Olin Business School

How much are these seats really worth?That teams sell tickets at prices far lower than their market value may seem to contradict economic logic. On average people who buy NFL tickets from scalpers online pay more than 50 percent above a ticket’s face value. Markups are even higher in football-loving locales such as Green Bay and New England. Despite the disparity between face value and street value, a professor at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis says it actually makes sense that owners don’t jack up ticket prices even more.

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

In the global economy, running a business is especially risky when finance and operations are ignorant of the other’s business. The risk factors go beyond the usual challenges of matching supply and demand to include unanticipated commodity price shocks, volatile exchange rates, and unexpected supply disruptions as a result of forces beyond our controls, such as physical disasters and terrorist attacks. Rather than let companies discover the perils the hard way, Professor Panos Kouvelis of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis is spearheading efforts in academia to create models of how finance and operations can work together to achieve maximum success.

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.

A gift of $1.2 million has been augmented with $300,000 from the University’s Sesquicentennial Endowed Professorship Challenge.

Photo by Mary ButkusMartin Cripps was installed May 11 as the John K. Wallace Jr. and Ellen A. Wallace Distinguished Professor of Managerial Economics.

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.