Expert Q&A

For the first time in five years, apartment prices have fallen for the past six months. Research from Apartment List shows the median rent in January was 3.4% less than the cost of the same apartment in August. The reasons include recent layoffs, rent prices forcing some to live with family and finally, the biggest delivery of new supply in over twenty years. Rohan Ganduri, assistant professor of Finance at Goizueta Business School, explains why now is the time to negotiate renewals and while the decline is nice for renters, overall prices are still much higher than they were prior to the pandemic.

A recent study finds women in 2022 earned 17% less than men on average earning 82 cents for every dollar a man makes. The wage gap is even larger in women of color. The 2022 numbers come after the Covid-19 pandemic rise in unemployment. The study finds employment rates have not returned to pre-pandemic levels especially among women. The wage gap also differs by job. Health care technicians, physical therapists, bartenders and some teachers had the smallest gender pay gap while real estate brokers, financial advisors and insurance agents had the largest gender pay gap. Goizueta’s Melissa Williams has done extensive research on the gender pay gap. She is available to discuss these findings.

Chatbot GPT launched in December and has surpassed 100 million monthly users as of January -- surpassing the growth rates of Instagram and TikTok. The AI space is also growing as competition from leading tech firms like Google and Meta enter the space. The AI space is more than a computer writing term papers. Image generation is also a threat to businesses. Goizueta marketing professor David Schweidel can discuss what image generators mean to consumers and how the technology could impact pending lawsuits and compensation.

Many of the big tech companies are announcing layoffs at the same time job numbers are at an all-time high. What is happening in the tech sector and is this a leveling off of previous over-hiring? What does this mean for the economy? Goizueta professor, economist, and labor market expert Tom Smith is available to discuss.

Is the label “Black” different from the label “African American?” New research shows that white Americans associate the label “Black” with being targets of racial bias more than the label “African Americans.” The findings have implications for outcomes as varied as the tone of media coverage, non-profit fundraising, and even image search results. The results are detailed in a new paper published by Psychological Science titled, “What’s in a Name? The Hidden Historical Ideologies Embedded in the Black and African American Racial Labels.”In one particularly stark finding, if white Americans personally endorse bias and discrimination ideologies, they are 99% more likely to donate to an organization labeled as a “Black” organization, rather than an “African American” one. The paper is co-authored by Professors Erika V. Hall of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Sarah S. M. Townsend of the USC Marshall School of Business, and doctoral student James T. Carter of Columbia Business School. Professor Erika V. Hall is available for interviews this week.

As we approach Earth Day 2021, the world continues to struggle to address climate change and its causes. Goizueta Business School professor Wes Longhofer says there are ten coal-burning power plants worldwide that are major causes of global warming. He labels these “super polluters” and suggests that targeting these plants for change can have a significant impact.The top ten polluting plants are in Taiwan (#1 and #8), South Korea (#2, #3, #5, #6), Poland (#4), Germany (#7), India (#6), and South Africa (#10). Pollution isn’t just an economic or an engineering issue. Plants pollute at extremely high levels and rates due to a host of interconnected social structures such activism, political-legal systems, and social conditions.Longhofer can discuss the energy and climate policies that can most effectively combat power-plant pollution.It’s important to shift the conversation from consumers of carbon items and services to their producers, in much the same way that cancer caused by smoking was originally attributed to individuals’ lack of self-control, but later attributed to cigarette companies themselvesNone of the Top Ten plants are in the US, but our coal burning power plants are still a major contributor of carbon emissions. Plants that operate “more efficiently” can see a “backfire” effect where they actually emit more pollution.More at http://cup.columbia.edu/book/super-polluters/9780231192170.