcare work and the flow of information, but it hasn't come without costs, measured in increased administrative burden and the accompanying stress for healthcare professionals. Can generative AI help?