U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin and James Sensenbrenner earned national honors Monday in Jefferson, Wis., for their efforts to advance business innovation, university technology transfer and a strong patent system.
Changing demographics are the main cause of today's housing surplus, according to new research by a University of Virginia urban and environmental planning professor. The path to a housing market rebound doesn't lie in new construction, William Lucy found, but in rethinking housing needs based on changing demographics.
Economists have identified a “tipping point” for national debt – the point at which national debt levels begin to have an adverse effect on economic growth. The findings could influence economic policy discussions globally, and will be distributed at the upcoming meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group.
Municipal and county officials, service organizations, researchers, and the general public will be able to freely use a wide array of local and regional data about community well-being, DataPlace™ and the Urban Institute announced today.
A 10-year study on Child Development Accounts (CDAs) has confirmed their viability as a tool for long-term asset building. Beginning as early as birth, CDAs are investment accounts that allow parents and children to accumulate savings for post-secondary education, homeownership or business initiatives.
The façade of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement is so deep that the House of Representatives recently passed legislation that will fail to accomplish its stated purpose – "to debar corporations committing FCPA violations from federal government contracts," says Butler University Business Law Professor Mike Koehler.
As business becomes more globalized, U.S. companies are increasingly earning significant amounts of income in foreign countries. The American Jobs Creation Act provided a temporary reduction in the repatriation tax with the intention of motivating firms to bring monies back to the U.S. for domestic investment. But did the firms that were Congress’ intended targets of the American Jobs Creation Act benefit the most? Recent research by Susan Albring, assistant professor of accounting in the Whitman School of Management, examined whether private and public debt constraints faced by a firm influence the firm’s response to the temporary reduction in repatriation taxes.
Current census figures show that one in seven Americans is living below the poverty level, a rate that nears the record poverty levels of 1960. “The latest rise in the poverty rate illustrates how many more Americans are at risk of poverty and economic insecurity in this country," says Mark R. Rank, PhD, poverty expert and the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
Economists Krislert Samphantharak of UC San Diego and Robert M. Townsend of MIT have defined a far-reaching framework that may contribute significantly to the meaningful assessment and analysis of the financial lives of the world’s poor.
Robert C. Hockett, Cornell University professor of Law, comments on moves by Congress and the Treasury Department to “get serious” about Chinese-U.S. currency arrangements.
Nanotechnology advances at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock creates two new businesses to market a solution to a $600 billion global business problem -- counterfeit products.
Whether or not a company’s CEO holds a college degree from a top school has no bearing on the firm’s long-term performance. And when it comes to getting canned for poor performance, CEOs with degrees from the nation’s most prestigious schools are no safer than the average CEO, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.
Washington, D.C., September 14, 2010 — Urban Institute researchers are available to help reporters delve into the Census Bureau’s new poverty numbers, to be released Thursday, September 16.
Kristin Seefeldt at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, is available to talk to news media following the release Thursday of Census data on poverty and family income for 2009.
Four leading researchers will join Rensselaer President Jackson at ‘Summer Davos’ meeting and deliver talks on bio-inspired approaches to sustainability.
A white paper on California’s Proposition 23 finds the initiative would create legal turmoil, cut state revenue, and jeopardize clean energy jobs. Prop. 23 would also slow state efforts to reduce climate change and could have a domino effect nationwide.
The United States is in the thick of a “green trend.” Increased awareness of and commitment to sustainability and improving the environment through reduced carbon emissions and energy use have led to more consumer demand for “green” products—including green construction. Even with the downturn in the housing market, a 2008 poll showed that 91 percent of registered voters nationwide would still pay more for a house if that meant a reduced impact on the environment.
Two Bryant University economists have found that the quality of political and legal institutions are key in reducing poverty in developing countries. “Institutions – not government spending and financial assistance – are the deep factors affecting poverty and economic performance in developing countries,” they say.
A group of University of Iowa business researchers is looking at new ways of developing economic and financial models to more accurately predict stock returns in the same way that meteorologists forecast the weather.
Nonprofit employers are providing one of the few bright spots in the country's dismal employment picture this Labor Day, according to new data released today by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies.
Can investing in employee health improve the bottom line by making workers more productive? To answer that question, companies need new and better tools for measuring employee productivity, according to an article in the September Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
The United States workforce, battered by an economic slowdown, now includes a record number of workers who are involuntarily working part-time due to reduced hours or the inability to find a full-time job. Hourly workers are especially susceptible to reduced, irregular and fluctuating hours, and the myriad of challenges associated with them.
In order to prevent inflated credit ratings and an economic crisis similar to that in 2008, the government should eliminate rating-contingent regulation, according to research conducted by Berkeley-Haas Assistant Professor Marcus Opp.
Kellie Kostek is the University at Buffalo’s answer to the growing problem of student debt. Kostek is UB’s financial literacy program coordinator. Her objective is to reach as many students as possible to teach the benefits of fiscal responsibility.
CEOs often blame something other than their own performance when companies go out of business, but a new study by a University of Iowa researcher suggests they are more responsible than they like to think.
In these lean times, smart consumers refuse to pay a lot for throwaway items, but will shell out a little more for products that can be used again and again. The same is true of bacteria and other microbes, researchers at the University of Michigan have learned.
Iowa State University has awarded competitive grants totaling $942,389 to 10 research projects that have potential to grow the state's economy. The projects include developing software tools that can improve the quality of health care, expanding a genetic test of cattle embryos and creating diagnostic techniques that will help improve fuel nozzles for gas turbine engines.
Studies of entrepreneurship in rural areas increasingly stress the importance of a supportive community environment and social networks in enhancing innovation, according to a recent Rural Research Report from the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs.
High levels of foreclosures in a community do not independently lead to increased crime rates, as previously believed, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.
Steven Kyle, professor of economics at Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and an expert on U.S. macroeconomic policy, compares extending the Bush-era tax cuts for upper income earners to failed Hoover-era policies.
Robert Frank, professor of economics at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, comments on Obama Administration plans to allow Bush Administration tax cuts to expire on Dec. 31.
Countries that restrict labor movements from other countries might be missing out on a great economic development opportunity not only locally, but for the world as a whole, according to a University of Iowa economist.
In tough times, many companies slash staff and turn to outsourcing, yet that may doom their products; in good times, as with Toyota, losing control over key components can contribute to failure, says Lyda Bigelow, a University of Utah business-strategy professor.
During the holy month of Ramadan, which starts next week, stock returns are almost nine times higher in predominately Muslim countries than during other times of the year, an indication that Ramadan positively affects investor psychology and leads to optimistic beliefs that extend to investment decisions, according to research from the University of New Hampshire.
A new study published by a Washington and Lee University economist examines how much tourists would be willing to pay to protect the beach that they visit.
Today, as state and local governments seek to integrate environmental and energy policies with job creation, a first-of-its kind national study has found that only a few states and cities have policies in place to create green jobs.
The University of Michigan Medical School has hired 184 new faculty members since May, boosting the total Medical School faculty to 2,254 — its highest point ever.
During the economic downturn, the health care and social assistance sector experienced growth. With projected growth in the future, the health care sector may face skill deficits. Since 80 percent of the workforce is female, employees will require flexibility in the workplace to minimize work/family conflicts.
Stock options have rewarded many thousands of employees, particularly those working in the information technology industry, with income that far outstrips their normal salaries. It’s become an article of faith in Silicon Valley that those rewards create incentives for employees to work harder and smarter, in turn rewarding the companies that lavish options on the workforce with better performance and greater shareholder value. But does that assumption stand up to careful scrutiny? The answer: It depends on who is receiving the options, according to a new study.
Intrigued by the question of why managers pursue such deals even when they do not improve shareholder wealth, Dharwadkar, Brandes, and Goranova examined the implications of ownership from a novel perspective. In their paper “Owners on Both Sides of the Deal: M&A and Overlapping Institutional Ownership,” forthcoming in Strategic Management Journal, they investigated the consequences of “overlapping” institutional ownership — whereby owners may have simultaneous stakes in both the acquirer and the target to an M&A deal.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 and now included in America COMPETES is support for the development of research, science and technology parks.
A good sign for our economy is that companies are slowly beginning to rebuild inventory. But the recession walloped a number of suppliers—those that are still in business worked hard to reduce their inventory investments and free up capital and now don’t have the goods they once did to pass on to their clients.
Explosive growth in CEO pay has led some critics to question whether firms are biased in how they determine executive compensation. In fact, companies that used compensation peer groups to determine executive pay did artificially inflate such compensation – but only by approximately ten percent, according to research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
A climate-change study at Sandia National Laboratories that models the near-term effects of declining rainfall in each of the 48 U.S. continental states makes clear the economic toll that could occur unless an appropriate amount of initial investment — a kind of upfront insurance payment — is made to forestall much larger economic problems down the road.
Funding from vital provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will begin to run dry in January 2011 and without renewed support in many of these areas, a firm recovery will be difficult to achieve, Peter B. Edelman, Olivia A. Golden, and Harry J. Holzer point out in a new policy brief, “Reducing Poverty and Economic Distress after ARRA: Next Steps for Short-Term Recovery and Long-Term Economic Security.”
Recently, title companies, attorneys, realtors and lenders were all frantically trying to complete closings on pending real estate transactions. June 30, 2010, marked the last day on which homebuyers had to complete settlement on their purchase of a principal residence in order to qualify for either the $8,000 or $6,500 refundable federal tax credit. If you missed the deadline, don’t panic – relief is on the way, according to Richard Marmon, an associate professor of accounting in the Rohrer College of Business at Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J., who holds advanced degrees in business, law and tax and is a certified public accountant, certified management accountant and licensed attorney.
New and sweeping federal financial regulation passed by Congress late last week will give regulators tools to clean up the next financial crisis but will not prevent another crisis, says banking expert Tim Yeager, associate professor of finance at the University of Arkansas and former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Robert C. Hockett, professor at the Cornell University Law School and an expert on financial law and economic globalization, comments on historic financial regulation reform legislation passed today by the U.S. Senate.