Through
5/7
A round-up of Penn mentions in local, national, and international media.
Penn In the News
Lisa Servon of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design said immigrants, formerly incarcerated people, and others can struggle to establish good credit scores under the current system. “Traditional credit scores don’t take into account a lot of the things that would show that someone is capable of paying back their debt,” Servon said.
Penn In the News
Robert Hughes of the Wharton School spoke about the hazards of prematurely ending restrictions on evictions. “About 40% of households can’t pay a $400 emergency without going into debt,” he said. “And if we end up with a lot of people homeless, that’s a crisis.”
Penn In the News
Richard Prisinzano of the Wharton School said auditing wealthy people can be a challenge for the IRS. “An audit, even if it’s random, it takes a lot more resources than, say, someone making $25,000 a year who’s just taking the earned income tax credit,” he said.
Penn In the News
Barbara Kahn of the Wharton School spoke about how companies are using the pandemic-related boom in online sales to appeal to people who have recently received stimulus checks. “They know what their purchase histories are, they know what their preferences are, and it’s much easier to get tailored and personalized messaging,” she said.
Penn In the News
Ioana Marinescu of the School of Social Policy & Practice said reopening businesses may have contributed to a recent drop in labor productivity figures. “Businesses that were not as productive normally, such as restaurants, have started reopening,” she said. “So that drags down the average productivity.”
Penn In the News
John Zhang of the Wharton School said Walmart has leaned into a one-stop-shopping model during the pandemic by expanding into grocery delivery, pet care, and COVID-19 vaccines.
Penn In the News
Mary-Hunter McDonnell of the Wharton School spoke about leadership changes at Amazon, where Jeff Bezos has decided to step down as CEO and instead serve as the company’s executive chairman. McDonnell said Bezos will be a strategic advisor to the CEO with significant influence on the company’s direction, but ultimately won’t be held “accountable for the strategic successes or failures of the company going forward.”
Penn In the News
Americus Reed of the Wharton School says Peloton needs to be forward-thinking as competitors flood the exercise equipment market. “The way to stay out in front of this is to make sure you’re in a position to deliver kind of the next add-on aspect to this,” he said.
Penn In the News
Christopher Geczy of the Wharton School was interviewed about digital advancements in real estate. “The advent of computer technology, especially with respect to artificial intelligence—computer vision—is that it can compare what it sees to hundreds of thousands of other examples for reference points,” he said. “The scale of the intelligence can potentially add where humans can potentially lack.”
Penn In the News
Tyler Wry of the Wharton School spoke about the nearly 200 CEOs who pledged to lead their companies in a manner that considers stakeholders beyond shareholders, including employees and community members. “The companies that were returning the most money to shareholders before signing the BRT statement, they had by far the worst responses to the pandemic out of any companies in the S&P 500,” he said.