All Insights Articles
Rebuilding Local News, One Town at a Time
Bob Rifkin ’89, president of the board of the Belmont Voice, says the nonprofit model for local news has had a palpable impact on his community—and can do the same for your town.
Trump Shouts Loudly and Fumbles a Big Stick
In recent weeks, Yale SOM leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and co-author Steven Tian write, the president’s usual approach of bullying with coercion, threats, and retribution has backfired on multiple fronts.
A Machine-Learning Model Can Help Reunite Long-Separated Families
Hundreds of thousands of children in China have been separated from their parents. A Yale SOM study finds that a machine-learning approach could cut years off family reunification efforts by matching imperfect, self-reported memories from parents and children.
Firms with a Well-Paid Chief Human Resources Officer Build More Effective Workforces
A new study co-authored by Prof. Edward Watts finds that firms that invest in the human capital function through higher pay to its leader have more productive and happier workers.
AI Monopolists Could Be a Disaster for Workers
If artificial intelligence reshapes production across the entire economy, it could drive the cost of goods toward zero. But Yale SOM economist Fiona Scott Morton argues that if AI is captured by a small number of powerful firms, falling wages could coincide with persistently high prices, leaving workers far worse off.
Will Banning Corporate Homebuyers Make Housing More Affordable?
The Trump administration has moved to restrict institutional investors’ home purchases and proposed allowing buyers to draw on retirement savings for down payments. We asked Professor Cameron LaPoint, who studies housing finance, whether these policies are likely to make housing more affordable—or to push prices higher.
How Do Impact Investors Know If They Are Having an Impact?
We talked with Jake Harris ’19, a principal at the impact investing firm DBL Partners, about the challenges of measuring the social and environmental returns on a financial investment.
How a New Approach to Store Brands Helped Natural and Organic Foods Go Mainstream
As Whole Foods expanded in the 1990s, Denis Ring ’84 took on the challenge of developing the grocery chain’s 365 brand. Wooing shoppers with joyful design and affordable prices, he harnessed the power of private labels to expand the scale of organic and all-natural foods.
How Innovations in Understanding Everyday Data Can Power More Effective Aid
For a project in Bangladesh, Prof. Mushfiq Mobarak and his team used machine-learning models applied to mobile phone records to identify the poorest households—faster and at far lower cost than traditional surveys.
Most Startups Fail. These Founders Thought Making an Impact Was Worth the Risk.
We talked with Nick Callegari ’25, Dianna Liu ’18, and Ariana Yuen ’19 about the unique challenges faced by founders trying to make a difference and the moments that make their work worthwhile.
