Dr. Andrew Frazelle and his operations management colleagues proposed a novel contract that may help alleviate key sources of conflict between restaurants and food-delivery platforms.

Dr. Houtenville: “Over the past four months, the number of unemployed has been relatively steady for people with disabilities, hovering around 590,000, compared with 460,000 prior to the pandemic. In our our May 6 nTIDE, we reported a similar trend for their labor force participation rate, also suggesting there’s not a lot of movement for people with disabilities.” Unemployment for people without disabilities has shown a slow but steady decline over the past two years. “We see greater variability in the data for people with disabilities, which relates to their smaller sample size.” As workers strive to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, other factors are likely to influence future trends. Despite the continued strength of the labor market, the rise in inflation and counter measures to slow the economy may contribute to increases in unemployment. “We need a ‘soft landing’ when bringing down inflation,” Dr. Houtenville cautioned, “to minimize the risk for recession, and maintain momentum in the labor market for all workers, including people with disabilities.”

A team of researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) studying how the acoustic and visual composition of advertisements impact perceptions, has found that consumers associate a higher frequency “sonic logo” with healthier food products. Sonic logos, also termed sogos, are short melodies created to support the marketing of a specific brand. The study also linked more stimulating visuals in commercials with consumer perceptions that the food product it was advertising was healthier.

Beta is a measure of an investment stock's volatility in relation to the overall market. Betting against beta (BAB) strategies have been performing incredibly well for investors, but economists have been unsure why. By drawing on more than 30 years of data, researcher Thorsten Lehnert has uncovered that flow-induced price noise has an important role to play.