The Equitable Economy

ESG & Corporate Governance

The system of formal and informal rules by which a company is governed. Corporate governance shapes more than just a given's company value - it dictates who controls the capital in the economy and so how this capital is being put the use. Corporate governance therefore affects and is affected by the degree of cronyism and rent-seeking in society.

Health Care

Americans spend significantly more on health care than any other country. Why? Answers to this question range from hospital monopolies to perverse incentives to opaque pricing to medical licensing to pharmaceutical firms abusing IP practices to “creeping consolidation.” Why is the US health care system so broken? And what can antirust do about it? Catch-up on our coverage of antitrust and the US health care system.

Mobile Internet Is Changing Employment in Developing Countries, but Not Always as Expected

Scholars and policymakers have put much faith into the prospect of internet connectivity catalyzing development in low- and middle-income countries. In new...

History Shows that Voluntary ESG Standards Lead to a More Focused ESG Disclosure

In recent years, ESG reports have become more common for publicly traded companies. However, critics have found the information they provide to...

Are There Really Gender Pay Differences in the CEO Labor Market?

The gender pay gap is a well-documented phenomenon in global labor markets, but this gap does not seem to apply to the...

Globalization’s Uneven Impact on Women’s Occupational Attainment

The literature on globalization’s impact on women’s workforce participation generally takes a positive outlook but still produces mixed results. In their research,...

How Societies and Families Perpetuate Gender Wealth Inequalities

In "The Gender of Capital: How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequality," sociologists Céline Bessière and Sibylle Gollac show how ostensibly egalitarian property...

How Women in the Workplace Has Changed Over the Last 50 Years

Decades of progress have seen greater opportunities for women in the workplace, but sizable gender gaps still remain. Stefania Albanesi, Claudia Olivetti...

To Understand Earnings Inequality, We Need To Study Hours Inequality

A growing literature on income inequality and labor earnings has overlooked the contribution of disparities in hours worked. In new research with...

Bail In Universities to Fix the Student Loan Crisis

Universities should take some responsibility for the student debt they produce. Benedikt Koehler offers several potential solutions for governments and higher education...

Investing in Influence: Investors, Portfolio Firms, and Political Giving

A new paper examines the relationship between the rising concentration in institutional investors' ownership of publicly traded U.S. firms and portfolio companies'...

Twitter’s Corporate Leaders Pushed their Stakeholders under the (Musk) Bus

In a new study, we examine whether, in negotiating the sale to Elon Musk, Twitter’s corporate leaders took into account the commitments...

Latest news

Mobile Internet Is Changing Employment in Developing Countries, but Not Always as Expected

Scholars and policymakers have put much faith into the prospect of internet connectivity catalyzing development in low- and middle-income countries. In new...

Biden’s Second-Best Economic Agenda

Efficiency is out and political economy is in. But what does that imply about making good policy?

The Fed and Bank Failures

Viral Acharya and Raghuram Rajan explain how quantitative easing contributed to the problems underlying the recent bank failures such as that of...

Self-Preferencing Theories Need To Account for Exploitative Abuse

Patrice Bougette, Oliver Budzinski, and Frédéric Marty argue in their research that antitrust authorities on both sides of the Atlantic must take...

Startup Acquisitions Have Undecided Effects on Innovation and Economic Growth

Startups are a major driver of innovation, but many startups are acquired by large incumbents. Do these acquisitions stifle innovation or promote...

History Shows that Voluntary ESG Standards Lead to a More Focused ESG Disclosure

In recent years, ESG reports have become more common for publicly traded companies. However, critics have found the information they provide to...

Letters that Matter: How Interest Groups Shape Financial Legislation

Members of Congress are inundated with an avalanche of correspondence on a daily basis. But what persuades them to heed the call?...