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Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Capitalism Falling Out Of Favor? New AI-Driven Research From BU's Mehrotra Institute Says Not So Fast
Boston University, Questrom School of Business In an era where 'late capitalism' is regularly invoked as a sign of systemic decay and where younger generations express growing doubts about free markets, a new study from Boston University's Questrom School of Business offers a surprising counter-narrative: capitalism, it turns out, is faring better in public discourse than one might assume. Leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze more than 400,000 news stories from the mid-20th century to today, the two of us —both faculty members at BU Questrom and affiliated with the Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute for Business, Markets and Society—set out to investigate how sentiment toward capitalism, socialism, and communism has evolved over the past 80 years. The conclusion? Despite frequent claims that capitalism is in crisis, media sentiment toward capitalism has steadily improved, even outpacing socialism and communism in positive portrayal over time. Given the critiques of capitalism in recent years—from income inequality to climate change—we expected to see sentiment turning downward. But what we found was the opposite. The press, over time, has actually warmed to capitalism.' To contextualize the study, it's worth reviewing the three dominant economic systems the research analyzed: Capitalism, emphasizing private ownership, market competition, and profit motive with minimal government intervention. Socialism, where the state typically owns key industries and redistributes wealth to reduce inequality. Communism, advocating a classless society with communal ownership and wealth distributed based on need. In reality, most modern economies—especially those in the West—operate as mixed economies, combining capitalist markets with social safety nets, regulation, and public goods. But that hasn't stopped fierce ideological debates, especially as Millennials and Gen Z express disillusionment with rising student debt, housing costs, and economic insecurity. To move beyond anecdotal headlines and survey snapshots, the research team used ProQuest's TDM Studio, a powerful text mining tool that gives access to digitized content from major English-language newspapers including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal dating back to the 1940s. They then trained a large language model to assess the emotional tone—positive, negative, or neutral—of each article that mentioned capitalism, socialism, or communism. The model detected a range of sentiments such as anger, surprise, and joy, then grouped them into broader categories to track changes over time. What they found was eye-opening: In the 1940s, sentiment toward all three systems was largely negative. Capitalism received a 43% negative rating and only 25% positive, despite being dominant in the U.S. and U.K. at the time. By the 2020s, capitalism's sentiment had improved dramatically, with positive ratings climbing to 34%and negative sentiment falling to 37%. Sentiment toward socialism and communism also saw changes, but their improvement lagged behind that of capitalism. In fact, capitalism now consistently scores 4–5 percentage points higher in positive sentiment than its ideological rivals. The trend wasn't perfectly linear. Favorability toward capitalism dipped during recessions and financial crises—most notably the 2008 global financial meltdown. But overall, the trajectory has been upward. For business schools, these findings carry significant implications—particularly as they grapple with teaching capitalism's virtues in an age of growing skepticism. At Questrom, the Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute was launched in 2023 to tackle these exact questions. Funded by Ravi Mehrotra, a business leader and philanthropist who believes business schools must address the widening trust gap between markets and society, the Institute aims to investigate capitalism's evolution and its role in shaping human outcomes. Capitalism isn't perfect, but it has historically delivered innovation, rising living standards, and choice. The question is not whether to discard it, but how to make it work better—for more people. That framing is key for students entering MBA and business master's programs. Many of today's applicants are more socially conscious, more globally aware, and more skeptical of traditional business dogma than previous generations. They care about sustainability, labor rights, and ethical governance—but they also want economic opportunity. This duality presents a challenge—and an opportunity—for business education. 'Students don't want business as usual,' says Susan Fournier, Dean of BU Questrom. 'They want business with purpose. Our job as educators is to show them how capitalism can be a powerful tool when combined with responsibility and accountability.' It's important to note that the BU researchers measured media sentiment, not individual attitudes. While closely related, they aren't identical. Pew Research and Gallup polls have shown that Americans—especially young Democrats—have grown more favorable toward socialism since the Great Recession. Still, even in those surveys, capitalism remains more popular overall, particularly among independents and Republicans What makes the AI-based media analysis compelling is that it provides longitudinal data—a way to track sentiment back through decades where no formal polling existed. While the public may be ambivalent or divided, the press has become gradually less hostile to capitalism over time. And in an age where media narratives shape public discourse, that's no small finding. Critiques of capitalism remain loud and frequent. In recent years, The New York Times ran an op-ed titled 'How Capitalism Went Off the Rails.' A Wall Street Journal review warned of 'late capitalism' becoming a dominant framing in academia. However, vocal critique does not equal collapse. There's a difference between thoughtful criticism and total rejection. And what we're seeing is not a mass media revolt against capitalism—it's a call to reform and refine it. The media's increasingly balanced tone reflects what may be a more nuanced view of capitalism's role in society—acknowledging its flaws while appreciating its capacity for resilience and reinvention. So, is capitalism falling out of favor? Not yet. And perhaps not at all. If anything, this research suggests that capitalism is in the midst of a reassessment rather than a rejection. That's an important distinction—especially for the next generation of business leaders. For MBA programs and the institutions that house them, this represents both a challenge and a mandate: teach capitalism not as ideology, but as a system that can evolve, that must be continually shaped by innovation, regulation, and ethical leadership. As the Mehrotra Institute's research reveals, capitalism's story is still being written—and the business students of today will be among its next authors. Sami Karaca , PhD, is a cross-disciplinary scholar, educator, and practitioner whose work sits at the intersection of marketing analytics, artificial intelligence, and digital strategy. He currently serves as Faculty Director of the Undergraduate Analytics Program and Clinical Assistant Professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business. Dr. Karaca's research spans a wide range of topics including digital marketing, reward programs, financial inclusion, fake news, and the monetization of data. He has developed deep expertise in using machine learning and behavioral economics to study how consumers and firms make decisions in an increasingly algorithm-driven world. His work has appeared in top academic journals and public-facing platforms, including The Conversation, where his collaborative article on capitalism and media sentiment received broad attention. Before joining Boston University, Dr. Karaca spent nearly a decade at Bogazici University in Istanbul, where he served as an Assistant Professor of Marketing, Vice Chair of the Management Department, and Founding Director of the Center for Analytics & Insights. His global academic journey has also taken him to Harvard Business School and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management as a visiting scholar and research fellow. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Karaca has advised leading global companies on digital transformation, AI strategy, and data science. His advisory roles include serving on the AI Advisory Board of Arcelik A.S., as a digital strategy advisor to the CEO of the Carlsberg Group, and on the board of the Bogazici University Foundation. A gifted teacher, Dr. Karaca has designed and delivered courses on customer analytics, digital marketing, pricing strategy, and data visualization across business schools in the U.S. and Turkey. He is passionate about equipping students with the skills to thrive in a data-driven world while helping organizations ethically and effectively leverage technology for impact. Dr. Karaca earned his PhD in Marketing from Kellogg, an MS in Managerial Economics & Strategy from Northwestern, and a BS in Industrial Engineering with highest distinction from Purdue University. Jay L. Zagorsky , PhD, is a cross-disciplinary researcher, writer, and educator who has spent over two decades investigating the dynamics of personal wealth—why some individuals become rich, others remain poor, and how people move between these financial states. His research draws extensively from the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS), one of the longest-running studies of Americans' lives. For 23 years, he served as a research scientist at The Ohio State University, helping lead and interpret this data. He also worked as a big data scientist with the Ohio Education Research Center (OERC), where he analyzed large-scale datasets to inform education policy and practice. Dr. Zagorsky is one of the most prolific contributors to in the United States, where his 115+ articles have attracted more than 5 million readers. His work has been republished by The Washington Post, Newsweek, Houston Chronicle, Quartz, Salon, and others. In addition to The Conversation, he has written for outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, and The Academic Minute. His research and commentary have been featured in thousands of media appearances, including radio, television, and print interviews. A dedicated educator, Dr. Zagorsky has taught more than 100 university courses across business and liberal arts disciplines, covering subjects such as economics, statistics, quantitative methods, and information systems. His teaching spans large lectures and intimate seminars and has consistently earned top evaluations and multiple teaching awards. He is also the author of three textbooks—on macroeconomics, managerial economics, and business data usage. Currently, Dr. Zagorsky has just synthesized his research into a new book – 'The Power of Cash' — that presents the insights of his academic work and that of other wealth researchers in an accessible, reader-friendly format. 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Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Workers adjust to the ‘Boss Era' as tough economy rattles offices
When it comes to the world of work, it wasn't that long ago that the common buzzwords were 'Quiet Quitting' and 'Job Hopping'. Those were the good old days when workers were in the driver's seat. Today's job scene is now being called the 'Boss Era.' One worker in Brookline's Coolidge Corner told Boston 25 News things are tense at work. 'I went thru a really intense reorganization and layoff this past winter around Christmas, and it was really scary.' Still, many people feel lucky just to have a job. Julia Fan just got laid off from a marketing position. 'It's really rough. You don't know what's going on. There isn't a lot of good communication between what you're doing and how you're doing, and whether or not how you're doing is going to translate into the fact you get to keep your job.' That's a stark contrast to the job market a new year ago as the country came out of a pandemic slump. 'That evolved into let's work at home one day a week, or two days a week, even after COVID. Then of course we were in an over-employment situation, so the bosses really didn't have much of a choice,' explained Greg Stoller, a master lecture at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. 'Fast forward 4-5 years. We've had a number of cuts. The Dow is whipsawing on a regular basis, and a lot of people are getting laid off both in the private sector and the public sector, and right now, I think the pendulum is shifting back to the bosses being able to call the shots.' Hence the term -- the 'Boss Era' Terms like 'Quiet Quitting' are now in the past tense. 'The pressure on workers has really ratcheted back up,' said Professor Nick Juravich, Ph.D., a professor of labor studies at UMass Boston. He co-edited a new book called The Pandemic and the Working Class. 'I think bosses have really wanted to reassert control, whether that's surveilling people through their computers if they're working remotely, or getting them back in the office, or demanding that they be part of increasingly rigorous, intensive forms of on-the-job surveillance and tracking.' Unions enjoyed a renaissance after COVID, but Juravich understands why some people might now be staying away. 'When conditions are this rough, it's not unreasonable for people to want to put my head down, and I think it's harder sometimes to get over that threshold to saying we're going to take a step and take a stand.' 'I think we are in a triage situation,' Stoller remarked. 'I think that this is not a drill. This is not a blip.' Stoller thinks workers need to step up their game if they want to keep their name off the wrong list. 'I think everyone, including me, forgets that we're all replaceable. So, as I result, I think the onus is on the employee to work harder. So, if you're working from 9-5, I'm telling people to be in at 830 and stay until 5:30.' He added, 'I think the pendulum has shifted that nobody owes you the right to work at home, so my point being, try to get into the office as much as possible.' Some people told Boston 25 News they feel it's a no-win situation today. It's hard if you have a job, and it's even tougher if you don't. Julia Fan added, 'I'm not quite sure completely what the solve is to that. It seems like everybody is just as confused as me and you really have to kind of grit your teeth and work through it. It's just a hard, hard time.' It's not just the health of the economy giving the job market a jolt. Analysts are also watching how AI is reshaping the traditional world of work, and what that means for workers. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
The National
18-04-2025
- Business
- The National
Which US products will suffer most in trade war with China?
Trade tensions are rising between the US and China, with the effects set to ripple through prices of everyday products. Washington and Beijing have stepped up their trade war in recent weeks. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs of 145 per cent on all Chinese goods, while Beijing has countered with a levy of 125 per cent. Mr Trump has also flip-flopped on exemptions from tariffs on electronics such as smartphones, contributing to the volatility. The back-and-forth represents a new phase in the commercial war between the countries, which remain one of each other's largest trading partners. Last year, the US imported $438.9 billion worth of goods from China, according to Office of the US Trade Representative data. While Mr Trump has employed a whipsaw approach towards imposing tariffs, economists argue it will be inflationary with the costs trickling down to everyday consumers. Jay Zagorsky, a professor at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University, believes consumers are now stocking up on goods before inflation bites. "It reminds me of Covid days," he said. The World Trade Organisation said this week that merchandise trade is likely to contract by 0.2 per cent this year, down from a growth of 2.9 per cent in 2024, because of the tariff uncertainty. It also lowered its world economic growth projection for this year to 2.2 per cent from 2.8 per cent. Analysts in the private sector are forecasting a year of tepid US growth, with researchers at Goldman Sachs pencilling in a 45 per cent chance of a recession. Few sectors have been affected as badly by Mr Trump's tariff flip-flopping as technology. Last week Mr Trump announced a 90-day pause on so-called reciprocal tariffs that would affect Apple's production supply chain in India and Vietnam, then announced an exemption on electronic products, only to then say no such exemption was made. "The self-inflicted uncertainty by these actions have unleashed an Armageddon scenario for the US sector in particular, as the heart and lungs of the supply chain are cemented in Asia," Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note before the exemption was announced. Other electronic items making up a sizeable portion of Chinese imports into the US are broadcasting equipment ($54.5 billion), computers ($37.9 billion), office machine parts ($14.3 billion), electric batteries ($13.8 billion) and electric heaters ($6.32 billion), according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, a trade data platform. Unlike during Mr Trump's first term, toys are not exempt from the latest round of tariffs, which could mean parents will have to spend more on inexpensive toys shipped from China. About 80 per cent of all toys in the US are made in China, industry group the Toy Association says. Jay Foreman, chief executive of Care Bear and Tonka Trucks parent company Basic Fun!, told NBC's Today show he expects 80 per cent of toys to cost twice as much as usual during this year's holiday season. From Nike trainers to the White House press secretary's attire, Americans wear a significant amount of Chinese-imported clothing and footwear. Textiles and fashion are likely to be the most affected, according to The Budget Lab at Yale. It estimates consumers will face 65 per cent higher prices on apparel in the short term and 27 per cent higher in the long term. E-commerce fast fashion companies Shein and Temu could also be forced to raise their prices when the "de minimis exception" – which allows for packages valued under $800 to enter the US duty-free – expires. Mr Trump briefly closed the loophole in February and is expected to do so again in May, Reuters reported. Shein and Temu account for 17 per cent of the US discount market. The two companies said they plan to raise prices for US consumers next week. Meanwhile, China was the largest supplier of textiles to the US last year, according to USImportData. Walmart, Target, Amazon and Costco – all major retailers selling budget-friendly goods – used China as a primary source for textiles.
Boston Globe
17-04-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Rising drug prices are hammering patients, employers, and insurers. Is there any end in sight?
As an affordability crisis grows in pricey New England, the rising cost of prescription drugs is squeezing patients, health plans, and employers. President Related : Advertisement Costs could rise further, however, if the Trump administration follows through on the president's Efforts to contain drug spending have run up against the 'Demand for these drugs is quite dramatic,' said Rena Conti, associate professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business. 'And I don't anticipate demand is going to fall in the near term.' Advertisement While health insurance covers the largest share of drug prices, Americans' out-of-pocket prescription drug spending averages $177 a year, according to Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. It's much higher — about $456 annually — for those over 65, who also pay for a higher share of their drugs out of pocket. The growing cost burden has caught the attention of state lawmakers, who passed a bill in the waning days of last year's legislative session that would Related : Senator Cindy Friedman, the Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, described the action as a 'first step.' Her panel is preparing legislation this year that would seek to contain the costs of a broader range of prescription medicines identified by the state Health Policy Commission, potentially including GLP-1s. 'There's a lot more that can be done,' said Friedman, a Democrat from Arlington. 'We can start looking at upper payment limits for the most essential drugs,' setting an effective ceiling on what Massachusetts health plans will pay. Massachusetts got a wake-up call last month when the state Center for Health Information and Analysis reported that Advertisement Overwhelmed by demand for GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy, Zepbound, and Saxenda, used to treat diabetes and obesity, the state's two largest While there is variation, the average monthly retail price of the new class of obesity medications is about $1,200 without insurance. And the price of branded drugs overall has risen dramatically over the past five years. State officials have long complained the process of setting drug prices is opaque, involving a chain of actors that includes insurers, drug makers, pharmacies, and middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers, operating through transactions largely invisible to regulators. Related : The bill passed in the Massachusetts Legislature last year aims to lift the curtain on drug pricing, creating a dedicated office within the state 'We want to have expert, objective information about where the money's going in this system, where are the opportunities [for savings], and where are the challenges,' said David Seltz, executive director of the Health Policy Commission, which is staffing up the Office of Pharmaceutical Policy and Analysis authorized under the new Massachusetts law. It remains to be seen whether greater transparency or the selective price caps approved so far will moderate prices more broadly. Prices for prescription medicines in the United States, where most biopharma companies are based, are higher than in any other advanced country. Advertisement The federal government has had mixed success in restraining drug costs. Congress abandoned its longstanding hands-off posture toward drug pricing in 2022, when it empowered the agency that runs Medicare, the largest US health insurer, to negotiate prices with drug makers. So far, negotiations have covered only 10 of the most expensive medicines — drugs such as Farxiga for chronic kidney disease and Eliquis for preventing strokes and blood clots — and the lower negotiated prices aren't set to take effect until next January. Related : Medicare will include some of the most popular weight-loss drugs, including Trump's executive order aims to expand Medicare drug price negotiations and streamline approval for lower-priced generic drugs and biosimilars. But it would also Carolyn McGrath's diabetes medication sat on her kitchen table. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Meanwhile, drug makers continue raising their prices. The Industry officials said the bigger driver of rising prescription drug spending is greater use of medicines such as the GLP-1s by patients whose weight loss could actually save money overall. Such weight loss, they said, results in improved health and less spending for other serious conditions such as strokes or heart attacks. Advertisement Stami Turk, director of state public affairs for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group, said reports like that of the Center for Health Information and Analysis in Massachusetts don't tell the whole story when they cite increased drug costs. She said state officials also need to focus on the value of medicines. 'They need to look at how prescription drugs are being used,' Turk said. 'With the use of GLP-1s, you could save the health system tens of billions of dollars a year' by preventing other diseases. Related : State officials, for their part, said they're looking for new ways to assess the value of drugs and wring savings out of the system. Officials at both Mass Health, the state's Medicaid program, and the Group Insurance Commission, the health plan for state employees, have been actively negotiating rebates from drug makers to keep premiums down. Despite rebates, selective price caps, and other steps, Seltz at the Health Policy Commission sees 'increased pricing on existing drugs and high launch prices on new drugs' continuing to push up health spending in Massachusetts. He cited data from a state report showing the average price of a branded drug has increased 69 percent since 2019. 'When I look at the last couple of years,' he said, 'I see an upward trajectory.' Patients are grateful for treatments that weren't available to past generations, helping to prolong their lives. As they live longer, however, the cost of drugs becomes more of a burden. Advertisement 'It keeps me alive,' McGrath, the community college professor, said of her insulin. 'But the drug companies are profiting from my condition. And there's nothing I can do about it.' Robert Weisman can be reached at
Boston Globe
11-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
A Cape Cod lawmaker is trying to bring happy hour back to Massachusetts
Advertisement 'Happy hour isn't a panacea,' Cyr said in an interview. But 'we do have a bit of a fun problem.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Allowing drink specials is 'part of a suite of policies that we need to pursue,' he added. Cyr has also proposed bills on health care, multi-family zoning and mental health services and was recently tapped to lead the state's housing initiatives as chair of the legislature's joint committee. In 2023, Massachusetts lost about 39,000 residents to other states, more than ten times as many as in 2013, with Florida and New Hampshire among the top destinations, according to a study by Boston University's Questrom School of Business. Prime-age workers have accounted for the majority of the exodus in recent years, with the 26-to-34-year-old cohort seeing the biggest volume of departures, the study found. Advertisement Happy hours can't reverse such mega trends, of course. But they can be a useful tool for bars and restaurants to help attract patrons, especially with consumer spending under pressure from inflation, Cyr says. He represents some of Massachusetts' most sought-after tourist destinations, not just Nantucket but Chatham and Martha's Vineyard, and he's concerned about the impact of high costs on vacation demand. Cyr grew up working at his family's Italian restaurant on Cape Cod and happy hour deals would have been helpful to get people in the door outside of the peak summer vacation months, he said. Massachusetts banned happy hours in 1984 in an effort to curb a surge of drunk-driving incidents. While dozens of other states enacted similar restrictions around that time, almost all of them have since repealed those rules or at least allow full-day price reductions. Indiana became the latest to walk back its happy-hour ban with a law passed last year that allows bars and restaurants to offer drink specials before 9 p.m. Happy hour restrictions made sense as a community safeguard when they were introduced in the 1980s, but there are now stricter penalties on drunk driving and tougher enforcement of the national drinking age as well as widespread adoption of seatbelt laws, Cyr said. The prevalence of ride-share services such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. also helps keep inebriated patrons from getting behind the wheel. Massachusetts has one of the lowest rates of drunk driving in the country, according to research from Forbes Advisor, a consumer finance portal associated with Forbes magazine. Advertisement 'It's time we follow the lead of most other states,' Cyr said. A similar proposal made it into the Senate-approved version of a wider-ranging economic development bill last year but was ultimately removed in the final law signed by Governor Maura Healey in November amid lukewarm support relative to other more urgent measures in that legislation. Representatives for Massachusetts legislators Ron Mariano and Karen Spilka didn't respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Healey also didn't respond to a request for comment. This time, Cyr still has his work cut out for him. The Massachusetts Restaurant Association has lobbied against loosening happy-hour rules, citing concerns that drink specials would kick off a race to the bottom in a competitive industry that's already struggling with shrinking profit margins. Consumers may want the shift, but 'it doesn't mean it makes sense for the industry,' said Steve Clark, the group's chief executive officer. Some restaurant owners disagree and say drink specials can help bolster foot traffic and cover their costs during quieter periods. Source, a gastropub in Cambridge's Harvard Square, would 'absolutely' offer happy hour if Massachusetts allowed it, says owner Daniel Roughan. When 'you're still paying for the food and the liquor to be sitting there, but there's nobody in your establishment, the economics get challenging,' he said. With assistance from Ignacio Gonzalez.
