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Tipping Points

Tipping Points

Here’s a tip for New York City taxi drivers seeking bigger tips: Pick up tourists. Adam Nowak, associate professor of economics, and Amir B. Ferreira Neto, ’19, PhD Economics, studied data on yellow taxis in the Big Apple to see if tourists tipped more than locals. They do. Furthermore, theatergoers tip more than non-theatergoers, based on their findings that zeroed-in on drop-offs and pickups near Broadway. These differences between tourists and locals may affect the allocation of taxis throughout the city, conclude Nowak, Neto and Amanda Ross, of the University of Alabama.

Business Butterfly Effect

What happens to small businesses when big retailers shut down?

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Something in the Air

A paper coauthored by Economics Professors Brad Humphreys and Jane Ruseski has been chosen by its journal of publication, Sports Economic Review, as its best paper of the year. Their research suggests that cities with professional sports teams bear increased flu mortality rates. Read the paper on Sports Economic Review.

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First Pitch

Supported by Silicon Valley CEO Ray Zinn, the first ZinnStarter Pitch Competition, hosted by the LaunchLab, gave aspiring collegiate entrepreneurs an opportunity to win cash to build their ideas into the next groundbreaking product or business. Winners included: First place ($2,500): Emma Adams, WVU animal and nutritional sciences major, and her business idea PetRecord, which provides universal medical records for pets in emergency situations; second place ($1,500): Cameron Keefe, global supply chain management major, and her idea ThermoRoller, which combines physical massage with temperature control to relieve sore muscle pain; and third place ($1,000) to the team of Austin Davis, Anne Byer and Emily Thomas, from the University of Charleston, and their idea Second Chance, a program that helps give active control back to people with quadriplegia and paraplegia. 

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A River Runs Through Wall Street

Chambers College alumnus Michael Shalhoup was recently profiled in Forbes for his work in the field of wealth management. This proud West Virginian and avid fly fisherman has emerged as a prominent figure in the finance industry, overseeing more than $1.7 billion in assets at Merrill Lynch. 

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Clothes-Minded

“The future is unpredictable so I focus on the ‘how’ and not the ‘what.'’”

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