Glenn MacDonald

The pandemic spurred an entrepreneurship boom, but do these small businesses have what it takes to survive? Olin Business School’s Glenn MacDonald explains factors to consider in starting and succeeding with a new business.

Three experts from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis weigh in on President Trump’s record, the state of the economy and what to expect from a second Trump term or a Biden administration.

The U.S. Senate, with significant prodding from the Trump administration, is working on a plan to directly provide cash assistance to millions of Americans amid the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts in economics and finance from Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School weigh in on how it could help housing and households and maybe pay some bills — but still not answer the problems at hand.

Olin Business School faculty at Washington University in St. Louis offer perspectives on the economic, financial and everyday business reactions to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Some economic observers continue to warn about signs of a potential U.S. recession. Glenn MacDonald, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, says many signs aren’t particularly reliable — but keep an eye on housing starts.

Washington University in St. Louis experts from all corners of academia long have been studying climate change in the context of their own fields. Here is a sampling of their perspectives on the National Climate Assessment released Nov. 23.

American Airlines’ plan to lay off more than 13,000 employees and eliminate all four of its pension plans as part of its bankruptcy reorganization could eventually spell the end of the airline and leave its pilots with dramatically reduced pensions, say two experts at Washington University in St. Louis.

The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is merely an attempt to shore up a dying and inefficient business model, grafted onto an attempt to control the Internet, says an expert on the business of entertainment at Washington University in St. Louis.

Should movies and television shows be free on the Internet? Which business models will benefit artists, producers and distributors? Questions such as these are being pondered in a popular course at Olin Business School, “The Economics of Entertainment.” Industry executives visit the class to provide corporate insights about the challenges facing film and music makers in the Internet age.

American companies continue to grapple with staying competitive in the global economy. Increasingly, companies and business gurus are citing innovation as the key to sustaining American business’ strength. What’s not clear is what it means for a company to be innovative. Washington University business professors say the best way to infuse innovation into a company is not by hiring creative people, but by managing innovation in a systematic way. More…

Recovering from a recession doesn’t include the entire economy.The “jobless recovery” that befuddled observers after the recession in the early 2000s was no fluke. It’s actually a pattern that we can expect to continue thanks to technology’s uneven impact across sectors of the economy. What’s more, this new trend in business cycles is as important in making policy decisions as it is in ensuring the stability of the country’s economy. More…

Businesses today are turning to quantifiable analysis to map strategies. According to a professor at the Olin School of Business, companies can address specific problems in a scientific way by using basic principals of game theory.

MacDonaldShaken by numerous accounting-related scandals in recent years, some investors are clamoring for better legal protection for their investments. But does investor protection through government regulation foster economic growth? To assess the widely-held view that it does, WUSTL economics professor Glenn MacDonald and two colleagues have completed a study concluding that the positive effect of investor protection on economic growth is stronger for countries with fewer restrictions on international capital flows.

MacDonaldIt is no secret that advances in technology can greatly impact the value of workers’ skills. Older workers often find the updating of complex technology uneconomic, while younger workers acquire and readily employ skills tailored to the newest technology. The result: the latter group’s productivity rises, diminishing the value of output produced by their older counterparts. A recently published study by Glenn MacDonald, Washington University’s John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy, is the first to model and explain the nature and severity of this effect.