The Russian invasion of Ukraine has posed difficult questions for governments and private entities, alike, which have been forced to face “uncomfortable questions about just how willing they are to cut off the flow of Russian cash” – and in some cases, access to Russian commodities. While export-blocking sanctions on things like luxury goods have not been...
While there is a debate among economists about the benefits of increasing the minimum wage, a new study found that a higher minimum wage was associated with fewer people defaulting on their rent payments – until landlords responded by raising rent. The study – recently published in the Journal of Urban Economics – was one of the...
Two new studies – a survey of residents in hurricane-battered Florida and Texas and a survey of people in wildfire-scarred California – reveal that negative personal experiences are among key variables in pushing people to take or accept protective measures like flood insurance and planned power shut offs. The wildfire survey, published in Energy Research & Social Science, is among...
The first study ever to examine sleeping behavior in a wild group of primates has challenged a central tenet of sleep science: that we must make up for lost sleep. Even after sleeping poorly, wild baboons still spent time on other priorities, such as socializing with group-mates or looking out for predators, rather than catching up...
A new paper in Oxford Open Economics, indicates that, while digital financial services are often proposed as a vehicle to lower inequality, the cost and infrastructure barriers to accessing mobile phones may amplify economic disparities among women in developing countries. Previous research has suggested that digital financial services have the potential to improve access to money...
Transmission of respiratory viruses depends partly on the rate of close social contacts in a population. A study publishing March 1st in PLOS Medicine by Amy Gimma at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues suggests that during the most restrictive period of lockdown in the United Kingdom, the number of reported contacts decreased by...
Many new mothers experience unwanted and intrusive thoughts about intentionally harming their babies, but those thoughts don’t appear to increase the likelihood that they will actually harm their newborn, according to a new UBC study. The researchers note that such thoughts should be discussed with new mothers as a normal, albeit unpleasant and likely distressing,...
I love listening to music. I love music so much I decided to study it in college. I’m earning a doctorate in music history, for which I have researched everything from early 20th-century French music to 1960s funk. I make and perform music as well. I have played drums in rock and pop bands and...
To the relief of avocado lovers from coast to coast, the recent drama between the United States and Mexico was fleeting. The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned imports of the fleshy fruit from Mexico on Feb. 11, 2022, after an employee of its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, who was working in Mexico, received...
The COVID-19 pandemic quickened the pace of digital development around the world, as everything from meetings to movie premiers went online. That may sound like a silver lining. For tens of millions of workers, it’s not. They don’t have the skills to compete. They’re the bookkeepers, the data-entry clerks, the executive secretaries, looking for work...
