In The News

Coronavirus and Job Losses in China: SCMP

Sidney Leng February 13, 2020
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in China has climbed to more than 60,000 cases with more than 1,300 dead. Chinese authorities early on took steps to curtail crowds, resulting in an economic slowdown and “firms faced with tough decision whether to reduce staff levels and wages to be able to survive,” reports Sidney Leng for the South China Morning Post. Restaurants, hotels, retail stores...

Wage Transparency: New Frame

Carlos Amato February 1, 2020
Wage inequality thrives on secrecy. Members of society have some insights: some positions pay minimum wage, teacher and government salaries are public information, and annual reports disclose CEO salaries and benefits. It’s no coincidence that Norway, Sweden and Finland are societies with greater equality and “every taxpayer’s annual income and tax payments are transparent,” explains Carlos Amato...

“Public Charge” Immigration Rule: Politico

Susannah Luthi January 30, 2020
US officials have expressed a preference for wealthy immigrants, and the poor can expect challenges in obtaining green cards that allow permanent residency and work. The US Supreme Court voted 5 to 4, allowing “the controversial immigration rules go forward even as lower courts wrestle with multiple legal challenges against them,” reports Susannah Luthi for Politico. “The policy in question would...

Questions for a New Era of Business: Fortune

James Manyika and Lareina Yee December 24, 2019
A new era of business, much like the industrial revolution or the internet boom, is underway. Companies that recognize the trends including aging populations, new technologies, growing economies, improved health and increased influence of developing economies will flourish. Challenges include inequality, stagnant incomes, populism, climate change, rivalries that disrupt trade and concentration of...

Life Under the Algorithm: New Republic

Gabriel Winant December 21, 2019
Productivity fuels economic growth and wealth, and management increasingly relies on technologies to motivate workers to achieve greater speed. Yet wages do not grow at the same pace, and top company officers and investors collect most of the gains. “The decline of unions, the rise of inequality, the crisis of liberal democracy, and the changing face of American culture all, in one form or...

Build Better Globalization: Harvard Business Review

Kimberly Clausing December 20, 2019
People in advanced economies, worried by inequality and stagnant wages, are turning against globalization. But embracing nationalism, and blaming immigration and trade, may not help. Quick fixes could do more harm than good. Kimberly Clausing, author and economist, urges reviewing policies to support workers and communities and reform taxes to share the gains of economic growth. She also urges...

Family Separations for Textile Workers: Spiegel

Fiona Weber-Steinhaus and Kazi Riasat Alve December 19, 2019
Workplace schedules establish cultural patterns for nations, and governments often must step in to end grueling routines. For example, in the United States, Congress mandated an eight-hour workday in 1916 and the five-day workweek emerged a decade later. A pattern has emerged in the world’s most populous developing nations with low labor costs: Parents leave rural communities for work in...