Topic: Labor

A young Caucasian male employee goofing off and being unproductive in his office when he should be working. He is in the process of trying to balance a pencil on his nose. Research Brief / 

Noncompetes Help Acquiring Companies Retain Workers, But Productivity Falls

Innovators held by contracts produce fewer patents for new owners, study suggests

AI operated robots working in warehouse moving customer packages for delivery. Research Brief / Automation

Think Your Job Is Safe From Robots?

Automation depresses career pay for many workers, notably including those in industries not automating

Semantic segmentation of cars on a road. Research Brief / Artificial Intelligence

AI’s Somewhat Hidden Secret: Invisible Human Workers

How 934 workers around the globe regard their labor; it doesn’t have to be this way

Migrant workers in the field. Research Brief / Supply Chain

How to Reduce the Risk of Forced Labor in Agricultural Supply Chains

Improving the search for contractors that don’t use coercion

Three female workers planting rice. Research Brief / Cultural History

Why Offspring of Rice Farmers Are Better at Detecting Emotions

Raising the crop is a communal project, more so than the work of wheat farmers, who’re less attuned to feelings of others

A color image of a sugar cane factory in the background with sugar cane in the foreground. Research Brief / Labor

In a Boom, Incumbent Firms Can Redeploy Workers to Rapidly Expand

Startups lack bench strength, a disadvantage in tight labor markets

An overhead view of shipping containers and semi trucks going through a gate Research Question / Supply Chain

Can Supply Chains — Global, Opaque, Ever-Changing — Be Made Fair?

Amid the pandemic, price gouging and stiffing of suppliers and workers surged

A cube of hundred dollar bills wrapped in a blue bow Research Brief / Productivity

Trying Out Bonus-Pay Theory on Unsupervised, Low-Skill Tasks

Incentives boost output, but benefits level off at a fairly low point

A women sitting in front of her laptop holding her toddler daughter Research Brief / Gender Gap

Long Before COVID-19, School Summer Breaks Disrupted Women’s Careers

Households with kids ages 6 to 12 feel the interruption most

Three girls in green graduation gowns take a selfiea Forecast / Accountable Care Organizations

Los Angeles, Long a Laggard in Education, Gaining Ground on Other Major Metros

Younger residents’ schooling boosts the region’s economic prospects

An Indian man works at a sewing machine Research Brief / Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship, Riskier in Wealthy Nations, Is Actually Safer in India

Steady employment is rare — a condition some U.S. workers also endure

Overhead view of a group of workers gathering around desks to confer Research Brief / Organizational Culture

American and Chinese Perceptions of Having a Say at Work

It’s generally a positive in both cultures, but buy-in is more tentative in China

Three nurse confer in front of a computer screen at a nurses station Research Brief / Labor

Who Does — and Doesn’t — Suffer From Lack of Competition for Workers

Nurses, cosmetologists and other professionals find wages suppressed more than many lower-skilled workers

Illustration of an employee working with their boss sitting next to them Research Brief / Compensation

Employee or Capitalist? Equity Compensation Merges the Two

Labor’s losses to capital, much studied, aren’t quite as grim when stock and options are tabulated

Manager disapprovingly looks down at a distressed employee's work Research Brief / Workplace

Why Unloved Workers Don’t Share Productivity Tips with the Boss

Concept of attachment theory, born in developmental psychology, applied to the workplace

Various fast food restaurant signs along a road Forecast / Minimum Wage

A $15 Minimum Wage May Have (Partially) Arrived, But Who Pays?

Study of L.A.-area restaurants gauges effect on owners, customers, landlords