Study: In the gig economy, getting to know workers is key to keeping them

Asian woman car sharing driver wearing face mask checking mobile phone searching for job destination
Photo: Gahsoon for iStock/Getty Images

When done right, the gig economy can mutually benefit companies and workers. Companies can tap into deep and vast labor pools. And workers can create their own schedules, enjoying flexibility and working as much—or as little—as they want. But that can also create some headaches. What if workers collectively only want to work during specific times? What incentives can get them to work more hours more often?

A recent study coauthored by Berkeley Haas Assistant Professor Park Sinchaisri set out to answer these questions. The study, published in the journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, concludes that financial incentives increase both the frequency and duration that people work. The study also finds workers will work less after reaching a daily or weekly financial goal, but those that start work earlier in the day are more likely to work beyond the time required for their financial goal.

Robust data set includes nearly a year of ride-hailing data

Sinchaisri and his fellow researchers—Gad Allon of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Maxime Cohen of McGill University—utilized a comprehensive data set from a U.S.-based on-demand ride-hailing company. The data included 358 days’ worth of driving activities and financial incentives for drivers in New York City between October 2016 and September 2017.

The data included thousands of drivers and millions of work shifts, as well as each driver’s vehicle type, experience with the platform, number of hours driven, and financial incentives offered and earned. “The key advantage of our data is that we observe the incentives that were offered to every driver regardless of the decision to drive. In other words, even for drivers who decided not to drive for a particular time period, we still know their offered wage and promotions for that period,” the authors wrote.

Drivers demonstrate an ‘inertia’ when it comes to working hours

Perhaps not surprisingly, the researchers found that drivers have an ‘income-targeting behavior’ easily tracked in most apps that give real-time earnings reports. That is, drivers will work toward their income goals but are less likely to work once they meet them.

More surprisingly, Sinchaisri and his team found an ‘inertia’ regarding working hours. Workers who have previously worked longer shifts are more likely to start a new shift or work longer than drivers who have worked less. The finding goes against previous research on taxi drivers, who have more of a “time-targeting behavior.”

“This difference could be driven by the unique flexibility of gig work,” the paper says, suggesting that inertia could represent drivers’ strategic behavior.

“Inertia is why it is so hard to bring gig workers back after the pandemic—they currently aren’t used to working day after day, so it’s a matter of attempting a cold start,” Sinchaisri said. “However, there is a flip side. Once these workers go back to working, they are much more likely to continue working.”

Get to know your gig economy workers

Sinchaisri says getting to know your workers better can help create more specific targeted incentives. Companies should ask gig economy workers what specific goals they have to understand their workers more and make adjustments based on that feedback, Sinchaisri advises. “Once you know your workers’ goals, you can think of better ways to incentivize them,” Sinchaisri points out.

Or, as the paper states, “Targeting specific workers with different incentives can be beneficial. We examine how the platform can improve its operational performance by offering personalized incentives based on workers’ attributes.”

Incentives are good, but not everything

While incentives are good, and Sinchaisri says gig companies should pay their workers as much as possible, good pay and incentives alone are not everything. And in today’s climate, where gig workers have plenty of options, companies should do what they can to continually attract and retain workers.

“The recent rise of the gig economy has changed the way people think about employment,” the paper states. “Unlike traditional employees who work under a fixed schedule, gig economy workers are free to choose their own schedule and platform to provide service. Such flexibility poses a great challenge to gig platforms in terms of planning and committing to a service capacity. It also poses a challenge to policymakers who are concerned about protecting workers.”

As this research suggests, that also goes into considering behavioral factors.

“We find that financial incentives have a positive effect on the decision to work and on the work duration, confirming the positive income elasticity from the standard income effect,” the paper concludes. “We also observe the influence of behavioral factors through the accumulated earnings and number of hours previously worked. The dominating effect, inertia, suggests that the longer workers have been working so far, the more likely they will continue working and the longer duration they will work for.”

Sinchaisri noted that these insights are not specific to the particular platform they studied, and could apply to other types of gig-work platforms. “Many gig platforms do offer more certainty in pay,” he said. “This could be one way to improve the retention and the motivation of the workers.

Read the full paper:

The Impact of Behavioral and Economic Drivers on Gig Economy Workers
By Gad Allon, Maxime C. Cohen, and Wichinpong Park Sinchaisri
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
March 2023

Work in Progress

Haas experts on what to expect in the ever-evolving arena of work.

Change has long been coming for the world of work.

Automation and artificial intelligence technologies have been on the horizon or among us in their rudimentary forms for years—we’ve grown used to customer service conversations with chatbots, for example. Online hiring platforms (such as Upwork for freelance gig workers) have been complementing more traditional approaches to hiring for roughly a decade. And even pre-pandemic, the proportion of remote-capable U.S. workers in fully remote arrangements was inching up slowly, by 2019 climbing to 8%, according to Gallup.

COVID-19 kicked these slowly evolving trends into a turbo-charged rate of dizzying change. By mid-2022, nearly a third of remote-capable U.S. workers were fully remote. A survey by Upwork found that 53% of businesses said the pandemic increased their willingness to hire freelance gig workers. And the pandemic-induced imperatives to social distance and to adapt to fluctuations in demand spurred new investment in and utilization of automation technologies. 

Several Haas thought leaders are focusing their research on the questions many of us are asking ourselves as we reel from the rapid changes imposed on our work lives and work identities. For whom is the shift to remote work a net-positive change, and for whom is it a detriment? In which situations might these newly pervasive work arrangements be narrowing inequalities among workers—and where are they creating new ones? What does the newest research suggest about the likelihood that cutting-edge AI tools will render obsolete whole sectors of workers? And, perhaps most importantly, how do we define “good jobs”—and how can we, as a society, ensure that they don’t go extinct? 

The Haas thought leaders featured here don’t have all the answers, but they do have research-backed predictions, policy recommendations, and reasons for both concern and optimism as we chart our way through the end of work as we knew it—and orient ourselves in the world of work that’s emerging in its place. 

The remote future

Man floating on an island in a water cooler.Assistant Professor David Holtz signed the papers that made official his doctoral research internship at Microsoft in March 2020—timing that would prove portentous. He’d been invited into the technology firm’s Redmond, Washington, offices to study online marketplaces. Soon, however, Holtz found himself working not from Microsoft’s campus but remotely from his East Coast apartment—and on an altogether different research question: How was the swift decampment to remote work affecting communication and collaboration within Microsoft? 

Before the pandemic descended, 18% of Microsoft’s U.S. employees worked remotely. By April 2020, the firm had instituted a mandatory work-from-home policy for all of its non-essential U.S. employees.

To investigate how remote work reshaped communication practices among Microsoft’s more than 60,000 U.S.-based employees, Holtz and his co-authors analyzed anonymized data summarizing individual workers’ time spent in meetings and on calls, the number of emails and instant messages they sent, the length of their workweeks, and the patterns of their collaboration networks. 

Their data covered December 2019 to June 2020—so, the several months before and after the firm-wide work-from-home policy took effect. Access to this before-and-after data was important, Holtz emphasizes, because it allowed the research team to compare the working patterns of those 18% of employees who’d been remote pre-pandemic to the patterns of those who shifted to remote work because of COVID-19.

“We took really seriously the matter of trying to separate the effects of remote work from the effects of the pandemic,” Holtz explains. Already in 2020, many were speculating that a wholesale return to offices might never happen. “We wanted to understand, if that were the case, what would the effects of remote work be once the pandemic had subsided?”

Overall, the picture of remote work that emerged in their findings was not one of an arrangement particularly conducive to innovation. One of their main findings was that working remotely was associated with a decrease in the number of (and amount of interactions with) a person’s “weak ties”—that is, those colleagues with whom you don’t work directly but with whom a casual interaction can prove helpful or illuminating in surprising ways.

“There’s all this research that shows weak ties to be really important for the diffusion of new ideas and the propagation of information through an organization,” Holtz says. 

Relatedly, they found that the rate of change within employees’ networks fell considerably when working remotely. “The network kind of ossifies and starts to freeze in place,” Holtz says. “Research shows that creativity is associated with fresh teams, working with new folks.” 

Inequalities, old and new

A three-person shell with a one-person shell on either side, with all people rowing in sync.Research from Associate Professor Aruna Ranganathan adds a more positive dimension to this picture of remote work’s effects—especially when it comes to creativity. For some individuals within an organization, her research suggests, the adoption of a remote setup may actually act as a booster shot for creativity and performance.

Ranganathan has always been a scholar of work and employment, with a particular focus on individual-worker outcomes. “I’m interested in understanding how remote work perhaps exacerbates some preexisting inequalities, creates new forms of inequality, and also has the potential to mitigate some inequalities that existed in more traditional forms of work,” she says. She points to research indicating that women have long been held back from performing to their full potential at work, given that they experience more interruptions in team discussions and generally face lower performance expectations. Of course, this previous research has presumed a traditional synchronous team environment (imagine employees chatting in real time around a conference table). But as many of the world’s workers moved remote during the pandemic, asynchronous collaboration (via email, say) shot up.

For some individuals within an organization … the adoption of a remote setup may actually act as a booster shot for creativity and performance.

In one project, Ranganathan and her co-author studied folk music ensembles (consisting of a singer and a few instrumentalists) in eastern India performing traditional songs, each having many versions and interpretations largely determined by the singers. In these groups, gender roles are prescribed. When women are members, they typically only sing. Because each ensemble member has a distinct role, songs can be recorded either live as a group or solo and later combined digitally.

Ranganathan and her co-author found that working alone afforded women singers greater freedom of creative expression than when working within a group of men in a more traditional synchronous environment. But tempting as it may be to conclude that remote work is the magic salve in addressing the problem of unequal treatment in the workplace, Ranganathan cautions against it. 

“If we just embrace remote work, we’re not solving the root problem, which is that when these teams come together, certain members are not making other members feel included,” she says. “Embracing remote work shouldn’t mean we don’t try to continue also reshaping the synchronous work environment to be more inclusive of women and other minorities in the workplace.”

Protecting workers

Distinguished Professor Laura Tyson, who has written extensively about the future of work, technology, and trade policy (and who formerly served as an advisor to President Clinton), looks further ahead as she considers the disrupting force of technology on workers. In particular, her books, columns, and papers have lately focused on automation and AI and whether “good jobs” will be able to proliferate as these technologies—which perform tasks more cheaply, faster, and often better than humans—assert greater influence. 

Her prognosis is not hopeful for those blue-collar jobs one might reasonably consider “good”—that is, those that offer middle-class incomes, safe conditions, legal protections, career advancement, and benefits. She’s written that she fears any economic growth spurred by advancing AI technologies will not be widely shared and will further fuel economic inequality. 

“AI will automate many tasks, change existing tasks, and create new ones. There will be both winners and losers in this process,” she wrote in her recent article, “Automation, AI & Work.” 

Firms investing more in AI were also the ones with higher employment rates. … When firms adopt AI technologies, it actually creates the need for new types of human expertise.

Tyson says diverse communities across the U.S. will need to devise “tailored strategies” to meet the changes wrought by technologies still on the horizon. For instance, she points to the need for more affordable housing in major cities and better digital infrastructure to support remote work in rural areas. “All communities can expect to face challenges relating to workforce redeployment and mobility, skills and training, economic development and job creation, and support for those undergoing occupational transitions triggered by automation.”

A string of connected paper people with one of the people being a robot.

Research from Assistant Professor Anastassia Fedyk offers some optimism on how AI could enhance employment in some areas. In one study, Fedyk found that the firms investing more in AI were also the ones with higher employment rates. She says this suggests that when firms adopt AI technologies, it actually creates the need for new types of human expertise.

“What the data show is that the main effect of AI in most industries is not replacing human labor,” she says. “Instead, AI is allowing firms to innovate and grow.” 

Where her findings align with Tyson’s concern is on the topic of inequality. Fedyk’s other research has found that firms investing more in AI go on to hire more-educated workforces. “It seems that firm investments in AI are conducive to greater demand for college-educated and technical workers,” she says. “These findings suggest that it’s important to invest in upskilling the workforce as firms adopt new technologies such as AI.” 

Investing in education

Haas Dean Ann Harrison places similar emphasis on the importance of schooling and worker training in countering inequality as the nature of work transforms. One of the leading scholars in trade and development economics, Harrison points to educational programs as one of the most important public provisions in countering inequality. 

“A school like UC Berkeley, and all of California’s public universities and community colleges, play a key role in leveling the playing field,” Harrison says. “But we could do even more. What scares me most is that significantly less than half of our young people get a four-year college degree—we need to change that by increasing public educational opportunities and scholarships.” 

It’s not too late for policies written by humans, for humans, to help determine the ways in which rapidly advancing technologies will shape workers’ lives.

Harrison also says increased social protections need to be considered as well as incentivizing firms and innovators to grow in ways that employ more of America’s labor force. “In other words,” she says, “we need to encourage labor-using innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Indeed, worker training is one of the policy interventions Tyson emphasizes, too. She also recommends tax policy reforms to lower payroll and other payroll-related taxes, increasing social benefits and protections for gig workers, and introducing measures to enshrine workers’ ability to collectively bargain and unionize. 

The upshot? Harrison and Tyson agree that it’s not too late for policies written by humans, for humans, to help determine the ways in which rapidly advancing technologies will shape workers’ lives.

“How the benefits of automation are shared among workers from a diverse array of backgrounds is not technologically predetermined,” Tyson has written. “It is entirely up to us.” 

In fact, it’s even possible that AI tools can help clarify some of the most human parts of our work lives—such as allowing for a deeper understanding of how people are experiencing organizational life. Haas professors Jennifer Chatman and Sameer Srivastava developed a machine-learning method to integrate data from an employee survey with eight years of emails from a mid-size technology firm, giving a longitudinal look at “culture fit”—and how it’s formed and maintained within workplaces. 

The results gave them valuable insight into what draws people to certain workplaces and sours them on others.  “We found that two types of culture fit really mattered,” Chatman says. One type was “value congruence”—that is, the alignment between an employee’s personal values and the dominant ones within their organization—and the other was “perceptual congruence”—the extent to which an employee accurately perceives a workplace’s culture and behaves in accordance with it. These two distinct types of culture fit impacted different outcomes at work: Value congruence predicted how long people stayed with the organization, and perceptual congruence was closely tied to workers’ performance success.  

As the workplace and the nature of work itself continue to transform in ways both predictable and less so, understanding workers’ motivations and the drivers of their performance will only grow more important. After all, for the time being at least, humans are still the most complicated machines keeping the world of work running.

Dean’s Speaker Series: Reddit COO Jen Wong on her leadership journey

Growing up as a shy introvert, Reddit COO Jen Wong said she never saw herself as a leader.

“I think I assumed a leader was a person who told other people what to do,” Wong said.

It was her fascination with companies and the people who lead them, as well as a drive to solve new problems, that led her to pursue a career that has included leadership positions at Time, Inc.; PopSugar; AOL, and now Reddit.

“I’m a puzzler at heart, and when my mind starts searching for a new problem to solve, and there’s something I can learn, that propels me forward,” Wong said. “I always want to move into something that has a clear lane for me to have an impact.”

Wong, who topped Reddit’s Queer 50 list this year, shared her leadership journey with MBA students and the Haas community at a Dean’s Speaker Series talk on Sept. 21. The talk was co-sponsored by Q@Haas as part of Coming Out Week, September 18-22.

As Reddit’s Chief Operation Officer, Wong oversees business strategy and related teams.  Only four years into her tenure as COO, she has helped lead the growth of Reddit into a profitable business by scaling ad revenue to well over $100 million.  Her leadership goes beyond growing the business; she is also passionate about Reddit’s company goal that’s just as important as revenue: diversity and inclusion. In addition, Jen is viewed as an expert in the digital landscape.

Watch the full talk:


Start at

Big jump in influence for the Haas School’s California Management Review, ranked among top journals

California Management Review (CMR)—the Haas School’s academic management journal—has for the second year in a row earned a big jump in a ranking of its academic influence, placing it as one of the most highly cited practitioner-oriented research journals in the world.

The journal earned a two-year impact factor of 11.7 in the 2021 Clarivate Journal Citation Reports, a substantial increase from 8.8 last year. That placed it at #9 in the business journal category and #10 in management.

CMR also earned a five-year impact factor of 12.2, up from 9.3 last year.

Clarivate’s journal impact factor is a gauge of academic influence among top social science journals. It’s based on how frequently a journal’s articles are cited by scholars who publish in a collection of top social science journals. CMR articles were cited 7,895 times in 2021.

“We have been able to increase CMR’s relevance by consistently attracting and publishing important and influential research,” said David Vogel, the journal’s editor and Berkeley Haas professor emeritus. “The strong upward trajectory of our impact factor also reflects our many efforts over the last several years to extend CMR’s reach through social media engagement, expanding outreach, diversifying into digital mediums, and developing new content such as our CMR Insights.”

About California Management Review

Published at the University of California for more than sixty years, California Management Review serves as a source of evidence-based research that inspires, informs, and empowers stewards of modern organizations. The journal disseminates ideas that engage scholars, educate students, and contribute to the practice of management.

More information about California Management Review’s impact factor and international rankings is available here, along with links to new research and information about publishing in the journal.

 

Right-to-repair laws have potential downsides for consumers and the environment

Stack of broken screens from smartphones
Photo: iStock

The “right-to-repair” movement scored a major victory last month when New York State passed the first law requiring companies that make digital electronic products to give the public access to repair instructions, tools, and parts.

The goal was to make it easier and cheaper for consumers to fix their gadgets, and to break manufacturers’ monopolies on the repair market, allowing independent repair shops to compete. 

Yet despite a groundswell of support from consumer and environmental groups, right-to-repair laws may have unintended consequences, according to new Berkeley Haas research. The result could be higher prices, more e-waste, or longer-term use of older energy-guzzling products. 

“Strikingly, (right-to-repair) legislation can potentially lead to a ‘lose-lose-lose’ outcome that compromises manufacturer profit, reduces consumer surplus, and increases the environmental impact, despite repair being made easier and more affordable,” according study co-author Luyi Yang, assistant professor of operations and IT management at Berkeley Haas.

The paper, forthcoming in Management Science, is the first to examine the pricing, environmental, and consumer implications of the growing international movement known as the right-to-repair. It offers insights for policymakers working to craft such legislation.

A growing movement

Manufacturers have generally opposed right-to-repair laws, often citing privacy, safety, and copyright issues. Yet what’s also at stake is their bottom line: An active market for used products reduces demand for new gadgets, and one strategy to discourage this has been to charge exorbitantly high repair prices. 

“…There is no denying that profit remains a top concern of manufacturers that oppose right-to-repair,” Yang says. 

Yet from Apple’s proprietary pentalobe screws, which require specialized screwdrivers, to tractors loaded with sensors and software that can only be fixed by authorized dealers, consumers and policymakers have grown increasingly frustrated with manufacturers’ controls on the repair market. Massachusetts first adopted a motor vehicle right-to-repair law in 2012, and it expanded nationally in 2018. Last year, the Biden Administration ordered the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enact new regulations to facilitate independent repair; earlier this year, the Senate introduced a bill to allow farmers to repair their own equipment. The movement is also active in Europe.

Manufacturers’ strategic response

Yang was curious to delve into the implications for manufacturers. He built a model to analyze how they might respond to the new regulations, and what the repercussions might be. 

The answer depends on the type of product in question, and especially the price. In the market for cheap, low-cost products, the strategic response for manufacturers would be to lower new product prices and flood the market, thus reducing the appeal of repair and decreasing cannibalization from used products. “Motivating more consumers to purchase new products translates into higher new production volume and more e-waste,” Yang says. “As a result, the environmental impact increases.” 

On the other hand, for manufacturers of higher-end products that are expensive to produce, a continual price cut would eventually leave the profit margin too thin. If independent repair was widely available, products would have a longer lifespan, which makes them more valuable. Manufacturers would have the incentive to take advantage of that increased value and raise new product prices, which hurts consumers. And even though people might buy fewer new products,  easier repair could lead more consumers to use old, energy-inefficient products, resulting in a higher environmental impact.

In fact, the worst-case scenario could occur for products that have a high environmental impact when they’re in use—such as cars, trucks, refrigerators, or other major appliances. Manufacturers may raise prices, and with a flourishing repair market, more people might end up  buying and using old power guzzlers. 

Policy implications

The upshot is that well-intentioned policy makers should not make assumptions about who will benefit from right-to-repair laws. “Ignoring the strategic response from the product market will paint an incomplete picture and even lead to flawed conclusions,” Yang says. Instead, legislators should examine specific product categories, including their production cost and environmental impact, and avoid sweeping, one-size-fits-all policies. 

“Different policy goals of protecting consumers versus the environment may conflict with each other” he concludes. “Often, a trade-off has to be made.”

 

Read the paper:

Right to Repair: Pricing, Welfare, and Environmental Implications
Management Science, Forthcoming
By Chen Jin (National University Singapore), Luyi Yang (UC Berkeley – Haas School of Business) and Cungen Zhu (National University of Singapore)

 

Berkeley Haas welcomes nine new professors

New Berkeley Haas faculty members 2022
From top row, left to right: New Berkeley Haas assistant professors Tanya Paul, Ali Kakhbod, Carolyn Stein; Sa-Kiera Hudson, Ambar La Forgia, Sytkse Wijnsma, Sarah Moshary, Matthew Backus, and Valerie Zhang.

Nine new assistant professors have joined the Haas School of Business faculty this year, with cutting-edge research interests that range from illicit supply chains to unequal social hierarchies; from financial crises to the incentives that shape innovation; and from health care management to decentralized finance to marketing and the demand for firearms.

The nine tenure-track hires are the result of a concerted effort by Dean Ann E. Harrison and other Haas leaders to expand and diversify the faculty.

“We are thrilled to welcome this wonderful, diverse new group of academic superstars to Berkeley Haas,” says Dean Ann E. Harrison. “We clearly are bringing the best to Haas, increasing the depth and breadth of our world-renowned faculty, and reinforcing our place among the world’s best business schools.”

The new faculty members have hometowns throughout the U.S. and around the world, including Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois; Iran, the Dominican Republic, China, and the Netherlands. Seven of them are women; one is Black, and one is Latinx.

“This is our most diverse cohort of new faculty ever, each one a rock star in their own right,” says Jennifer Chatman, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Paul J. Cortese Distinguished Professor of Management. “We are very proud that we were able to lure them to Berkeley Haas.”

The new faculty members start on July 1, with most beginning to teach in spring 2023. They bring the total size of the ladder faculty to 88, up from 78 in 2020-2021.

Meet the faculty

Matthew Backus
Matthew Backus

Assistant Professor Matthew Backus, Economic Analysis & Policy
(he/him)

Hometown: Chicago, Ill.

Education: 
PhD, Economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
MA, Economics, University of Toronto
BA, Economics and Philosophy, American University

Research focus: Industrial organization

Introduction: I’m an economist with broad interests. Most recently, I’m interested in how we can use the tools developed by the industrial organization community to understand inequality and the distributional effects of policy.

Teaching: Microeconomics and Antitrust Economics (MBA)

Most excited about: After spending a year visiting, I’m most excited about the economics community at Berkeley.

Fun fact: I have a border collie, who is in training as a herding dog.

 

Sa-Kiera Hudson
Sa-Kiera Hudson

Assistant Professor Sa-kiera (Kiera) Tiarra Jolynn Hudson, Management of Organizations 
(she/her)

Hometown: Albany, NY

Education: 
PhD/MA, Social Psychology, Harvard University
BA, Psychology and Biology, Williams College

Research focus: I study the psychological processes involved in the formation, maintenance, and intersections of unequal social hierarchies, with a focus on empathic/spiteful emotions, stereotypes, and legitimizing myths.

Introduction: I am a social psychologist by training, focusing on the nature of intergroup relations as dominance and power hierarchies. I have studied several psychological processes, including the role of legitimizing myths in justifying unequal societal conditions, the role of group stereotypes in the experience and perception of prejudice, and the role of empathic and spiteful emotions in supporting intergroup harm. My work is multidisciplinary, incorporating quantitative as well as qualitative methods from various disciplines such as political science, sociology, and public policy.

I am a fierce advocate for building community, providing mentorship, and supporting authentic inclusion for everyone. I believe it is a moral imperative to be present as a vocal, queer-identified Black women in academe, given the lack of representation, and I’m excited to see how I can contribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at Haas.

Teaching: Core Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (MBA)

Most excited about: I identify UC Berkeley as my intellectual birthplace. It was during a summer internship program through the psychology department in 2010 where I first became interested in studying power structures and intergroup relations simultaneously. My overall research interests haven’t changed since that fateful summer. Being a faculty member here is truly a dream come true!

Fun fact: I love organizing and planning, so much so I taught myself how to use Adobe InDesign to create my own planner. I am also an avid foodie and cannot wait to check out the Bay’s food and wine scenes.

 

Ali Kakhbod
Ali Kakhbod

Assistant Professor Ali Kakhbod, Finance
(he/him)

Hometown: Isfahan, Iran

Education:
PhD, Economics, MIT
PhD, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS), University of Michigan

Research focus: Information frictions; liquidity; market microstructure; big data; and contracts

Introduction: I am a financial economist with research interests in financial intermediation, liquidity, contracts, big (alternative) data, banking and financial crises. A common theme of my research agenda is to study various informational settings and their financial and economic implications. For example: When does securitization lead to a financial crisis? Why is there heterogeneity in the means of providing advice in corporate governance? How does information disclosure in OTC (over-the-count) markets affect market efficiency? My research has both theory and empirical components with policy implications.

Teaching: Deep Learning in Finance (MFE)

Most excited about: Berkeley Haas is the heart of what’s next with world-class faculty working on exciting and innovative research. Given that my interdisciplinary research interests span finance, economics and big data issues, I could not ask for a better fit.

Fun fact: In my free time, I like to ski, sail, hike, and enjoy the outdoors.

 

Ambar La Forgia
Ambar La Forgia

Assistant Professor Ambar La Forgia, Management of Organizations
(she/her)

Hometown: I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, but I grew up in Washington, DC and São Paulo, Brazil.

Education:
PhD, Applied Economics and Managerial Science, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
BA, Economics and Mathematics, Swarthmore College

Research focus: Health care management; mergers and acquisitions; firm performance

Introduction: My research studies the relationship between organizational and managerial strategies and performance outcomes in the health care sector. In particular, I use quantitative methods to study how the strategic decisions of corporations to merge, acquire, or partner with other organizations can change managerial processes in ways that impact both financial and clinical performance. A secondary research strand studies how health care organizations adapt their service delivery and prices following changes in state and federal legislation. 

Before joining UC Berkeley, I was an assistant professor of health policy and management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. I am excited to continue to explore issues of healthcare quality, equity, and cost, while digging deeper into the management practices and organizational structures that could influence these outcomes.

Teaching: Leading People (EWMBA)

Most excited about: It is an honor to join the world-class faculty at Haas, and I am so excited to learn from and collaborate with my MORs colleagues on both the macro and micro side. Since my research is interdisciplinary, I also look forward to connecting with scholars in the School of Public Health.

As a self-proclaimed “city girl,”  I am excited to get out of my comfort zone and explore the natural beauty of Northern California.

Fun fact: My hobbies include yoga, urban gardening, adopting animals and stand-up comedy.

 

Sarah Moshary
Sarah Moshary

Assistant Professor Sarah Moshary, Marketing
(she/her)

Hometown: New York City, NY

Education:
Phd, Economics, MIT
AB, Economics, Harvard College

Research focus: Marketing and industrial organization

Introduction: My research interests span quantitative marketing, industrial organization, and political economy. I am currently working on projects related to paid search advertising, the pink tax (price gap in products targeted to women), and the demand for firearms. Before joining Haas, I worked at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and at the University of Pennsylvania.

Teaching: Pricing (MBA)

Most excited about: I am excited to get to know my future colleagues!

Fun fact: My two hobbies are running and pottery—though I am more enthusiastic than talented at either :).

 

Tanya Paul
Tanya Paul

Assistant Professor Tanya Paul, Accounting
(she/her)

Hometown: Murphy, Texas

Education:
PhD, Accounting, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
BS, Economics, Statistics and Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Research focus: Standard-setting and financial reporting; the determinants and consequences of voluntary disclosures

Introduction: After getting my PhD, I spent a year at the Financial Accounting Standards Board learning about contemporary accounting issues and understanding the types of questions that standard setters are grappling with. I hope to continue working on research that is helpful to standard setters in coming up with standards that ultimately improve financial reporting.

Teaching: Corporate Financial Reporting (MBA)

Most excited about: ​​I love how interconnected the area groups are within Haas. There are so many potential learning opportunities, especially for a newly minted researcher like me.

Fun fact: In my free time, I love to read and play the piano—I had learned it as a child and am trying to relearn it now as an adult.

 

Carolyn Stein
Carolyn Stein

Assistant Professor Carolyn Stein, Economic Analysis & Policy
(she/her)

Hometown: Lexington, Mass.

Education:
PhD, Economics, MIT
AB, Applied Mathematics and Economics, Harvard College

Research focus: Economics of science, innovation, and applied microeconomics

Introduction: I study the economics of science and innovation. My research combines data and economic theory to understand the incentives that scientists face and decisions that they make, and how this in turn shapes the production of new knowledge.

One thing I love about economics is that it’s less of a narrow subject area, and more a set of tools and principles that apply to a stunningly wide array of topics. I’m excited to work with Haas students to help them understand how economic principles can improve their decision-making, both in their careers and in other areas of their lives—maybe even in ways that surprise them!

Teaching: Microeconomics (EWMBA)

Most excited about: I’m excited to be part of a large and superb applied microeconomics community—at Haas, and more broadly at Berkeley as a whole.

Fun fact: I am an avid cyclist and skier, and I was on the cycling team at MIT. Since moving to the Bay Area, I’ve loved the hills and mountains in the area. I’m working on taking my riding off road (gravel and mountain biking) and skiing off-piste (backcountry).

 

Sytske Wijnsma
Sytske Wijnsma

Assistant Professor Sytkse Wijnsma, Operations and IT Management
(she/her)

Hometown: Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Education:
PhD, Management Science and Operations, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
MPhil, Management Science and Operations, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
BSc & MSc, Economics and Finance, VU University, Amsterdam

Research focus: My primary research interest is designing supply chain and policy interventions that help solve real-world challenges with social and environmental impact.

Introduction: I am very excited about my projects on illicit supply chains and how they undermine social and environmental goals. The context of these projects spans a wide range of areas, from illicit waste management to illegal deforestation. I am also excited to deepen and expand ongoing research collaborations with governments and industry to investigate these issues.

Teaching: Sustainability in Business (Undergraduate)

Most excited about: Many things! Berkeley Haas, being at the forefront of sustainability, has a unique position that combines the same ideals that drive my research with opportunities for collaborative research with serious impact. The amazing colleagues and close connections to industry make it even more exciting to join this community!

Fun fact: My first and last name originate from Fryslân, a northern province in the Netherlands, where it is still tradition to name your children after family members. So although my name is quite rare in the rest of the world, in our family it crops up in every generation!

 

Valerie Zhang
Valerie Zhang

Assistant Professor Valerie Zhang, Accounting
(she/her)

Hometown: Shanghai, China

Education:
PhD, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management
MA, Economics, University of Toronto
BCom, Finance and Economics, University of Toronto

Research focus: Information dissemination; information cascades on social media; retail investor behavior; decentralized finance

Introduction: I am passionate about doing research or working on personal projects that can express my creativity. I enjoy merging disjointed ideas and working on interdisciplinary research. My dissertation combines two literatures: one in computer science on information cascades on social media, and another in finance and accounting on the effects of disseminating financial news. I am also very curious about emerging technologies that are reshaping the financial industry. Since I work on areas that are new to the research community, I sometimes feel like a lone traveler exploring completely new territories. It is terrifying but also extremely rewarding!

Teaching: Financial Accounting (Undergraduate)

Most excited about: I look forward to inspiring my students to be entrepreneurial and to come up with creative business ideas or projects.

Fun fact/hobby: I write short stories. The one I am working on has an alien and a squirrel in it.

Do Not Disturb

Creating a more reliable supply chain

A chain link with three items, each on top of a separate link: a cargo ship, a delivery truck, and a delivery person with boxes on a dolly.

Pre-pandemic, the worldwide system of getting products where they need to go seemed to be working. Goods were produced where they could be made most cheaply: A pair of shoes might be assembled in Vietnam using leather from Brazil, polyester from China, and rubber from Malaysia before being shipped to Los Angeles and trucked to a mall in Kansas City. Businesses maximized profits by keeping the workforce lean and using just-in-time inventory management.

But as the pandemic demonstrated, that efficiency meant less resiliency. Lockdowns shuttered factories amid spiked demand for goods like bicycles and convection ovens. Millions of workers left their jobs. A dearth of employees, trucks, and drivers left goods languishing at ports.

“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” says Assistant Professor Luyi Yang. “At pretty much every step along the way, there’s potential for disruption.”

Yet the supply chain crisis, according to Haas logistics experts, offers an opportunity to put in place a more efficient and durable system over the next five to 10 years, potentially protecting us from future disruption.

At the top of the to-do list, says Saikat Chaudhuri, faculty director of the Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Program, is improving efficiency, starting with upgrades at ports—such as digitizing customs operations. “Ports need to operate 24-7 and use the latest equipment to help automate loading and unloading. That’s a no-brainer,” he says. The U.S. also needs to renovate its transportation facilities to eliminate bottlenecks. Last year’s federal infrastructure deal represents a giant step in that direction.

Beyond that, businesses must think strategically about production location, staffing, and inventory. That might mean reshoring—building a semiconductor plant in Ohio instead of Taiwan—or nearshoring—setting up in Mexico instead of China. Production locations should be diversified to reduce the risk of overconcentration in any one country.

Businesses may need to boost head count and raise pay to ensure they’re ready for emergencies. The same applies to stockpiles of components and finished products. “You sometimes want to carry a little bit more inventory than might seem optimal because there can be a rainy day,” Yang stresses.

While these fixes may fuel inflation, the long-term benefit of a reliable, sustainable supply chain is economical. “It’s inevitable prices will go up as a result of these shifts,” Chaudhuri says. “But digitization and optimization of the supply chain will bring some of those costs down, which will partly offset the additional cost of doing things locally.”

How to Build Sustainable Supply Chains

Coordinated action by business and government will be necessary to prevent a future supply chain crisis of this magnitude, say Haas logistics experts Saikat Chaudhuri and Luyi Yang. Here are some solutions.

Infographic of U.S. map with six ideas for improving supply chains: Embracing efficiency, investing more heavily in infrastructure, better locating production and warehousing to be closer to end markets, enticing workers by raising pay and improving working conditions, boosting staffing and inventory to head of emergencies, and diversifying international sourcing.

6 keys to creating a more sustainable supply chain

Trucks lined up to enter the Port of Oakland. Shipping containers and cranes are visible in the background.
Trucks line up to enter a Port of Oakland shipping terminal in November 2021. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Pre-pandemic, the worldwide system of getting products where they need to go seemed to be working. Goods were produced where they could be made most cheaply: A pair of shoes might be assembled in Vietnam using leather from Brazil, polyester from China, and rubber from Malaysia before being shipped to Los Angeles and trucked to a mall in Kansas City. Businesses maximized profits by keeping the workforce lean and using just-in-time inventory management.

The COVID-19 pandemic played havoc with this process, triggering a global shortage of supply. Factories were shuttered by lockdowns. People cancelled vacations and stopped eating out, while demand for goods like bicycles and convection ovens spiked. Millions of workers left their jobs to stay safe or find something better. The ports were short-staffed and there weren’t enough trucks or drivers to move containers to their destinations. Automakers couldn’t get the computer chips cars depend on, and stores were empty of thousands of items—from refrigerators to Italian wines and even cream cheese made in the U.S.

“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” noted Luyi Yang, an assistant professor in the Operations and IT Management Group. “At pretty much every step along the way, there’s potential for disruption.”

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. —Luyi Yang

 

The pandemic has exposed deep-seated vulnerabilities in global supply chains that were long in the making and not quickly resolved. Yet the supply chain crisis, according to Haas logistics experts, offers an opportunity to put in place a more efficient and durable system, potentially protecting us from future disruption.

“What has happened has been a perfect storm,” said Saikat Chaudhuri, the Grimes M.E.T. Chancellor’s Chair and faculty director of the Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Program. “But over the next five-to-ten years, once we make the changes we need, this will accelerate a dramatic upgrading of the entire supply chain.”

What has happened has been a perfect storm. But over the next five-to-ten years, once we make the changes we need, this will accelerate a dramatic upgrading of the entire supply chain. —Saikat Chaudhuri

 

Chaudhuri and Yang stress coordinated action by business and government is necessary to fix the supply chain and prevent a future crisis of this magnitude. Here, in brief, is their to-do list.

  1. Modernize and digitize port facilities: The top priority is making the supply chain more efficient, starting with the ports—now plagued by inadequate staffing and antiquated systems. For example, customs operations must be fully digitized. “Ports need to operate 24-7 and use the latest equipment to help automate the loading and unloading of goods. That’s a no-brainer,” Chaudhuri said.
  2. Invest more heavily in infrastructure: The U.S. needs massive renovation of its transportation facilities to eliminate bottlenecks. The infrastructure investments approved by Congress in 2021 represent a giant step in that direction.
  3. Put more production and warehousing close to end markets: Businesses have maximized profits by putting factories where production is cheapest. But such practices are risky and may be costlier in the long run. “The economy is always trying for efficiency. But as you move toward efficiency, you lose resiliency,” Yang said. Strategic overhauls may include “re-shoring,” by building a semiconductor plant in Idaho instead of Taiwan, or “near-shoring”—that is, setting up in Mexico instead of China. “People are rethinking cost and benefits,” Chaudhuri noted. “They’re saying, ‘To have a little more reliability in the supply chain, I’d rather have a local production site instead of having things shipped.”
  4. Diversify international sourcing: Production locations can also be diversified to reduce the geopolitical risk of over-concentration in any one country
  5. Make jobs along the supply chain more attractive by raising pay and improving working conditions: Businesses may need to raise pay to ensure they have the personnel they need in emergencies.
  6. Boost staffing and inventory for a rainy day: The same applies to headcount and stockpiles of components and finished products. “You sometimes want to carry a little bit more inventory than might seem optimal because there can be a rainy day,” Yang stressed.

These fixes may fuel inflation, the experts acknowledged. But the long-term benefit of a reliable, sustainable supply chain is ultimately economical. “It’s inevitable prices will go up as a result of these shifts in the supply chain,” Chaudhuri said. “But I’m not pessimistic. Digitization and optimization of the supply chain will bring some of those costs down, and that will partly offset the additional cost of doing things locally.”