The Latest

Illustration of a young man looking into a mirror, reflecting his older self Feature / Time

The Healthy Upside of Thinking about an Older You

Consciously imagining our older self can spur us to take better care of ourselves now

A group of people climbing a mountain peak Research Brief / Behavioral Economics

Why Kickstarter Funders Quickly Kick in the Last 5 Percent

Research shows that people have a sincere desire to see projects take flight

Illustration of a character wearing a hat covering their ears Research Brief / Investing

Ignorance — About One’s Investments, Anyway — Isn’t Always Bliss

Valentin Haddad’s research looks at the phenomenon of “information aversion,” when individual investors stop tracking their portfolios for fear of bad news

City landscape at dusk Research Brief / Housing

Could Costly Housing Bring Down Superstar Cities?

Stuart Gabriel’s research shows how a vibrant economic hub loses essential residents

A man using a virtual headset Research Brief / Marketing

Attracting Early Adopters: Best Way to Overcome Consumer Resistance to Innovative Products

Chris Tang’s research suggests a two-step pricing strategy can maximize sales and profits

Suburban neighborhood under construction Research Brief / Real Estate

Quantitative Easing Kept the Foreclosure Crisis from Being Even Worse

The Fed’s gambit didn’t trigger a home-price recovery, but research shows it reduced subprime foreclosure risk

New York Met Life building Research Brief / Investing

How Life Insurers Insulate the Markets from Turmoil

Valentin Haddad’s research finds that insurers’ patient investing shields risky assets — and those who hold them — from steeper declines

A man shopping for soap Research Brief / Marketing

When It Pays Not to Help Your Customers Comparison Shop

Rakesh Sarin creates a model that shows consumer “ambiguity” about product quality should drive marketing and brand management strategy

Five illustrated figures interact with coffee and snacks Research Brief / Cultural History

Why Can’t We All Get Along? On Some Things, We Do

The narrative of a growing cultural divide, while partly true, conceals a more nuanced picture

Collage of women forming a larger image of a woman Research Brief / Cultural History

Using Ancestral Characteristics to Study Modern Economics

A database of pre-industrial sampling supports historical and ethnographic research

Illustration of a map Research Brief / Cultural History

How Local Governance Came to England’s Economy

Nico Voigtländer found that to combat arbitrary taxes and corruption, merchants persuaded the king to cede control

Monochrome photo of Wall Street Research Brief / Investing

To Wall Street, There’s No Crisis Like a Banking Crisis

Tyler Muir finds that neither war nor deep recession darkens investor sentiment like sudden turmoil in the financial system

Monochrome photo of FDR Research Brief / Economics

Keynes vs. FDR: Lessons from the Great Recession

Sebastian Edwards finds Keynes’ public take-down of Roosevelt’s gold policies still relevant today

Illustrations of a timeline Feature / Time

An Aerial, as Opposed to Ground-Level, View of Time

A novel framework proposes to reduce angst over schedules and lives

A castle with a moat Research Brief / Investing

The Moat That Keeps Complex Asset Strategies Profitable

Andrea Eisfeldt finds that hedge funds with infrastructure to execute sophisticated arbitrage crowd out less-expert investors

Ebola tent Research Brief / Health Care

When Ebola Strikes, Where Should Help Go?

Improving epidemic forecasting helps response teams target aid more effectively