Google AdSense

You might notice that I've had ads on this blog for a while now. Lest you think I'm hoping to use the earnings from this blog to retire early, be advised that so far I've made $0.53. That's from almost 2,000 "page impressions" and exactly one "click." You have to get $10 in earnings to get a check, so I anticipate getting a check from Google in about, oh, seven years. I promise I'll send any earnings to charity; this blog is a public service project not a business plan. I mostly signed up for the ads because there's a lot of interest among economists in how the auctions for these ads are done, and I wanted to see how they work. My OIS colleague Vandana Ramachandran is doing some interesting work along these lines.

(I think the Google AdSense terms-of-service requires that I NOT encourage readers to click ads. So don't!)

Anyway, imagine my surprise when I noticed that ads for Westminster College's business programs popped up. I guess I write about business and education and Utah, so their algorithm is just giving people what it thinks they want.

Now, I'm not going to tell you not to go to Westminster to get an MBA; everyone should pick the program that's right for him or her.

But don't go there thinking you're getting something similar to what you'd get at the U of Utah.

What's the difference? Faculty.

At Utah, our faculty are leading researchers in our fields. Just a snippet (and apologies for not mentioning everyone): Hank Bessembinder is one the world leaders in understanding how specific details of the trading process affects prices in financial markets. Mike Lemmon is a top guy (again, worldwide) in studying the financial structure of firms. Mike Cooper just spent a leave-of-absence helping a large bank run a hedge fund --- he's one of the top guys in that area. Rachel Hayes is a leader in studying how accounting information is used in CEO compensation contracts. David and Marlene Plumlee spent a year recently at the SEC, helping regulators there understand how investors use financial statement information. Christine Botoson is a leader in advising accounting standard-setters, and has worked extensively with the FASB. And that's just in our finance and accounting departments; I could go on and on.

For proof, scroll down the list of Utah faculty... and enter our names into Google Scholar. Look for papers we've written, and check the "Cited by" numbers. A "cite" is when a professor at another university builds on our ideas --- and includes a reference to our work in their bibliography. High cites mean high impact.

The Eccles School has literally dozens of professors who are who are actively shaping how faculty across the world think about their subjects. This just isn't an imperative for Westminster faculty, like it is for ours.

And so what, you ask? If the Westminster faculty isn't spending all their time doing that publishing in academic journals, won't they be better teachers?

Actually, no.

The reason is that "management" isn't a completely solved problem. Business schools don't know the answers to all the questions. There are textbooks, of course, but there are lots of really important questions that the textbooks are just silent on. At Utah, faculty are actively working on filling in those gaps. When those questions come up in the classroom, we'll have better answers. We'll have ways to help you think through those issues. We'll be able to help you avoid the common pitfalls. When the answers are developed, you'll have connections to our faculty and alumni network, to help you make use of the answers in your career.

Teaching and research are complements, because being at the forefront of research in your field forces you to be better informed as a teacher.

And that's the difference you get at Utah.