Any action that shows a consistent correlation to high profits would probably be of interest to companies struggling to swim against the tide of these perilous economic times. But one corporate policy seems to address both diversity and profitability issues in a single blow: Over the past several years, my colleagues and I at Pepperdine University have tracked the performance of Fortune 500 companies with a strong record of promoting women to the executive suite and compared their performance to that of other firms in the same industries. The correlation between high-level female executives ... Read More
The Catch-22 of Welfare to Work
August 27, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Although voters on each side of the aisle are intent on hearing how each presidential candidate will bring economic stability to working Americans, little to no attention has been focused on the poorest of families who were once the collective punching bag of working-class electoral politics. Stoked by decades of conservative campaigning, anger at welfare recipients peaked in the early 1990s as real wages for American workers dropped and recession set in. And although it had been exploited for decades by Republican candidates, a centrist Democratic president capitalized on the anger by vowing ... Read More
Does Education Really Make You Smarter?
May 19, 2008 • By • 2 Comments
Whether it is measured in degrees obtained or years of schooling completed, education correlates with many positive life outcomes, including income, civil and political participation (including the act of voting), charitable giving, life expectancy, health and well-being. Education is also negatively correlated with many "high-risk" behaviors; the less educated you are, the more likely you are to smoke, engage in substance abuse or commit crimes. But many questions remain unanswered about the precise mechanisms of cause and effect between education and these life outcomes. Does education, for ... Read More
