Deep Impacts

When Professor Paul Gertler took the reins of the Institute for Business & Social Impact (IBSI) in 2020, he wanted to double down on the research strengths of Berkeley Haas to achieve even greater impact. 

“If IBSI is going to engage in the world, we want it to be around research, new knowledge, and innovation that is relevant to make the world a better place,” says Gertler, the Li Ka Shing Professor of Economics and an internationally recognized expert on impact evaluation. 

One example is a study led by Professor David Levine on worker-owned businesses—enterprises in which employees have stakes in profits and decision-making. Levine’s research suggests worker ownership improves job quality, wages, and, most likely, firm performance. However, regulatory challenges and market failures impede co-ops and other worker-owned firms from scaling up.

The findings were shared with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Office of Business and Economic Development’s Employee Ownership Hub and other stakeholders working on employee ownership. They also inspired the new Ownership Initiative, a collaboration of IBSI and Haas’ Center for Responsible Business and Center for Social Sector Leadership. 

IBSI Executive Director Adam Ross is supporting additional efforts to develop a partnership with state government through the Workplace Mental Health Initiative and is collaborating on an analysis of the current research landscape with Cristina Banks, director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces.

IBSI Research Director Jennifer Sturdy, a former California deputy secretary of evaluation, sees opportunities for further alignment between IBSI’s expertise and state priorities, including financial inclusion and a legislative push to make personal finance education a high school graduation requirement. The Lab for Inclusive FinTech (LIFT) recently awarded seed funding to a doctoral student for research on the effectiveness of personal finance education. The project involves close collaboration with Professor Terrance Odean based on his personal financial management course.

Gertler welcomes engagement with Haas alumni to further IBSI’s aims. “We depend on our Haas community to generate ideas for us to look at,” he says. “This engagement helps us understand how IBSI can support impacts people care about.”