In The News
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In light of the disputed actions of President Trump at the recent G7 summit, Faculty Affiliate Mauro Guillen discusses the pitfalls of protectionism and challenges popular critiques of free trade. -
Faculty Affiliate Kevin Werbach provides insight on the current trajectory of the net neutrality. Professor Werbach claims that “nothing will change the next day, companies are not going to take any major action to change their policies until its [the controversial repeal of Obama-era net neutrality protections] resolved.” -
Recently on Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel 111, faculty affiliates Howard Kunreuther and Michael Useem discuss the contents of their new book Mastering Catastrophic Risk: How Companies Are Coping with Disruption. By reexamining the field of risk management, once an afterthought for many companies, the authors provides ways for business leaders think more deeply about worst-case scenarios in corporate settings. -
In a discussion on the implications of the Corporate Tax Cut, Faculty Affiliate Jennifer Blouin notes how, because companies do not yet know the final regulations to be implemented by the Treasury Department, they find themselves “playing a game without knowing the specific rules.” -
Faculty Affiliates Kevin Werbach and Pinar Yildirim comment on the implications of the FCC’s repeal of Net Neutrality. First Professor Werbach points out that “there is this misunderstanding that net neutrality is kind of this catch-all provision that prevents broadband companies from doing bad things. It’s not.” Professor Yildirim goes on to challenge the notion that net neutrality ever really posed as a financial burden to ISPs. -
In a discussion on the growing disparity between employer and employee agency within the labor market, Faculty Affiliate Peter Cappelli comments on the impact of the shareholder value movement and how it has facilitated these disenfranchising trends. Professor Cappelli claims that shareholder value encourages “the use of temps and contractors” to fill high-wage jobs because “that way the employer doesn’t have to raise wages for all their employees.” -
House approves a measure to recover $15 billion in previously appropriated government funding; US Justice Department claims the parts of the Obamacare mandate is unconstitutional; The Atlanta Fed is forecasting a double in the GDP annualized 2017 growth rate. -
Faculty Affiliate Olivia Mitchell discussed how fintech – or the use of technology to support banking and financial services – holds a great deal of promise, but how it’s not yet fully helping those saving for or living in retirement. -
In a keynote conversation with Faculty Affiliate Mae McDonnell, an expert on organizational design and management, Slack CEO Butterfield discussed how his responsibilities have led him to explore the wider factors that often leave people feeling disaffected, disenfranchised, or alienated at work. -
Faculty Affiliate Peter Conti-Brown examines and critiques a legislative solution that proposes banking for the poor through the postal system. Within this proposal, the United States Postal Service would not only oversee the mailing of letters and packages, but also traditional banking services as well. Professor Conti-Brown identified three thought provoking critiques that raise the question, are bankers—private and governmental alike—the best people to provide support for the poor? -
Faculty Affiliate Amol Navathe reflects on new research on the future of “bundled payments” and its implications on policy and the cost of care. Through a Medicare mandated program, hospitals were forced to offer knee and hip surgeries as a bundled package whereby the entire procedure and recovery period are thought of as a holistic product. The results indicated a 5% in overall savings for the entire procedure, presenting a promising future for this model of health care administration. -
In light of political turmoil in Italy, Professor Siegel advises listeners to monitor other types of movement and changes such as those of increasing interest rates. Consistent with his message since early December, Professor Siegel points to macro visions of the trajectory of the 2018 fiscal year. -
Faculty Affiliate Mauro Guillen contextualizes a discussion on the potential ramifications of an economic collapse in the Italian peninsula. Experts fear a negative feedback loop where financial stress multiplies because the government is already so indebted that borrowing more money to fund shaky banks means yet more risk for investors, and that reduces the value of existing bonds, which in turn further reduces the value of the banks’ government bond holdings
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In a discussion on the lack of gender diversity in many company boardrooms, Faculty Affiliate Katherine Milkman’s study on tokenism was cited for its claim that “if organizations see gender diversity as a goal but tend to consider that goal satisfied once they match or just surpass the gender diversity levels of peers, then attaining true gender diversity may be jeopardized.” -
The alternative minimum tax (AMT), originally enacted in 1969, was intended to ensure that the highest earners paid some tax. According to research by Professor Shuldiner, a majority of taxpayers will no longer owe AMT under the new tax plan. “Under the prior AMT rules, the regular tax was very close to the alternative tax over long stretches of income, so fairly small amounts of some breaks could trigger the AMT.” Under the new plan, a married couple with income between $270,000 and $500,000 would need about $40,000 of tax breaks subject to the AMT, double the deductions that would have triggered AMT in 2017, to owe this year. -
In an op-ed piece featured on the Wall Street Journal, Faculty Affiliate Olivia Mitchell discusses the unique financial vulnerability of elderly individuals and solutions for this unrecognized problem. Her ethnographic research discovered that “financial fraud experienced by the over-50 population is a large and important problem, and more prevalent than commonly believed.” She goes on to outline three potential solutions; one from the private sector, one from technological innovation, and one from policy makers.
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In the recent New York Times opinion piece,”When Companies Supersize, Paychecks Shrink,” research by Profs. Ioana Marinescu and Herb Hovenkamp is cited as evidence that “no court has ever stopped a merger on the grounds that eliminating an employer hurts workers.” This research was the basis for the Penn Wharton PPI issue brief “The Other Side of a Merger: Labor Market Power, Wage Suppression, and Finding Recourse in Antitrust Law.” -
Research by Faculty Affiliate Olivia Mitchell is cited in an Wall Street Journal article on the meaning and function of “financial literacy.” Her work questioned if Americans understood the basic underpinnings of personal finance. Respondents were deemed literate if they could successfully answer simple questions related to compound interest, inflation and asset diversification. Years of careful research showed that many Americans can’t.
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In a discussion on the limitation of algorithmic based hiring practices, Faculty Affiliate Peter Cappelli maps the transition from human to computer based recruitment. Professor Cappelli claims “we moved to a model where we pushed decisions from the corporate offices and headquarters down to the individual hiring managers when it comes to making decisions about who to hire.
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Professor Herbert Hovenkamp provides insight into the logical calculus historically employed by courts and anti-trust regulators when considering the merging of companies. A&AT seeks to acquire Time Warner in order to better compete with industry titans such as Amazon, however Professor Hovenkamp notes how regulators don’t usually consider merger defenses that depend on the existence of un-deployed technology. -
Faculty Affiliate Susan Wachter explains the ways in which non-bank lenders such as Quicken Loans have helped keep both the real estate market alive and mortgage rates low. Compared to banks, lenders such as Quicken are more lightly regulated, and their credit scoring models haven’t really been tested yet. Wachter, therefore, cautions “if there is a crisis, non-banks don’t have the financial backing, they don’t have the capital. There won’t be the same source to pay up the penalties and fines the next time around, if there is a next time around.” -
Faculty Affiliate, Ethan Mollick reflects on how crowdfunding can be used as an instrument to measure the demand for a start up. Ultimately this is important because when attempting to court big time investors, not only do start ups require a good idea, but they must also establish traction and a market for its services; both of which can be demonstrated through successful crowdfunding. -
Christina Roberto testified before a Philadelphia City Council committee about a proposed bill that would require chain restaurants to put warning labels on menu items containing more than the daily recommended intake of sodium (2,300 mg). Professor Roberto identifies salt as a key agent causing high blood pressure with Philadelphians which can, in turn, lead to other more serious health complications. She cites her research testing consumer response to such labels, which was supported by an LDI Policy Accelerator grant. -
Faculty Affiliate Professor Siegel reflects on the quality of the earning season and what that now means for valuations by drawing attention to the positive impact of the corporate tax cuts. Professor Siegel, however, also cautions listeners to consider the tightness of our current labor market when examining how the market must contend with jobless claim and new job trends.
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On an episode of Energy Policy Now at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Faculty affiliate Cary Coglianese comments on the possible ethical violations that could have led to the Pruitt controversy following the administrator’s lack of professional integrity. When asked whether or not he believed if Pruitt could survive these allegations, Professor Coglianese provided an allegory to a similar situation during the Reagan administration where the Administrator of the EPA at this time was forced to resign following a suit of misconduct. -
Through an examination of Vice Chairman Randal Quarle’s re-nomination, Faculty Affiliate Peter Conti-Brown reflects on the need for a restoration of “political accountability and independence to the Federal Reserve.” He claims that the partisan influence over the functionality of the Fed as well as the actions of the President and Senate all serve as competing narratives that obstruct the organization’s ability to successfully fill vacancies.
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Faculty Affiliate Ann Harrison reflects on the impact of President Trump’s efforts to bring the auto industry back to the US and its effects on industrial Mexican cities such as El Bajio. She ultimately claims that undoing the North American Free Trade Agreement alone wouldn’t be enough to trigger an automotive exodus from these cities. -
Faculty Affiliate, Professor Gyourko was recently cited for his research on the impact of the growing price divide between low-cost areas where housing is plentiful and cheap, and desirable areas where housing is scarce and expensive in coastal areas such as California. -
Mauro Guillen, director of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said Germany can be a good model for Korea to emulate to find a solution to its employment woes. In particular, he called for Korea to focus more on improving a training system for youths rather than artificially creating jobs in the public sector.
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Assistant Professor, Pinar Yildirim, comments on how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared to be more confident and comfortable on the second day of testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
