Olin Business School

October Business, Law & Economics Tip Sheet

Forbes Magazine has ranked the M.B.A. program at the University’s Olin School of Business No. 12 among 67 U.S. business schools. The Forbes rankings measure best “return on investment” for M.B.A. graduates of the Class of 1998. For this year’s survey, Forbes sent out 18,000 questionnaires to full-time graduates of M.B.A. programs around the world. With a five-year gain of $120,000 over tuition and foregone salary, the Olin School jumped eight places, from No. 20 in Forbes’ last ranking of M.B.A. programs in 2001.

“Professor King is a consummate scholar, unprepossessing and humble, but always present to do his indispensable part,” Dean Stuart I. Greenbaum said.

Students in the inaugural Executive MBA class of a joint program between the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai, China, arrived in St. Louis on September 6 for two weeks packed with classes and celebrations. The 70 students from China completed their MBA degrees with a capstone two-week residency at the Washington University business school.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will collaborate with Assistant Professor Jeffrey T. Macher of the Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and Associate Professor Jackson A. Nickerson of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis as part of its strategic initiative to modernize the regulation of pharmaceutical manufacturing and product quality. Under the terms of the material transfer agreement with the FDA, Macher and Nickerson will conduct research and analysis to help the FDA identify the factors that predict manufacturing performance to further refine the agency’s risk-based site selection model for inspections as well as its other efforts to target identified risks to pharmaceutical quality and strengthen its pharmaceutical compliance program.

GuptaLessons learned by startups during the dot-com hiring frenzy may have lasting benefits, according to a study conducted by Washington University Olin School of Business professor Mahendra Gupta. His paper, “Venture Capital Financing and the Growth of Startup Firms,” which focuses on the role human capital plays in starting a company, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Venturing. Journal editor Sankaran Venkataraman called the paper noteworthy in its comprehensive examination of how human capital relates to success, the internal processes of a firm, and team characteristics. Companies able to get venture capital funding had an advantage over those who were able to find funding resources but not thru v.c. funding.

Panchapagesan”Decimalization” – the pricing of stocks in dollars and cents instead of fractions – lauded by proponents to be a good thing for investors when it was adopted by the U.S. stock markets in early 2001, is under fire. Critics say it costs institutional investors big. But in a study co-authored by Venkatesh Panchapagesan at Washington University’s Olin School of Business, direct institutional trading costs appear to have declined by about 23 basis points (roughly 5 cents a share) after decimalization. In economic terms, this decrease translates to an average monthly savings of about $133 million in institutional trading costs, the study finds.

PooleIn a wide-ranging analysis of bond market fundamentals, St. Louis Fed President William Poole said the focus should be on long-term interest rate basics. “Longer-run fundamentals tend to get lost in a welter of short-run considerations that fade into oblivion quickly as a new set of short-run concerns dominate the news,” he said. Poole spoke to a group of financial analysts at Washington University’s Olin School of Business on”Prospects and Risks in the Bond Market,” Sept. 4.

Business, Law & Economics Tip Sheet

HilgertRaymond L. Hilgert, D.B.A., Emeritus Professor of Management and Industrial Relations at Washington University’s John M. Olin School of Business, died Saturday, August 23, 2003 at St. Luke’s Hospital after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 73 and lived in Kirkwood. Hilgert, an award-winning teacher, author, labor arbitrator, nationally-recognized media commentator, and business ethicist, taught at the University from 1961 to 2001. In an article published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch upon Professor Hilgert’s retirement from the business school, former students explained the impact he had on their lives and careers. It is reprinted here by permission: “Ray Hilgert Leaves Legacy of Learning at Washington U” (July 22, 2001).