The Conversation: Political Bickering and Policy Uncertainty Take a Toll on Business Investment, Research Shows

Partisan squabbling isn’t just annoying – it’s also bad for business.

That’s what Professor of Economics Charles Sims and his colleagues found in a recent study on how uncertainty in environmental policy affects business investment.

First, they analyzed more than 300 million newspaper articles, looking for keywords related to environmental policy uncertainty. They found that this uncertainty spikes around election seasons and has nearly doubled over the past decade.

Then they looked at business investment rates – a common way to gauge a company’s financial health – at companies in affected sectors such as the agriculture, mining, energy and automotive industries.

Read about their findings at The Conversation.

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Cindi King (865-974-0937, cking126@utk.edu)