Business News

When a German bookstore closes, monthly print sales drop by about 744 copies, and online retailers do not pick up the slack. A new study finds physical and digital book channels are imperfect substitutes.

California's $20 fast-food minimum wage was predicted to wipe out jobs. A new working paper finds pay rose about 7 percent while employment barely changed, with quits falling sharply at covered chains.

A study using the universe of U.S. tax returns finds independent businesses absorb minimum wage hikes through higher revenue, not layoffs or lower profits, while fewer new firms enter the market.

A new PNAS study finds that as ICE activity surged in 2025, foreign-born women's employment fell at regulated childcare centers and rose in private homes, reshaping where and how care gets delivered.

New research argues that fixed nominal mortgage payments and payment-to-income limits mean nominal interest rates directly affect what households can borrow, independent of real rates, with implications for housing markets and macro models.

A new analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data finds that California's $20 fast food minimum wage pushed restaurant prices up 3.3 to 3.6 percent, with implied fast food price hikes of roughly 5 percent.

A new analysis of a decade of congressional stock trades finds lawmakers don't beat the market, and their buy-sell decisions closely track publicly available analyst ratings and retail social media sentiment.

A new working paper finds that in U.S. areas where ICE arrests surged in 2025, likely undocumented immigrants worked less, U.S.-born workers didn't fill the gap, and less-educated U.S.-born men actually lost ground.

With AI advancing across industries, data and expert commentary show workers and employers racing to update skills, redesign jobs and prepare for a more dynamic future of work.

The U.S. Mint has ended penny production after 238 years, sparking uncertainty for retailers as they navigate new cash rounding policies.