Economics

School Shootings Rise and Fall with the Unemployment Rate

Researchers set out to quantify gun violence at U.S. schools and made a surprising discovery.

Policy

Companies Want to Hire the Best Employees. Can Changes to the H-1B Visa Program Help?

The current lottery is not optimal for top foreign applicants or the companies that want to hire them.

Organizations

Should You Hire Someone with a Criminal Record?

Companies that give ex-offenders a fresh start may be rewarded with employees who stick around.

Policy

What Volkswagen’s Emissions Scandal Can Teach Us about Why Companies Cheat

Tighter standards may backfire in industries with fierce competition.

Policy

Why Are We So Quick to Excuse Drunken Behavior?

From criminal sentencing to corporate indiscretions, we hold people less accountable when alcohol is involved.

Healthcare

Under the ACA, the Cost of Caring for the Uninsured Decreased for Hospitals

The benefit has come only in states that expanded Medicaid.

Policy

How Drinking Beer Is Saving Russian Lives

Decades later, a Soviet public health initiative is still increasing male life expectancy.

Healthcare

The Hidden Benefits of TV Drug Ads

Patients and taxpayers benefit from controversial direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.

Why Sending Your Kid to the Best Possible School May Backfire

Being surrounded by smarter peers can hurt test scores and incite disruptive behavior.

Policy

Higher Taxes Can Make Altruistic Jobs More Attractive

But subsidizing these careers may ultimately do more good.

Policy

Christine Lagarde on Income Inequality, Brexit, and the Power of M&Ms

A Q&A with the IMF managing director and Kellogg’s Sergio Rebelo.

Policy

Does the H-1B Visa Program Hurt American Workers?

At least in one industry, these applicants appear to take jobs others do not want.

Policy

How Much Do Brokerage Firms Benefit from Political Connections?

Politicians can’t trade on insider information—but the firms they talk to can.

Is Reading Someone’s Emails Like Entering Their Home?

How conceptions of privacy change over time and how analogies pave the way.

Policy

Can Raising the Capital Gains Tax Rate Ever Attract Investors?

The traditional view that raising rates hurts firms deserves a closer look.

Policy

How Much Will You Pay Today for a Better Tomorrow?

How we answer that question has the power to shape climate-change policy.

Finance & Accounting

Why Did Car Sales Drop So Dramatically During the Financial Crisis?

Even willing buyers were affected by a credit freeze.

Policy

There Is a Downside to Increased Enrollment in Higher Ed

How opening the floodgates can hurt the classroom experience.

Healthcare

Why Healthcare Spending Has Slowed

Is the Affordable Care Act getting too much credit?

Policy

Does Democracy Curb Corruption?

A clever study investigates the link between where roads are built and who is in power.