https://phys.org/science-news/economics-business/ en-us The latest news on economics research, business research, management sciences Young people who grow up experiencing persistent poverty are more than three times as likely to be not in education, employment or training (NEET) at 17 or 23 (3.3 and 3.4 times, respectively), according to new analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study by the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-poverty-triples-young-people-likelihood.html Economics & Business Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:00:13 EDT news708762902 In March 2021, Berkeley, Calif., became the first city in the world to ban the display of sugary beverages and snacks in store checkout lanes, where candy, chocolate and soda are commonly placed to encourage impulse buying while shoppers are in line. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-healthy-checkout-policy-soda-sales.html Economics & Business Fri, 11 Sep 2026 13:40:05 EDT news708343261 Paul K. Piff, UC Irvine associate professor of psychology, has officially been recognized for what millions of frustrated commuters have long suspected: The fancier the car, the worse the driver. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-psychologist-ig-nobel-rich-drivers.html Social Sciences Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:50:01 EDT news708279121 A firm handshake used to be all a job candidate needed to make a good first impression, but today a growing number of firms are relying on artificial intelligence to screen applicants. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-robot-affect-behavior.html Economics & Business Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:39:27 EDT news708262709 Wealth redistribution policies currently under discussion in international forums could avert between 6.6 million and 29.5 million deaths by 2030, according to a study published in The Lancet and led by ISGlobal in collaboration with other leading economic and health research institutions. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-taxing-billionaires-redistributing-wealth-millions.html Social Sciences Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:40:04 EDT news708161522 One-third of young scientists who had been planning careers in academic research changed their minds in the spring of 2025, according to a new survey. Fewer expected to remain in higher education or work in the U.S., or felt that pursuing a Ph.D. was the right decision. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-survey-young-future-science.html Economics & Business Mon, 07 Sep 2026 17:00:03 EDT news708011103 It's difficult to imagine a song like Queen's 1975 "Bohemian Rhapsody" topping the charts today. Almost six minutes long, it moves through several radically different musical sections and famously ignores the conventional structure of a pop song. It seems almost designed to break the rules of what a hit single should be. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-hyperselection-modern-life-efficient-pleasant.html Social Sciences Mon, 07 Sep 2026 11:20:03 EDT news707992785 Michele Gelfand has studied and taught negotiation for years. A professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, she sees negotiation as a skill that is imperative for everyone to learn. "It's not something we're born with," she says. "It's something we learn over time." https://phys.org/news/2026-09-class-workers-higher-pay.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Sep 2026 10:40:10 EDT news707560921 Before buying a product, booking a hotel or streaming a movie, many people check online reviews. But not every glowing recommendation or one-star takedown reflects a genuine customer experience. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-qa-online-age.html Social Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:40:07 EDT news707463362 Two administrations, the Biden administration and the second Trump administration, reached opposite conclusions about whether vehicle emissions standards should be rolled back. These conclusions came from different assumptions, including whether avoiding air pollution has value to society and the degree to which car buyers value future fuel savings from getting a more efficient vehicle. Both assumptions matter, and disagreement over either accounts for hundreds of billions of dollars in the government's cost-benefit math on vehicle emissions standards—math that, in this year's rollback, also assumes gas prices are lower than what drivers are actually paying at the pump. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-reverses-case-vehicle-emissions-standards.html Economics & Business Mon, 31 Aug 2026 18:10:04 EDT news707415242 Artificial intelligence can create realistic depictions of just about anything, but that does not mean advertisers should lean on the technology, according to a study led by University of Mississippi professors. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-ads-succeed.html Economics & Business Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:20:01 EDT news707398741 On the surface, posting online reviews looks like a win-win activity. It helps both businesses we like and people who might frequent them. But although posting reviews can benefit others, it can also put us all at risk, according to new research from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. It can inadvertently expose our personal connections and make us and our online friends more vulnerable to cyberattacks. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-length-online-scammers-friends.html Social Sciences Sun, 30 Aug 2026 11:00:02 EDT news706979465 The capital of any business comes in (at least) two categories. There's the kind that has a price—land, cash holdings, etc.—and a less tangible, priceless kind. Reputational capital falls squarely into the latter category. Try as they might, companies cannot buy positive public opinion, even with the largest marketing budgets. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fake-customer-businesses-big.html Economics & Business Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:20:01 EDT news707034481 To what extent can AI improve our financial decisions or steer us in the wrong direction? Researchers at the University of Bayreuth investigated this question in a new study involving 3,700 participants and fictional investment fund savings plans. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-financial-advice-decisions-investors.html Economics & Business Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:40:01 EDT news706868401 Some teenagers are happy to wait for a bigger reward tomorrow rather than cash in today. Others would rather take the sure thing now—or gamble on a risky, high-payoff bet. According to a new study, these everyday differences in patience and risk appetite are more than personality quirks. They help determine which program a high school graduate chooses—and, with it, the shape of their working life for decades to come. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-patience-longer-paths-faster-growth.html Economics & Business Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:20:01 EDT news706532281 When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars in 2022, nearly 250,000 public comments flooded in—a record response that led the Biden administration to delay a final decision. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tobacco-companies-federal-comment-stalled.html Economics & Business Thu, 20 Aug 2026 11:00:06 EDT news706436041 A new study finds that one side effect of Trump-era trade wars has been cheaper whiskey in much of the United States. But if you live in whiskey hubs Kentucky or Tennessee, your prices actually went up. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-foreign-tariffs-whiskey-cheaper.html Economics & Business Wed, 19 Aug 2026 19:20:01 EDT news706375081 Companies with strong political connections are more likely to escape scrutiny over greenwashing, according to new research from Durham University Business School. Greenwashing occurs when organizations overstate or misrepresent their environmental performance to appear more sustainable than they really are. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-greenwashing-firms-scrutinized-politicians-pockets.html Economics & Business Wed, 19 Aug 2026 12:00:03 EDT news706354130 Work intensity is significantly higher under poor line managers, according to new research led by Bayes Business School (City St George's, University of London) that could have strong implications for global occupational health and productivity. The study is published in the Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-links-bad-bosses-greater-intensity.html Economics & Business Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:10:03 EDT news706293241 Whether on lunch break or on the clock, many employees scroll through the news and social media during the workday. Researchers found that employees who "doomscroll" at work suffer hidden costs that extend beyond lost productivity. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-doomscrolling-real.html Social Sciences Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:20:01 EDT news705916211 Kids, marriage and commute: A study co-authored by Dr. Mariana Macedo of Constructor University provides new insights into how major life transitions alter how individuals navigate and experience urban environments. Published in npj Complexity, the research challenges traditional urban planning models that rely on a single, average citizen profile, advocating instead for demographically sensitive city designs. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-city-relationship-status-exposes-hidden.html Social Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news705845882 In 2005, a research team led by University of Zurich economics professor Ernst Fehr published a study in the journal Nature that provided evidence for the first time that intranasally administered oxytocin can increase trusting behavior in humans. Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter produced naturally in the body that influences social interactions, among other things. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-oxytocin-nudges-distrustful-men-invest.html Social Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:20:07 EDT news705748802 A new study from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management found that research proposals showing stronger signs of AI-assisted writing were four percentage points more likely to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-grant-narrowing-ideas.html Economics & Business Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:20:03 EDT news705679801 When brands spend millions every year to transport Super Bowl audiences back in time during commercials, what happens if they choose the wrong era? Knowing who prefers which part of history is valuable marketing knowledge, and a new tool developed at the University of Arizona offers a way to measure which era evokes the most nostalgia. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-eras-audience-perspective-nostalgia.html Social Sciences Wed, 29 Jul 2026 07:00:01 EDT news704518201 To explain the stock market's reaction to earnings results, investors and other market participants have used a standard tool for decades: the earnings surprise. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-day-stock.html Economics & Business Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:20:03 EDT news704441797 Encouraging people to contribute to a common good can have a surprising drawback: a risk that rewards become concentrated among a smaller group, putting the rest at a disadvantage. Put more simply, "equality and cooperation are often in conflict," says Joshua Plotkin, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor of the Natural Sciences in the School of Arts & Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-cautions-spur-inequality.html Mathematics Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:00:01 EDT news704380802 Infants exposed to respiratory illnesses through older siblings typically fare worse in education, income and health in adulthood, according to new research from the University of Copenhagen. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-early-respiratory-infections-higher-adult.html Social Sciences Wed, 22 Jul 2026 08:20:07 EDT news703925176 Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), the Tübingen AI Center and Ellis Institute Tübingen have conducted a study that uncovers a mathematical strategy explaining how digital labor platforms can systematically suppress wages. The research, titled "Stochastic Wage Suppression on Gig Platforms and How to Organize Against It," develops a mathematical model motivated by digital labor markets, including crowdwork, ride-hailing and food delivery. It shows how a buyer that posts prices and can wait for workers to accept them may keep payments very low when some workers are willing to accept tasks at very low prices. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gig-platforms-simply-workers-slash.html Mathematics Tue, 21 Jul 2026 19:20:01 EDT news703865110 Early-career funding has a bigger impact on women than men when it comes to their careers in science, according to a new study from City St George's, University of London. While the study found that successful applicants in both groups secure more future research funding than unsuccessful applicants, it also found that successful female applicants receive more citations and are cited more often in their field than female applicants who did not receive funding. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-early-career-funding-scientific-citations.html Economics & Business Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:20:01 EDT news703781521 Gender pay gaps in academia are well documented. The harder question is why they persist. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tested several leading answers to that question. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gender-pay-gaps-academia.html Social Sciences Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:00:10 EDT news703767001