Does the quality of startups increase when the quantity drops? Does entrepreneurial experience help or hurt a corporate job candidate? Do diverse teams make for better startups? The 2022 Trends in Entrepreneurship report brings together our global network of affiliated experts to address these questions and more – with key findings highlighted in this week’s insight.
Every year, millions of students enroll in post-secondary programs with hopes of attaining the education they need to get ahead in the job market. But in the U.S. higher education system, “college acts like a lottery,” says Ben Miller, director of the Postsecondary Education Center for American Progress. Some students graduate with applicable skills and higher earning potential, while others leave unemployed with ever-increasing piles of debt.
The coronavirus pandemic has been especially traumatic on our country’s African American working poor. From being disproportionately concentrated in low-wage hospitality and service sector jobs to struggling with caregiving and food insecurity issues due to shuttered daycare facilities and food banks, working-poor African Americans are facing an inequitable share of financial, social and psychological challenges. What can be done to ease the burdens of working-poor African Americans, both during the pandemic and moving forward? In this Kenan Insight, Urban Investment Strategies Center Director and William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship Jim Johnson invokes a little-known federal program, the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC), as part of a strategic response to providing a coherent, place-based development plan.
Each of the Kenan Institute's 2023 Distinguished Fellows has written a paper as part of their work to support our exploration of workforce disruption. Learn more about our fellows and read their papers, along with key takeaways from each.
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.
Plastic is used in products across nearly every consumer goods sector, but plastic goods carry large negative external costs. Individuals may ask what power they have to create change, but history shows they can use their power as consumers.
Director of Research, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise; Faculty Director, NCGrowth; and Boyd White Harris Jr. Distinguished Professor of Finance and Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Scholar, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
As a second wave of COVID-19 cases makes its way around the world, the danger to the U.S. economy is clear. In this Kenan Insight, we examine the potentially damaging effects of the ongoing pandemic on an already battered workforce, and make the case for why Congress must act quickly to ensure economic stability.
The 2020 COVID-fueled economic downturn generated what has been referred to as a K-shaped recession, with both big losers (such as restaurants and the hospitality sector) and big winners (such as high tech and online retail). In this Kenan Insight, we explore how a nascent K-shaped recovery will likely affect U.S. businesses and households.
The 2020 U.S. economic downturn fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic generated both big losers (such as restaurants and the hospitality sector) and big winners (such as high tech and online retail), leading economic commentators to call the recession “K-shaped.” As the pandemic evolves in 2021, this K-shaped recovery will go global; though some countries, notably the U.S. and China, are securely tethered to the largest economic booster rocket ever built, a sizable swath of the world will continue to suffer weak growth.
As the pandemic forced shutdowns across the globe, U.S. government entities at the federal, state and local levels worked swiftly to secure known drivers of economic growth and job creation – including entrepreneurial ecosystems and small businesses. And while the programs implemented were widely lauded as successful, the story of who benefitted – and who did not – is more complex. This week’s Kenan Insight explores our experts’ key findings around the roles of policy and implementation in supporting equal access to opportunity.
Plants become more efficient, decision-making is centralized, but access to real-time data may “Uberize” workforce according to new research from UNC Tax Center Research Scholar Eva Labro and her colleagues.
Clinical Associate Professor of Management and Corporate Communication, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School