Economy

Timely information on a company's production activities is crucial for investors and policymakers, yet it remains scarce as financial reports and other broader economic indicators like the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) are only released periodically. This information lag makes it difficult to assess a company's operational health in real time.... Read more

Businesses, government and public service organizations have all been told to do more with less in recent years. That push, often in the name of efficiency, has led to decentralization and nonprofits increasingly using more flexible labor.... Read more

Hotel industry competition can be fierce in terms of owners knowing their competitors, including which ones affect their bottom line the most. Focusing on this industry, researchers from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business show that a variable selection technique from statistical modeling, Conditional Sure Independence... Read more

British workhouses were intimately bound up with slavery and imperialism throughout the early modern period, new research from Cardiff University finds.... Read more

The recent labor dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants pulled back the curtain on one of the airline industry's longest-standing injustices: flight attendants are paid only when planes are in motion, a practice that has persisted for more than 60 years across the global aviation industry.... Read more

Walking down the aisles of your local grocery store, you've likely noticed products labeled "fair trade" alongside other product options. These certified items, from coffee and chocolate to bananas and tea, come with a promise: The farmers who grew these products received fair wages, worked in safe conditions and followed... Read more

The market for video-on-demand platforms has grown rapidly in the last decade, with nearly 90% of U.S. households subscribing to a service, and most subscribers having four or more platforms. In this context, and as more than a third of U.S. subscribers cancel their subscriptions within short periods, retaining subscribers... Read more

Total effective tax rates for the 400 wealthiest Americans have declined sharply in recent years, and they now pay a smaller percentage of their true income in taxes than the average American, according to new economic research from UC Berkeley.... Read more

The rapid rise of social media has enabled real-time interaction among users, accelerating and complicating the ways emotions influence human behavior. Yet the specific mechanisms through which emotions are transmitted and tied to viewer responses, particularly in settings where video and viewer comments are synchronized, remain poorly understood.... Read more

Balancing environmental conservation with economic progress is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. This is particularly difficult for many developing countries, which urgently need to lift their populations out of poverty while grappling with the increasing degradation of their environment. Unfortunately, a common belief is that these... Read more

Corporate accountants know all sorts of perfectly legal, low-audit-risk opportunities for reducing tax burdens for their clients. However, many companies do not take advantage of these low-risk opportunities because they require that "book" income also reflect lower income values to shareholders. This method, referred to as "conforming tax avoidance," comes... Read more

In the age of smartphones, tablets and laptops, distractions are everywhere. As more screens compete for our attention, advertisers are struggling to deliver ads that cut through the noise. But new research from Temple University's Fox School of Business suggests that certain advertisements might actually land better with distracted consumers.... Read more

A new study from the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's Business School and the University of Zurich has traced a two-decade shift in how employers in Switzerland describe the "ideal worker," revealing early signs that flexibility, gender equity and work–life balance are beginning to reshape occupational cultures.... Read more

Buying a house is one of the most high-stakes decisions many people will make in their lives. Yet many households are investing millions without an adequate understanding of a property's exposure to growing climate risks.... Read more

Companies may find it more profitable to misbehave and suffer penalties rather than follow the rules.... Read more