Olin Business School

New Olin Business School research has exposed a significant increase in poor customer service, fraud and mis-selling by retail banks in low-to-moderate income areas targeted by the Community Reinvestment Act, especially those with a high minority population.

At a time when evictions and mortgage defaults have been likened to an oncoming tsunami across America, a big-data study of loan-to-value ratios in the wake of the 2007-08 recession carries a cautionary forecast for vexing economic weather ahead: The higher a worker’s outstanding mortgage relative to their home value, the worse their future income growth and job mobility.

Displaying family photos in the workplace cuts down on employee fraud and other unethical behavior, new Washington University in St. Louis research finds.

A paper by Olin Business School’s Hillary Anger Elfenbein and Bill Bottom, along with then-doctoral candidate Daisung Jang, recently was awarded the International Association for Conflict Management Article of the Year for 2018.

Having a personal higher purpose promotes well-being, more happiness and even lower stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings from a new survey by two Washington University in St. Louis researchers from Olin Business School. Also, employees of organizations with higher-purpose statements are happier and prouder of their organizations than are employees at workplaces without a statement, the results show.

Xiumin Martin from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis was among four researchers who crunched data to find that personal connections between suppliers and vendors particularly improves the efficiency of the supply chain. To be precise, such rapport results in better overall performance, less restrictive and longer-lasting contract terms, and crystallized communication.

Two researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and another from Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile found that daydreaming carries significant creative benefits, especially for those who identify with their profession and care for the work they do.

New research shows marketers could win more customers by offering financial incentives to customers’ friends — providing a reputational boost to customers — than “selfish” financial incentives to customers. A Washington University in St. Louis marketing professor was a co-author on the study.

A federal moratorium on evictions is just one piece of the puzzle. Without comprehensive solutions, we could be facing a repeat of the 2007-08 financial crisis, said Radhakrishnan Gopalan, a finance expert at Washington University in St. Louis who has studied the effect of health insurance on home payment delinquency.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling June 29 won’t alter the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because it already morphed during the first decade of its existence to where it falls under the philosophical whim of each presidential administration, says an Olin Business School scientist at Washington University in St. Louis.