Topic: Labor

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 Research Brief / 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

Dimly lit empty manufacturing facility Research Brief / Recession

Recession Recoveries Take Longer as Manufacturing Fades

Should stimulus be targeted toward displaced workers, rather than across the economy?

A red book entitled "Labor in the Age of Finance: Pensions, Politics, and Corporations from Deindustrialization to Dodd-Frank" by Sanford M. Jacoby Book Review / Labor

How Unions Tried to Harness Pension Fund Clout to Aid Organizing

A book examines labor’s alliance with other large shareholders to rein in corporate power

Cartoon of large watering can watering workers like plants Research Brief / Operations

How Diversified Companies Can Redeploy Workers to Enable Growth

Experienced hands help new business lines find their way