Topic: Labor

Driver looking at Uber app on his smartphone Research Brief / Uber Surge Pricing

How Uber Could Avoid That Notorious $362.57 Fare

A mathematical model analyzes incentives underlying surge-pricing schemes

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

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

Two male workers walking in storage room Feature / Unemployment

Government Coverage of Payrolls Could Cost Less than Jobless Benefits

Analysis also suggests a more rapid economic recovery by keeping workers and employers allied

People waiting for job interview Research Brief / Hiring/Firing

Google Says to Hire the Best, but Suppose You Can’t?

Top companies hog the best talent, adding to their competitive advantage

Chinese women working at a garment factory Research Brief / Productivity

Giving Workers a Say Boosts Productivity

Output at a Chinese garment factory rose 10%

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

Male wearing a suit facing away from the camera Feature / Employment

Entering the Job Market in Recession: The Prognosis Worsens

New research suggests increased risk of illness and death in middle age, on top of longer-lasting income penalty

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

Workers stretching at their desk Research Brief / Workplace

Do Corporate Wellness Programs Boost Worker Productivity?

Industrial laundry gains 4% output; better health and better feelings toward employer could account for increase

Blurred image of people walking through a building Research Brief / Economics

Could Tech Giants Be Making Our Economy Less Innovative?

With a business model built on fewer employees, their dominance saps dynamism.

An image of a nurse walking down a hallway in a nursing home Research Brief / Labor

Codifying the Nursing Home Industry’s Elusive, Alarming Turnover Rates

Payroll data allows researchers to finally build an accurate and meaningful measurement

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

Illustration of Caribbean Research Brief / Labor

An Early Episode of How Corporate Profits Shaped Labor Markets

Caribbean plantation owners, faced with slavery’s end, enacted legal barriers to employment elsewhere

Industrial looms Research Brief / Productivity

Amid Technology Boom, Where Are Productivity Gains?

19th-century French cotton mills suggest halting, uneven progress

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