All Insights Articles

In a talk with Master of Advanced Management students at Yale SOM, Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer ’82 discusses the importance of finding innovative partnerships between the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.

Neal Keny-Guyer '82, CEO of Mercy Corps, talks about his organization's formula for innovation: local leadership, rigorous metrics, and a willingness to adapt and change in mid-project.

Impact investing, a growing niche in finance, seeks to marry strong financial returns with positive social impacts. That can mean investing in companies whose products improve the environment, or it can mean helping a startup find ways to positively contribute to the neighborhood where it’s based. Nancy Pfund ’82, founder and managing partner of DBL Investors, talks about the growth of the sector.

Professor Ravi Dhar runs through how recent research in psychology helps explain how we all make decisions when shopping. When are you impulsive? When do you really think things through? When do you make the good long-term choice? And when do you go for the junk food?

The increasing complexity of financial instruments, the growing globalization of markets, and the increasing scale of major financial institutions all collided in the financial crisis of 2008. Has the crisis changed the markets for good? Should we expect major shifts in the long-term returns and volatility of different asset classes? What are the long-term consequences of automated trading, globalization, and other macro-trends?

In the Boston Globe Magazine, Professor Edward Kaplan writes that although more Americans report being worried about terror attacks, we are safer than we often feel. He cites his research that estimated the number of hidden terror plots being planned in the U.S. at any given time.

Managers are most likely to grant flextime to men in high-status jobs who request it to pursue career development opportunities, according to a new study by Professor Victoria Brescoll. Women, regardless of their status within a firm or their reason, are less likely than high-status men to be granted a schedule change.

The newly appointed superintendent of New Haven Public Schools talked with Yale Insights about what kind of leadership is needed in education.

Poor healthcare can do more than degrade quality of life; it can have a negative impact on a country's economic well-being. Elizabeth Bradley, professor of public health and director of the Yale Global Health Initiative, argues that when leaders make choices to improve public health they can foster virtuous cycles improving both health and economics. She also discusses the challenges facing China, the world's most populous nation, as it seeks to improve its healthcare system.

In the New York Times, Professor Robert Shiller writes that the United States should reduce government subsidies for homeownership, while finding another way to promote household saving.