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Articles by Yale Insights
Does eliminating a testing requirement make college admissions more inclusive?
In 2020, many colleges suspended their requirements for standardized test scores as the COVID-19 pandemic forced testing centers to close. That same year, the University of California Board of Regents announced it would phase out its SAT requirement for prospective students in a bid to increase equity and diversity.
How college presidents respond to critiques of higher ed
New survey data shows that Notre Dame’s legendary president Father Theodore Hesburgh’s wisdom for college presidents from 55 years ago is still relevant today. “My basic principle is that you don’t make decisions because they are easy; you don’t make them because they are cheap; you don’t make them because they’re popular; you make them because they’re right,” he advised. Fresh polling data from approximately 100 college and university presidents in attendance at the Yale Higher Education...
The Latest on COVID-19 Vaccines, and Other News
Howie and Harlan discuss current issues in healthcare, including burnout at the hospital, the downsides to Medicare Advantage, and how AI is helping radiologists catch tiny blood clots.
The Dark Side of an Idealized Picture of Nursing
Certain professions are especially likely to attract workers who feel called to a fantasy version of the job, rather than its actual tasks. A new ethnographic study from Yale School of Managements' Julia DiBenigno illustrates how this phenomenon can get in the way of organizational goals. Share this:
WA - Is Seattle Prepared for Climate Change?
Seattle is already seeing the impacts of climate change, including record-breaking heat and smoke from West Coast wildfires; in the coming decades, parts of the city will be periodically inundated with floodwaters. Ann Grodnik-Nagle ’06, climate policy advisor for Seattle Public Utilities, says that Seattle is focusing on both mitigation—the city is committed to reach carbon neutrality by 2050—and adaptation, prioritizing vulnerable communities of color.
Can antitrust enforcement protect digital consumers?
By Fiona M. Scott Morton, Yale Insights The first antitrust laws and enforcement efforts in the United States were taken in response to the emergence of sprawling industrial conglomerations—the “trusts” in “antitrust”—that amassed inordinate power over the growing American economy. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, for instance, controlled as much as 90% of refined oil production in the country around the turn of the 20th century.
The Roots of Economic Inequality
Photo: Joanne Kim Michael Kraus December 04, 2018 A new study shows that deeply ingrained social behaviors play a role in perpetuating economic inequality. Yale SOM’s Michael Kraus, one of the authors of the study, says we all need to mind the widening gap between rich and poor. The United States is divided by wealth and social class, and the gap is widening.
Is There Reason for Optimism on Climate Change?
The science is as conclusive as science gets.
Can Organized Labor Come Back?
Labor unions have suffered a decades-long decline. In 1954, 34% of U.S. workers were unionized. Today, just 10.7% are, and that falls to 6.5% in the private-sector. While most Americans, 55%, have a positive view of unions, according to a Pew research survey, there’s a notable partisan split, with 70% of Democrats holding a favorable view versus 40% of Republicans.
Three Questions: Prof. Jacob Thomas on Tesla’s Bid to Go Private
What prompted Tesla to consider going private? In his email to employees, Elon Musk says that going private will improve operations. In particular, it will mitigate three problems: employees being distracted by wild swings of the stock price; management’s excessive focus on short-term results, created by the quarterly reporting cycle; and incentives for short sellers to attack the company. He points to SpaceX as an example of the benefits that will be achieved by taking Tesla private.
The Power Pod: A Conversation on Values with Professor Heidi Brooks
In this conversation, Heidi and Michael discuss values in the context of management. Heidi begins with a story that describes how she came to understand her "true north" as the practice of creating courageous communities. Michael and Heidi then follow that story with a discussion of how values guide leadership and inspire people, the difference between bravery and courage, the risks that arise from not pursuing one's values, and more.
How Do You Change a Successful Company?
When Ursula Burns took over as CEO of Xerox in 2009, one might have expected her to be a champion of tradition. After all, she’d started at the company in 1981 and had worked up through the ranks. Furthermore, the company had a huge stock of goodwill, having created “the most successful product of all time” and become an indispensable part of office work in the late 20th century. Instead, Burns saw an imperative for change.
How Can Philanthropy Do More Good?
In 2017, Americans gave $410 billion to charitable causes, according to Giving USA. At 2.1% of GDP, it was in line with a historical norm hovering around 2%. Seventy-nine percent of the giving came from individuals, including bequests. Corporations accounted for another 5%. Grants from foundations accounted for the final 16%. What was the result of the generosity? Who was helped? Those questions are harder to answer.
Do you need a nudge?
Q: Could you explain some of the key ideas in Nudge: nudges, choice architecture, and libertarian paternalism? "Libertarian paternalism" suggests that these two seemingly contradictory terms can actually define a non-contradictory and attractive policy alternative. By "libertarian" we simply mean respecting people's right to choose, whenever possible. And by "paternalism" we mean caring about the outcomes for people, as judged by themselves.
What Germany’s Spectacular World Cup Failure Can Teach Us about Management
Four years ago, I boldly proclaimed on these pages that Germany’s World Cup victory had been a triumph of management. While other teams had hoped passion and the raw skill of their superstars would carry them forward, Germany in 2014 had invested in long-term capability building, meticulous planning, an inclusive team culture, and competitive intelligence, while empowering players to deviate from the plan when necessary.
Is Antitrust Enforcement Out of Date?
After the 2016 election, Yale SOM economist Fiona Scott Morton, an expert on competition who served as chief economist of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during the Obama administration, began having conversations with colleagues about the future of U.S. antitrust enforcement.
Does Fake News Sway Financial Markets?
The phenomenon of fake news isn’t limited to the political realm. Deceptive articles purporting to offer independent financial analysis have emerged as well. For example, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reported last year that PR firms had paid writers to produce positive articles about their clients for investment websites without disclosing the compensation.
Can Appalachian Ohio Build a New Economy?
The outlines of Appalachian Ohio are visible from space. The rumple of hills, hollows, and rivers shows clearly in satellite imagery, in sharp contrast with the icecap-flattened terrain, now cut into agricultural and city grids, that makes up the rest of the state. The heavily forested Appalachian landscape is beautiful but not conducive to large-scale economic activity or even to a single large city. It has 40% of the state’s landmass but only 17% of the population.
Is Women’s Work Evaluated Fairly?
Does gender bias prevent women from being treated fairly in job interviews, performance assessments, and other evaluations? Yale SOM’s Tristan Botelho set out to examine bias in the evaluation of women in a notoriously male-dominated field: buy-side investment banking. Botelho, who has worked in the industry, says that while it has a macho culture, it also has a singular focus on measurable performance.
Building Hope in Appalachian Ohio
The 32 Ohio counties spread over the Appalachian foothills suffer in comparison with their counterparts in the rest of the state by nearly every economic measure. But they’re also filled with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and citizens seeking to build a brighter future.
A Question of Values: Colonel Rich Morales ’99 on Integrity as an Organizational Foundation
Integrity is often viewed as an individual virtue. But it is also a key component to creating efficient, high-performing organizations. We talked with U.S. Army Colonel Rich Morales ’99 about the power and complexity of integrity. He described how it plays a key role for him when navigating nuanced situations—when facts, feelings, mission, and wishes all mix together in critical moments that call for the utmost discipline.
Three Questions: Prof. Marissa King on the Cost of Loneliness
What’s the impact of loneliness in the workplace? Is there a loneliness “epidemic” as Vivek Murthy ’03, the 19th U.S. surgeon general, wrote in Harvard Business Review? Or are we just now identifying a problem that has always existed? One in five adults are lonely. That number hasn’t increased dramatically in recent years but it has enormous consequences for individual and societal well-being.
Could Better Predictions Improve End-of-Life Care?
End-of-life care is among the most pressing issues in modern American health care. “We have a major issue with how we care for people at the end of life, particularly for patients with cancer,” says Kerin Adelson, chief quality officer and deputy chief medical officer for Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven.
Insights Animation: Why Integrated Cities Produce More Startups
When you’re launching a startup, being in the right city—a place where you can find investors, scientists, and other entrepreneurs—can make a big difference. Research by Yale SOM’s Olav Sorenson and Sampsa Samila of IESE Business School identified another important factor in entrepreneurial success: being in a racially integrated city. Sorenson and Samila found that in cities that are more integrated, venture capital investments are more effective in producing innovation and economic growth.
Why Is My Boss Incompetent?
In the 1960s, teacher and author Laurence Peter playfully put forth an idea called the “Peter Principle.” He suggested that firms promote workers who are performing well in their current jobs until they reach positions for which they are ill-qualified. The theory became popular—a pre-internet meme for the era of the gray flannel suit—because it made intuitive sense and provided a satisfying explanation for managerial incompetence in large organizations.
Three Questions: Professor Shyam Sunder on Why We Pay Taxes
Why do so many people hate taxes? People hate having to collect and review their transactions, and paper and electronic records as much as 16 months old, and trying to interpret rules so complicated that even expert opinions differ, all under the threat of punishment for innocent errors. If the bottom line calls for writing a check, that is not welcome either.
Are We In a New Nuclear Arms Race?
In February, the U.S. Department of Defense released the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, a report that outlines the state of the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons and the threats it faces from other nuclear powers, as well as recommending policies and strategies for the future of the nuclear force.
Three Questions: Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld on the Crisis at Facebook
Is the situation with Facebook right now a failure of leadership? We have heard from a number of tech giants about this issue—IBM CEO Ginni Rometty calling on tech companies to do a better job protecting user privacy, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton urging his 21,000 Twitter followers to delete Facebook, warnings from early Facebook investor Roger McNamee over Facebook’s failed performance. But where is any word from Facebook’s leaders?
Do We Know When We’re Headed for a Crash?
You’ve no doubt seen the news about recent stock market losses. It was on the front page of every major newspaper. It was described with words like “carnage” and “bloodbath.” A new working paper by Yale SOM professors William N. Goetzmann and Robert J. Shiller, with co-author Dasol Kim PhD ’11, demonstrates that such high-profile, negative coverage of markets can increase investors’ estimation of the likelihood of a major crash in the future.
How Do Investors Respond to Uncertainty?
Uncertainty in the economy—triggered, say, by a change in government, a diplomatic conflict, or a turn of the business cycle—is usually considered bad news for people who want to invest their money. But a new analysis from researchers at the Yale School of Management and Northwestern University looked at an unprecedentedly wide range of markets and found that investors are more concerned about actual volatility in prices than periods of high uncertainty.
Three Questions: Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld on CEOs Taking a Stand after Parkland
There have been many mass shootings in the U.S., and companies haven't broken with the NRA in the past. What's different this time? Are CEOS responding because of pressure or principle? The horrific tragedy and innocent deaths in Parkland, Florida, will not be in vain. There were 345 mass shooting in 2017—the deadliest year to date for mass shootings. With 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. has one-third of the world’s mass shootings, a rate 25 times that of other affluent nations.
Three Questions: Dr. Heidi Brooks on What Olympic Athletes Can Teach Us about Leadership
How has your own participation in sports influenced your thinking on leadership and management? Although I am not an Olympic athlete, early positive experiences in soccer, basketball, and lacrosse cemented an identity for me as an athlete. In more recent years, I have spent some wonderful time on the tennis court.
The Agony and Ecstasy of the Gig Economy
When we think about work, we usually picture office employees or factory workers clocking in and out of their jobs. But many people are no longer tethered to an organization. By one estimate, more than a fifth of the American labor force performs work that is not part of a traditional full-time job. “The shape of work is shifting radically,” says Amy Wrzesniewski, a professor of organizational behavior at Yale SOM whose research focuses on how people experience and make meaning of their work.
What Does Entrepreneurship Look Like in an African Context?
With cooling commodity prices, Africa’s economies are no longer seeing the rapid growth that led to hopes of a continent-wide rise just a few years ago. Nonetheless, there’s a promising trend: young Africans who went overseas for their education returning with advanced degrees and a determination to make a difference. Surveys found that 70% of African MBA students from top U.S. and European business schools and 90% of African PhD students plan to return to work in Africa.
Three Questions: Prof. Andrew Metrick on the Stock Market and the Economy
When does a stock-market drop become something that poses a broader risk to the financial system? In general, it’s good to remember the motto of Paul Krugman (Yale College ’74, incidentally): “The stock market is not the economy.” The stock market can fall a lot before we have to worry about broader risks to financial stability. We are nowhere near having to worry. Even if the market gave back all the gains from 2017 (another 25%), I would not be worried.
Can a Bus Ticket Prevent Seasonal Hunger?
In many parts of the rural developing world, a lack of jobs for agricultural workers in the months between planting and harvest creates a lean season at a predictable time each year. The nonprofit Evidence Action estimates that each year, some 600 million people experience this seasonal hunger. Government and charitable programs can temper the impact, but they are costly and aren’t a solution to the core issue—a lack of work opportunities.
Can Blockchain Become the Infrastructure of Financial Services?
“Banking’s back end is a mess,” Forbes says. The Harvard Business Review puts it this way: “It’s antiquated, a kludge of industrial technologies and paper-based processes dressed up in a digital wrapper.” But evangelists for blockchain technology believe that may all be about to change. If it proves out, blockchain software—most visibly used to create bitcoin—can be a secure, easily-audited, nearly frictionless ledger.
Three Questions: Prof. Michael Kraus on Giving to Charity
What motivates people to donate to charitable causes? Charitable giving and other prosocial behaviors (e.g., gift giving, volunteering) are much like other behaviors: difficult to predict at the level of individuals. For example, one of the most famous studies of prosocial behavior involved seminary students who were approached by an infirm and disheveled man who needed help.
Three Questions: Edieal Pinker on Holiday Travel
The most frustrating part of holiday travel may be when things don’t work the way they’re supposed to. For example, sometimes TSA Pre members end up waiting longer than people who haven’t completed the pre-screening. Why might this happen? Are there ways to speed up security lines? Because pre-check changes the security procedures (e.g., shoes on versus shoes off), it requires dedicated screening lanes.
Can Regulators Keep Up with Fintech?
Compared to the transformation of other sectors, financial services have been slow to take full advantage of technology. But that may be changing; PwC estimates that by 2020, 28% of traditional banking and payments business will go to fintech—the all-purpose category that covers almost any meshing of financial services with technology, including everything from banking apps to bitcoin to robo-advisors for investors.
Three Questions: Prof. Marissa King on How the Opioid Epidemic Spreads
Is it useful to think of the prescription drug abuse crisis as an epidemic? Thinking of prescription drug abuse as an epidemic is helpful in two regards. First, the word “epidemic” carries with it a sense of urgency, so it draws attention and resources to the problem. But, somewhat unintentionally, “epidemic” also highlights social transmission. While the prescription drug abuse isn’t contagious in the usual sense, it is socially contagious.
Do Startups Pay Less?
In recent years, more MBA students have chosen to forgo careers at large, established firms and chosen to join startups. Professor Olav Sorenson, whose research interests include entrepreneurship and venture capital, has increasingly found himself facing a question from job-seeking students: if I want to be financially successful, should I join a startup or an established company? Sorenson wanted to offer a response that was based on more than just personal experience or individual anecdotes.
When An Empty Board Slot Is Dangled Before You, Look Before You Leap
Like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in physics, the tools intended to measure governance are often confused with the phenomena of good governance itself. Governance training programs emphasize legal issues, committee responsibilities, and compliance. The metrics of proxy rating firms consider skill sets, experience, legal compliance, independence, board composition, and other such qualities.
Three Questions: Prof. Rodrigo Canales on the Broken Promise of DACA
1. What has been the impact of the DACA policy on the lives of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children since it was instituted by the Obama administration? It is hard to overstate the impact that the program had on these individuals. It is important to remember that many of these kids only learned that they were not legally American relatively late in their lives, sometimes only because they became old enough to drive or because they started thinking about college.
Social Media, the Corporation, and the State
On October 31, lawyers for Facebook, Google, and Twitter explained to the U.S. Congress their business practices on privacy and political advertising. Governments around the world wait and watch Washington before deciding on managing the novel information age interactions between economics and politics. Geographically, the earth’s land mass is divided into approximately 200 countries, each with political sovereignty and some control over its territory and people.
Three Questions: Prof. James Choi on the Future of the 401(k)
Your research helped make the case for automatic enrollment in 401(k) savings. As a result, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 was passed to encourage the adoption of automatic enrollment. What do we know now about the effect of that change? Are people saving more? Vanguard reports that 45% of the 1,900 plans for which provides record-keeping services have adopted automatic enrollment, up from only 15% in 2007.
Reduction of Economics to Psychology
Human achievements comprise science, art, the humanities, social sciences, and professional disciplines such as medicine and engineering. Our civilization has achieved much, and led us to want even more. These advances were possible through intensive interaction among the disciplines into which we have organized what we know, without integration into one unified body of knowledge.
Can better accounting avert a pension crisis?
Is a silent economic crisis lurking and growing in the balance sheets of the 89,000 state and local governments in the United States? For decades, states, municipalities, and towns have been underfunding their pension liabilities, resulting in a gap between the promises made to future retirees and the funds put aside to meet those promises that some analysts estimate could total $4 trillion. That's 27% of GDP. Closing that large a gap could have a severe impact on the U.S. economy.
Three Questions: Prof. Zoe Chance on Responses to Sexual Harassment
Professor Zoe Chance also wrote an essay for Psychology Today about some of the factors that prevent women from reporting sexual harassment in the workplace. What are some of the barriers that prevent women from speaking up about sexual harassment in the workplace? Ninety percent of women who are harassed in the workplace don’t speak up about it, for both rational and emotional reasons.
Three Questions: Prof. Robert Shiller on Bitcoin
Does Bitcoin look like a bubble to you? Why? Bitcoin is the best example today of a speculative bubble, at least as I define a bubble.
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