News & Comments

Too good to be true? New study shows people reject freebies and cheap deals for fear of hidden costs

If you’re offered a free cookie, you might say yes. But if you’re paid to eat a free cookie, would your response be the same?

In our new research, twice as many people were willing to eat a cookie when they weren’t offered payment compared with when they were.

From a purely economic perspective, our findings reflect irrational decision making. Objectively, a cookie plus money is better than just a cookie.

More and more, business schools want to show they’re making a positive impact on society. But how should they measure it?

Business schools shape more than just business. iStock/Getty Images PlusBack in 1970, the economist Milton Friedman famously argued that businesses have a single responsibility: to increase profit. For decades, the so-called “Friedman doctrine” amounted to dogma in certain circles, including at many business schools.

Why is the Reserve Bank independent from government, and why does it matter?

Negotiations over reforms to the Reserve Bank of Australia this week took an unprecedented turn when the Greens demanded the government use its reserve powers to immediately cut interest rates.

Labor had initially hoped to pass the reforms with the support of the Coalition. However, after a year of negotiations, they decided against it. Labor’s attempts to salvage the reforms by negotiating with the Greens now seem doomed to failure.

Sales jobs make people neurotic, but employers can protect workers’ health – just look at the construction industry

PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/ShutterstockNeuroticism is one of the Big Five personality traits, characterised by a tendency to experience negative emotions like anxiety, fear, and frustration. Individuals with high levels of neuroticism are often more sensitive to stress and more likely to react negatively to challenges.

Tupperware has filed for bankruptcy – is multi-level marketing in trouble?

ArtZiq_TRG/ShutterstockTupperware is one of the few iconic brands with which nearly every Australian has come into contact at some stage.

Some, like me, will have grown up watching their mums host “Tupperware parties” for their friends on the weekend. Others used the unmistakably colourful containers to carry their lunches to work or produce microwave meals of marvel.

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