Business and Finance

The global landscape for science and technology is changing, with increased competition for resources and recognition. That’s beginning to look like bad news for the innovative edge the United States has long enjoyed.

“Will the United States own the technology of the future? Probably not all of it, and only if we compete harder to maintain our current position,” said Diana Hicks, professor and chair of Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Public Policy.

The U.S. economy, which finally posted job gains last year after three straight years of job losses, will add another 4 million jobs through 2006, say University of Michigan economists.

“The economy lost 2.7 million payroll jobs from February 2001 to May 2003, but by 2004 the ability of employers to tease more and more output out of fewer workers had about had it,” said Saul Hymans, U-M professor emeritus of economics. “That plus renewed business confidence in the strength of

Companies wanting to use the Internet to recruit new employees should spotlight the geographic location of positions on their Web sites and include terms used by searchers, rather than site designers or human resource professionals, say Penn State researchers.

“Users’ primary interest when looking for jobs is location, but company Web sites typically don’t highlight geographical information,” said Jim Jansen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology. “Lo

Home to some of the world’s largest forest products companies, Finland is committed to staying at the front of this sector and others where it is particularly strong, according to a recent study by the country’s National Technology Agency, Tekes.
Introducing new product and business concepts in traditional industries has been identified as one of Finland’s key six application focus areas in the future.

As leaders in the forest products sector, Finnish companies face some to

A recent study in The Journal of Finance finds that the way the stock market reacts to unemployment news conveys information about the state of the economy.

Stock prices rise on average on announcement of higher than anticipated unemployment during economic expansions, This is because unemployment news itself is a bundle of three primitive types of news: the level of future interest rates, the growth of corporate earnings and dividends in the future, and the expected return on stocks.

Companies in America’s fast-growing retail and wholesale trade sector have been the major drivers of U.S. productivity growth since 1995, and the transformation of U.S. retailing is a major reason the U.S. maintains a substantial productivity lead over Europe.

A comprehensive study by The Conference Board, released today, shows that more than 50% of America’s productivity growth lead over Europe is due to gains in retail and wholesale trade.

The transformation of U.S.