economy – Vanderbilt Business Review

Mar

02

2025

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By Madison Keezer

Return to Office: How it’s Reshaping Work, Wallets, and the Economy

All Posts, Analysisbusiness, economy, jobs, keezer

ferrantraite via iStockPhoto During the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the workforce became accustomed to working from home. Gone were the days of standstill traffic during rush hour commute. Sweatpants during Zoom calls were here to stay. However, recent trends have indicated that the switch to working from home wasn’t the permanent cultural shift some believed it to be. Most recently, JPMorgan issued a return-to-office mandate for all 317,000 employees, generating backlash from employees. The deadline for Amazon employees to return to their desks hit on January 2, after CEO Andy Jassy announced the mandate in September 2024. It’s not just…

Feb

24

2025

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By Owen Liu

Instant Noodles: A Simple Meal, and An Interesting Economic Indicator

All Posts, Opinioneconomy, liu, living

Image generated in Midjourney AI When you think about instant noodles, does that image of a steaming bowl of thin, wavy noodles lifted by a pair of wooden chopsticks or a fork convert into changes in the economy? Beyond their role as a quick meal, these unassuming packets of noodles can serve as an economic indicator, offering a snapshot of broader economic trends. What does a budget-friendly meal reveal about global economies? This article delves into the economics of instant noodles, exploring industry trends, consumption patterns, and what their rising demand signals about financial stability. Instant Noodles as an Economic…

Feb

02

2025

By Anna Song

The Rise of the Coffee Futures Price: What Happened?

All Posts, Analysis, Industriescoffee, economy, finance, global, song

Photo taken by Anna Song In the past month, the coffee C Price has experienced a dramatic increase from over $2/lb to over $3/lb. The current C price of over $3/lb has reached a historical high over the past 13 years. What is the C Price and what happened with this dramatic increase? The C Price and Its History Coffee is a global commodity and is the most traded good in the world. Brazil has been one of the largest producing countries of coffee and Vietnam’s exports have also been rising since the late 20th century. Some other main producing…

Jan

21

2025

By Nicolette Tolitano

Luxury Brands Race to Nashville

All Posts, Features, Industrieseconomy, fashion, nashville, retail, tolitano

helloabc via iStockPhoto Nashville is one of the fastest growing cities in the country—a status that offers countless market opportunities for luxury brands. With rising tourism and a growing real-estate market, companies such as Hermès and Dolce & Gabbana have identified it as an ideal avenue to achieving higher sales. While luxury brands reap many benefits when they touch down in Nashville, there are also challenges and potential downsides for local businesses. Today, we’ll examine both. The Rise of High-End Retail Recently, luxury retail activity in Nashville has been rampant. In mid September of 2024, TAG Heuer landed a shop…

Jan

08

2025

By Owen Liu

Four Generations, One Workforce: How Gen Z’s Values Shape Career Paths

All Posts, Analysis, Finance and Business Insighteconomy, jobs, liu, vanderbilt, work

Image generated using Midjourney AI Today’s labor force spans four unique generations, creating challenges for companies to address the varied needs of employees, from retirement benefits to cultural values. Where does our generation of college students fit into this landscape? What priorities guide us when job hunting? How do we choose between a large corporation and a small startup? This article explores the current workforce dynamics, with projections extending into 2030. What does it mean to have four generations in the workforce? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Millennials (born between the 1980s and late 1990s) and Gen X…

Nov

18

2024

By Mark Ciampa

Research at Vanderbilt: The Money behind the Innovation

All Posts, Featuresciampa, college, economy, research, vanderbilt

Totojang via iStockPhoto At Vanderbilt, students are constantly surrounded by the effects of research funding. From posters advertising new breakthroughs, emails detailing newsworthy projects, or even the paragraph-long official titles of professors. The research ecosystem of elite universities like Vanderbilt is constantly publicized. At innovative universities like Vanderbilt, research is a business. With national academic research expenditures totaling more than $75 billion, universities race to obtain maximum funding from as many sources as possible. Research success at universities attracts both students and faculty. Research experience is a critical component of many graduate applications, such as those for medical school and…

Nov

17

2024

By Frederik Schutz

We’re Going to Build a New Stadium, and You’re Going to Pay For It!

All Posts, Analysiseconomy, football, nashville, Schutz, sports

Image generated by ChatGPT 4o The Tennessee Titans are building a new, $2.1 billion dollar home and you’re going to pay for it. No, Vanderbilt students are not going to have to take out their, or their parent’s check book and write out an eye watering figure, but Nashville and Tennessee taxpayers are going to bear a record breaking financial burden to the tune of $1.2 billion dollars, the largest ever stadium subsidy in the nation. Large public subsidies for the stadiums of major sports teams have been somewhat of a trend in recent years, and with that has come…

Nov

26

2023

By Nathan Park

A Freshman Perspective: September Jobs Report and What It Means for Our Careers

All Posts, Opinioncareer, economy, graduation, jobs, park, recession

jacoblund via iStockphoto By Nathan Park The September U.S. Jobs Report was recently released on Oct. 6 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and it blew expectations out of the water. It reported a whopping increase of 336,000 in the U.S. Job Report Non-Farm payroll, which was far above the Dow Jones consensus estimate of 170,000 and was the biggest increase since January. Regarding the different sectors in which these jobs have been added into, jobs in leisure and hospitality rose by 96,000, jobs in government by 73,000, and jobs in health care by 41,000 (compared with the average…

Nov

12

2023

By Claire Chen

Authoritarian Success Stories? Evaluating Amartya Sen’s “Development as Freedom” in the Unfree World

All Posts, Opinionauthoritarianism, chen, development, economy, freedom, sen

iStock photo by imaginima (2021) By: Claire Chen Amartya Sen’s “Development as Freedom” examines a provocative question posed by authoritarian governments and their sympathizers: does economic development truly necessitate liberal political values, especially in today’s developing world? Such a question becomes especially interesting in the context of Asia’s rapidly industrializing economies. While it is true that some wealthy nations have stable democratic governments, most notably post-WWII Japan, the relationship between prosperity and liberalism is not always clear-cut. South Korea and Taiwan are relatively affluent democracies today, but their authoritarian stints, which both lasted until 1987, could be compatible with economic…