http://phys.org/science-news/economics-business/ en-us Phys.Org provides the latest news on economics research, business research, management sciences Many people express objections against child labor, exploitation of the workforce or meat production involving cruelty against animals. At the same time, however, people ignore their own moral standards when acting as market participants, searching for the cheapest electronics, fashion or food. Thus, markets reduce moral concerns. This is the main result of an experiment conducted by economists from the Universities of Bonn and Bamberg. The results are presented in the latest issue of the renowned journal Science. http://phys.org/news287407821.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Fri, 10 May 2013 12:30:33 EST news287407821 The increasing interdependencies between the world's technological, socio-economic, and environmental systems have the potential to create global catastrophic risks. We may have to redesign global networks, concludes Professor Dirk Helbing at ETH Zurich's Risk Center in this week's issue of Nature. Otherwise they could turn into "global time bombs." http://phys.org/news286626732.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Wed, 01 May 2013 13:00:29 EST news286626732 (Phys.org) —Required reading for those examining the cause and effect of bread lines: Two papers, one published in 2010 and the other published just this month, poking holes into the 2010 study and inciting a global wave of publicity. The 2010 paper, by Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, "Growth in a Time of Debt." claimed that as countries see debt/GDP going above 90 percent, growth slows dramatically: High levels of national debt lead to low or negative economic growth. The paper was supported by those involved in policy debates from the U.S, to Europe, calling for austerity measures as a panacea to balance budgets and ease high levels of national debt, turning back a perceived tide of continued negative economic growth. http://phys.org/news285481734.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Thu, 18 Apr 2013 05:29:07 EST news285481734 (Phys.org) —Bullet trains fuel real-estate booms, improve quality of life and create other unintended consequences by sharply reducing commute times from smaller cities to large megacities, economists from UCLA and China's Tsinghua University observed in a new study in China. A similar dynamic, they said, could play out as California builds its own high-speed rail system. http://phys.org/news282982806.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Wed, 20 Mar 2013 07:20:16 EST news282982806 (Phys.org) —A new study of retirement plans in the US has demonstrated how adopting behavioral economics is encouraging people to increase their savings for retirement. http://phys.org/news281948241.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Fri, 08 Mar 2013 06:57:29 EST news281948241 While some folks may look at university/college dropouts as simply lazy slackers, a Western study boils the bailout down to simple ability. http://phys.org/news280145209.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:10:01 EST news280145209 (Phys.org)—Not every company has an Iron Man, but many have a Tony Stark – a highly powerful, intensely-focused individual who often ignores risk in order to achieve his or her goals. http://phys.org/news279527593.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Fri, 08 Feb 2013 06:33:29 EST news279527593 Critical reflection and shrewdness can help companies to avoid crises, but sometimes good old-fashioned stupidity can serve an important function in raising the efficiency of an organization, claims Mats Alvesson, Professor of Organisation Studies at the School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Sweden, in a new theory of 'functional stupidity' that has been published in the Journal of Management Studies. http://phys.org/news278590673.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Mon, 28 Jan 2013 10:19:14 EST news278590673 (Phys.org)—Younger Americans not only take on relatively more credit card debt than their elders, but they are also paying it off at a slower rate, according to a first-of-its-kind study. http://phys.org/news277377067.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:11:44 EST news277377067 If you're reading this, odds are you've already used running water in your home today. But you're in a minority: Globally, at least a billion people have no nearby source of water, while of the remaining six billion or so, only 42 percent have running water in their homes or a tap in the yard, according to the World Health Organization. http://phys.org/news277366176.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Mon, 14 Jan 2013 06:09:58 EST news277366176 (Phys.org)—Some hedge funds manipulate stock prices at the end of the month to improve the returns that they report to their investors, a new study suggests. http://phys.org/news274355239.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:48:36 EST news274355239 Take a moment to consider some of the financial choices you've made in recent years. Do you have a consistent approach to your money, either by playing it safe or having a willingness to take risks? Or do you not have a set philosophy, and instead make your financial decisions independently of each other? http://phys.org/news273740666.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Mon, 03 Dec 2012 07:04:35 EST news273740666 (Phys.org)—Biodiversity is a complex phenomenon that emerges from the combination of a large number of ecological mechanisms. Yet, despite the complexity of its origins, there is one prevalent pattern that always appears to emerge. This is a pattern known as "nestedness," which is expressed in the fact that the less ecologically diverse locations tend to be populated by subsets of the species present in the most ecologically diverse locations. Hence, biological ecosystems are characterized by an emergent order in which there is little evidence of specialization, since the rare species locate only in places that are already inhabited by many others. http://phys.org/news273311242.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Wed, 28 Nov 2012 07:47:33 EST news273311242 (Phys.org)—Like the impact of an elephant herd grazing on grassland, multinational banks shape the financial environment to an extent that far outweighs their small number. And like a contagious person on a transnational flight, when these giant, interconnected banks succumb to financial ills, they are uniquely positioned to infect wide swaths of the financial system. http://phys.org/news272122548.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:36:28 EST news272122548 (Phys.org)—A 72-year study of the Dow Jones could help avoid the kind of stock market crash that struck the world economy in 2008. http://phys.org/news269850350.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:25:56 EST news269850350 (Phys.org)—The Physical Internet – a concept in which goods are handled, stored and transported in a shared network of manufacturers, retailers and the transportation industry – would benefit the U.S. economy and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study by engineers at the University of Arkansas and Virginia Tech University. If 25 percent of the U.S. supply chain operated with such an interconnected system, profits for participating firms would increase by $100 billion, carbon dioxide emissions from road-based freight would decrease by at least 33 percent  and consumers would pay less for goods. http://phys.org/news269587154.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:19:31 EST news269587154 Two American scholars won the Nobel economics prize Monday for work on match-making—how to pair doctors with hospitals, students with schools, kidneys with transplant recipients and even men with women in marriage. http://phys.org/news269508447.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Mon, 15 Oct 2012 08:27:39 EST news269508447 (Phys.org)—If experts thought they knew anything about individual investors, it was this: their emotions lead them to sell winning stocks too soon and hold on to losers too long. http://phys.org/news265396410.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:13:48 EST news265396410 (Phys.org) -- “Too central to fail” instead of “too big to fail”: whether banks pose a risk to the financial system when they get into distress has more to do with their level of networking than with their size. Economic researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a method to deduce the “systemic importance” of banks from their complex connections within financial networks. http://phys.org/news263198811.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Fri, 03 Aug 2012 07:46:58 EST news263198811 It is a central worry of many Americans: not having enough money to live comfortably in old age. Now an innovative paper co-authored by an MIT economist shows that a large portion of America’s older population has very little savings in bank accounts, stocks and bonds, and dies “with virtually no financial assets” to their names. http://phys.org/news263194251.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:30:58 EST news263194251 New research from North Carolina State University shows that informal social networks play an important role when it comes to finding jobs in both the United States and Germany, but those networks are significantly more important for high-paying jobs in the United States – which may contribute to economic inequality. http://phys.org/news262352200.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:39:42 EST news262352200 Sons of fathers with high incomes tend to end up with higher than average incomes themselves, but new research shows that it's not just dad's money that helps a son on his way. http://phys.org/news259509296.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:55:06 EST news259509296 David Ricardo’s concept of “comparative advantage” is one of the most famous and venerable ideas in economics. Dating to 1817, Ricardo’s proposal is that countries will specialize in making the goods they can produce most efficiently — their areas of comparative advantage — and trade for goods they make less well, rather than making all kinds of products for themselves. http://phys.org/news259388364.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Wed, 20 Jun 2012 05:19:36 EST news259388364 (Phys.org) -- During the 20-year period from 1989 to 2008, 21% of of all stocks listed in US stock markets became bankrupt. Since bankruptcies affect many investors and have played a large role in the recent global financial crisis, predicting bankruptcy before it happens could help some investors avoid large losses. In a new study, a team of physicists has used concepts from statistical physics to identify some characteristic behaviors of pre-bankrupt stocks that differ significantly from stocks that don't become bankrupt. The approach may eventually help investors forecast stock bankruptcies weeks or months in advance. http://phys.org/news255271245.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Thu, 03 May 2012 13:41:22 EST news255271245 (Phys.org) -- There's no reprieve in sight for Australian letterboxes bombarded with junk mail, with new University of Sydney research showing that junk mail is enormously effective in boosting in-store sales. http://phys.org/news254977658.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:07:55 EST news254977658 (Phys.org) -- Employers commonly examine an applicant's resume, cover letter, references and personality to evaluate how well the potential new employee may perform. Now, the applicant's Facebook profile may play a key role as well, according to an Auburn professor. http://phys.org/news254725535.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:20:01 EST news254725535 The loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs is a topic that can provoke heated arguments about globalization. But what do the cold, hard numbers reveal? How has the rise in foreign manufacturing competition actually affected the U.S. economy and its workers? http://phys.org/news249241384.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:43:11 EST news249241384 Scores of interesting new findings from the biosciences may speed around the globe at the click of a mouse, but one thing particularly encourages other researchers to follow up on them: The chance to use the lab materials upon which studies are based.  http://phys.org/news245399105.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:00:01 EST news245399105 (PhysOrg.com) -- Airlines' accident risk is highest when they are performing very close to their financial targets, according to a study by a professor in BYU’s Marriott School of Management. http://phys.org/news244269796.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:43:37 EST news244269796 (PhysOrg.com) -- As the nation bristles, camps out, and opines against the destructive role of banks in bringing down the economy, a group of scientists has released a study that shows a critical piece of the puzzle went missing, and that piece continues to go ignored, to everyone’s peril, including the banks. http://phys.org/news243535065.html Other Sciences - Economics & Business Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:38:04 EST news243535065