Cowboy Economics
If your boss is giving you a hard time -- lying, making fun of you in public and generally putting you down, he or she may benefit from some exercise, according to a new study by James Burton from Northern Illinois University in the US and his team. Their work shows that stressed supervisors, struggling with time pressures, vent their frustrations on their employees less when they get regular, moderate exercise.
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Working mothers may be busy, but they like it that way. A recent study of employed moms finds that most would work even if they didn't have to, but they're also looking for new ways to negotiate the demands of mothering and the pressures to be an "ideal" employee.
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Increasing the involvement of workers through job design does affect employees' satisfaction and in turn organizational performance. But increasing the involvement of employees in the wider organization and encouraging them to be more proactive and flexible may reduce satisfaction and increase anxiety, even though it may increase organizational performance.
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With a growing need for family-friendly workplace policies, a new study by Rutgers' Center for Women and Work commissioned by the National Partnership for Women & Families, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, concludes that providing paid family leave to workers leads to positive economic outcomes for working families, businesses and the public.
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Consumers can have vastly different reactions to the same package deal, depending on the order the price and quantity are listed, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
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During an economic downturn, even people who are not directly affected spend less on goods and services that signal social status, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
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Gifts and support from people of different social positions strengthen communities, especially in hard times, according to a new study of post-Katrina New Orleans in the Journal of Consumer Research. But gifts from corporations are not always welcome.
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How long it will take to bake a cake? Twenty-eight minutes or half an hour? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, most consumers would trust the 28-minute estimate, if it comes from a reliable source.
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Two studies by USC Marshall School of Business professor find aligned action does not always lead to the common good.
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Rui Yao, an assistant professor of personal financial planning in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at MU, found that willingness to take financial risks, or "risk tolerance," decreases as investors age.
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A new study of hedge fund managers' trading habits shows they sell off their holdings ahead of other investors. The motivation, the researchers say, is a predictable drop in fund performance after investors pull out of share-restricted funds. The authors say private information about a fund -- particularly the flow of investment dollars -- may constitute material information.
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Location and other geographical factors play an important role in supporting economic growth and development in emerging markets, a new study from the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty has found.
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 | Happiness has dropped over the last two years, University of Vermont research shows. ...> Full Article |
 | A new analysis shows that solar photovoltaic systems are very close to achieving the tipping point in many regions: they can make electricity that's as cheap -- sometimes cheaper -- than what consumers pay their utilities. ...> Full Article |
 | A "sin tax" applied to sweetened goods on store shelves is not the most efficient, effective method of lowering caloric intake from sweet food and would be more disruptive to consumers than necessary, according to Iowa State University research. ...> Full Article |
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