William C. Wood

The Stock Market Game: Classroom Use and Strategy

Questions about the costs and benefits of the Stock Market Game are considered, with market and survey evidence used to provide guidance to educators considering whether and how to play the game in the classroom.

Safety at the Racetrack: Results of Restrictor Plates in Superspeedway Competition

In 1988, in an effort to reduce risks at auto races, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) implemented a provision requiring the installation of carburetor restrictor plates at its higher speed events. Restrictor plates make a cars engine less effective, thereby slowing the field. Many NASCAR drivers and fans alike question whether the reduction in speed has led to increased safety. This article investigates the empirical determinants of racetrack safety, paying particular attention to the results of restrictor-plate racing on driver safety. We conclude that whereas restrictor-plate races are characterized by more cars being wrecked, there is no systematic evidence that they have led to more driver injuries.

The Educational Potential of News Coverage of Economics.

The author presents a somewhat disturbing view of current news coverage of economic events, attempts to explain why news coverage may be biased, and suggests possible strategies economists and economic educators might adopt to bring about improvement.

An Investigation of U.S. Undergraduate Business School Rankings Using Data Envelopment Analysis with Value-Added Performance Indicators.

Bloomberg Businessweek ranks U.S. undergraduate business programs annually. These rankings provide a convenient overall measure of quality, which is important in todays environment of concern about higher education costs and employment after graduation. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has advantages over previous regression approaches in characterizing value added. The authors use a DEA approach to estimate relative efficiencies based on starting salaries and recruiter surveys, identifying some schools as overachievers relative to their Bloomberg Businessweek rankings. In particular, DEA-based reranking highlights the ability of some public institutions facing high student–faculty ratios to turn out well-regarded graduates with high starting salaries.

Value-Added Adjustment in Undergraduate Business School Ranking.

In 2006, Business Week issued a highly publicized ranking of undergraduate business schools (Lavelle, 2006). Although the ranking provided useful measures of quality, the high rank of some schools was partly due to the quality of incoming students and educational resources rather than the ability of the school to add value. In this article, the authors derive a statistical frontier with alternative reranking of schools on the basis of value added. The authors ranked some schools high according to both measures, but other schools experienced a major increase in rank when the value-added adjustment was applied. The authors discussed implications for students, parents, and business schools.

Principles Course Assessment, Accreditation, and the Depreciation of Economic Knowledge

In this article, the authors report on the results of an assessment of economic knowledge among students who are entering upper level business study. Using the standardized Test of Understanding of College Economics, they found small but statistically significant effects of economic knowledge in upper level business grades. The standardized test score proved to be a statistically significant predictor even when extensive variables from student records were added to the predicting equation. However, the authors show that the standardized test score is not likely to be a cost-effective supplement for admissions decisions to upper level business study.

Linked Multiple-Choice Questions: The Tradeoff between Measurement Accuracy and Grading Time.

Abstract Business faculty face a tradeoff between accuracy of measurement and grading time. Simple true/false and multiple-choice questions are quickly graded but may be less accurate in measuring learning than free-response questions. This article proposes a hybrid test question format, “linked multiple choice,” that combines the testing power of free-response questions and the efficient grading of multiple-choice questions. It also provides examples from six business disciplines, discusses implementation issues, and reports on the results of trials of the technique in two classes.

Social Responsibility and Corporate Profits: The Expense Preference Approach

Abstract This article provides a framework for analyzing and understanding conflicting normative views on the social responsibility of business executives. A model of executive preferences toward profit and socially responsible acts is used for distinguishing three schools of thought commonly explored in management education. We also use this framework to examine methods of promoting socially responsible actions. The methods evaluated include consumer action for social responsiblity, management education, and tax policy.

Student vs. faculty perspectives on quality instruction: Gender bias, “hotness,” and “easiness” in evaluating teaching

ABSTRACT This article systematically examines differences between student and faculty perspectives on quality instruction, using local data for a regional universitys college of business matched to RateMyProfessors.com evaluations. Particular attention is focused on gender bias, “hotness,” and “easiness.” In addition to documenting a student bias or preference in favor of male faculty, this article also shows how students and faculty have different views of “easiness” and “hotness.” For this college, students value “easiness” while faculty penalize it; however “hotness” has no measurable effect on faculty in this study.

Offsetting behavior and adaptation: How students respond to hard professors

Abstract Do students engage in offsetting behavior, adapting their study effort to the difficulty of learning? The authors present the results of survey research intended to test for the presence of offsetting behavior at a regional university. Instead of trying to determine whether students study less when learning is easier, we check to see whether students study more when learning is harder. Our results strongly indicate the presence of offsetting behavior, though the incidence of the effect varies systematically by gender, year in school, and major. The authors conclude with a discussion of implications for business educators.