News Bureau

As the COVID-19 pandemic recedes and employers look to restart businesses at full capacity, workers have leverage that they’re using to temporarily stay out of the labor market in certain industries, says U. of I. labor expert Robert Bruno.

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.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Starting next year, anyone can convert retirement savings into tax-advantaged Roth individual retirement accounts, but the much-touted switch isn't for everyone, a University of Illinois expert on tax and elder law warns.

The new iMSA degree will be for working professionals who want access to quality education from a top-three accounting program with unmatched ties to the accounting field, as well as students new to the accounting profession, said W. Brooke Elliott, the EY Distinguished Professor in Accounting at Illinois.

The concept of “cultural distinctiveness” prompts consumers to fulfill a need to connect with home by favoring brands or products associated with a related cultural group, says U. of I. business professor and branding expert Carlos J. Torelli.

As many newspapers decline and disappear – highlighted by two Chicago Tribune reporters recently sounding the alarm about a perceived threat to the Trib – a journalism professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign touts the growth and viability of nonprofits and other alternatives.

Swapping food stamps for food boxes would mean scrapping 'the most successful government program we have going today,' said U. of I. professor Craig Gundersen

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.

A Minute With™... Amit Kramer, a professor of labor and employment relations

Labor and employment relations professor Michael LeRoy discusses his research about confronting a resurgent white supremacy movement.

Another round of federal stimulus checks and increased unemployment benefits would be “economic stabilizers” for the working poor during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, says U. of I. labor expert Robert Bruno.

Reflecting on what one is grateful for not only tends to lower materialism, but also increases one’s generosity, says new research co-written by Gies College of Business professor Aric Rindfleisch.

Urban commuters may be less likely to encounter automobile accidents if they are willing to increase trip time, researchers report. A new study from the University of Illinois introduces a tool that helps quantify the connection between traffic accidents and city road networks.

Even in the face of evidence to the contrary, the effects of misinformation persist and can’t be wholly erased, says a new paper co-written by U. of I. psychology professor Dolores Albarracin.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - If you build it, they will come ... with wallets bulging, eager to exchange greenbacks for peanuts, popcorn, hot dogs and beer, and T-shirts and ball caps with team logos.

Resource scarcity translates into enhanced consumer creativity, according to new research co-written by business professor Ravi Mehta.

Although nutrition-label users eat roughly the same amount of food as less-discerning diners, the two groups diverge when it comes to the quality of the food they eat, says a new paper co-written by Brenna Ellison, a professor of agriculture and consumer economics at Illinois and an expert in consumer food preferences and behaviors.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The College of Business at the University of Illinois honored its students in April.

Younger, more cosmopolitan Chinese consumers tend to favor brand translations that keep both the sound and the meaning of the original name, says U. of I. business professor and branding expert Carlos J. Torelli.

By legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana, the state of Illinois could fund additional pension payments while making investments in public education, construction projects, and drug treatment and prevention programs, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois and the director of the Labor Education Program in Chicago.

Cultural variables play an important role in perceptions of status and power in business, according to research co-written by Carlos Torelli, a professor of business administration and the James F. Towey Faculty Fellow at the Gies College of Busines at Illinois.

Lack of paid sick time makes the U.S. acutely susceptible to a global health crises like COVID-19, and is part of the larger problem of tying health care to employment, says U. of I. labor expert Robert Bruno.

A pending U.S. Supreme Court case could lead to the most significant changes in labor relations since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois.

Thinking of higher education funding as an investment that lowers costs – and not as mere consumption spending – could reframe the debate in Springfield, according to research from Walter W. McMahon, an emeritus professor of economics and of educational organization and leadership at the University of Illinois.

Research from U. of I. labor professor Richard Benton says there’s a strong correlation between civic participation and improving the prestige of one’s social network.

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.

Epidemics such as COVID-19 are characterized by resource constraints due to sudden and unprecedented demand shocks for health care facilities and services, making the initial prevention of disease spread through testing, identification and quarantine activities more important than mitigation or curative efforts, according to research co-written by Ujjal Kumar Mukherjee, a professor of business administration at the Gies College of Business at Illinois who studies innovation in health care.

Although luxury brands and social responsibility seem fundamentally inconsistent with each other, the two entities can coexist in the mind of the consumer, provided the brand can find someone – typically, a celebrity – who successfully embodies the two conflicting value sets, says new research co-written by Carlos Torelli, a professor of business administration and James F. Towey Faculty Fellow at Illinois.

A new book by University of Illinois professor Andrew Orta studies the culture of contemporary business education and the MBA degree through the lens of a professional anthropologist.

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.

A new paper co-written by business professors Ujjal Kumar Mukherjee and Sridhar Seshadri shows that rapid bulk-testing for COVID-19 along with other standard mitigation measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing were the keys to successfully reopening college campuses during the pandemic.

Job losses during the pandemic were substantially worse for workers in low-paying jobs, leading to a dramatic increase in wage inequality during the early months of the COVID-19 recession, according to new research co-written by University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign labor economist Eliza Forsythe.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A retailer's optimal store layout is the result of balancing the interests of two different types of markets - consumers and suppliers, says new research co-written by a University of Illinois business professor.

Mundane behaviors such as taking a daily medication can eventually create false memories of completing the task, said Dolores Albarracin, a professor of psychology and marketing at Illinois and the director of the Social Action Lab.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Beautiful people, scenic locations, cool music and ... the right plot structure? It turns out that a plot structure found in folktales is potent in television advertisements, according to published research by Jeffrey Loewenstein, a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois.

Even if the Affordable Care Act is ultimately repealed, the law’s so-called “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health care plans has already affected employers’ health insurance offerings, says Richard L. Kaplan, the Peer and Sarah Pedersen Professor of Law at Illinois.

In reversing an Obama-era decision that effectively allowed internet gambling, the Department of Justice has revitalized the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, an anti-gambling statute championed by then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to fight organized crime, said John W. Kindt, a professor emeritus of business administration at the University of Illinois and a leading national gambling critic.

Emotional appeals in advertisements may not always help improve consumers’ immediate recall of a product, says a new paper co-written by Hayden Noel, a clinical associate professor of business administration at the Gies College of Business at Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Even in a hyperconnected world where laptops, phones, tablets and now even wristwatches are tethered to the Internet 24/7, employers are still wary about the performance and social costs imposed by employees who work remotely.

The monetary value of a vaccine that could potentially bring about the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is between 5%-15% of worldwide wealth, according to a new paper co-written by Timothy Johnson, the Karl and Louise Schewe Professor of Finance at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The sound of silence isn't so golden for consumers, and both marketers and advertisers should take note, says new research from a University of Illinois expert in new product development and marketing.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Far from imposing an unreasonable burden on corporate America, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has not tackled the core accounting conflicts that led to investor losses at Enron, WorldCom and other companies, according to an expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Online learning engagement can be increased by nearly one-third by simply prompting students to share course ideas instead of personal details.

We don’t have the control we think we do in browsing the internet. Our notion of empowerment to see and find what we choose is “an illusion,” say the authors of a study – including Illinois media professor Harsh Taneja – that analyzed browsing data on a million people over one month of internet use. Corporations are “nudging” the flow of our online attention more than we realize, and often in ways that are hidden or beyond our control.

A new paper co-written by Yilan Xu, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, shows that the growing traffic burden in shale energy boomtowns resulted in a surge of road fatalities and severe accidents.

Scholars from the Gies College of Business at Illinois – from left, Julian Reif, Tatyana Deryugina, David Molitor and Nolan Miller – studied the effects of acute fine particulate matter exposure on mortality, health care use and medical costs among older Americans through Medicare data and changes in local wind direction.

New research from U. of I. business professor and branding expert Carlos J. Torelli provides a more nuanced understanding of the role of political ideology and social norms on donation decisions.

When employees think of their labor union as supportive and caring, says new research co-written by U. of I. labor professor M. Teresa Cardador, they are more likely to rate their union as fulfilling their psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness – all of which are related to enhanced work meaningfulness.

The workplace can function as a springboard for increased democratic participation, says new research co-written by U. of I. labor professor Ryan Lamare.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Despite being more commonly thought of as a device designed for the passive consumption of content, touch-screen tablet computers can support the learning process when used in an educational setting - and not just as a mere e-reader or laptop replacement, according to new research from a team of University of Illinois experts in business and e-learning.