Education, Business, & Law

Lego figurines seated at a toy desk made to look like a business office

How to fix a toxic workplace

Is the workplace really any more toxic than it once was? Despite improvements in equality and discrimination, greater awareness of calling out toxic environments is having an impact. So what are employees, and businesses, doing about it?

Penn Today Staff ・

cans of soda on a cooler shelf with condensation on the glass of the door.

Can we tax our way into healthier behavior?

Wharton’s Benjamin Lockwood’s research works to determine the optimal rate for so-called sin taxes, like Philadelphia’s tax on soda, and asks at what point does a tax lead to healthier choices?

Penn Today Staff ・

illustration of workers sitting and standing around a long office desk

Does diversity training work?

Wharton’s Edward Chang and Katherine Milkman discuss their new research on the effectiveness of diversity training.

Penn Today Staff ・

Illustration of business person on top of an iceberg in the water with an exaggeratedly long oar.

Why central banks are taking on climate change

Climate change poses a significant financial risk to the global economy, and central bankers are concerned. One reason is that serious effects from climate change now look much closer to the horizon than recently thought, says Wharton’s Eric Orts, and central banks are responsible for financial stability.

Penn Today Staff ・

Person facing a wall with an drawing of a big fish eating a smaller fish.

Is Amazon too big?

Wharton’s Barbara Kahn discusses the second-largest retailer’s runaway growth and its place as one of the largest tech companies, and considers whether it has morphed into a monopoly.

Penn Today Staff ・



In the News


Bloomberg

Wharton professor on turning responsible investing interest into sales

Cait Lamberton of the Wharton School discussed the decision-making behind sustainable investing. “At the end of the day, the question for the consumer has to be, ‘If I do this, what changes in the world? What will be different because I took this action?’ And it doesn’t even have to be something large; it has to be something concrete,” she said.

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Science

Medical groups push to save institute that helps doctors and patients choose the right treatment

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel said PCORI, a government-funded research institute, wasn’t “bold enough” in dealing with drug companies and went “way overboard” with its patient engagement efforts.

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The Washington Post

Corporate debt nears a record $10 trillion, and borrowing binge poses new risks

Krista Schwarz of the Wharton School said that the current state of affairs, in which corporations have taken on significant high-risk debt, will amplify any economic downturn. “It’s going to make everything happen faster, larger, worse,” she said. “The recession would just be that much deeper.”

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Quartz India

Can Paytm make every cent of its $1 billion funding round really count?

Kartik Hosanagar of the Wharton School said that Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of India’s fintech company Paytm, “likely has low equity holding on a percentage basis. But the company’s valuation is very high so his stake in Paytm is still worth a lot on paper.”

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Quartz

Three MBA admissions heads explain why record numbers of women are going to business school

Blair Mannix of the Wharton School spoke about the business school’s supportive environment. “People on the outside of the community and culture think it’s a competitive environment, but if you speak to anyone who’s a member of it, it’s extremely collaborative,” she said.

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