With an interest in trade unions and employer associations shaping the labor market, Bush is exploring how employee voices and economic democracy affect the future of work.
Alyssa Loebig | MIT Sloan School of Management
“As a student of both sociology and economics, MIT Sloan was the ideal place for me to combine both disciplines,” says Alex Busch, a PhD student. “MIT Sloan is unique in the freedom it offers its PhD students to become the researchers they aspire to be: I take classes in management, economics, and sociology, all taught by experts in the field.”
Before joining MIT Sloan School of Management’s PhD program, Busch received a BS in economics and a BA in sociology from Heidelberg University in Germany and a MS in economics from The London School of Economics and Political Science. Then, he worked as a pre-doc for professors at the University of California Berkeley and MIT, which introduced him to the research at MIT Sloan — and more specifically, the Institute for Work and Employment Research.
Busch’s work focuses on how institutions such as trade unions and employer associations shape the labor market. “To me, the future of work means democracy. It’s hard to have any positive vision of work without meaningfully engaging workers. This is why I research economic democracy — whether through unions, employee ownership, or works councils — worker voice is pivotal in designing good jobs.”
After receiving his PhD, Busch hopes to continue his research in a way that benefits people outside of academia — policymakers as well as leaders from both capital and labor.
“At MIT Sloan, I sometimes attend events that target MBAs to listen to their perspectives. The gap between what academics think they know about the real world and practitioners’ common sense can be quite jarring. However, this is where a management department can truly be the best of two worlds!”
