Olin Business School

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).

Washington University is among 15 universities across the country selected by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., to participate in its “Kauffman Campuses Initiative,” a new program aimed at making entrepreneurship education a common and accessible opportunity campus-wide. The Kauffman program builds on an emerging trend at colleges and universities — expanding […]

ThakorAnjan V. Thakor, Ph.D., has been named the John E. Simon Professor of Finance at the John M. Olin School of Business, it was announced by Olin Dean Stuart Greenbaum. Thakor joins the Olin School from the University of Michigan, where he served as the Edward J. Frey Professor of Banking and Finance from 1996 to 2003 and as the chairman of the finance department from 2000 to 2003.

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Experimental economics — a fast-growing branch of economics that involves the creation of a microeconomic environment in a laboratory — is being widely used at the John M. Olin School of Business. Applications of the experimental research have multiplied, spanning many industries and producing results that have impacted everything from how airlines price their tickets to how companies manage their employees. Ronald R. King, Ph.D., is helping to lead the burgeoning new area of research at the business school.

ZengerIt takes more than a firm handshake to guarantee trust in any business relationship that’s going to last. In empirical research recently published in Strategic Management Journal, Olin School of Business Professor of Organization and Strategy Todd R. Zenger completed an in-depth survey of senior corporate managers that confirms his suspicions about the importance of contracts in generating trust.

Few MBA classes have ever headed into so much oozing opportunity as the Class of ’98. But their education, it seems, was only beginning, and the hard lesson ahead was that five years, or even 18 months, can seem a lifetime. But the Olin School of Business MBA Class of 1998 is a standout. The Olin School class is featured in a special cover story survey in the nation’s largest circulation newspaper, USA Today.

MoretonThe Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted June 2 on the most significant overhaul of media ownership rules in decades, including a change that allows television networks to own more local stations. The new rule loosens the national television network ownership cap — raising the number of viewers the networks can reach to 45 percent from 35 percent of the nation’s viewers. Patrick Moreton, Ph.D., a professor of organization and strategy at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, says that the changes are in a very real sense, a “catch-up exercise,” forced on it by changes in the technology used to produce and deliver entertainment and news.

FergusonRoger W. Ferguson, Jr., Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, gave the commencement address to M.B.A. and Ph.D. graduates of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis on May 16. Dr. Ferguson became a Member of the Board of Governors in 1997 to fill an unexpired term and was reappointed in 2001 to a full term ending in 2014. The complete text of his commencement address to the Olin School of Business is available from the Federal Reserve System.