Subscribe
Jayanthi (Jay) Srinivasan, a software manager in Cupertino, and Sandeep Garg, a cardiologist in Lake Oswego, Ore., have two things in common: Both are students in the Berkeley Haas School’s MBA for Executives Program, and both have daughters who are sophomores at Berkeley. What’s it like for the two generations to experience Berkeley at the same time?
Business & economics archive
Quigley medal honors late real estate professor
December 19, 2014: The new John M. Quigley Medal has been established in memory of the late Berkeley-Haas housing expert and his extensive body of scholarly work in the fields of urban economics and housing policy. Professor Quigley passed away in May 2012.
I School hackathon develops technological aids for Heifer International
December 3, 2014: Students from across the Bay Area came to the assistance of Heifer International, which fights world hunger and poverty by linking communities and helps bring sustainable agriculture and commerce to areas with a history of poverty.
$45 million in grants fund new cybersecurity centers at UC Berkeley, MIT and Stanford
November 18, 2014: Berkeley’s new Center for Long-Term CyberSecurity will map out what the cybersecurity problem will mean a few years down the road, and to stimulate interdisciplinary research efforts that will make a difference in resolving the threat.
Study says California solar boom makes the state a national leader, prepares new generation of workers
November 10, 2014: A new report from UC Berkeley’s Don Vial Center for Green Jobs notes California’s leading role in the solar energy field, and recommends steps to secure the state’s solar energy future in terms of energy supplies and for workers, too.
The skinny on soda taxes, in under 3 minutes 
November 3, 2014: Professor Alan Auerbach answers some key questions about the initiatives on Tuesday’s ballot in Berkeley and San Francisco to add taxes to purchases of most sweetened drinks. Auerbach is director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at UC Berkeley.
The skinny on soda taxes, in under 3 minutes
October 28, 2014: As the Nov. 4 election nears, Professor Alan Auerbach answers some key questions about the initiatives in Berkeley and San Francisco to add taxes to purchases of sweetened drinks. Auerbach is director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance.
They like to watch, yes, but that’s just the beginning
October 13, 2014: Kai Huotari, a sometime filmmaker and former visiting scholar at Berkeley’s School of Information, analyzed thousands of tweets and interviewed 45 “TV live-tweeters” to learn why people would do such a thing. Note to TV producers: It’s not all about you.
Low birth rates can actually pay off in the U.S. and other countries
October 9, 2014: As birth rates decline in countries that include parts of Europe and East Asia, threatening the economic slowdown associated with aging populations, a global study from UC Berkeley and the East-West Center in Hawaii suggests that in much of the world, it actually pays to have fewer children. The results challenge previous assumptions about population growth.
Labor economist Lloyd Ulman passes away at age 94
September 23, 2014: Economist Lloyd Ulman, a leading figure in labor economics and industrial relations, also focused on social justice.
Study links honesty to prefrontal region of the brain
September 8, 2014: Lead author of new study linking honesty to a certain region of the brain says the findings have significant implications for understanding social interaction and cooperation within business organizations and beyond.
Coming this fall: FSM, early America, vaudeville, sounds of the human condition 
September 2, 2014: World politics, world-class artistry, Homecoming weekend — just some of what’s happening at Berkeley this fall. The semester brings the Australian Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Willem Dafoe, weekly discussions on the Middle East. And did we mention the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement?
Report finds positives in proposed LA minimum wage hike
September 1, 2014: Scholars at UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment find that the minimum-wage policy proposed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti would provide significant gains in income to Los Angeles’ low-wage workers and their families. Read their report here (PDF).
Labor Center report examines impacts of proposal to raise SF minimum wage
August 27, 2014:
The likely impacts of a November ballot measure proposing to raise San Francisco’s minimum wage to $15 by 2018 is explored by UC Berkeley’s Labor Center.
Authority on Soviet economy, Gregory Grossman, passes away
August 25, 2014: Economist Gregory Grossman was considered a a towering figure in the study of the Soviet economy who shaped the thinking of generations of scholars.
Professional-ed trainings focus on critical environmental issues
August 13, 2014: The College of Natural Resources has launched a series of professional-education programs on critical environmental issues. First up: “The Economic Impact of Climate and Energy Policy on Public and Private Sectors,” a three-day certificate course taught by 11 UC faculty members, now open for enrollment.
HUD official to join city planning faculty, direct Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy
August 12, 2014: Carol Galante, a leader of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a Federal Housing Administration commissioner, will join the UC Berkeley faculty in January 2015. Her experience will be a boon to the College of Environmental Design in its efforts to address urban issues, says CED dean Jennifer Wolch.
Music department piano, instruments sale will be grand
August 12, 2014: An upcoming sale of lightly used pianos and other musical instruments will help provide instruments for UC Berkeley music students every year. The event is open to students, faculty, staff and the public.
Earl ‘Budd’ Cheit, longtime campus leader and Haas School luminary, dies at 87
August 7, 2014: The former business-school dean held a number of key roles at UC Berkeley, including as executive vice chancellor (1965-69), athletic director (1993-94) and trustee of the University of California Berkeley Foundation. He also served as vice president of financial and business management for the UC system from 1981-82.
Global economic losses from cyclones linger for decades, study finds
August 4, 2014: A new study co-authored by a UC Berkeley public policy professor debunks the idea that cyclones have no long-term, lasting economic impacts, and suggests the urgent need for revamping disaster policy around the world.
To enhance job prospects, non-business students flock to business-basics summer camp
August 1, 2014: About 50 college students from far-flung institutions and wide-ranging majors are learning business basics this summer at Business for Arts, Science, and Engineering (BASE), a six-week program at the Haas School designed to increase non-business majors’ marketability.
New Yorker profile: Fed’s Janet Yellen (and her Berkeley roots)
July 29, 2014: “Economic misfortune for ordinary people, and its connection to the financial system, has been on [Janet] Yellen’s mind for most of her life,” says a New Yorker profile of the new Federal Reserve chair, a longtime professor at Berkeley along with her husband, George Akerloff.
Two economists earn grants for income-inequality research
July 24, 2014: UC Berkeley economists Jesse Rothstein of the Goldman School of Public Policy and Danny Yagan of the Department of Economics have been awarded grants to study income inequality. Rothstein will research school finance reform and educational equity; Yagan will examine the U.S. tax structure.
Still waiting for change: tipped workers and the ‘subminimum wage’
July 23, 2014: Before she was a UC Berkeley economist, Sylvia Allegretto earned her living in a variety of low-wage jobs, including seven years as a “tipped worker,” waiting tables and tending bar. Her latest report documents the challenges faced by millions of such U.S. workers, most of them women, for whom even the federal minimum-wage law doesn’t apply.
Tapping real-time financial data can improve economic policymaking
July 11, 2014: Measuring the nation’s economic health has long been a slow, costly and imprecise exercise. Now, researchers at UC Berkeley have helped develop a new way to measure real-time consumer behavior.
Researcher calls report on economic impacts of U.S. climate change ‘like a flashlight at night’
June 24, 2014: Solomon Hsiang, a Berkeley researcher on a study of economic impacts of U.S. climate change, reports that the South, the Midwest and the Great Plains will bear the largest economic burden, while states like Oregon and Washington are likely to benefit economically. The study examines climate impacts on mortality, crime, energy, agriculture and labor productivity down to a county-by-county level.
Information School team app for West African fishermen snags sustainable=fishing prize
June 18, 2014: Trolling for real-world solutions to support ocean fisheries, the U.S. State Department sponsored a “Fishackathon” at five sites across the country over the June 14-15 weekend. A team from UC Berkeley’s School of Information, working out of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, took home the national grand prize for a mobile app designed to help West African fishermen.
Your genes affect your betting behavior
June 16, 2014: People playing betting games engage two main areas of the brain: the medial prefrontal cortex and the striatum. Ming Hsu of UC Berkeley and Eric Set of the University of Illinois scanned 12 genes involved in dopamine regulation in these areas and found that people’s genetic variants affected how they dealt with trial-and-error learning and belief learning.
Report outlines benefits of proposed minimum wage hike in Oakland
June 13, 2014:
Berkeley labor experts examine the proposed minimum wage increase in Oakland and report on the impacts for businesses and workers if voters approve the idea in November.
Berkeley economist Maurice Obstfeld named to White House Council of Economic Advisers
June 4, 2014: Maurice Obstfeld becomes the latest UC Berkeley economist to offer his expertise to the White House, following in a tradition going back several administrations.
