As we move into 2023, the state of the economy remains highly uncertain following a volatile year that included both strong job growth and persistent inflation. Unfortunately, our economic models don’t bear particularly glad tidings for the new year, as we expect the U.S. economy will enter a recession in the second half of 2023 or early 2024. What is more, the economic pain caused by this downturn will be felt unevenly across the country: Our work in the American Growth Project has revealed significant divergence across regional economies in the United States that is too often left out of analysis focusing on national statistics alone.
North Carolina’s phenomenal migration-driven population growth masks a troubling trend: high rates of death and dying prematurely which, left unchecked, can potentially derail the state’s economic growth and prosperity in the years ahead. On average, 246 North Carolinians died each day during the 2010s, increasing to 317 daily between April 1, 2020 and July 1, 2022. COVID-19 and the substance abuse crisis have played a major role in premature deaths of prime working age citizens of the state. Both people-based and place-based strategies and interventions are urgently needed to address the state’s death crisis.
This paper explores the ups and downs of innovation and productivity growth in the US economy and potential connections to the ups and downs of business dynamism and entrepreneurship over the last few decades.
The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) tools necessitates the development of human skills that allow workers to use these new technologies to create value that AI tools cannot on their own.
Pay transparency policies are increasingly popular among governments in the United States and around the world.
COVID-19 exacerbated existing shortages in the labor market, causing business leaders to revise corporate strategies designed to recruit and retain the workforce needed to compete in at the state, national, and global level. We must recognize and support the critical role our community colleges serve in meeting employers’ post-pandemic workforce demands if we are to close the skills gap in the current labor market.
In 2022, in-migration slowed, and out-migration accelerated, reducing the role of net migration in North Carolina statewide population growth, according to recently released Census data. For the Tarheel state, we document changes in gross and net migration flows between 2021 and 2022, highlight possible drivers, and offer anecdotal evidence as to why the revealed changes may foreshadow a longer- term shift in migration’s role in statewide population change.
Supreme Court decisions on reproductive rights and affirmative action inadvertently afford the nursing profession a propitious opportunity to capitalize on the nation’s rich mosaic of iceberg demographic identities—inherited and acquired traits that may not be visibly apparent—to address pressing worker shortages and other workplace conundrums.
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. Recent research has quantified the impact of foreign-born founders on key economic indicators such as firm creation, job creation and overall business innovation. Likewise, a growing body of literature documents how skilled immigrants have more broadly facilitated technological innovation. Kenan Institute Executive Director Greg Brown discusses the findings of he and his colleagues in this Institute Insights.
Interested in a recap of the Frontiers of Business Conference: Workforce Disrupted? Read the key takeaways and powerful insights from the conference's speakers and panelists on the 2023 grand challenge theme.
Longxiu Tian, UNC Kenan-Flagler assistant professor of marketing, shares his expertise in resilient business strategies and his perspective on firms' attempts to build trust and profitability with innovative consumer data management strategies.
What can the corporate response to George Floyd’s murder teach us about today’s diversity challenges? Discover how meaningful actions on racial equity affected market valuations, through research from UNC Kenan-Flagler's Daniela De la Parra.
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.
In an age of constant information overload, Professor Melissa Geil explores why deep listening is vanishing from the workplace and how that’s quietly undermining communication, trust and innovation.