Author: EconLearner

How to solve today’s Wordle.Getty Images It’s back to Monday, folks. Just like that, Veterans Day weekend is over, although it was nice to have a three-day break for the kids. Now I can barely tell the difference between weekdays and weekends. If I didn’t write this column, I would definitely lose track of days. But for many out there, Monday is a return to the daily grind, the weekly grind, the stair-climbing, and, uh, various other expressions we use to describe our labors. Hopefully you have a job you love and then it’s not even really a job! (This…

Over the past decade, augmented reality (AR) technology has reduced this uncertainty. By superimposing virtual objects onto a live view of physical environments, AR helps users visualize how products will fit into their world. Across industries, retailers have built apps to help consumers actually try on products—like furniture, eyewear, and makeup—in hopes of attracting customers and ultimately driving sales.Because this technology is relatively new, there is little research on how much it improves sales for different products or customers. In a recent study, Srinivas K. Reddyvisiting professor of marketing at Kellogg, et al Sandeep R. Chandukala of Singapore Management University…

Under this pressure, university leaders have made public commitments to undergo environmental audits and integrate sustainability into their operations. But how to start? Facilities staff were not equipped with the knowledge to drive such a change. Instead, universities began to create formal sustainability manager positions.This is an example of professional activism: when workers pressure their organizations to embrace socially transformative change, their pressure can lead to new positions and job titles that manage those changes. Occupational activism is different from change that comes from external pressure, such as from protesters, or from internal mobilization, such as from unions, in that…

But could managers use A/B testing in the service of something very different – ​​like designing the best way to motivate their employees? That’s what two researchers at the Kellogg School of Management believe. In a new study, George Georgiadis and Michael Powell, both associate professors of strategy, develop a model that shows how organizations can use A/B testing to find more effective ways to structure performance incentives. They determine that even a single A/B test can provide a surprising amount of information about how employees will respond to a range of motivation strategies. And they offer a framework for…

Humans benefit from AI in several ways. But AI also has the potential to reproduce or exacerbate long-held prejudices. As machine learning has matured beyond simpler task-based algorithms, it has come to rely more on deep learning architectures that pick out relationships that no human could see or predict. These algorithms can be extremely powerful, but they are also “black boxes” where the inputs and outputs may be visible, but exactly how the two are connected is not transparent.Given the sheer complexity of algorithms, bias can creep into their results without their designers intending it or even knowing that bias…

November is National Entrepreneurship Month, which aims to highlight small business founders and owners and their contributions to innovation and economic impact. According Fudge there are 12.3 million women-owned businesses in the United States. For many, launching, growing and scaling is a lonely journey. Jenny Shum, CEO of Chase Ink says that one thing that can help make the journey less isolating is to lean into a community of like-minded people for support. “It’s that community connection that helps business owners find the resources they need to succeed.” The role recognized can play While the importance of being part of…

But according to new research from Ike Silver, an incoming assistant professor of marketing at the Kellogg School, taking a position of neutrality can come at an unexpected cost. Consider Taylor Swift’s years of silence on political issues. Far from discouraging speculation about the pop star’s views, she avoidance seemed to fuel it. (Swift ended the guessing game by endorsing Democratic candidates in 2018.)Silver and his co-author Alex Shaw at the University of Chicago were thrilled by the public’s reaction to politically averse figures like Swift. “People seemed to react so strongly to public figures not taking part,” he says.…

In 2008, the Wall Street Journal’s Posted by Craig Karmin Biography of the dollar. In it, Karmin casually observed that before 1971, “there was no need to buy foreign exchange because all major currencies were pegged to the dollar rate and could only change in unusual circumstances.” All major currencies were pegged to a dollar which was pegged to gold as 1/35u of an ounce of gold. There is a lot of information in the previous truth. What this typically tells us is that whatever your view of gold is, you cannot seriously deny the remarkable stability as a measure…

Recent survey with Benjamin Friedrich of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Martin Hackmann of UCLA illustrate these important points. Using data from Denmark, they estimate that for every day a nursing home is short a nurse, more than a day of an elderly patient’s life is lost. When nursing homes are short-handed, their residents die earlier. As Friedrich explains:Conversely, when hospitals and nursing homes can adjust to supply-demand imbalances by easily recruiting and retaining nurses, it saves lives.Unfortunately, adapting in this way has not been easy for Danish healthcare facilities. Friedrich and Hackmann document how various constraints meant…

Adopting a leadership mindset starts with these eight key elementsgetty According to LinkedIn’s 2023 Most In-Demand Skills report, leadership and management rank highly in the top five skills cited as a key requirement by employers advertising jobs on the platform. It is clear that whether you are in or aspire to work in leadership roles or not, you will need leadership skills and a leadership mindset to be successful in your career. But how do successful leaders really think? What are their business and professional development secrets, and how can you adapt these principles to your own career to accelerate…