The health and economic data from this past week brought both good and bad news about the state of affairs in North Carolina. Health data suggest the growth in new cases is slowing, that hospital capacity remains available and that we might be getting a better handle on identification. While this is certainly encouraging in the battle against the pandemic, a similar levelling off in business activity does not bode as well for the economy. In this week’s commentary we seek to unpack some of the details in the data to understand what may be a new plateau.
Retail stores are geographically dispersed as a part of a multiunit organization. In such a setting, store managers play an important role in driving store performance. To motivate them to exert effort, retailers have provided group incentives for store managers. Using data from 75 stores of a U.S.-based retail chain that changed its incentive plan for store managers from being purely dependent on store performance to being dependent upon both store and corporate performance, we investigate the effect of this change on store performance.
China’s remarkable economic transition was going to face slowing growth at some point, but misallocation of resources and the country’s zero-COVID policy further complicate the picture.
2022 has not been kind to many investment portfolios; as Kenan Institute Executive Director Greg Brown argues, this is all attributable to the change in real interest and inflation rates.
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Clinical Associate Professor of Finance Arzu Ozoguz discusses the SEC's anticipated new rules around sustainability.
Research from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Assistant Professor of Finance Abhinav Gupta demonstrates how a seemingly small change in the green-card application process holds tremendous significance for millions in the tech industry, made even more relevant by the sector’s current slowdown.
A panel recap from last month's Future of Digital Assets Symposium analyzed how fintech may be able to help create a more inclusive financial system.
Generative AI such as ChatGPT holds the potential to alter many kinds of work, but analysis of a new report shows the occupations most likely to be affected are populated by more women than men.
Research from UNC Kenan-Flagler Finance Professor Eric Ghysels attaches explicit costs to a model’s classification errors, in this case concerning pretrial detention decisions, avoiding the one-size-fits-all symmetrical cost function of traditional machine learning.
The Kenan Institute and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s inaugural Conference on Market-Based Solutions for Reducing Wealth Inequality on June 1-2 highlighted research on market mechanisms that might also work to ameliorate inequality.
UNC-Chapel Hill Professor Kurt Gray discusses how research can help us understand – and navigate – our rapidly changing professional and social lives.
In addition to academic presentations, the Conference on Market-Based Solutions for Reducing Wealth Inequality took participants out of the classroom and into the community for a walking tour and on-site discussions in nearby Durham, N.C.
Unethical behavior deeply embedded within an organization can affect employee morale and impact bigger issues, such as performance, turnover, and healthcare and legal costs.
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Jim Johnson, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center, defines three groups facing challenges as companies return to the office and updates his forecast of demographic gale force winds.
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.
As healthcare costs continue to rise, many Americans are looking to artificial intelligence to provide cost-reducing solutions. At the 13th annual UNC Business of Healthcare Conference, a panel of experts separated the AI hype from reality in a discussion of the limitations, risks and ethical questions surrounding AI solutions in healthcare.
This paper studies a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) between a firm and a new renewable energy generator.
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.
The American Growth Project The United States is home not to one, but more than 100 distinct economies. Our cities, towns, suburbs and rural communities hold the key to understanding...
The Wall Street Journal details how MIT economist and Kenan Institute Distinguished Fellow David Autor rose to become one of the most influential scholars studying the U.S. labor market today.