There is growing evidence that many multinational corporations are lowering their tax obligations by engaging in income shifting—moving income from high-tax countries to low-tax countries or tax havens, and shifting deductions from low-tax countries to high-tax countries. By at least one estimate, the result is loss of nearly $100 to $240 billion annually in global tax revenues. In this Kenan Insight, we explore the extent of the problem and what might be done to address it.
Take a look back at highlights from the second annual Conference on Market-Based Solutions for Reducing Wealth Inequality, which brought academics together with the public and private sectors to hear about new research and venture into the community.
The list of stores that have closed or gone bankrupt in 2020 reads like a “who’s who” of venerable retail giants. Although retailing has been experiencing tectonic shifts for several years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated both challenges and opportunities. In this Kenan Insight, we explore four major trends in retail, with a particular focus on food retailing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed flaws in the global supply chain that have existed for years, with disruptions that have led to a scarcity of goods as diverse as PPE, food and toilet paper. In this Kenan Insight, we examine how threats to supply chains are forcing companies to rethink how they can position themselves to mitigate future risk.
[topslider][topsliderslide kilink=”https://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/index.php/news-media/adventures-at-the-nexus-of-business-and-public-policy-2/” kititle=”Blog” kiimageurl=”https://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/kenan-scholars-slide-5b.jpg” ]Adventures at the Nexus of Business and Public Policy[/topsliderslide][topsliderslide kititle=”Blog” kilink=”https://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/index.php/news-media/kenan-scholar-contributes-to-sustainable-solutions-in-guatemala/” kiimageurl=”https://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/kenan-scholars-slide-4.jpg”]Kenan Scholar Contributes to Sustainable Solutions in Guatemala[/topsliderslide][topsliderslide kititle=”Blog” kilink=”https://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/index.php/news-media/2019-kenan-scholars-graduate-in-style/” kiimageurl=”https://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/kenan-scholars-slide-3b.jpg” ]2019 Kenan Scholars Graduate...
As of 2019, salary history bans were enacted by 17 states and Puerto Rico with the stated purpose of reducing the gender pay gap. We argue that salary history bans may negatively affect wages as employers lose an informative signal of worker productivity. We empirically evaluate these laws using a large panel dataset of disaggregated wages covering all public-sector employees in 36 states and find, on average, that salary history bans lead to a 3% decrease in new-hire wages.
Director of the Digital Enterprise & Innovation Laboratory, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise
The COVID-19 financial downturn will have short- and long-term effects on personal and consumer finance, as explored by a panel of Kenan Institute-convened experts during a press briefing held yesterday. The full recording of this briefing—along with a deeper-dive analysis on the specific implications of the downturn on personal retirement income by Kenan Institute Executive Director Greg Brown, is available in this week’s Kenan Insight.
The Research Triangle and the Piedmont Triad epitomize North Carolina’s economic evolution. The Triangle transitioned from legacy industries to high-tech manufacturing and experienced explosive economic growth; the Triad may be poised to join it.
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Al Segars and co-author Anselm Beach have written about their new model for developing diversity, equity and inclusion in an organization, the Values/Principles Model, in the most recent issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. At a time when recognition of DEI’s benefits has become widespread, their approach gives leaders the tools to create real change that will allow their whole companies to prosper. Learn more by clicking below.
North Carolina’s 100 counties have experienced an uneven pattern of growth and development over the past decade or so, even during the pandemic, when the state was a magnet for migration. At one end, metropolitan and amenity-rich counties captured most of the growth between April 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021; at the other, 21 counties experienced net out-migration. Given these disparities, the Urban Investment Strategies Center offers an approach using targeted economic development strategies.
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?
Universal childcare reform implemented in Quebec, Canada, in the late 1990s boosted the careers and earnings of new mothers and produced positive outcomes for some companies as well.
The American Growth Project explains why manufacturing remains essential for economic growth and how manufacturing in the U.S. today incorporates both regional shifts and “stickiness” in traditional strongholds.
Chief Economist, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise; Research Professor of Finance, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School