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Kerwin K. Charles

  • Competition from China Contributed to Decline in Union Organizing

    New research co-authored by Yale SOM Dean Kerwin K. Charles shows that the rise in imports from China at the beginning of this century accelerated a long decline in union elections, by diminishing the benefits of unionization and increasing the risk.

    A rally supporting unionization for Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, in February 2022.
  • 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
  • Study Finds Hospital Desegregation Didn’t Improve Mortality Rate for Black Infants

    Efforts in the late 1960s to desegregate hospitals in the American South did not significantly contribute to improvements in the Black infant mortality rate, finds a new study co-authored by Dean Kerwin Charles.

    A black and white photo of a Black woman holding a newborn baby in a hospital ed
  • Firms Sacrifice Worker Safety When Demand Is High

    Using data from the U.S. mining industry, Yale SOM’s Kerwin Charles and his co-authors investigated the relationship between higher demand and safety, and found that increased investment in safety measures is overwhelmed by the incentive to increase production while prices are high, leaving workers less safe overall.

    A mining engineer working with a drill in a Nevada gold mine under construction in 2004. Photo: Greenshoots Communications/Alamy Stock Photo.