Rather than identifying pockets of poverty, recent income mobility research suggests policy makers focus on opportunity areas.…
Behavioral Economics
The intersection of psychology and economics, behavioral economics looks at human tendencies that involve biology and culture when predicting and explaining economic decision-making.
Why We All Need the Same Time
Whereas we moved from many time zones to four during the 19th century, now, with globalization, we should switch to coordinated universal time for everyone.…
The Spillover From Sorting (and Not Sorting) Trash
The four colors of Shanghai’s trash-sorting bins make the new system look deceptively simple for households and businesses.…
When Cars Have To Decide Whether to Kill Grandma
Like people, autonomous vehicles will have moral dilemmas that require ethical decision-making but it could be tough deciding what is ethical.…
What To Do About Manufacturing Unemployment
Looking at manufacturing unemployment, we can ask if the Trade Adjustment Assistance program is one way to help workers adjust to a new economy.…
What Economists Say About a Penalty Kick
Confirming that economics relates to almost everything, game theory can explain yesterday’s women’s World Cup semifinal penalty kick save by the U.S. team.…
The Problem With Healthcare Price Shopping
While healthcare price transparency sounds like a logical way to constrain soaring healthcare costs, the results were not quite what we expected.…
Why Free Tuition Is Like An Onion
When Kalamazoo, Michigan made college more accessible to high school graduates through a free tuition program, they were surprised by some of the results.…
The Countries That Return Lost Wallets
Looking at honor systems in stores and for lost wallets, we can see how people respond and where to find the most honesty.…
Why Snow Removal in Sweden Is Sexist
Frequently invisible, the gender inequity we could see in our public policies and product design extends to snow removal and pianos…