Economics & Business
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- Many people think of negotiation as something reserved for salary talks, car purchases, or business deals: infrequent, high-stake encounters most people would rather avoid. A new study shows that this assumption is misleading. Negotiation is, in fact, a routine part of everyday life, occurring in roughly one in three social interactions, and it is more often collaborative than adversarial.
- Municipal regulation of short-term rentals "is low-hanging fruit" that helps improve housing affordability, a new study by McGill researchers suggests. The research shows that rents were relatively lower in Canadian municipalities that imposed restrictions on when and how principal residences can be offered as short-term rentals.
- On the surface, credit rating agencies simply score a company's financial health. They look at a business's equity and debt and diagnose how risky it is for investors. They slap on a letter grade to show how likely it is to repay its debts.
- In 2005, a research team led by University of Zurich economics professor Ernst Fehr published a study in the journal Nature that provided evidence for the first time that intranasally administered oxytocin can increase trusting behavior in humans. Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter produced naturally in the body that influences social interactions, among other things.
- A study involving the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne demonstrates that not only retail investors but also financial professionals often assess potential stock market returns differently from what standard financial economics models predict. This is due to differing ideas about how company news affects future stock returns. The study, titled "Mental Models of the Stock Market," was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
- A new study from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management found that research proposals showing stronger signs of AI-assisted writing were four percentage points more likely to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
- Human service organizations play an important role in connecting people to housing, health care, food access and other essential services. Yet forecasting community needs can be difficult in times of rapid change or crisis because of limited resources and restricted access to data. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about a potential surge in evictions exposed gaps in the data used to assess housing instability.
- If you ask an economist why everything is so expensive these days, you will likely get an answer explaining how oil—the lifeblood of the global economy—is currently facing supply bottlenecks in the Strait of Hormuz, thereby driving up global energy prices.
- Natural diamonds consistently command higher prices per carat than laboratory-grown synthetic diamonds, according to a large-scale analysis of online diamond sales published in the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing. This perhaps unsurprising finding suggests that the two products should be treated as distinct market segments.
- What can a pizza shop teach us about the dramatic shifts taking place in consumer marketing? Quite a lot, actually. New research focused on pizza delivery has found that consumer impatience is driving so much consumer decision-making that even location, price and quality can take a back seat. While this study focused on pizza delivery, its findings have ramifications for all business-to-consumer firms.
- While the link between financial stability and mental health is well-established, a new University College Dublin (UCD) study reveals a major blind spot in current research: an overreliance on self-reported surveys rather than objective financial data. The joint review published in Frontiers in Public Health by UCD School of Computer Science and UCD School of Psychology evaluated 43 studies on financial habits and mental illness, uncovering significant gaps.
- Every day, billions of people scroll through social media posts, online reviews and news feeds filled with emotional content—from glowing five-star reviews to rage-inducing social media rants. Those emotions can quietly shape what people buy, what they believe and how they act.
- As food insecurity persists across high-income countries, charitable organizations and food banks are playing an increasingly important role in helping households access food. A new study from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Sheba Medical Center examines the scale and structure of one such system and raises questions about how philanthropic food aid should fit within national food security policy.
- Do you manage your own investments, buying and selling stocks and obsessively checking the earnings reports of the companies in which you invest?
- John Meluso, assistant teaching professor in the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering's Systems Engineering Program, is the lead author of a new perspective paper discussing the history of "openness" and offering guidance on how organizations and researchers can use and manage open practices effectively.
- We're being promised a revolution. Artificial intelligence is said to make work both more productive and more enjoyable by freeing us from tedious tasks and allowing us to devote more time to what really matters. This is the narrative of "augmented work."
- Meat eaters view plant-based meat as riskier and offering less value than conventional meat, regardless of how it is marketed, according to new Adelaide University research.
- When is a hype bubble more than just a bubble? When it becomes a mass, real-time learning event. New research published in the Academy of Management Journal by Anna Brattstrom, a professor at the University of St Andrews Business School, and Hassan Hamadi, a PhD student at Lund University, aimed to understand the hype around generative AI.
- Food fraud is costing the UK economy up to £2 billion every year, according to the first study to calculate its full economic impact. The research, from the University of Portsmouth, estimates that food fraud costs between £400 million and £2 billion annually, making it one of the country's most expensive forms of economic crime.
- Some U.S. adults are using artificial intelligence for financial guidance, but it's far from the most trusted source of advice, according to a new Gallup survey conducted in partnership with Edward Jones, a financial services firm.
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