Business and management

Three workers in a warehouse wearing protective face masks

3 Questions: Frank Levy and Arshia Mehta on warehousing and trucking in response to Covid-19

Work of the Future research brief looks at changes in two supply-chain industries in the wake of the pandemic.

September 11, 2020

Philip Kuai of the Dada Group rings the NASDAQ opening bell.

Crowdsourced grocery delivery service thrives despite pandemic woes

Philip Kuai MNG '07 leads first fully virtual investor roadshow to bring his company, Dada Group, to an initial public offering in New York.

August 12, 2020

Professor Thomas Kochan argues that it is time for the U.S. to make significant labor policy changes.

3 Questions: Thomas Kochan on new policies to shape work of the future

MIT Sloan professor says major transformation of labor law and associated policies are needed for improved worker-employer relationships.

July 16, 2020

Graduate student Summer Jackson in Killian Court at MIT.

Studying the cultures of companies

PhD student and “organizational ethnographer” Summer Jackson investigates the complex social hierarchies that govern the way we work.

July 9, 2020

MIT economist David Autor has produced a new study showing that Blacks and Hispanics are particularly affected by the decline in middle-class urban jobs in recent decades.

The urban job escalator has stopped moving

Study shows cities have stopped providing middle-class work in recent decades — especially for Black and Latino workers.

July 8, 2020

A newly-published study co-authored by MIT professor Christopher Palmer shows that quantitative easing helped consumers substantially during the last big economic downturn.

Helping consumers in a crisis

“Quantitative easing” program let households spend more during the last recession. Could it work again?

June 25, 2020

A new study led by an MIT professor shows that areas in the U.S. introducing R&D tax credits experience a 20 percent rise in high-quality new-firm-formation over a 10-year period.

State-level R&D tax credits spur growth of new businesses

Study also finds tax breaks for general business investment have slightly negative effect on innovation.

June 12, 2020

MIT researchers have published a study examining which types of businesses should be open or closed during the Covid-19 crisis. Vital forms of commerce that are relatively uncrowded and produce fewer health risks fare the best in the study; less significant types of businesses that generate crowds perform worse.

Which businesses should be open?

In light of Covid-19, an MIT study looks at tradeoffs between economic value and public health, across different types of retail.

June 11, 2020

QS ranks MIT the world’s No. 1 university for 2020-21

Ranked at the top for the ninth straight year, the Institute also places first in 12 subject areas.

June 9, 2020

The Massachusetts Emergency Response Team (M-ERT) has been aided by a large group of MIT faculty, students, staff, and alumni as it has helped local manufacturers begin producing personal protective equipment. This photo, from April 13, 2020, shows Gov. Charlie Baker, left, and Brenna Schneider, CEO of 99Degrees, who holds one of the hundreds of thousands of medical isolation gowns her company has...

MIT plays key role in statewide effort to produce PPE

Massachusetts Emergency Response Team helps manufacturers produce personal protective equipment and other medical devices for health care workers.

June 9, 2020

Vaccines find more success in development than any other kind of drug, but have been relatively neglected in recent decades, according to research from MIT professor Andrew Lo, shown speaking at the 2018 launch of the MIT Quest for Intelligence.

How often do vaccine trials hit paydirt?

Study: Vaccines find more success in development than any other kind of drug, but have been relatively neglected in recent decades.

May 27, 2020

Using a novel methodology, MITEI researcher Joanna Moody and Associate Professor Jinhua Zhao uncovered patterns in the development trends and transportation policies of China’s 287 cities — including Fengcheng, shown here — that may help decision-makers learn from one another.

Transportation policymaking in Chinese cities

A new framework for learning from each other.

May 21, 2020

The startup Fireflies.ai is helping people get the most out of their meetings with a note-taking, information-organizing virtual assistant named Fred.

Fireflies helps companies get more out of meetings

Startup makes meeting data searchable and shareable, and automates data entry into workplace apps.

May 21, 2020

Addison Stark (left) and Abigail Ostriker

Q&A: Energy studies at MIT and the next generation of energy leaders

Abigail Ostriker ’16 and Addison Stark SM ’10, PhD ’15 share how their experiences with MIT’s energy programs connect them to the global energy community.

May 18, 2020

MIT News recently spoke with three leaders of MIT’s Task Force on the Work of the Future. Left to right: co-chair David A. Mindell, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, the Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT; executive director Elisabeth Beck Reynolds PhD ‘10, who is also executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center; and co-chair David ...

The changing world of work

MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future responds to rapid changes brought by the pandemic.