User:ACaromicoli/sandbox/AIRnet

The AirNet (The Academic-Industry Research Network) was co-founded by it's current president, William Lazonick in 2010, with a number of colleagues from academia and industry, has emerged as a research organization unique in its focus on how the investment strategies and organizational structures of major business corporations may support or undermine the achievement of rising productivity, stable employment opportunities, and equitable income distribution in the economy as a whole. Its methods reflect the conviction that a sound understanding of the role of business in the economy requires collaboration between academic scholars and industry experts.

As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research organization, AIRnet accepts outside funding, which has generally come in the form of grants from other non-profits. In line with scholarly practice, no matter who the funder is, the organization insists on unchecked freedom in drawing conclusions from its research, as well as on the right to disseminate its reports and data publicly. The AIRnet maintains a nonpartisan stance; in federal policy debates, however, its work has been cited most frequently by Democrats (among many examples, then-Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Tammy Baldwin , and Elizabeth Warren ), but also at least once by a Republican (Sen. Marco Rubio ). Reports of its findings have also been published by numerous media outlets in the United States and abroad. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/business/big-pharma-spends-on-share-buybacks-but-rd-not-so-much.html. Morgenson, Gretchen (2017-08-14). “Big Pharma Spends on Share Buybacks, but R&D? Not so Much.” New York Times. “[O]ne of the authors, William Lazonick, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, said in an interview[:] “…there really is very little drug development going on in companies showing the highest profits and capturing much of the gains.” (The other authors are… all researchers at the Academic-Industry Research Network, a nonprofit organization.)

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/the-stock-buyback-swindle/592774/. Useem, Jerry (August 2019). “The Stock Buyback Swindle.” The Atlantic. “A study by the economists William Lazonick and Öner Tulum showed that from 2008 to 2017 the company distributed 133 percent of its profits, through buybacks and dividends, to shareholders—including CEO Kenneth Frazier, who has sold $54.8 million in stock since last July.”

https://www.wiwo.de/my/finanzen/boerse/us-aktien-denn-sie-wissen-nicht-was-sie-kaufen/20082828.html?ticket=ST-316631-qigkZxTA2g43rbip0uX0-ap5. Schürmann, Christof (2017-07-23). “Denn sie wissen nicht, was sie kaufen.” WirtschaftsWoche. “Zwischen 2006 und 2015 spendierte etwa Amerikas Pharmaindustrie ihren Aktionären sage und schreibe 516 Milliarden Dollar an Dividenden und über den Rückkauf eigener Aktien. Zum Wohle der Patienten, also für Forschung und Entwicklung, blieben hingegen im selben Zeitraum lediglich 465 Milliarden Dollar übrig. Das offenbart eine gerade veröffentlichte Studie des Academic-Industry Research Network.”

https://lanuovaferrara.gelocal.it/ricerca?query=Vaccini+ed+altre+faccende . (2017-10-01). “Vaccini ed alter faccende L’altra facia della Medaglia; esperti e confront.” La Nuova Ferrara. “William Lazonick, economista e cofondatore e president dell'organizzazione no profit Academic-Industry Research Network…[ha] analizzato e approfondito le dinamiche che legano la produzione dei vaccini, la loro distribuzione nei Paesi in via di sviluppo, con le attività delle aziende farmaceutiche, tra ricerca scientifica ed enormi interessi economici.”

https://www.fuw.ch/article/zurueckkaufen-statt-verteilen/ . Schwalbe, Jan (2018-02-21). “Züruckkaufen statt verteilen.” Finanz und Wirtschaft. “Gemäss Berechnungen des Academic-Industry Research Network haben Unternehmen des S&P-500 bisher angekündigt, ihren Angestellten wegen der Steuerreform Boni und Gehaltserhöhungen im Umfang von 6 Mrd. $.”

Funding
Funding for AIRnet's research comes from public and private agencies that seek contributions to knowledge about how and under what conditions the operation of the economy can result in stable and equitable growth – and what can be done to reform its operation when it does not. AIRnet's findings from research are freely available in the forms of working papers and reports, with most of their research ultimately ending up in scholarly journals and commercially published books.

Stock Buybacks
The Academic-Industry Research Network has been a leader in bringing public attention to the role of stock buybacks in the American economy. Criticism of the practice "amped up" following the publication of a widely read 2014 critique of buybacks by co-founder William Lazonick that introduced the questioning of buybacks into the public discourse in the United States. Both sides in the resulting debate took notice: While a national columnist proclaimed that the article did "nothing less than decode the Rosetta Stone of America's economic decline, " a well-known economist dismissed its argument as "rubbish," derisively crediting Lazonick as its "intellectual godfather".

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