Olin Business School

If the post-pandemic economic return includes minimum-wage increases across a few or many states, research led by Washington University in St. Louis scientists in the Olin Business School suggests that some positive and negative effects for U.S. workers follow in the two years after implementation.

The coronavirus pandemic has shattered and shuttered businesses. As businesses gradually continue to reopen across the United States, three Olin Business School experts at Washington University in St. Louis offer insights into potential opportunities that could help businesses to emerge from the economic storm.

As areas of the country begin to relax and do away with stay-at-home orders, things will not snap back to normal for all employees and organizations. This may seem obvious, but it has huge ramifications for what employers can and should expect from employees during this time, according to an expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

An interdisciplinary team at Washington University in St. Louis used computer modeling from different domains to look at how the United States might best lift quarantine — without a harsh blow to public health or the economy.

A new paper by an East Asia and international business expert in the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis finds that Hong Kong’s status as a leading global financial center is secure for multiple reasons, despite prolonged protesting. China’s government will continue to support it; Hong Kong’s financial networks possess extraordinary scale and sophistication; and no viable alternative center has emerged to challenge Hong Kong as the Asia-Pacific leader. Meyer, a senior lecturer in management, puts forth his arguments in “The Hong Kong protests will not undermine it as a leading global financial centre,” published online in April in Area Development and Policy.

Washington University in St. Louis has stepped up to help doctors and nurses who need somewhere to stay amid their intense work caring for the sick during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing rooms and meals at the Knight Center and the Lofts apartments.

In the future, a global pandemic such as the magnitude of COVID-19 will not only be a foreseeable event, but also will likely change how companies model and mitigate future risks to their supply chains, says an expert on supply chain management at Washington University’s Olin Business School.

In business, simple loyalty programs can strongly increase customer retention, Washington University in St. Louis researchers have found. These Olin Business School scientists studied a loyalty program at a chain of men’s hair salons, collecting data on more than 5,500 customers. Under the program, for every $100 a customer spends, he gets a $5-off coupon.

In the video series “WashU Between the Lines,″ students share honest, personal stories about their lives on campus. Students Shelly Gupta and Rory Mather, both subjects and co-creators of the series, hope the project will encourage students to get to know each other, as we say at Washington University, by name and by story. And not just the stories posted on Instagram or Facebook.

The $2 trillion plan to prop up a pandemic-reeling United States, amid the news that there were 3.3 million unemployment claims lodged in the previous week, is expected to pass the House on March 27. An array of Washington University in St. Louis experts offer perspectives on the plan.