The Fed tried to show its inflation-fighting mettle by raising the federal funds rate, the short-term interest rate it directly controls, by 0.75 of a percentage point. This is the largest increase since 1994, though the funds rate remains at a quite low 1.625%, especially relative to the 8.6% inflation reading last week. The Fed seemed to be spooked by the inflation print — which, rather than declining as many forecasters (including myself) expected, rose to its highest level since 1981. More important, in my opinion, longer-term measures of consumer inflation expectations and uncertainty increased.
Too much or too little? Asked by German network Deutsche Welle about the Federal Reserve’s 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase July 27, Chief Economist Gerald Cohen called it just right, given that a hot job market is now accompanied by high inflation.
Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) Policy Fellow - and former Chief Economist of General Motors - Elaine Buckberg outlines how electric vehicles can save the economy as well as the environment.
Many Americans expect newly inaugurated President Joe Biden to achieve progress in improving the quality of the environment. In this Kenan Insight, we explain why we support these expectations, examining what Biden has already done in his brief tenure, the feasibility of the plans he’s outlined thus far, and whether (and how) he can propel the U.S. to a leadership role in sustainability.
On Nov. 19, NCGrowth visited High Point, North Carolina, to learn more about the city’s unique legacy, recent developments and future revitalization efforts.
In the latest webinar collaboration with NCGrowth, Entrepreneurship Center Executive Director Vickie Gibbs spoke with three current and former clients of NCGrowth about COVID-19’s impact on small business.
This intellectual approach takes an unorthodox view of the nature of government taxation and expenditure, arguing (among other things) that a sovereign nation that can spend, tax and borrow in its own currency faces very different constraints than often modeled in traditional economics textbooks.
Some are worrying about the future of commercial real estate because of recent falls in valuations. Our expert discusses the challenges facing CRE and how to disentangle the trends that are shaking up the sector.
As governments try to keep up with broadening economies and address new areas, such as climate change, data protection and artificial intelligence, the regulatory pace is increasing. This expansion creates new costs and requires increased business resiliency.
Profound demographic changes of all kinds are radically transforming America’s social, economic and political institutions. Perhaps one of the most troubling is something our affiliated Urban Investment Strategies Center Director Dr. Jim Johnson calls the End of Men.
Past research has shown that founders bring important capabilities and resources from their prior employment into their new firms and that these intergenerational transfers influence the performance of these ventures. However, we know little about whether organizational practices also transfer from parents to spawns, and if so, what types of practices are transferred? Using a combination of survey and registrar data and through a detailed identification strategy, we examine these two previously unaddressed questions.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “Chevron deference,” a legal doctrine that grants regulatory agencies authority in interpreting statutes. The decision could significantly alter the regulatory landscape.
In a recent paper published in the Economic Development Journal, James H. Johnson, Jr., Allan M. Parnell and Huan Lian, researchers from the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, assert that an aging population is an opportunity for economic growth.
For the first time since the tumult of the global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by 25 basis points on July 31. The decision was controversial along a multitude of dimensions.
A growing body of rigorous academic literature empirically demonstrates that high-skilled immigrants provide a range of long-lasting and material benefits to the U.S. economy through entrepreneurship and innovation.
Academics and business leaders shared a panel at our recent Frontiers conference, showing how each can offer insights to help one another develop a broader, shared understanding of changes in the labor market.
Kenan Institute Senior Faculty Fellow Anusha Chari’s work, which was highlighted at the American Economic Association (AEA) meeting on Jan. 6., was cited in a recent article in The Economist. Chari also spoke recently about her findings with The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Companies today are looking to diversify their workforce – and one way in which they’re attracting more women is by providing generous paid maternity leave.
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.