Business & Policy Initiative

Research that drives change.

The Business and Policy Initiative at Simon Business School fosters high-quality research about the interaction of public policy and business strategy.

Supported in part by The Bradley Center, the initiative is a hub for thought leadership on antitrust and merger policy, financial regulation, monetary and fiscal policy, health care policy, and labor market policy. The initiative seeks to inform public policy by promoting dialogue between researchers, policymakers, industry leaders, students, and alumni.

Jeanine Miklos-Thal, Director of the Business and Policy Initiative at Simon Business School, Introduces this new thought leadership initiative

  • Business Policy News Article 1

    Bloomberg Interviews Dean Sevin Yeltekin on Monetary Government Policies and their Impacts on the Economy

    In this Bloomberg radio interview with Dean Sevin Yeltekin she shares her insights on monetary government policies and their impacts on the economy.

    Simon Events
  • Business Policy News Article 2

    Bloomberg QuickTake "Take Stock" Full Show

    Live from New York, this is news for the new media. Watch global stories and go deeper with original shows on business, technology, politics, and culture.

     

    Simon Events

     

  • Business Policy News Article 3

    Why ADP's Job Numbers Are Higher Than Labor Department Report

    ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson explains why there is such a big difference in the numbers. She's on Quicktake with the University of Rochester's Dean Sevin Yeltekin.

     

    Simon Events

     

  • Business Policy News Article 4

    With New OSHA Rules, Expect More High-Paying Jobs to Require Covid-19 Vaccine

    Growing share of open positions publicizing rules for shots signals potential new normal in hiring process, experts say

     

    Simon Events

     

  • Business Policy News Article 5

    CEOs spurn Trump and his allies: How big a blow?

     

    Simon Events

     

Meet the faculty behind the initiative

Lisa Kahn
Lisa Kahn
Professor of Economics

Professor Kahn is the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences and a Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester. Her research focuses on labor economics with interests in organizations and education. Her most recent work examines the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market. In other ongoing work, she evaluates public-private workforce development programs and whether they help to bridge the skills gap. In her previous work, she has examined how the Great Recession accelerated the adoption of labor-replacing technologies, exacerbating polarization of the U.S. economy. In previous work, she examined the consequences of graduating from college in an economic downturn, finding surprisingly long-lasting, negative wage effects. That paper won the award for the best paper published in Labour economics in 2010/11.

She was previously an associate professor of economics at Yale School of Management. From 2010 to 2011 Kahn served on President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers as the senior economist for labor and education policy. She has also been a visiting fellow at Brookings Institution and is currently a Research Associate at NBER and an IZA Research Fellow. She is currently on the executive board for the Society of Labor Economists. She holds an A.B. in economics from the University of Chicago (2003) and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University (2008).

Jeanine Miklos-Thal
Professor

Professor Miklós-Thal holds a PhD in economics from the Toulouse School of Economics, France. Prior to joining the Simon School in 2009, she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Mannheim, Germany, and a visiting scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Miklós-Thal currently serves as a Co-Editor of the International Journal of Industrial Organization and as an Associate Editor of Management Science.

Christian Opp Faculty
Christian Opp
Associate Professor
Elena Prager
Elena Prager
Assistant Professor

Professor Prager is an empirical economist whose research is in the industrial organization of health care markets and labor markets. Prior to joining the Simon School, Prager was at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

David Primo
David Primo
Professor

David Primo is an expert in American politics, campaign finance law, corporate political strategy, corporate social responsibility, and fiscal policy. He teaches courses in American politics, corporate political strategy, and innovation and global business. Primo is the author or co-author of four books, including the forthcoming "Campaign Finance and American Democracy: What the Public Really Thinks and Why It Matters" and the award-winning "Rules and Restraint: Government Spending and the Design of Institutions". Primo has published his research in leading journals such as the American Journal of Political Science and Strategic Management Journal, and his work has been supported by several organizations including the National Science Foundation.

Greg Shaffer
Professor

Prior to joining the Simon School in 1997, Shaffer taught in the economics departments at Indiana University (Bloomington, Ind.) and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.). He has held an appointment at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and he has been a visiting scholar in the marketing department at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. In addition to his teaching and research duties at the Simon School, Shaffer has an appointment in the School of Management at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK). He is also the founder of the Center for Pricing.

Recent policy research at Simon.

Antitrust and Competition Policy
Health Care Policy
Financial Regulation
Macroeconomic Policy
Labor Market policy
Campaign Finance

 

Upcoming Events

Antitrust Economics & Competition Policy Workshop

AntiTrust Economics & Competition on Policy Workshop
Antitrust Economics & Competition Policy Workshop
-
Simon Business & Policy Initiative Research That Drives Change Schlegel 101/Schlegel 102 As part of the Business & Policy Initiative at Simon Business School, we present the Antitrust Economics & Competition Policy Workshop, featuring presentations by some of the nation’s top minds in business and policy. This two-day event also includes a Roundtable on Algorithmic Pricing and Competition moderated by Jeanine Miklos-Thal, director of the Business & Policy Initiative at Simon Business School.
Joanna Wu and Sudarshan Jarayaman

Research at Simon

Simon Business School is committed to elevating academic research. Our faculty are thought leaders and subject matter experts, producing research that to helps organizations better confront complicated business challenges.

The Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Accounting & Economics, and the Journal of Monetary Economics were all founded at the University of Rochester, and we continue to lead in research. Our renowned faculty have been published in a wide breadth of noteworthy publications, including The NY Times, The Register, Inside Higher Ed, the Journal of Financial Economics, The Economist, and many more.

Faculty & Research

 

From the Dean's Corner

Simon faculty are experts on topics ranging from Artificial Intelligence to cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens. Take a deep dive into their
research and hear firsthand insights from subject matter experts in the Dean’s Corner.

Inside Business Education at Simon

Regarded as a world leader in quantitative, economics-based education, our analytics-based curriculum prepares students to lead in the global business marketplace. Our curriculum includes a strong focus on public policy and business strategy. 

STR 428

Strategy beyond Markets

STR 428

STR 428

We repeatedly observe top executives caught off-guard when faced with “nonmarket” threats such as proposed government regulations or activist pres- sure. But the concept of strategy beyond markets extends further than reactively responding to threats. Managers also have the opportunity to shape the nonmarket environment in ways that advantage their firm. In this course, we will develop a framework for constructing nonmarket strategies and integrating them with market strategies. We will cover a broad range of topics, including the legislative process, regulation, activism, corporate social responsibility, and crisis management. We will also study the special challenges facing global firms and innovative firms. Class sessions will be highly interactive and will emphasize the real-world applicability of the frame-works and theories we discuss in class.

BPP 426 Macroeconomics

BPP 426

Macroeconomics is the study of how economies grow and fluctuate over time, and how they interact with one another. In this course, we discuss economic measurement, economic growth, and the business cycle. We also discuss the implication of modern theories of growth and fluctuation for the conduct of monetary policy and fiscal policy. There is a strong emphasis on the international linkage among economies and the implications of macroeconomics for the business environment.

GBA 441 Business Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibilities

GBA 441

This course deals with business ethics and the social responsibility of business organizations. Through class discussions and case studies, students explore the theory and practice of business ethics and develop their ability to recognize and address ethical issues. The course equips students with analytical skills in ethical reasoning and provides them with a substantive framework to deal with ethical challenges they are likely to encounter in their careers. Topics include corporate responsibilities vis-à-vis employees, customers, and society; insider trading; discrimination in employment and in the sharing economy; advertising and sales tactics; ethics in pricing; bribery; executive pay; intellectual property in the pharmaceutical industry; censorship; health care resource allocation; and environmental responsibilities.

BPP 432 Basic Business Law

BPP 432

This course surveys the law of contracts, agency, and business associations – with the objective of developing familiarity with selected laws, regulations, legal principles, and legal processes that govern (a) efficient exchange, generally; and (b) how and in what ways managers and entrepreneurs organize and interact to facilitate exchange. Although emphasis will be on United States law, there will be selected reference throughout the course to issues related to international transactions and to pertinent differences in legal systems of countries outside the United States. The course has a distinct transactional focus, with heavy reliance upon contemporary cases, commercial practices, and issues. Particular attention will be given to the impact of the legal framework upon sound managerial decision-making, business risk management, commercial rights and responsibilities, and ultimately business valuation.

GBA 444 Ethics & Policy in Tech

GBA 444

Tech firms—from start-ups to industry leaders—face a range of ethical and policy challenges. Start-ups may face barriers to entry or regulations ill-suited to their innovation. Industry leaders have to consider antitrust considerations if they dominate a market. And tech firms of all sizes face ethical quandaries on issues such as artificial intelligence, to give just one example. The globalization of business adds to the complexity of these policy and ethical considerations. This course will equip you with the tools you need to consider the policy and ethical environments of tech firms and how they connect with firms’ market environments. The tools you develop in the course will also be applicable to the analysis of other types of firms. Class sessions will be highly interactive and will emphasize the real-world applicability of the frameworks and theories we discuss in class.

Washington DC Fellowship

Washington DC Fellowship

The Simon DC Fellowship is an annual award given to a Simon Business School student or team to pursue Washington, DC area-based research or a similar project that focuses on the intersection of government and business.

Connect with us

Discover more about the Simon Business Policy Initiative by connecting with our team. Call or email us today. 

Contact Us