Olin Business School

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.

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.

His slate of responsibilities has been jammed; “I’ve lived life so that now I have the opportunity to give something back,” he says.

“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.

Receiving awards May 4 were F. Gilbert Bickel III, David T. Blasingame, William Marshall, James O’Donnell and Victor Richey Jr.

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.

It’s been two years since New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer’s crackdown on the securities industry spawned the “Global Analyst Research Settlement.” Spitzer targeted analysts and bankers from the same company for getting a little too cozy with each other. Recently, two professors from Washington University in St. Louis’s Olin School of Business released a report indicating that the Global Settlement is successfully eliminating the apparent conflict of interest.

GreenbaumStuart Greenbaum, dean of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, will deliver his annual State of the School address at the Olin School’s Century Club Speaker series on Thursday, May 12 at 8 a.m.

He had been senior associate dean at the business school and the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management.

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