Economics
Are Elon Musk’s Politics Driving Away Tesla’s Customers?
Before 2022, Tesla was known as a leader in building electric cars and a favorite of the eco-conscious. Then CEO Elon Musk bought and transformed Twitter, campaigned with Donald Trump, and spent several controversial months leading DOGE; some longtime Tesla owners found themselves apologizing for his politics. A new Yale working paper sets out to quantify the effect of Musk’s extracurricular activities, and finds that they may have cost Tesla one million sales.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- Podcast
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.
Free Pre-K Gives Parents’ Income a Long-Lasting Boost
Prof. Seth Zimmerman and his co-authors found that parents with kids in New Haven’s lottery-based pre-K program earn thousands of dollars more per year than their peers, likely because they are able to work longer hours and make more progress in their careers.
Are Trump’s Tariffs Repairing Market Failures or Eroding Global Trust?
Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and co-authors Stephen Henriques and Steven Tian write that while there are legitimate reasons for some tariffs, the president’s arbitrary approach is worrying allies and unsettling markets.
