Business & Economics Archives

An inflation-proof methodology to measuring policy effects on poverty

By Geranda Notten
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Women in sports: Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, and their legacies [podcast]

By Steven Filippi and Sarah Butcher
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Mind the gap: the growth in economic inequality [podcast]

By Steven Filippi and Meghan Schaffer
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Social Sciences /
Business & Economics

The intertwined history of state lotteries and convenience stores

By Jonathan D. Cohen

This past summer, millions of Americans were transfixed by the prospect of becoming billionaires. After weeks with no winner, the jackpot for the multi-state lottery game Mega Millions rose to $1.3 billion before being won by an as-yet-unnamed gambler who purchased the winning ticket at a Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, Illinois. Or, more specifically, at the convenience store portion of the gas station, where customers can purchase gas, food, drinks, cigarettes, and, of course, lottery tickets.

Management in the twenty-first century [infographic]

By Phoebe Murphy-Dunn

What does a modern-day workplace look like? Explore our handy infographic, specially curated to reflect current discussions around workplaces and management techniques.

Unexpected Prosperity: How Spain Escaped the Middle Income Trap

Beyond the Anna Karenina principle in economic development

By Oscar Calvo-Gonzalez

The opening sentence of Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina–All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way–is popular among development practitioners, who often offer their own version as follows: All rich economies are alike; each poor economy is poor in its own way. This idea, which we can call the Anna Karenina principle of economic development, is meant as a recognition of the value of context and local knowledge.

Before the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is another tragic setback in our efforts at building a sustainable future

By Martin Gutmann and Dan Gorman

To say that wars cause disruption and hardship is stating the painfully obvious. Regardless of attempts—real or professed—at limiting civilian casualties, military conflict always unleashes suffering on the civilian population. History also shows us that the disruptive effect of war also runs deeper and far beyond the geographic limits of fighting with far-reaching consequences for sustainability.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management

The problem with self-driving cars is not technology, the problem is people

By D. Christopher Kayes

The recent $2.5 billion fine against Boeing due to the 737 Max disaster exposes a problem associated with the introduction of new technology. This blog post highlights how the successful adoption of self-driving cars will depend on the drivers, not just on the technology.

Shared governance—not shareholder governance

By Ciaran Driver

The intellectual basis for shareholder control of firms is that what is good for shareholders is good for everyone. In turn that is rationalized by the claim that only shareholders bear risks that are not compensated by contracts.

Recognizing the “other” ways of employee creativity in the workplace

By Feirong Yuan

For many years, the common understanding of employee creativity involves individuals generating new products and services for their organizations. Yet employees can also demonstrate creativity in other ways.

Green libraries tackling environmental challenges: University College Cork

By Anni Valkama

What might libraries do to help reduce the carbon footprint? We spoke to Martin O’Connor at University College Cork to find out how UCC Library chose to tackle the challenge and make their library greener.

A Concise Guide to Communication in Science and Engineering

How research abstracts succeed and fail

By David H. Foster

The abstract of a research article has a simple remit: to faithfully summarize the reported research. After the title, it’s the most read section of the article. Crucially, it makes the case to the reader for reading the article in full. Alas, not all abstracts succeed.

Engineering a new capitalism for the 21st century

By David Ian Blockley

Former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney has observed that society has, unfortunately, come to embody Oscar Wilde’s old aphorism: “knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing”.

Sustainability: What Everyone Needs to Know

Sustainability in action: dismantling systems to combat climate change

By Paul B. Thompson and Patricia E. Norris

Some connection between sustainability and the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November is assumed, but the very idea of sustainability remains poorly understood.

Understanding Deviance in a World of Standards

Why do companies deviate from standards and what shall we do about it?

By Andrea Fried

Standards appear as legal or quasi-legal rules and relate to a variety of topics, including product or service quality, information security, environmental performance, health and safety in the workplace, and many more. Much has been written, or rather suspected, about corporate cultures of companies where standards were broken terribly.

What is public debt? [podcast]

By Steven Filippi and Christine Scalora

What do you think of when you hear the term “public debt?” If you’re familiar with the phrase, you might think about elected officials debating budgets and how to pay for goods and services. Or maybe it’s a vague concept you don’t fully understand.

Keeping the peace: property and community

By Bart Wilson

When we think about the origins of property, we naturally, like Jean-Jacque Rousseau, think of land, of “the first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying ‘This is mine,’ and found people simple enough to believe him.”

The importance of international coordination of environmental policies

By Itzhak Ben-David, Yeejin Jang, Stefanie Kleimeier, and Michael Viehs

The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on 6 July 2021 for tighter international coordination on carbon environmental policies. So why can’t individual countries implement their own environmental policies in an effective fashion so that global warming will be slowed down?

SHAPE and societal recovery from crises

By SHAPE team

The SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy) initiative advocates for the value of the social sciences, humanities, and arts subject areas in helping us to understand the world in which we live and find solutions to global issues. As societies around the world respond to the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, research from SHAPE disciplines has the potential to illuminate how societies process and recover from various social crises.