Olin Business School

Nicholas Dopuch, a transformational figure in the world of accounting research and professor emeritus at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, died Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. He was 88.

In the first test of detailed consumer-buying habits by categories at more than one chain store selling groceries, a team of business school researchers, led by Washington University in St. Louis, found that shoppers weren’t monogamist or bigamist but rather polygamist in their choice of outlets. In fact, it turns out that grocery categories such as dessert toppings, motor oil, candles and refrigerated ethnic foods were some of the leading products that lure customers to separate stores.

As Americans begin to file their last returns under a fading tax system, as President Donald Trump concludes his first State of the Union with a great emphasis on the economy, as the world watches this country undergo tectonic changes, it’s time to cut through the politicking and positioning. Washington University in St. Louis compiled researchers and experts across campus to attempt to put the new tax reform into perspective, plainly speaking.

It’s curious that we heard very little from the C-Suite in the deliberations leading up to the Dec. 22 signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. What makes this curious is that the goal of the act was to increase GDP growth above 3 percent by stimulating corporate investments to increase productivity, but no one seemed to be asking CEOs whether the tax cut would have that effect.

Overall, aspects of the tax-reform package will reduce the attractiveness of home ownership and mortgages, and it may even adversely affect home prices going forward.

In a research paper set for publication in the journal Behavioral Science & Policy, a team of researchers including two from Washington University in St. Louis demonstrated that — by structuring the messaging in the right way — those taxpayers can be encouraged to save their returns for long-term needs or unforeseen emergencies.

Leaders in technology and finance will come together at Olin Business School at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, in the Knight Center for a panel discussion to discuss Blockchain and its role in emerging financial technologies. The event is part of the Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation’s January Operational Excellence Series.

Hillary Anger Elfenbein, an organizational behavior expert, studies emotions in the workplace — how easy they are to miss or misinterpret, and how they impact performance.

Since founding Student Organ Donation Advocates, senior Sara Miller has trained 50 volunteers and hosted 30 events including registration drives, conversations with bioethicists, and panels with medical researchers and with donors. But this fall, she welcomed a very special organ recipient — the schoolteacher who received her big sister’s liver.

Spend $200 on a great Christmas gift at the big box store and get a $50 gift card. Sounds like a great offer. It may, in fact, entice you to spend more than you normally would, warns a marketing expert at Washington University in St. Louis.