Olin Business School

Radhakrishnan Gopalan, professor of finance at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, says President Joe Biden’s plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour is too aggressive. His research shows raising the minimum wage now could slow job growth.

Faculty experts from across Washington University in St. Louis draw upon their research, their instruction, their experience and their thought leadership to proffer insight and ideas for the new administration, the new beginning.

An interdisciplinary team led by faculty at the McKelvey School of Engineering has developed a model to help navigate the delicate line between maintaining the economy and limiting the spread and mortality rate of COVID-19.

After months of failed negotiations that have left many Americans, businesses and the economy in the lurch, lawmakers are scrambling to reach a deal on an economic stimulus plan that could top $900 billion. If Congress passes the deal, will it do enough to help struggling Americans and businesses stay afloat? To answer that question, three business and economics experts at Washington University in St. Louis shared their thoughts on the proposed plan, what lawmakers got right, what is missing and what ticking time bombs remain.

Resilience, once a hallmark that academics ascribed to the most successful supply chains, has become a “matter of survival,” writes an international team of researchers including an Olin Business School expert from Washington University in St. Louis.

Olin Business School’s Todd Gormley discusses his research on efforts to increase gender diversity on governance boards through shareholder pressure, and the potential impact of a new policy proposed by Nasdaq.

Olin Business School researchers were part of a team that learned firms take more risks after a member of their board of directors undergoes a bankruptcy at another firm where they serve as a director. The co-authors discovered such risk-taking usually occurs when this particular director both experienced a quick, less-costly bankruptcy elsewhere and serves in a position of greater influence.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases are likely to increase to 20 million by the end of January, nearly doubling the current level of 11.4 million cases, predicts a Washington University in St. Louis COVID-19 forecasting model.

Even before COVID-19 and resulting shutdowns created gridlock for some global supply chains, the assortment at many neighborhood supermarkets was dwindling. The cause was not a lack of supply, though, but rather a lack of demand created by a widening income gap in the U.S., according to a new study involving a Washington University in St. Louis researcher.

The cold, hard fact is: Pfizer blazed a trail in creating a touted COVID-19 vaccine, but now it must help to equally pioneer an unprecedented way to distribute the drug across the United States and the globe, says a supply chain expert at Washington University in St. Louis.