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All Insights Articles

  • How COVID Has Worsened the Opioid Epidemic

    There is another epidemic we cannot lose sight of: the opioid epidemic, which has become only more acute in the United States and elsewhere amidst the disruptions and stress caused by COVID-19.

    Family members of people who died after taking fentanyl pills at a press conference in Los Angeles in February 2021. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images.
  • Why the Texas Power Market Failed

    Texas-based energy economist Ed Hirs ’81 says the February 2021 power crisis exposed longstanding, fatal flaws in the state’s energy market design and oversight.

    Workers repair a power line in Austin, Texas, on February 18, 2021. Photo: Thomas Ryan Allison/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
  • Should Governments Print Money to Make It through the Pandemic?

    Central banks should consider bona fide debt monetization—money-printing—to help their governments cover some of the costs of the pandemic, argue Greg Feldberg of the Yale Program on Financial Stability and Aidan Lawson, a former YPFS research associate.

    A sheet of dollar bills on a printing press
  • Create Trust Online by Pairing User Control and Data Security

    In a new study, Yale SOM’s K. Sudhir and his co-author examine the impact of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). They find that strict privacy rights paired with strong data security mandates create an atmosphere of trust that makes data sharing more beneficial for both firms and their customers.

    A man sitting at a computer, with a large eye on the computer screen, a phone, and a tablet
  • Traditional Firms Get More Room to Innovate 

    A study of the Champagne market co-authored by Yale SOM’s Amandine Ody-Brasier suggests that other industry players are more likely to accept unconventional practices when they come from established firms.

    Champagne bottles on an automated assembly line
  • Study: Improved Video Game Technology Contributed to Decline in Work by Younger Men

    Between the 2000s and the 2010s, weekly recreational computer use by men in their 20s rose by 2.7 hours; at the same time, working hours for this group dropped by 1.8 hours. A study co-authored by Yale SOM Dean Kerwin K. Charles concludes that improving technology caused much of the increase in gaming, and nearly half of the decline in working hours for young men.

    A young man wearing a headset playing a video game, seen from behind
  • How COVID-19 Is Making Gender Inequality Worse in Low-Income Countries—and What to Do About It

    Gender disparities in social and economic outcomes, already larger in the developing world than in rich countries, have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Policy action is badly needed to address the compounding of existing inequalities and protect the most vulnerable women.

    A Doctors Without Borders healthcare provider with a mother and her child at a mobile clinic in Sierra Leone in July 2020. Photo: Saidu Bah/AFP via Getty Images.
  • Is Bitcoin a Bubble?

    The price of a single Bitcoin is up more than 700% since the beginning of 2020, defying years of predictions of a crash. We asked Prof. Aleh Tsyvinski, professor of economics at Yale, to shed some light on the continuing phenomenon.

    Bitcoins floating in a bubble on a black background
  • How American Mythologies Fuel Anti-Asian Violence

    The wave of attacks against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities over the last year fits into a long history of violence driven by rhetoric portraying Asians as disease ridden, writes Prof. Michael Kraus.

    An End The Violence Towards Asians rally in New York City's Washington Square Park on February 20, 2021. Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images.
  • Mapping Our Social Worlds

    Prof. Marissa King’s interdisciplinary approach to network science has produced new insights into how people interact and ideas spread. Her new book, Social Chemistry, explains how an understanding of social networks can help solve issues faced every day by individuals, organizations, and societies.

    Marissa King teaching in a classroom