The U.S. Good Business Lab Foundation is a not-for-profit labor innovation organization, organized and operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.

Our mission is to lead businesses to improve the lives of all workers. We do this by identifying workers’ needs, designing solutions, testing for wellbeing impact and financial returns, and driving the adoption of proven solutions.

We use rigorous research methods to find a common ground between worker wellbeing and business interests. We believe that building the business case to support better conditions for workers is the most sustainable way to transform labor markets and enable all workers to live dignified lives.

Our research is conducted by our staff, all of whom have advanced training in fields such as economics, international development, and statistics. Furthermore, we may collaborate with other U.S. public charities and non-U.S. public charity equivalents on fieldwork, research, and intervention implementation. Our research is dedicated to charitable and educational purposes and is funded by a wide range of sources, including universities, individuals, private foundations, other charitable organizations, and even corporations (provided the corporation does not benefit from our research to any extent greater than the benefit to the general public).

To create meaningful impact, we:

Our Focus

In the US and abroad, systemic discrimination persistently marginalizes some demographic groups, limiting their social and economic mobility. This manifests into, among other things, job search frictions that disproportionately affect the ability of low-income minority workers to find good matches. We study interventions that enable the private sector to recognize biases and promote equal access to economic opportunity and wellbeing resources across race, caste, gender, migrant status, etc.

Female labor force participation Rate (FLPR) trends in the world are low and in recent years, declining, even as their countries’ economies grow. Cultural and economic circumstances play an important role in this exclusion of women, leaving them and their children in poverty and often forcing women to stay in abusive relationships due to their inability to support themselves through employment.

Our studies focus on promoting and increasing FLPR by working closely with companies to create work opportunities for women who would otherwise be excluded from the labor market.

We study which skills (cognitive and non-cognitive) and traits are most predictive of performance in service and manufacturing sector jobs in order to provide equal access to such skills and education for persistently marginalized groups, such as low-income and minority workers.

We have evaluated interventions involving the provision of basic health services such as eye health, iron supplementation, and menstrual health to low-income workers. Such interventions help them participate in the workforce with dignity.

We now plan to expand the scope of our work to improve mental wellbeing, health insurance coverage, and healthcare utilization by matching unemployed workers with jobs that can provide them with employer-sponsored health insurance, which will additionally cover the cost of therapy and provide access to a psychiatrist to offset the long-term effects of unemployment on mental health.

Our Team

Ach has a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale. He leads innovation for GBL and serves as a principal investigator on research projects. He is also the Director of 21st Century India Center and a Professor of Economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy in University of California, San Diego .

ACHYUTA ADHVARYU

Co-Founder

dad, economist, & fearless wielder of bad puns

Anant holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale. He helps to set overall strategy and often serves as a Principal investigator on research projects. He is also an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan.

ANANT NYSHADHAM

Co-Founder
baby wrestler, jive talker… renaissance man

Nim is a strategist and operational problem solver who helps organizations articulate an aspirational vision and then develop the strategies, capabilities, and processes to bring it to life. He has held roles in marketing, corporate strategy, design, and technology and is driven by a desire to connect dots and find moments of shared humanity. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BA in political science from Williams College.

NIRMAL (NIM) DESHPANDE

Managing Director
chutney maker and seeker of witty banter

Mamta holds an M.A. in Applied Economics from the University of Michigan. She works on scaling GBL’s impact by turning evidence-based solutions into marketable products.

MAMTA PIMOLI

Associate Director – Ventures

economic gender equality is another 217 years away, ceteris paribus

Karla holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and is currently fighting her way through a master’s in international development at The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She is a foodie who loves the beach, movies, and baby Yoda.

KARLA DOMINGUEZ

Sofia holds an MA in Economics from the University of Southern California. She is interested in public policy evaluation and experiments.

SOFIA CALDERON

Oscar is a social scientist by heart. He loves to learn how the world works and think of ways to build a more just place for everyone. He is an outdoors person. His research interests are financial inclusion, financial crisis, international relations, and political economy.

OSCAR ANDRES GARNICA TORO

Finance & Funding Manager
adventure chaser and scars collector

Research Manager

multilingual by day, culinary maestro by night, and TV aficionado in between

Research Associate

trying to wake up at 5 am to read all my overdue books

Our Affiliates

Dr. Jean-François Gauthier is an Assistant Professor of Economics at HEC Montréal. He completed is Ph.D. in Economics at Boston College. His research focuses on personnel economics, labor economics, and development economics.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS GAUTHIER

Principal Investigator

Dr. Jorge Tamayo is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business school. He is an applied microeconomist. Prior to his doctoral degree, he worked at the Central Bank of Colombia and as an adjunct professor in the department of economics at Eafit University. His research interests include industrial organization and development economics.

JORGE TAMAYO

Principal Investigator

Mamta holds an M.A. in Applied Economics from the University of Michigan. She works on scaling GBL’s impact by turning evidence-based solutions into marketable products.

Contact Us

U.S. Good Business Lab Foundation

455 E Eisenhower Pkwy
Suite 300 PMB1006
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
United States

info@goodbusinesslab.org