In The News

The COVID-19 pandemic exposes devastating inequality. More than half of all workers hold jobs that cannot be done remote from home. Even in wealthy countries like the United States, half of the residents lack savings to manage an unexpected $500 expense. “While it is true that anyone can be exposed, not everyone has the means to protect themselves, the opportunity to practice social distancing...

There is a long history of companies embracing and spurring social progress, intentionally or not. Tim Harford recounts the history of the sewing machine. A workshop owner rented out space to would-be inventors in 1850 and asked Isaac Merritt Singer, a reported womanizer with three families who did not know about one another, for assistance with a failed sewing machine. Singer spotted problems...

Saudi women resist the religious restrictions imposed in their homeland. In addition to clothing requirements and arranged marriages, women cannot study, travel or work without permission from male relatives. Women also lack full voting, property or inheritance rights. Globalization of travel and communications ensures that Saudi women assess freedoms for women around the globe, with some fleeing...