Economics
When Ideas Meet the Real World with Mushfiq Mobarak
Development economist Mushfiq Mobarak explains how implementing new ideas can be complicated by politics, unintended consequences, and the complexities of human behavior.

Faculty Viewpoints: The Macroeconomic Outlook
In an online event hosted by Yale SOM’s Economic Development Club, Peter Schott and Lorenzo Caliendo, both professors of economics at Yale SOM, walked through some of the macroeconomic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Time to Put on a Mask
A team of Yale researchers says we should all be wearing cloth masks, but give the surgical masks to healthcare workers.
When Corporate Acquisitions Affect Healthcare
Companies often purchase competitors, not to acquire their ideas and products, but to shut them down. A recent report raised questions about whether such an acquisition may be partially responsible for a shortage of ventilators in the United States.
Making Sense of A Record-Breaking Wave of Unemployment Claims
A greater share of Americans filed for unemployment insurance in the week ending March 21 than in any prior week in American history. We asked Yale SOM's Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham for his perspective on this alarming statistic.
Economic Competition in a Time of Crisis
What will the sudden economic shock mean for competition and antitrust policy? We asked Yale SOM’s Fiona Scott Morton, an economist who served in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, for her perspective.
Study: Pharmaceutical Ads Drive Prescriptions—And Save Us All Money
Yale SOM’s Michael Sinkinson found that fewer people get life-savings statins during primary season, when pharmaceutical ads are displaced by political ads.
Study Suggests That Local Chinese Officials Manipulate GDP
A study by Yale SOM’s Frank Zhang suggests that local Chinese governments often push through projects without long-term economic value, or fabricate numbers outright, in order to meet GDP targets.
New Study Shows that Trust Can Last
A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Florian Ederer explores how the trust we place in one another is affected by our ability to communicate and by the passage of time.
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.
What’s the Right Price?
A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Kevin Williams suggests that the zone pricing employed by home improvement chains benefits some consumers at the expense of others—and costs one of the two giants potential profits.