Business & Entrepreneurship

A new partnership between the YouthBridge Association and the Skandalaris Center at Washington University in St. Louis will support social entrepreneurship in the St. Louis region. YouthBridge has pledged $500,000 in funding over five years so Washington University can create the YouthBridge Award and the St. Louis Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition. The university, with the help from community partners, plans to support the initiative with more than $500,000 in resources. Washington University and YouthBridge are inviting other area universities, institutions, community groups and foundations to collaborate on this effort. The purpose of the competition is to stimulate collaborative activity that leads to multiple innovative approaches to the area’s social problems.

MerrifieldIn an effort to strengthen diversity among the students, faculty and staff at Washington University in St. Louis, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton has appointed Leah Merrifield as special assistant to the chancellor for diversity initiatives. Merrifield, director of community relations in the Office of Governmental and Community Relations, will assume her new position July 1. She will report to Wrighton.

WarrenSpending by federal regulatory agencies continues to grow at a faster pace than other nondiscretionary spending according to “Upward Trend in Regulation Continues: An Analysis of the U.S. Budget for Fiscal Years 2005 and 2006,” this year’s edition of the annual report on regulatory spending and staffing by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis.

File Photo – David KilperThe class of 2005 has good reason to be happy — overall hiring of college graduates is on the rise.Well, you’ve graduated from college. Congratulations! Now what? Unless you’re off to graduate school, it’s time to get a job. And according to a career expert at Washington University in St. Louis, you’ll probably have a much easier time finding one than students did in the past few years.

A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Colorado at Boulder has removed bioaerosols – airborne biological particulate matter — from the air of a hospital therapy pool using a new generation of hybrid filters. The bioaerosols identified in the unnamed Midwestern hospital pool had sickened nine lifeguards who had become ill with hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a lung condition that mimics pneumonia symptoms. This forced the pool to shut down. It is now reopened.

Whether you follow arguments for or against President Bush’s plan for having private accounts in Social Security, there is one benefit to Bush’s plan that is difficult to dispute: private accounts would increase activity in the stock market. The more investors in the market, the stronger the market and — ultimately — the stronger the economy. Currently, however, the market is relatively weak and will probably stay weak considering the rate at which public companies have been delisting from the market in the past five years. A professor at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis has studied the trend of public companies turning private and finds that one factor that could ebb the exodus is strengthening the market through more investor participation.

As Americans celebrate independence this July 4, they may wish to consider the plight of another democracy – one that is young and struggling and whose continued success could have a dramatic impact on the world economy, the price of gasoline and other critical U.S. interests. James V. Wertsch, director of International and Area Studies at Washington University in St. Louis suggests that America needs to pay attention to developments in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia for its own sake, and for the sake of the rest of the world.

Every week you see it: the local supermarket’s specials include a discount on Brand X tuna fish. Common knowledge assumes that a sale on tuna fish will induce more people to buy Brand X, which boosts profits for both the manufacturer and the grocery store. However, a recent study by professors in the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis has found that discounts are not always in the best interest of the retailer or manufacturer. In fact, some promotions may end up hurting future profitability.

“On top of his academic work, his students will tell you that he is equally world-class when it comes to his teaching,” Dean Stuart I. Greenbaum says.

The urban legends about managed care convey a sense that managed care often leads to early death. However, the business methods employed by managed care frequently result in reduced cost for the companies and the individuals enrolled in the programs. Because of the potential savings, the trend has been to encourage Medicare enrollees to use managed care programs. A recent study by a professor in the business school Washington University in St. Louis and a colleague suggests that it’s not managed care that increases mortality; it’s lack of drug coverage. The study suggests that a one percent increase in the number of people enrolled in Medicare Managed Care without drug coverage would result in an additional 5,100 deaths among the elderly population of the United States in one year.