Do religious congregations provide informal insurance against the risk of income loss for their congregants? A new paper examines the impact of an expansion in crop insurance subsidies over three decades and finds that as crop insurance take-up increased, religious adherence fell off.
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Why do historically black colleges and universities pay more to raise capital? New research argues that investors’ racial preferences appear to influence their willingness to purchase HBCUs’ bonds, with this trend particularly pronounced in states with the historically highest levels of racism.
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The White House is getting ready to go after tech platforms and the EU is going after Amazon, while Louisiana’s attorney general wants to break up social media giants; new details revealed about Google’s plans to launch a censored search engine in China; and can tech moguls save legacy media?
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Academic capture by donors threatens norms of independence and integrity at institutions of higher education, argue faculty members from Saint Louis University.
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During the 1950s, as part of the Marshall Plan, the US subsidized loans to help European firms purchase technology and sponsored training trips for managers from abroad to US firms. Here, Michela Giorcelli of UCLA uncovers the significant long-term effects of this so-called Productivity Program for the Italian firms that participated in it—and in doing so illuminates larger questions about the drivers of firm performance.
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The US administration launched a trade war against China in response to what it sees as unfair trade practices—especially the requirement that foreign firms entering “restricted” sectors partner with a Chinese firm. New research from an international team of economists gauges whether the requirement has the intended effect of diffusing technology transfer in these sectors, and finds the answer is a resounding yes.
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Is the government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis responsible for the rise of populism in the US and Europe?; the real Google censorship scandal is its re-entry into China; Europe’s new controversial copyright law could change the Internet; and can Facebook unbreak democracy?
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NewsGuard is a new startup that relies on reporting instead of artificial intelligence to rate the trustworthiness of news sites: “It became obvious to us that the platforms’ fumbling around with artificial intelligence cannot solve the problem.”
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The financial crisis of 2008–10 revealed that ratings are imperfect and potentially biased measures of credit risk. Analyzing a large number of mutual fund prospectuses, new research reveals there has been no decrease in the use of credit ratings in investment mandates. The findings point to a lack of better alternatives and suggest that regulation seeking to curb their usage may not be optimal.
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How did Puerto Rico manage to incur a monumental debt of $72 billion without raising red flags among the sophisticated investors who continuously bought its bonds? Here associate professor of business Evaluz Cotto–Quijano points to the role of a tax exemption designed by the US Congress over 100 years ago to finance Puerto Rico’s territorial government by inflating its bond debt instead of appropriating federal funds.
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Google skips Congressional hearing, potentially making a “strategic mistake of virtually incalculable proportions”; Jon Kyl’s “ethical baggage”; new research finds telecom companies are slowing Internet traffic to and from YouTube and Netflix; and where do economists stand on market concentration?
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A new CEPR working paper investigates how product market competition and gender-specific management career hurdles affect the gender wage gap for managers. The findings suggest that increased product market competition may not only boost the wages of female managers but also improve overall efficiency.
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