https://phys.org/science-news/economics-business/ en-us The latest news on economics research, business research, management sciences For decades, historians have generally agreed that the progress of small villages as they evolved into cities came at the price of widening inequality. A small group of leaders, kings and priests, would inevitably seize control of the wealth and the gap between rich and poor would grow. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-year-city-defied-history-equal.html Archaeology Tue, 19 May 2026 14:10:01 EDT news698414541 Artificial intelligence (AI) companies influence policy and regulation using similar techniques to Big Tobacco, Big Pharma and Big Oil, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-big-ai-laws-oversight.html Economics & Business Mon, 18 May 2026 20:00:01 EDT news698339732 In chess, faster decisions are on average of higher quality. This is the conclusion of a study that has just been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team of researchers, which, in addition to Professor Uwe Sunde from LMU, includes scientists from Erasmus University Rotterdam and UniDistance Suisse, analyzed data from professional games of chess. Their aim was to investigate how the time taken to make a complex strategic decision is related to the quality of this decision. Sunde and his colleagues believe the outcome of their research indicates that the decision time reflects the subjectively perceived difficulty of the problem, which can vary depending on the situation. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-professional-chess-analysis-reveals-faster.html Social Sciences Mon, 18 May 2026 16:40:03 EDT news698335861 When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations come to town, it can create a landscape of fear, chilling commerce and school attendance, and now, new research shows that it affects childcare workers. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-economics-ice-upended-childcare-workforce.html Economics & Business Mon, 18 May 2026 16:22:58 EDT news698339775 Work songs, musical pieces designed to be performed or sung while working, have been widely documented across various cultures and in different historical periods. For instance, people in different nations have been known to sometimes sing together while rowing, sailing, harvesting crops or building structures. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-songs-team.html Social Sciences Tue, 12 May 2026 08:00:04 EDT news697708741 Researchers from University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science have found that recent federal grant terminations targeting research on health equity and gender identity have disproportionately affected scientists from the very communities those studies aim to support. The findings were published May 5, 2026 in The Lancet Regional Health—Americas. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-federal-grant-terminations-disproportionately-impact.html Social Sciences Wed, 06 May 2026 12:20:04 EDT news697285262 Fast-food workers in California may be earning more money, but their employers are cutting their hours to make up for the cost of higher pay. That's from a new study published in Applied Economic Letters in early March. Northeastern University postdoctoral research fellow Hitanshu Pandit, who was the author on the paper, used cellphone data to analyze the impact of a law that increased the Golden State's minimum wage for fast-food workers by 25%. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-fast-food-pay-california.html Economics & Business Mon, 27 Apr 2026 09:20:02 EDT news696499683 Humans are generally a cooperative bunch and most of us probably like to think of ourselves as reliable team players. Cooperation is useful for all sorts of reasons, from running a business and managing community resources to supporting our neighbors. But cooperation is fragile and it slowly starts to fizzle out even under favorable conditions, according to a new study published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-groups-slowly-conditions-good.html Social Sciences Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:40:04 EDT news696169358 Natural resources—such as fossil fuels, water, and minerals—are materials found in the environment that are essential for life and highly utilized in production. Though these resources are viewed as essential to economic development and wealth, many resource-rich countries have paradoxically struggled with limited economic growth and unstable political institutions. This phenomenon, known as the "resource curse," challenges the notion that resource abundance automatically translates into economic prosperity and raises the question of how these regions fall into this trap while other less resource-rich countries manage to leverage their resources for sustainable development. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-resource-curse-natural-abundance-edged.html Economics & Business Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:40:01 EDT news696090858 Additional product displays in supermarket aisles—so-called secondary placements—are intended to encourage impulse purchases. However, a new study by Mathias C. Streicher of the University of Innsbruck shows that excessive use of secondary displays narrows the aisles, reducing in-aisle browsing and sales. In real-world field experiments, sales rose by about 11.5% after removal of secondary displays from a congested aisle, even though fewer products were on display overall. The study appears in PLOS One. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-crowded-supermarket-aisles-sales-field.html Economics & Business Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:00:05 EDT news696070981 Can you tell if you're working with a narcissist or a psychopath? A new study suggests that people's job choices may offer some clues, especially in fields built on leadership and persuasion such as business, politics, and law, where such darker traits are more common. Those in creative fields or nature-focused work may be more likely to encounter individuals with a Machiavellian way of thinking, according to findings published in Personality and Individual Differences. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-people-dark-personality-traits-naturally.html Social Sciences Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:10:01 EDT news695314226 Improved methods for social and behavioral sciences research could help enhance public trust in science, says a new study that investigated the robustness of data analysis to understand whether it reliably stood the test of time. It did. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-science.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:40:01 EDT news695570281 If you can't get no satisfaction, then maybe it's because happiness does not only stem from pleasure or a meaningful existence. Instead, a new Simon Fraser University study suggests that freedom is the key to happiness. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-autonomy-key-happiness.html Social Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:20:02 EDT news695474282 A University of Houston researcher and his collaborators have developed a mathematical model that helps identify whether a competitive environment is healthy, stagnant or skewed. Published in the journal npj Complexity, the study led by UH Computer Science Professor Ioannis Pavlidis presents a general, falsifiable framework for assessing competition quality and fairness. The model works by analyzing the statistical pattern of repeated success and reverse-engineering the kind of competitive system that produced it. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mathematical-signature-competition-fair-winner.html Mathematics Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:20:05 EDT news694954861 A study of nearly 200,000 Amazon reviews shows that the usefulness of online product reviews depends not only on what is said, but on how the information is structured. The researchers, from the Universities of Cambridge and Queensland, studied Amazon reviews for products ranging from clothing to food to electronics. They found that how the information is organized matters as much as what is said, and that different review structures are more or less helpful, depending on how highly the reviewer has rated the product. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-online-sentiment-readers.html Economics & Business Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:10:01 EDT news694886461 Researchers at the University of Manchester have used artificial intelligence to uncover a complex picture behind England's long-running productivity puzzle, challenging the idea that the country's economic performance can be explained by a simple North-South divide. In a major study published in the Spatial Economic Analysis journal, Professor Cecilia Wong and Dr. Helen Zheng applied "GeoAI" techniques—combining geography and artificial intelligence—to analyze how productivity varies across local authorities in England between 2010 and 2022. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-reveals-england-productivity-complex.html Economics & Business Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:50:01 EDT news694258406 An individual's position in the income hierarchy is a stronger predictor of well-being than either how much they earn or how large the income gap is between them and others, finds new research from the University of Leeds, the University of Oxford and the University of Warwick. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that the strength of the relationship between income rank and well-being varies significantly depending on the social and cultural context in which people live—and that strong civic and community life can substantially reduce it. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-income-worldwide-social-capital-buffer.html Social Sciences Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:50:01 EDT news694195081 Lil Miquela has 2.5 million Instagram followers, a high-fashion wardrobe, and a clear political voice. She has advocated for Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQI+ community, fronted major brand campaigns, and built a devoted global fanbase. She also has no pulse. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-millions-dont.html Social Sciences Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:40:05 EDT news694175161 When you go out to run errands on the weekend, you're on a "tour" as defined by human mobility researchers. Same if you book a guided tour of a famous city or take a trip on a cruise boat that reaches multiple ports. A characteristic of such tours is that you begin and end up in the same place and take intermediate stops along the way. The number of stops is the tour's "length." https://phys.org/news/2026-03-science-delivery.html Mathematics Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:20:02 EDT news694089403 Jack Welch, the legendary General Electric CEO, was infamous for firing the bottom 10% of his workforce every year, without exception. The company's market cap rose substantially during Welch's tenure, but his "rank and yank" ritual was divisive. If you knew your job was always on the line, the logic went, you would push harder and generate results. Yet what did this approach do to the employees who had to constantly compete with each other to keep their jobs? https://phys.org/news/2026-03-cooperative-workplaces-boost-freedom.html Social Sciences Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:40:08 EDT news693573181 Emotional Intelligence (EI) training can improve employee well-being and prevent burn-out in high-stress environments, University of Queensland research has found. Dr. Jemma King from UQ's School of Psychology said EI training has proven beneficial for high performance athletes, including Formula 1 drivers and crew in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, with potential for people in other workplaces. The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-special-emotional-intelligence-boost-stress.html Social Sciences Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:40:01 EDT news693571741 A new study, led by the University of Nottingham and conducted by a team of 72 economists and psychologists across the world, has identified a potential "private solution trap" in problems requiring international cooperation such as climate change. Dr. Eugene Malthouse, Research Fellow in the university's School of Economics, led the international team of researchers, who invited participants from 34 countries to play a climate change game in small groups. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-private-solution-richer-countries-favor.html Economics & Business Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:01 EDT news693483062 New research from the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) shows why widely used algorithms for measuring economic complexity produce trustworthy results and how these tools may benefit diverse areas such as ecology, social science, and agentic AI. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review E. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-global-lens-physics.html Mathematics Thu, 12 Mar 2026 19:20:01 EDT news692543746 Gender differences in poverty rates in the United States may be associated with women's differing circumstances—particularly the burden of dependent children—rather than inherent to gender itself, according to a study published in PLOS One by Patti Fisher of Virginia Tech, U.S. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-childcare-burden-gender-gap-poverty.html Social Sciences Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:13 EDT news692367481 Employment can be a powerful gateway to independence, dignity, and belonging. Yet for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), that gateway remains limited. Although work supports better health, social connection, and a sense of purpose, only about 15% of individuals with IDD are employed in competitive, integrated work settings. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-augmented-reality-job-boosts-people.html Economics & Business Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:40:01 EDT news692444443 More stock trading is moving away from traditional public stock exchanges and into places called "dark pools." These are private, electronic markets where investors buy and sell stocks without showing their orders to the public. Even as dark pools have grown increasingly popular, a recent study from the University of Missouri suggests they may make public stock markets less transparent and increase the risk of sudden stock price crashes. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-links-dark-pool-higher-sudden.html Economics & Business Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:20:01 EST news690730105 A new study finds entrepreneurs become more committed to their business ventures when they are told they will fail, increasing their efforts to make those businesses successful. "Most entrepreneurs—people who start their own businesses—actually identify with the business they're running," says Tim Michaelis, an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University and corresponding author of a paper on the work published in the Journal of Business Venturing. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-negativity-founders-links-greater-persistence.html Social Sciences Wed, 18 Feb 2026 14:20:03 EST news690645973 Climate change is not just reshaping the planet, it's already affecting how people feel about their lives, their health and their financial security, according to a new study from the Universities of Portsmouth and Dundee. The research shows that prolonged changes in weather linked to climate change, particularly abnormal temperatures, are quietly but significantly undermining people's mental well-being and confidence about their finances, with effects equivalent to losing hundreds of pounds a month. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-worse-money-climate.html Social Sciences Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:08:14 EST news690635281 For years, Iceland, Switzerland, and Norway have ranked near the top of the United Nations' annual index of countries based on indicators of well-being and quality of life. Countries with more poverty and less access to health care and education tend to rank lower on the list, known as the Human Development Index, or HDI. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-satellite-imagery-ai-reveal-hidden.html Social Sciences Tue, 17 Feb 2026 15:27:17 EST news690564421 Supermarket shelves can look full despite the food systems underneath them being under strain. Fruit may be stacked neatly, chilled meat may be in place. It appears that supply chains are functioning well. But appearances can be deceiving. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-humans-machines-truckloads-food-stranded.html Economics & Business Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:00:01 EST news689956557