ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Americans who are more conscientious have higher lifetime earnings and save more for retirement, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center. (more…)
In discussions of how best to solve global poverty, helping the 3 billion people living on less than $2.50 per day, development economists tend to fall into one of two camps.
One camp claims that wealthy nations contribute too few dollars to combat poverty. The other camp counters that money doesn’t guarantee poverty alleviation, and points to the $2.3 trillion spent in foreign aid over the past 50 years as evidence that throwing money at the problem won’t solve it. Despite their differences, both groups agree that some types of development interventions work better than others. (more…)
It’s not just how free the market is. Some economists are looking at another factor that determines how much a country’s economy flourishes: how smart its people are. For a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers analyzed test scores from 90 countries and found that the intelligence of the people, particularly the smartest 5 percent, made a big contribution to the strength of their economies. (more…)
In its first quarterly report of 2011, the UCLA Anderson Forecast is cautiously sanguine about the national economy, as real gross domestic product continues to grow at a steady pace and employment continues to increase. (more…)
The United States prizes freedom above most other civic values, yet Bernard Harcourt believes the notion is widely misunderstood and inconsistently applied.
Freedom from government interference is a key tenet of the free market system that the United States champions, but Harcourt notes that Americans expect vigorous government action in imprisoning criminals. The result is a deep inconsistency, he argues, for even as the United States preaches freedom in the marketplace, it maintains the world’s highest incarceration rate. (more…)
*MU researcher says business owners can put their households at financial risk*
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Small businesses are seen as an important part of the American economy. These businesses often rely heavily on loans to stay afloat. The recent economic recession has created a reduction in available credit for many small businesses, making it difficult for many businesses to operate. Tansel Yilmazer, assistant professor in the personal financial planning department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri, says that lack of available credit has forced many small business owners to use their household savings or other personal assets to support their businesses, putting their personal assets at risk. (more…)
EAST LANSING, Mich. — China should protect land rights of all farm families and restrict corporate farming, argues a Michigan State University researcher whose team found that secure farm land rights will be key to closing the income gap between Chinese cities and countryside. (more…)
Ignoring the stresses of an unemployed spouse’s job search does not bode well for the employed spouse’s job productivity or home life, says a University of Colorado Boulder professor.
Associate Professor Maw-Der Foo of CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business studies employee workplace issues, including those related to interpersonal relationships. (more…)
