Economics is all around

I was reading the blog of my colleague Simon Taylor here at Judge and he posted the link of a spoof video by MBAs in Columbia on how one of the (untold) reasons of doing an MBA maybe to find a rich husband.

Regardless of whether this is true or not, I'm amazed by the number of marriages that year after year. In my PhD cohort of 18 people, we had 2 marriages!

Gary Becker would totally agree.

Here is the video:

History of Corporations

It's been ages since I posted anything. Moving to a new job in a new country while still trying to catchup with my debt to my co-authors is not easy! My apologies to all. Once I'm settled (moving date is August 1st) I hope to get back on track.

In any case, I found this very nice article on the history of corporations that I found very interesting.

More and more I believe that all MBAs should have a history-cum-law course. It would probably overlap a lot with Ethics and maybe Strategy courses but I am sometimes amazed by the lack of historical knowledge on previous crises and the inner workings of a modern corporation.

Have a nice summer!

MBA Rankings

I love rankings and this post here, by the guy who created the Busines Week one, analyzes the big MBA rankings out there. IESE makes #1 in the Economist ranking, but this seems to be the worst ranked of all.

To be honest, I think IESE has one of the best but not the best MBAs in the world. We have some top-notch departments and a few characteristics that makes us unique in the world.

That said, I believe that the writer has the usual U.S. bias in his analysis, downplaying European schools a bit.

My two cents on this is that the top 3 things are:

1. Salary 2-3 years after graduation (PPP-adjusted)
2. Student diversity (US schools could do better here, IMHO)
3. Faculty commitment (tough to measure but it makes a world of a difference to students)

Any opinions?