Olin Business School

People who are enrolled in Medicare Choice HMO plans with drug coverage die at about the same rate as those in traditional fee-for-service Medicare plans, but mortality rates for those in Medicare HMO plans without drug coverage are substantially higher. That’s the conclusion of a recent study done by Gautam Gowrisankaran, Ph.D., an assistant professor of economics at the Olin School of Business of Washington University in St. Louis, with University of Minnesota colleague Robert J. Town. The researchers’ estimates imply that a 10-percentage point shift in coverage from fee-for-service to HMO plans without drug coverage could result in 51,000 additional deaths per year among the elderly.

William P. Bottom of the Olin School of Business will be formally installed as professorship’s first holder at a later date.

Joyce and Howard Wood, both alumni of the John M. Olin School of Business, have created the Joyce and Howard Wood Distinguished Professorship in Business. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced the gift of $1.7 million, which has been augmented with $300,000 from the University’s Sesquicentennial Endowed Professorship Challenge. William P. Bottom, Ph.D., will be formally installed as the first holder of this professorship at a later date.

OlsenToday, when you walk into a car dealer and order a new automobile, you pay the same price and get the same wait for delivery as every other customer. But in the future, as Tava Olsen sees it, instead you’ll select your price and delivery date from a dynamic menu of lead-times and prices, where you can pay more for quick delivery or get a better price for waiting. While such options benefit the customer, they also pay bottom-line benefits for the retailer and manufacturer, says Olsen, associate professor of operations and manufacturing at Washington University’s Olin School of Business. To help companies reap those benefits, she’s engaged in groundbreaking theoretical research funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to tell them just how to do it.

He has more than 30 years of academic and corporate experience at schools including Case Western Reserve, Michigan State and Northwestern universities.

KleinJohn E. Klein, currently chairman and former president and chief executive officer of Bunge North America, Inc., will become the new executive vice chancellor for administration at Washington University in St. Louis, according to Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor. The appointment is effective Sept. 1.

Beverly and James Hance have established a professorship in the John M. Olin School of Business, it was announced by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. The gift of $1.2 million will be combined with $300,000 from the University’s Sesquicentennial Endowed Professorship Challenge to create the James and Beverly Hance Professorship in Business.

MacDonaldIt is no secret that advances in technology can greatly impact the value of workers’ skills. Older workers often find the updating of complex technology uneconomic, while younger workers acquire and readily employ skills tailored to the newest technology. The result: the latter group’s productivity rises, diminishing the value of output produced by their older counterparts. A recently published study by Glenn MacDonald, Washington University’s John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy, is the first to model and explain the nature and severity of this effect.

Joyce and Howard Wood, both alumni of the John M. Olin School of Business, have created the Joyce and Howard Wood Distinguished Professorship in Business. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced the gift of $1.7 million, which has been augmented with $300,000 from the University’s Sesquicentennial Endowed Professorship Challenge. William P. Bottom, Ph.D., will be formally installed as the first holder of this professorship at a later date.

A conference for board directors of public and private companies will be held June 25-26 at Washington University’s John M. Olin School of Business in the school’s Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center. The board of directors’ conference, “Strategies and Techniques for Improving Board Performance,” will focus on corporate governance issues.