News Bureau

New research led by Bo Zhang, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois, points to a better way of helping researchers and employers identify the differences in how people respond to personality tests.

A new paper co-written by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign business administration professor Rosanna K. Smith provides a more nuanced understanding of how consumers respond to interracial couples in advertisements.

Engaging in a creative-idea generation task subsequently led to more indulgent eating, drinking and exercise behaviors such as assembling burgers with more calories, crafting cocktails with higher alcohol content and planning workouts that burned fewer calories, says new research co-written by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign business administration professor Jack Goncalo.

Transitioning to a future of work that accounts for the job-destroying perils of artificial intelligence will require unions to be proactive in their bargaining and policy advocacy around automation, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois.

Organized labor has fared considerably better during the Biden administration than it did during the Trump years, and would likely be better off under a Kamala Harris presidency, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois.

The Biden administration’s new rule to protect workers from the dangers of extreme heat ultimately may be undermined by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, says Michael LeRoy, an expert in labor law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Consumption tracking technologies meant to head off consumer penalty fees offer the promise providing an early-warning system to consumers about potentially incurring penalty fees, but also may instill a false sense of security among consumers who are only partially cognizant of their own forgetfulness, says Ying Bao, a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

W. Brooke Elliott has been selected as dean of Gies College of Business and the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor in Business, pending approval by the U. of I. Board of Trustees. Until officially approved, her title will be dean of Gies College of Business and Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor in Business designate. The appointment will begin Aug. 16.

Short but severe episodes of flooding from hurricanes in Texas and Florida triggered a nationwide increase in flood insurance sign-ups depending on how socially connected a county was to the flooded counties, says new research co-written by U. of I. professor of agricultural and consumer economics Yilan Xu and U. of I. graduate student Sébastien Box-Couillard.

More organizational learning was associated with design-related product recalls than with process-related recalls, says new research co-written by Gopesh Anand and Ujjal Kumar Mukherjee, both professors of business administration at Illinois.

Consumers who highly identify with a brand take a dim view of the short-term renting of consumer goods via “branded access offers,” according to research co-written by Tiffany Barnett White, a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an expert in consumer-brand relationships.

Schools adopting a test-to-stay program in which students were regularly tested for COVID-19 unless they proactively “opted out” of testing experienced an 84% higher testing rate and a 30% lower positivity rate than schools with a voluntary “opt-in” testing model, says a study co-written by Anton Ivanov and Ujjal Kumar Mukherjee, both professors of business administration at Illinois.

Foodborne illness outbreaks spanning multiple states bring swift financial losses, increased media attention and a public-relations hit that makes subsequent smaller outbreaks more financially damaging, says Maria Kalaitzandonakes, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at Illinois.

A new book by U. of I. labor expert Robert Bruno explores how workers characterize their relationship to their jobs using personal six-word mini-narratives, serving as a broader exploration of how middle-class workers view work in the U.S.

The best way to think of the Biden administration’s wide-ranging executive order on artificial intelligence is as a trial balloon to gauge what works, says Robert Brunner, the associate dean for innovation and chief disruption officer at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Researchers report that a single, simplified model can predict population fluctuations in three unrelated realms: urban employment, human gut microbiomes and tropical forests. The model will help economists, ecologists, public health authorities and others predict and respond to variability in multiple domains, the researchers say. The new findings are detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

When choosing between meaningful work or a better salary, it’s not even close – most job seekers overwhelmingly prefer higher-paying jobs with low meaningfulness over low-salary jobs with high meaningfulness, according to new research from Sarah Ward, a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

A new study assessing the state of food service and bar employment in the city of Chicago found that more than three-quarters of tipped workers surveyed were compensated at an hourly wage rate of less than the standard Chicago minimum wage, says Alison Dickson, a senior instructor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the study’s lead author.

Non-monetary benefits such as independence, autonomy and the ability to work on innovative technologies are among the key selling points for talented scientists and engineers who spurn working for a bigger technology firm in favor of a riskier startup, said Michael Roach, a professor of business administration at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

A new paper co-written by Gies College of Business professor David Molitor found that air pollution via drifting wildfire smoke disproportionately elevates the risk of suicide among rural populations in the U.S.

New research led by Bo Zhang, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois, points to a better way of assessing noncognitive abilities such as personality and career interests.

President Biden has been heralded as the most pro-labor president ever, but the state of U.S. labor and the labor movement in 2023 is “very agitated,” reflecting decades of stagnant wage increases and deteriorating job quality, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois.

President Biden would likely alienate a key constituency ahead of the 2024 presidential election cycle if he used his presidential powers to intervene in a potential UPS strike, says Michael LeRoy, an expert in labor law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Strikes by Hollywood writers and actors are driven by the “existential concerns” posed by the proliferation of streaming services and the rise of artificial intelligence, says Michael LeRoy, an expert in labor law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Firms whose chief executive officers also own company stock often delay the decision to recall faulty medical devices until long after they become aware of a defect, says research co-written by Ujjal Kumar Mukherjee, a professor of business administration at the Gies College of Business at Illinois.

A new paper co-written by team of U. of I. researchers analyzes how air pollution via the effects of drifting wildfire smoke impacts the U.S. labor market.

Anxiety about artificial intelligence has been driven by its rapid development as well as knowledge worker concerns about potentially being replaced by the transformative technology, says Robert Brunner, the associate dean for innovation and chief disruption officer at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Scott Irwin, the Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing in the department of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is the author of “Back to the Futures,” a book that’s part personal memoir and part explainer of the futures market.

There’s nothing sacrosanct about the five-day workweek, which is long overdue for an overhaul, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois.

A new framework for studying the intersection of climate anomalies and social conflicts finds a strong link between temperature fluctuations and aggregated global conflicts, says research co-written Ujjal Kumar Mukherjee, a professor of business administration at the Gies College of Business at Illinois.

Despite great advances in gender equality, a pay gap persists for women working the same job as their male counterparts, says new research co-written by Eunmi Mun, a professor of employment and labor relations at Illinois.

The metaverse’s potential for transformation means it should be on everyone’s radar, says Robert Brunner, the associate dean for innovation and chief disruption officer at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

By broadening access to higher education in their local geographic area, regional public universities increase the economic and social mobility of the residents in their counties, says new research co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign economists.

Adding new employees to an established work team can have a multitude of consequences for long-standing employees, according to new research co-written by Yihao Liu, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois.

A new metric for measuring the quality of jobs in the state of Illinois finds a mix of positive and negative news for Illinois workers, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois and a co-author of the research.

A strike by railroad unions would have been bad news for the Biden administration and an already-stressed economy, says Michael LeRoy, an expert in labor law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“Quiet quitting” means forgoing the extra mile at work but is different than work withdrawal or employee disengagement, says University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign labor expert YoungAh Park, who studies work stress and recovery.

Older workers who entered the federal disability program when unemployment was high were in better health than those who entered when unemployment was low, says a new paper co-written by a team of Gies College of Business scholars.

Funds in the Inflation Reduction Act targeted for energy security and climate change reduction will encourage a major transformation in the U.S. renewable energy infrastructure, says Don Fullerton, the Gutgsell Professor of Finance at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a senior scholar at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes and remote work gradually turns into hybrid work, organizations will pay close attention to which workers and occupations function well in a hybrid-work arrangement, said Amit Kramer, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who studies the relationship between work, family and health.

Blockchain technology has the potential to transform industries ranging from health care to government, says Robert Brunner, the associate dean for innovation and chief disruption officer at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Cryptocurrencies have real-world use cases and will remain a viable investment because of the functionality blockchain technology provides, says Robert Brunner, the chief disruption officer at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The large-scale infrastructure needed to attract private investment in solar energy makes it more vulnerable to climate extremes, said urban and regional planning professor Sean Kennedy.

The current MLB lockout is already shaping up to be the most pivotal labor dispute in the sport since the mid-1990s, which means fans should prepare for the likelihood of more canceled games, says Michael LeRoy, an expert in labor law and labor relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Voters reward political parties that espouse pro-worker ideas with more votes in elections, says a new paper co-written by J. Ryan Lamare, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois.

The local economies of regional public universities tend to be more resilient to economic shocks, says new research co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign economists.

The Super Bowl remains one of the few programs where people aren’t skipping the ads, says a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign business professor and consumer marketing expert.

A new paper co-written by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign law professor Robert M. Lawless, a leading consumer credit and bankruptcy expert, provides the first comprehensive overview of bankruptcy filers in more than 30 years, shining a spotlight on the economic stressors faced by U.S. debtors.

Sean Kennedy, a professor of urban and regional planning, found that strategies to keep cocoa farmers in place transferred climate-related risks from chocolate manufacturers to the farmers.

New research co-written by labor professor M. Teresa Cardador examines the “status-leveling burden” women in male-dominated occupations face in cross-occupational collaboration with other women.