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robot greeting new employees at an office
March 5, 2024

When New Technology Arrives, Who Wins and Who Loses?

For tools that assist but don’t replace workers, novices benefit, while experienced employees take a hit.

Car at ribbon cutting for road opening
March 1, 2024

How to Award Contracts When You’re Concerned about Quality

You want a good price, but you don’t want lousy workmanship. What’s a buyer to do?

Gilded age bureaucrat holding items on his desk as train passes outside window
February 1, 2024

How the Railroad Laid the Tracks for Modern Government

Technologies that allowed federal officials to monitor workers from afar played a key role in the emergence of the bureaucratic state.

Man sitting thinking
January 4, 2024

Why Are So Many Young Chinese Depressed?

It’s not just the economic slowdown. The country’s education system and social policies have created a disillusioned generation.

figure under streetlight
December 11, 2023

Investing Over-the-Counter—and Under the Radar

In most markets, buyers and sellers benefit from soliciting many offers. New research shows why the opposite is true for OTC traders.

woman crossing rope bridge
November 28, 2023

The Long Tail of China’s Zero-COVID Policy

As the costs of China’s pandemic experience are tallied, younger generations are confronting a disconcerting new reality.

group of younger employees waits outside older employees' offices
October 18, 2023

Why Younger Workers Just Can’t Get Ahead

In wealthy countries, the wage gap between older and younger workers is growing. A crowded promotion pathway could be to blame.

woman displaying graph
October 2, 2023

Is Chinese Youth Unemployment as Bad as It Looks?

China’s exceptional growth in recent decades has influenced the education and career choices of young people and their families. But now that high-skilled jobs are drying up and recent graduates are struggling to find work, there is a growing mismatch between expectations and new realities.

long line of soldiers marching single file through a field
September 1, 2023

Why Do Long Wars Happen?

War is a highly inefficient way of dividing contested resources—yet conflicts endure when there are powerful incentives to feign strength.

A graduate leaving university with a STEM degree.
July 27, 2023

Youth Unemployment and China’s Economic Future

For decades, China’s growth has followed the pattern of advanced economies, with rising incomes and educational attainment, shrinking family size, and growing female labor-force participation. But across these and other dimensions, the economy now appears to be going backward.

college graduate standing before Chinese flag
June 2, 2023

China’s Youth Unemployment Problem

If the record-breaking joblessness persists, as seems likely, China will have an even harder time supporting its rapidly aging population.

People pass an e-cigarette billboard
May 16, 2023

Take 5: Yikes! When Unintended Consequences Strike

Good intentions don’t always mean good results. Here’s why humility, and a lot of monitoring, are so important when making big changes.

robot waiter serves couple in restaurant
May 1, 2023

2 Factors Will Determine How Much AI Transforms Our Economy

They’ll also dictate how workers stand to fare.

business power couple atop wedding cake
April 1, 2023

How Marriages Are Exacerbating Income Inequality

Marriage patterns can account for 40 percent of rising inequality, according to a new study.

inflatable dollar sign tied down with mountains in background
January 25, 2023

6 Takeaways on Inflation and the Economy Right Now

Are we headed into a recession? Kellogg’s Sergio Rebelo breaks down the latest trends.

December 23, 2022

Podcast: China’s Economy Is in Flux. Here’s What American Businesses Need to Know.

On this episode of The Insightful Leader: the end of “Zero Covid,” escalating geopolitical tensions, and China’s potentially irreplaceable role in the global supply chain.

The world wonders what caused the great recession.
December 22, 2022

What Do American Businesses Need to Understand about China Right Now?

As China’s zero-Covid policy ends, it’s time to take stock of where the world’s second largest economy may be headed.

an accountant and a robot accountant wearing green visors work back-to-back at desks.
December 6, 2022

Which Workers Suffer Most When New Technology Arrives?

It’s not necessarily who you think.

employees unload pallets from a truck using hand carts
December 1, 2022

What Happens to Worker Productivity after a Minimum Wage Increase?

A pay raise boosts productivity for some—but the impact on the bottom line is more complicated.

person climbing a small ladder against a wall with longer ladders
December 1, 2022

How COVID Changed the Way Americans Think about Economic Inequality

For some, the pandemic laid bare the social factors that can keep people down. But not everyone adopted a new perspective.

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The Insightful Leader

February 16, 2024  ·  15:17 minutes
February 2, 2024  ·  19:54 minutes