https://phys.org/science-news/economics-business/ en-us The latest news on economics research, business research, management sciences Gentle purchase incentives can lead customers to choose groceries with higher animal husbandry standards more often. A recent study at the University of Bonn at least suggests this. The researchers used two different animal welfare label posters as "nudges." Each poster changed the consumer behavior of participants shopping in a virtual supermarket. The share of products with higher animal welfare standards in the shopping cart was highest when both posters were combined. Further studies have yet to clarify the extent to which the results can be transferred to real shopping situations. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gentle-nudges-animal-welfare.html Social Sciences Fri, 03 Jul 2026 16:00:04 EDT news702130279 Businesses today face growing dual pressures to deliver strong financial performance while also demonstrating environmental and social responsibility. New research from Murdoch University published in Business Strategy & Development has found that companies that aggressively avoid tax are also more likely to engage in "greenwashing"—exaggerating how environmentally responsible they are. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-companies-tax-greenwash.html Economics & Business Fri, 03 Jul 2026 11:20:01 EDT news702287939 Employees' biological clocks do more than determine when they reach for coffee; they fundamentally shape how, when and why people help each other at work. A study published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes introduces the concept of "time-extension self-efficacy" (TESE)—an individual's belief in their ability to successfully wake up earlier or stay up later than usual. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hour-day-employee-biological-clocks.html Economics & Business Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:20:01 EDT news702225842 Team members' initiative can help teams succeed, but only when it is paired with strong coordination, according to new research from Washington State University. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-world-cup-reveals-doesnt-team.html Social Sciences Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:40:01 EDT news702204634 Relationships are all about compromise. From deciding on where to eat dinner with a friend to negotiating chore lists at home, we often experience situations that require some flexibility. But what happens when we must work with others—especially people we don't know—to make a risky decision? That's what Caltech's Dean Mobbs, professor of cognitive neuroscience, and members of his lab set out to explore in a recent study. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-compromise-risky-decisions-biased-blame.html Social Sciences Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:30:02 EDT news702230102 Australia has a mental health crisis. The Productivity Commission has found mental health issues cost Australia up to A$200 billion to A$220 billion per year—one-tenth of annual economic output. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-workplace-depression-common-worse.html Economics & Business Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:40:07 EDT news702208022 I recently volunteered to teach some lessons in finance to pupils at a primary school. Over six sessions, I spoke to a group of 10- and 11-year-olds about things like value, savings, cost and risk. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-schools-children-money.html Economics & Business Thu, 02 Jul 2026 11:40:08 EDT news702207482 Immigrant workers protected by a key humanitarian status make significant contributions to New York state's economy and communities, according to new Cornell University research. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-temporary-status-workers-play-critical.html Economics & Business Thu, 02 Jul 2026 07:00:05 EDT news702188401 The media is full of news of war, terrorism and armed conflict, and this shapes our perceptions of violence. However, if we look at the costs resulting from these forms of violence, the numbers are surprising: About 12% of the global cost comes from war and terrorism. A much larger proportion of the costs is caused by interpersonal violence—in particular, domestic violence against women and children. This violence results in immense human suffering—and massive damage to economies and societies worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hidden-toll-interpersonal-violence-world.html Economics & Business Wed, 01 Jul 2026 17:40:04 EDT news702137050 A study by ESMT Berlin shows that startups often learn the wrong lessons when entering a market if they do not coordinate pricing, advertising and inventory decisions. The researchers show that targeted experiments with price and advertising help firms better understand customer demand and make better long-term decisions. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-startups-wrong-lessons-customers.html Economics & Business Wed, 01 Jul 2026 16:00:03 EDT news702128607 The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way people work, making remote and work-from-home (WFH) jobs far more common than ever before. Even after social distancing ended, many companies and employees chose to stick with this model because it offers greater flexibility. People can work from where they already live, avoid long commutes, and enjoy a better work-life balance. For primary caregivers in particular, remote work has made it easier to juggle professional and personal responsibilities. A recent study has found that WFH isn't all sunshine and roses. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mismatched-worklife-boundaries-home-couples.html Social Sciences Wed, 01 Jul 2026 09:40:03 EDT news702116669 As winter illness spreads and households face cost-of-living pressure, many Australians cannot treat a sick day as a simple health decision. They may be too sick to work—but their job is too insecure to stay home. New research led by UTS shows the decision to take sick leave is heavily influenced by pay, job security and gender. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sick-day.html Economics & Business Wed, 01 Jul 2026 09:00:03 EDT news702114662 How can sales figures be forecast more reliably, production capacities planned fully digitally, and employee know-how systematically integrated at the same time? To address this issue, Fraunhofer IWU developed an AI-powered demand forecasting tool for frottana Textil GmbH & Co. KG, the company behind the MÖVE brand. The tool intelligently analyzes historical sales data and provides companies with a robust, data-driven basis for sales and order planning; in a subsequent step, production planning could also be adapted. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ai-based-demand-reliability-textile.html Economics & Business Tue, 30 Jun 2026 22:40:01 EDT news702042203 Since the Supreme Court's 2018 invalidation of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), dozens of states have legalized sports betting. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-legalized-online-sports-fuel-addiction.html Economics & Business Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:00:03 EDT news702036961 Fighting along key transport routes pushes up food prices in areas far from the conflict itself, according to a new study. Researchers examined the price of maize and other staples during the war in Somalia between government forces and Al-Shabaab, an Islamist terrorist group. They found that although the fighting was concentrated in the southwest of the country, the impact of price rises was felt 900 kilometers (560 miles) away—equivalent to the length of the U.K. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-conflict-food-prices-flung.html Economics & Business Tue, 30 Jun 2026 10:40:09 EDT news702028382 Working from home could improve family well-being, gender equality, fertility and staff retention, but only if fathers can use it without stigma or career penalties, new research from King's College London finds. The researchers analyzed data from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes UK (SWAA-UK), Understanding Society and the Labor Force Survey. For return-to-office analysis in SWAA-UK, this included responses from 8,123 full-time working fathers (35+ hours per week) collected in June 2025. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dads-home-career-penalties.html Social Sciences Tue, 30 Jun 2026 10:00:08 EDT news702026582 Women remain vastly underrepresented in tourism transport jobs worldwide, making up just 3% of land passenger transport workers (such as bus and train staff) in countries with available data, according to a University of Surrey-led report. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-women-jobs-tourism-biggest-sector.html Social Sciences Tue, 30 Jun 2026 09:40:03 EDT news702025322 An innovative partnership between George Mason University, Fairfax County and the United Way is shedding light on how guaranteed income can support working families facing economic hardship. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-income-families-economic-hardship.html Social Sciences Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:40:04 EDT news702021301 A new study by researchers at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) in Lithuania has shown that a good idea alone is not enough for health startups to succeed. What matters most is access to data, health care institutions and funding. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-good-idea-experts-digital-health.html Economics & Business Mon, 29 Jun 2026 23:00:03 EDT news701946114 Companies hoping to reduce the environmental impact of their purchasing should tailor relationships with suppliers to different types of products rather than relying on a single procurement strategy, according to research published in the International Journal of Procurement Management. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tailored-supplier-strategies-emissions-size.html Economics & Business Mon, 29 Jun 2026 20:20:04 EDT news701954749 The world is urbanizing fast. In 1975, about 11% of the global population lived in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. "Today, we estimate that share to be about 24%," says Andrea Musso, junior fellow at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) and Ph.D. student at ETH Zurich. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-urban-growth-big-cities-smaller.html Social Sciences Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:40:06 EDT news701957521 For the average Atlanta resident, the identity of the person who owns the house next door might seem like a trivial matter. But according to new research from Georgia State University, that hidden detail fundamentally shapes the balance of power and wealth across the city. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-rent-paid-atlanta-west-side.html Economics & Business Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:00:01 EDT news701953682 In 2020, Virginia received approximately $1 billion through a federal COVID-era emergency rental assistance program, which aimed to motivate landlords nationwide to postpone evictions of tenants who could no longer pay rent due to the pandemic. But in Virginia, lawmakers did not simply rely on landlords' goodwill. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-covid-era-renter-law-slashed.html Economics & Business Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:40:03 EDT news701949121 Remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic may have relaxed company expectations concerning employees' business attire. But it raised expectations for employees' qualifications, work experience, skills and educational credentials when hiring, according to new research from Northeastern University. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hiring-remote-expertise.html Economics & Business Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:20:08 EDT news701948941 University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies has published a new white paper, "The Retention Mandate: Bridging the AI Fluency Gap to Secure the 2026 Workforce," authored by Wayne L. McCoy, DM, MBA, and released through the Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research (CEITR). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ai-fluency-gap-workforce-retention.html Economics & Business Mon, 29 Jun 2026 07:00:01 EDT news701927641 The study, by researchers Chase Foster (King's College London) and Jeffry Frieden (Columbia University), analyzed 134 national elections in 16 countries between 1990 and 2021, alongside data from 11 waves of the European Social Survey. The research is published in the journal European Union Politics. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-unemployment-welfare-curb-populism.html Economics & Business Sun, 28 Jun 2026 12:30:02 EDT news701691227 Greater agility in the sales system—that is, a company's ability to rapidly adapt its sales channels to changing market conditions—is associated with higher operating profit, but only under certain conditions. That is the result of an observational, survey-based study involving 356 predominantly European companies carried out by retail and marketing experts from the University of Cologne, the École des hautes études commerciales Paris (HEC Paris), the University of Mannheim and the University of Manchester. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-rapid-sales-channels-pays.html Economics & Business Sat, 27 Jun 2026 17:30:01 EDT news701440130 The United States is one of only a handful of countries that allows companies to hold patents on plant varieties. As a result, a small number of corporations can—and do—suppress competition in the seed industry, stifle innovation, and turn taxpayer subsidies intended for farmers into corporate profits. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pays-patents-seeds-private-companies.html Economics & Business Sat, 27 Jun 2026 11:30:02 EDT news701440155 In many organizations, large hierarchical gaps exist within work teams, raising the question of how frontline employees can strive for upward mobility in their careers. A recent study by the Department of Psychology at Lingnan University finds that employees who proactively seek opportunities, are willing to learn and, at the same time, have higher emotional intelligence carry out their jobs far better and are more engaged. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-proactive-employees-high-emotional-intelligence.html Economics & Business Fri, 26 Jun 2026 18:20:03 EDT news701682440 As populations decline and age across the developed world, compact city strategies, which oversee the consolidation of urban facilities and guide residents toward transit-served hubs, have become mainstream policies. Yet most evidence about their benefits comes from cities that are already compact. Far less is known about the social costs that may arise during the transition to compactness in the small and medium-sized cities (SMCs) most exposed to shrinkage. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-japan-small-cities-higher-burdens.html Economics & Business Fri, 26 Jun 2026 16:20:03 EDT news701682396