Economic Policy After Shareholder Primacy
In Good Company, PERI researcher Lenore Palladino analyzes how, under the doctrine of “shareholder primacy,” corporations operate with short-term goals to deliver profits to shareholders. Palladino explains how corporations draw power from public charters. In return, companies are meant to innovate for the betterment of the society that supports them. In practice, that commitment to social well-being is neglected, with stock buybacks and top management bonuses prioritized instead. Palladino describes how modern corporations could play this intended role as a positive social actor, and offers tangible policy solutions that could make this alternative purpose a reality.
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.
