Economic Stories

 Nobody likes public transportation strikes. Public transportation users have to scramble their way to work, universities and school, while regular car drivers have to navigate through much more congested roads. The 2017 paper “ When Labor Disputes Bring Cities to a Standstill: The Impact of Public Transit Strikes on Traffic, Accidents, Air Pollution, and Health  “ by Stefan Bauernschuster, Timo Hener, and Helmut Rainer show that in addition to the discomforts public transportation strikes cause, they also affect hospitalization rates. In 1951, the International labor organization (a UN agency) declared strikes to be a fundamental right of organized labor.   National laws and regulations around the world prohibit certain public sectors which deems essential to strike, such as armed forces or policemen. The paper aims to quantify how essential is the public transportation sector and whether public transportation strikes pose public health and safety risks that might justify a ban o

 How suspicious would you be if your doctor suddenly prescribed you double the dose of a regular medicine you take? What if you were receiving double the normal dose right from the first prescription? In the paper " How acquisitions affect firm behavior and Performance: evidence from the dialysis industry " , researchers Paul J. Eliason, Benjamin Heebsh , Ryan C. Mcdevvit and James w. Roberts explore what happened to American dialysis centers and their patients once the center was bought by a large for-profit dialysis chain. In short: costs were cut, revenues were increased, and the patients were worse off. The paper shuns a light on the less documented aspects of companies’ acquisitions – the non-price effects. It is well documented that mergers and acquisitions cause price increases, yet the effects of acquisitions on other consumer related aspects, such as service quality or product offerings are not so well understood and are a current topic of many ongoing and recent