Private prisons have long been a topic of controversy in the U.S. A professor of sociology explains what they are and why they matter.
Alvin Roth exposes his work on “disgusting markets” at the European Meeting of the ESA (Economic Science Association) on 7 September in Dijon, France.
Lessac/BSB
The day and a half it takes to get from New York to Singapore and back offers plenty of time to ponder the economics of ultra-long-haul flights – and wonder why we’d want to make it any longer.
The movement to ban miniature toiletries isn’t likely to make a dent in the global plastic crisis.
vaidehi shah/Flickr
Yossi Sheffi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
InterContinental Hotels Group plans to switch miniature toiletries for bulk products, but it isn’t likely to do as much for the environment as activists might think.
Winning the support of workers may be key to Democrats winning the 2020 election.
Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Unions should move their focus away from traditional collective bargaining and instead embrace new ways to attract new members, such as by offering discounted benefits and engaging in more advocacy.
Wayfair workers protested their employer’s decision to sell beds to immigrant detention facilities.
Reuteres/Faith Ninivaggi
A new kind of capitalism is emerging in which companies value communities, the environment and workers just as much as profits. Even the Business Roundtable agrees.
Amazon plans to retrain 100,000 employees in new technologies.
Reuters/Lindsey Wasson
Amazon’s plan to invest $700 million retraining its workforce signals very soon all jobs will be STEM jobs – and higher education needs to play a bigger role.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is taking ‘extraordinary measures’ to avoid busting the debt ceiling.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The US hit the debt ceiling in March and is expected to run out of ways to get around the new $22 trillion limit by September. An economist explains why the ceiling is a dysfunctional relic.
In New England, where most land is privately owned, research shows that land conservation promotes economic growth.
Harvard Forest/Ryan Burton
Protecting land from being developed intuitively may seem like a drag on local economies, but research in New England finds that it has the opposite effect.