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Economics

Case Studies in Innovation

We shared the stories of two alumni entrepreneurs with Professor Jonathan Feinstein, author of Creativity in Large-Scale Contexts, and asked him to apply his framework for creativity and innovation to help elucidate their paths from idea to impact.

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  • When State Neglect Turns Weather into Revolution

    In a new study, Professor Mushfiq Mobarak and co-author Sultan Mehmood analyze newly uncovered satellite imagery of the 1970 Bhola cyclone, and show that the storm affected voting patterns and induced more citizens to take up arms in a guerrilla war that led to the founding of Bangladesh.

    Sheikh Mujibur Rahman surrounded by a crowd
  • Are Elon Musk’s Politics Driving Away Tesla’s Customers?

    A new Yale working paper sets out to quantify the effect of the controversies over Musk’s transformation of Twitter and his time leading DOGE, and finds that they may have cost Tesla one million sales.

    A Tesla with a bumper sticker reading “I bought this before we knew that Elon was crazy."
  • The Price of Trust: How Conflicts of Interest Threaten the Marketplace of Ideas

    A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s John Barrios investigates how conflicts of interest erode trust in the very institutions meant to produce independent knowledge.

    A professor works on a research on a white board while a man in a suit hands him information through the window
  • Do the New Obesity Drugs Pay for Themselves?

    Could expensive drugs like Ozempic save healthcare systems money by reducing the risk of obesity-associated diseases? A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Jason Abaluck suggests that other health expenses may actually increase over the first couple years of treatment.

    Wegovy autoinjectors in a case
  • How Nations Use Economic Power to Shape the World Order

    Yale SOM’s Christopher Clayton is helping to pioneer the field of geoeconomics, which explains how countries wield economic weapons to reshape global power dynamics—and what happens when they go too far.

    An illustration of two figures playing poker on a table with a world map
  • Economic Data Helps Explain a Pattern of Violence Against Myanmar’s Rohingya Minority‌

    New research from Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak shows that the violence and looting in rice-growing areas is tied to rice prices, suggesting an economic motivation for the attacks, and finds that the government response to conflicts involving the Rohingya is far harsher than in conflicts with other ethnic groups.‌

    Rohingya refugees at a refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district in May 2024.
  • Would Stricter Antitrust Rules Have Stopped the Rise of Amazon?‌

    In a new study, Prof. Edward A. Snyder and his co-authors consider whether current antitrust guidelines would have checked Amazon’s voracious appetite for acquisitions if they had been in place earlier.

    Amazon delivery vans lined up on a road
  • In the Wake of the Pandemic, Flexible Work Arrangements Made Workers Less Likely to Start Their Own Businesses‌

    Flexibility has long been a selling point for entrepreneurship. But COVID-19 helped make flexible arrangements more of a norm. A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s John Barrios shows how this shift in workplace norms changed who starts businesses.

    A man working at a desk in his attic
  • When Skilled Workers Go Abroad, Their Home Countries Experience ‘Brain Gain’

    When skilled workers from poorer countries migrate to wealthy ones, there are benefits for the origin countries as well as workers and the host countries, according to new research co-authored by Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak. But anti-immigrant sentiment and policy could disrupt this mutually beneficial dynamic. ‌

    New citizens raising their right hands at a ceremony
  • Podcast
    Season 1
    Episode 3
    Duration 23:40

    When Ideas Meet the Real World with Mushfiq Mobarak

    Development economist Mushfiq Mobarak, the Jerome Kasoff ‘54 Professor of Management and Economics, explains how implementing new ideas can be complicated by politics, unintended consequences, and the complexities of human behavior.

    Lessons from Yale SOM written on a chalkboard