Have the chances of a recession arriving in the next year decreased? Institute Executive Director Greg Brown laid out the conflicting economic indicators around this question and offered his analysis of the Aug. 4 employment report, which showed 187,000 jobs added in July. He also answered questions on the yield curve’s performance and the potential effects of Fitch’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.
On January 20, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will become the 46th president of the United States. In this Kenan Insight, we look at what the Biden administration might mean for the economy and business activity in 2021, including what Biden's highest priorities are, what we can expect in both his and Congress's first 100 days and what we can learn from the divisiveness of the elections and the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
COVID-19 brought heightened focus to paid sick leave policies – a benefit to which roughly 25% of civilian workers don’t have access in the U.S. After sick leave mandates were temporarily implemented during the pandemic, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School researchers found employment increased, particularly among low-skilled workers and in industries that previously had little access to paid sick leave. In this week's Kenan Insight, our experts explore possible drivers behind this finding as well as potential policy and business implications.
Consumers will long associate the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic with seemingly apocalyptic searches for toilet paper, hand sanitizer and PPE. But even now, amid continued surges of the Delta variant, many global supply chains continue to experience disruptions at record rates. This week’s Kenan Insight invites our experts to weigh in on the immediate impact of these disruptions for business and society, the longer term effects across industries and the roles government and emerging tech should be playing to drive solutions.
The aging of the boomer generation combined with increased longevity is ushering in a huge wave of older adults, a silver tsunami which will dramatically transform all of our nation’s social, economic, and political institutions.
We see six clear trends that Census 2010 will likely confirm with hard and reliable data. In this report, we describe these emergent trends and discuss their implications for business, consumer markets, and the nation’s competitiveness in the global marketplace via analyses of intercensal statistics and reviews of scholarly demographic research. Because the specific population shifts discussed here will dramatically transform all of the nation’s social, economic, and political institutions, we refer to them collectively as disruptive demographic trends—borrowing and broadening the application of a term coined by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Joseph Coughlin.
This longitudinal field experiment compares two different for-profit market entry strategies with a philanthropic strategy in terms of how each influences consumer behavior in base-of-the-pyramid communities. We analyze reactions to a water purification product offered at three price points (moderate discount, deep discount, and free) in rural Malawi.
Using a survey of 393 employees who were natives and residents of China, Japan, and South Korea, we examined the extent to which employees from different countries within East Asia experience distributive justice when they perceived that their work outcomes relative to a referent other (i.e., someone with similar “inputs” such as educational background and/or job responsibilities) were (1) equally poor, (2) equally favorable, (3) more poor, or (4) more favorable.
Marketers create social media, in the form of firm-generated content (FGC), to ignite interest in new products such as movies; in turn, there is a clear need to understand whether and how FGC influences demand. With a descriptive study, the authors investigate two potential mechanisms by which FGC may drive box office revenues.
Knowledge of our changing demography can serve as both foundation and frame for how to achieve greater social, economic, environmental, and health equity in North Carolina. After describing how disruptive demographics are transforming the our state, this essay highlights a set of equity issues undergirding our shifting demography and concludes with a set of tools and strategies to make North Carolina a place where equity, inclusion, and belonging is the new normal.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has recently ramped up efforts to keep immigrants from entering the country and force out some who are already here – arguing these to be necessary measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 and protect American jobs. However, in this Kenan Insight, we summarize why these policies risk having exactly the opposite effect, harming the future health, social well-being and economic viability of our nation.
On Thursday, Oct. 29, architect, politician and former mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt joined UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Dean Doug Shackelford for an exclusive fireside chat. Gantt discussed his career, the current political climate and the social justice movement in the U.S. This virtual experience was part of the Dean’s Speaker Series.
Urban Investment Strategies Center Director Jim Johnson and UNC Professor Jeanne Milliken Bonds assess the link between childcare systems and U.S. economic and social health, highlighting the way the pandemic has underscored the critical connection – especially in rural and low-income communities.
On Jan. 7, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced a sweeping new executive order that aims to achieve net-zero emissions within 30 years while protecting and empowering North Carolina’s underserved communities. Urban Investment Strategies Center Director Jim Johnson, who serves as chairman of the N.C. Department of Environmental Justice and Equity Board and as a member of the task force on social, economic and environmental equity, accompanied Cooper at a press conference in support of the order at N.C. A&T State University. Read Johnson's statements here.
Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellision shared the company's approach to diversity, equity and inclusion following this past summer’s social unrest. In this conversation-style format, Mr. Ellison gave a brief overview of Lowe’s anti-racism statement and reviewed specific actions the company has taken to combat racism and inequality. He shared insights on his hands-on leadership approach and how it impacts his relationships with employees and his success at Lowe’s.
Students from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, in partnership with UNC's Program for Public Discourse, will gather to address the opportunities and risks of an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG)-centered approach to financial decision-making.
Given that mask-wearing proved to be an important tool to slow the spread of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, investigating the psychological and cultural factors that influence norms for mask wearing across cultures is exceptionally important. One factor that may influence mask wearing behavior is the degree to which people believe masks potentially impair emotion recognition.
Multicultural experiences – such as living, traveling, or working abroad – can have many psychological benefits, including decreasing intergroup bias. However, unlike the intergroup contact literature, research on multicultural experiences has yet to examine whether the valence of these experiences may moderate such outcomes. So, could multicultural experiences actually increase intergroup bias? Five studies reveal that multicultural experiences increase (rather than decrease) intergroup bias when those experiences are negative (rather than positive).
In an ever changing global economy, firms need to constantly update their business strategy and operational execution. In this dynamic interactive workshop, leading scholars along with executives and policy makers will discuss most salient trends and opportunities related to global sourcing.
The local levels of economies have felt the impact of technological change and globalization. These forces have triggered the need to understand the dynamic mechanisms that enable locales to respond to such changes. For example, the downsizing of traditional employers because of a major loss in market share due to new competitors, acquisition by global firms, or off-shoring of production or services was traditionally thought to be beyond the scope of powers of local policymakers, thinkers, and business leaders.