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Purpose: This paper aims to hypothesize on the relationship between the Millennial workforce and US firms’ response to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. The authors postulate that societal pressure from the younger generational cohorts will motivate socially cognizant corporations to share their newly acquired tax benefits with their workforce to attract, retain and inspire employee productivity and retention, as well as customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: The authors empirically examine work-related cultural attitudes of the Millennial generational cohort in the USA, and by exploring related literature on organizational management and supply side economics, the authors aim to connect them to firms’ response to tax cut windfall in a simple theoretical model. The authors complement their methods by using descriptive statistics on firm tax responses that followed the 2017 TCJA. Findings: The authors offer support for the notion that companies are behaving rationally by providing short-term benefits to employees when employees are, on average, younger. The competitive nature of the global market acts as an incentive to avoid permanent obligations such as wage and benefits increases. The data reveal that a significant number of companies had a transitory reaction to the latest tax cut. Research limitations/implications: The authors encourage future research, once sufficient time elapses, to exploit the time periods before and after the tax cut to provide a better assessment of the empirical impact of the 2017 tax cut on firm responses, conditional on workforce makeup. Originality/value: The authors examine whether and how the Millennial cohort might shape firm behavior following changes in tax policy.

The question of “does it pay to be unethical?” is investigated within the framework of Major League Baseball (MLB). The issue of gaining a competitive advantage by operating outside of the rules is first addressed from a marginal benefit and marginal costs perspective. Then, using career data compiled in the 2005 season, regression analysis is performed to estimate the affect of steroids on player salaries. The analysis focuses on whether players are encouraged financially to consume performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). The results reveal a positive relationship between PEDs and salaries. While this result is interesting, the interpretation of the PEDs' specific impact on salaries is difficult to estimate. In separate regressions, slugging average and PEDs were positively correlated, as were PEDs and allstar appearance. With these benefits in mind, it is no wonder why unmonitored players engaged in the steroid epidemic in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

While baseball fans will always argue whether the old-time players were better than today's players, one thing is clear Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and other greats from the past would welcome the opportunity to sell their talents to the highest bidder in the modern Major League Baseball (MLB) labor market. Using a salary equation and the performance statistics of these and other old-time All Stars we estimate the salaries “Old-Time Greats” would command in a modern market for MLB players. We find that Babe Ruth might have been ahead of his time in understanding the market value of a quality baseball player, but he was behind the times in his ability to generate a salary commensurate to his performance.