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Overwork by U.S. Teachers and Prospects for Work-Time Reductions

PERI researchers Katherine Moos and Noe Wiener analyze the focus group interviews they conducted with public school teachers in Massachusetts about reducing work hours to improve their working conditions. The teachers reported long work hours and a significant “mental load”—both of which affect teachers’ quality of life, physical and mental health, relationships with their families, and desire to keep teaching. The teachers expressed eagerness to include work-time reductions in future union contracts, but skepticism that their school districts had the fiscal space or political will to achieve this goal.

How Cost Shocks Drive Sellers’ Inflation

Supply shocks are widely recognized as a driver of the recent inflation bout. But the role of firms' pricing strategies in propagating input cost shocks remains contested. In this paper, PERI researcher Isabella Weber, along with Evan Wasner, Markus Lang, Benjamin Braun, and Jens van ‘t Klooster, examines 138,962 corporate earnings call transcripts of 4,823 stock-market listed U.S. corporations from the period 2007-Q1 to 2022-Q2 to analyze corporate executive price-setting strategies. They find that large input price shocks, along with broader supply constraints, correlate with executives’ positive assessments regarding price mark-ups and enhanced profit opportunities.

How to Eliminate Plastic Water Bottles in the U.S.

As of 2018, U.S. residents purchased more than 70 billion plastic water bottles. Virtually all these bottles are fossil fuel-based products, and 86 percent are used only once. Such fossil fuel-based single-use plastic bottles inflict a range of severe negative impacts on the environment and human health. Emily Diaz-Loar examines six possible alternatives: recycling, bioplastics, paperboard cartons, glass, aluminum, and stainless steel. Diaz-Loar shows that in terms of both environmental impacts and production costs, the most viable substitutes are reusable bottles made from either aluminum or stainless steel.

Recent Research

Good Company: Economic Policy after Shareholder Primacy
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Lenore Palladino
December, 2024
U.S. Teachers, Overwork, and Perceptions of Work-Time Reductions: Evidence from Massachusetts
Labor Markets, Wages & Poverty, Gender and Care Work
Katherine Moos, Noé Wiener
November, 2024
Implicit Coordination in Sellers’ Inflation: How Cost Shocks Facilitate Price Hikes
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Isabella Weber, Evan Wasner, Markus Lang, Benjamin Braun, Jens van ’t Klooster
November, 2024
Distributional Implications and Share Ownership of Record Oil and Gas Profits
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Gregor Semieniuk, Isabella Weber, Iain Weaver, Evan Wasner, Benjamin Braun, Philip B. Holden, Pablo Salas, Jean-Francois Mercure, Neil R. Edwards
November, 2024
Sex-Selective Abortion and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Health Policy
Raymond Caraher, Shih-Yen Pan, Lawrence King
October, 2024
Is “High Inflation” Always and Everywhere an Exchange Rate Phenomenon?
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Tural Yusifzada, Hasan Cömert, Kagan Parmaksiz
October, 2024
The Economics of Eliminating Plastic Water Bottles in the United States
Environmental and Energy Economics
Emily Diaz-Loar
October, 2024
Potential Impacts of a Full Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers in Massachusetts
Labor Markets, Wages & Poverty
Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Jasmine Kerrissey
October, 2024
The Profitability of Bank Capital and Household Debt
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Hyun Woong Park
August, 2024
Commodity Price Stabilization in an Age of Overlapping Emergencies: The Case for International Buffer Stocks
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Isabella Weber, Merle Schulken
August, 2024
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