Teaching Managerial Economics In MBA Programs: A Survey Of AACSB Colleges

There is a significant variation in the managerial economics course in terms of the prerequisites, contents and delivery in the MBA programs of AACSB institutions. In order to get detailed information on these aspects, we conducted a survey of 275 AACSB institutions and reported the results. Briefly, the survey indicates that majority of the programs require principles of economics and business statistics as prerequisites among other things. Based on the survey results, the paper strongly recommends a two course sequence in economics, an introduction to economics as a prerequisite and a managerial economics course in the core of the MBA program

GMAT And Other Determinants Of GPA In An MBA Program

This paper reports on the influence of waiving the GMAT requirement on academic performance as measured by grade-point-average at graduation for 833 University of Hartford MBA students who graduated between 2003 and 2009. In seeking to better understand what factors might be influencing graduation GPA, we examined a variety of traditional attributes. In addition, we examined the potential influence of GMAT Waivers on graduation GPA because there was some thought that students who waived this test might have lower graduation GPAs than those who took the examination. The results of this study indicated that the most important factor for determining MBA graduation GPA was an individual’s undergraduate GPA, with higher undergraduate GPAs being associated with higher MBA graduation GPAs. Marginally significant differences in graduation GPA were also found based on the number of credits waived at entry into the MBA program, with more credits being waived contributing to a higher graduation GPA. We also found that women graduated with higher GPAs than men. Of particular interest to us in this study, however, was whether or not our GMAT Waiver policy was influencing graduation GPAs. In this case, we found no significant difference in graduation GPA, regardless of whether or not the GMAT requirement was waived. These results were confirmed using chi-square tests and two-sample t-tests. To gain additional insights into these issues, we estimated a regression model to explain graduation GPA using several attributes as independent variables. The regression results indicate that undergraduate GPA and gender seemed to most reliably predict differences in graduation GPA

Enhancing An Undergraduate Business Statistics Course: Linking Teaching And Learning With Assessment Issues

This paper examines several ways in which teaching effectiveness and student learning in an undergraduate Business Statistics course can be enhanced. First, we review some key concepts in Business Statistics that are often challenging to teach and show how using real data sets assist students in developing deeper understanding of the concepts. Second, the paper examines some ways that typical learning issues faced by students taking such a course can be effectively addressed.  Third, the paper describes how assessing what knowledge of statistics is retained after formal coursework is completed can provide both a rich source of feedback to improve Business Statistics courses themselves and to strengthen undergraduate business programs, in general

Corruption and its Alternatives: A Takeoff Theory of Good Governance

Corruption is a function of its return relative to engaging in productive activities. This paper presents an approach for thinking about the institutional features of societies and the resulting amount of corruption. The empirical results suggest that political competition is more important than competition in information-producing industries. The rent-seeking view of the relation between government and corruption is rejected in favor of the Becker (1983) model of political competition. The paper suggests that societies that continually stay open to productivity-enhancing activities will eventually enter a takeoff stage of anti-corruption efforts analogous to the eventual improvement in income distribution that occurs in successful industrialization

Asymmetries in the conditional relation of government expenditure and economic growth

Previous studies on the relationship between government expenditure and economic growth have, invariably, aggregated periods of strong and weak GDP growth and reported a single government expenditure response coefficient estimate. We argue that traditional test specifications of this relationship suffer from aggregation (or omitted variables) biases by failing to distinguish between diverse economic growth experiences and their impact on government expenditure. We reexamine the evidence concerning Wagner's Law using a proposed conditional test specification that is capable of: (a) separating periods of strong and weak economic growth, (b) accommodating possible asymmetries in the marginal responses of government expenditure to variations in economic growth and (c) distinguishing between positive and negative asymmetries in such responses. We present evidence showing that: (a) the majority of government expenditure responses tend to occur during periods of an economic slowdown characterized by GDP growth that is below trend-growth; and (b) there is little evidence suggesting that government expenditure increases markedly during periods of an economic expansion when GDP growth is at/above trend-growth. Results from several tests of hypotheses also corroborate these findings. When we aggregate response coefficients across periods of above trend-growth and below trend-growth, we obtain an elastic aggregate response coefficient for OECD countries in line with Wagner's proposition. However, the evidence seems less forthcoming for EU economies. Nonetheless, the estimated cumulative response coefficient from our conditional asymmetric specification exceeds the estimated response coefficient from a traditional symmetric test specification which appears biased against finding support for Wagner's proposition due to omission of important directional asymmetry variables from the estimating equation.

The Budget Deficit Debate: A Review And Further Analysis

This article presents a review of the results of some recent econometric studies, including our own, on the controversial issue regarding the budget deficit-interest rate relationship.  The conclusions reached by the authors of these studies are mixed and sometimes contradictory.  Differences in data bases, model specification, sample used, and variable definitions are some possible reasons for these varying conclusions

Government expenditure and economic growth: evidence from G7 countries

This paper examines Wagner's Law of Public Expenditure, which emphasizes economic growth as the fundamental determinant of public sector growth, using time series data drawn from the G7 industrialized countries over the sample period 1960 1993. It presents evidence on both the short- and long-run effects of growth in national income on government expenditure by resorting to recent developments in the theory of cointegrated processes. An attempt is also made in this study to examine if Wagner's Law holds between certain key components of government expenditure and income.

Social Security and Household Wealth Accumulation: Refined Microeconometric Evidence.

This study examines the relationship between social security wealth and fungible wealth using relatively recent micro data. The authors find that a ceteris paribus increase in social security wealth has no effect on fungible wealth, suggesting that Ricardian equivalence holds. Of the individual wealth categories comprising fungible wealth, only pension wealth is negatively and significantly affected by an increase in social security wealth and, if some of this pension wealth is not fully funded, Ricardian equivalence will not hold. The authors conclude, therefore, that the social security system might adversely affect capital accumulation but not necessarily to the degree suggested by others. Copyright 1993 by MIT Press.