RESEARCH Business 2000 2001 2002

TOPICS: Economy | Government | Illinois | Industry | Labor

ECONOMY
Credit: Because most consumers don't know how credit-card companies calculate payment schedules, the industry should be required to disclose such information, a legal scholar says. (9/1/02)

Illinois Economy: With Illinois facing a growing budget deficit, the governor and Legislature should agree to a temporary income-tax hike until the crisis passes, a scholar says. (6/1/02)

Accounting: As the audit lost stature within public accounting firms, they became obsessed with cross-selling services to clients, thereby giving rise to conflicts of interest, a scholar says. (5/1/02)

Consumer Attitudes: Customer preferences are based less on satisfaction with a service than with the expected future use of that service, a survey conducted by a marketing professor shows. (3/1/02)

Illinois Economy: The shortfall in Illinois tax revenues Ð which has caused Gov. George Ryan to call for $500 million in budget cuts Ð was apparent long before Sept. 11, two economists say. (2/1/02)

GOVERNMENT
Child Welfare: Kinship care – a living arrangement in which a grandparent or other relatives raise a child – should get more governmental support, an expert says. (11/1/02)

Tax Law: Ending the estate tax last year became a paramount issue in Washington but "distracted attention from issues that are far more pressing for older Americans," a scholar says. (11/1/02)

Gambling: Failure to curb school sports betting spells trouble for youth, expert says With efforts to curb college sports gambling blocked by congressional opponents, a generation of young people may be entering the workforce with gambling debts and addictions, a scholar says. (7/1/02)

Elder Care: To help people cope with increasing long-term care costs, Medicare should pay all nursing-home costs and private long-term care insurance should be improved, an expert says. (6/1/02)

Illinois Economy: With Illinois facing a growing budget deficit, the governor and Legislature should agree to a temporary income-tax hike until the crisis passes, a scholar says. (6/1/02)

Condominiums: The increase in condominium housing raises questions about the prevailing law that gives condo associations wide latitude in controlling the behavior of its members. (5/1/02)

O'Hare Expansion: Proposed federal legislation to give Chicago the OK to proceed with a $6.6 billion expansion of O'Hare International Airport is unconstitutional, a legal scholar says. (4/1/02)

Congress: Bankruptcy reform legislation under consideration by a congressional committee is biased against poor and middle-class families, an expert on bankruptcy law says. (3/1/02)

Crisis Communication: A study of how Germans and the Dutch responded to the mad cow crisis indicates the importance of honest communications from governmental agencies. (3/1/02)

Welfare Reform: A new study of single mothers in inner-city Chicago indicates that many of those who left the welfare rolls were not much better off for having found work. (3/1/02)

Illinois Data: The 2001 Illinois Statistical Abstract, including the most complete economic and demographic data on the state, is available from the UI Bureau of Economic and Business Research. (2/1/02)

ILLINOIS
Chicago: Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s zeal to challenge commercial property owners who win reductions in property-tax assessments could come back and injure the city, a tax expert says. (10/1/02)

Illinois Economy: With Illinois facing a growing budget deficit, the governor and Legislature should agree to a temporary income-tax hike until the crisis passes, a scholar says. Older Americans (6/1/02)

Illinois Economy: The shortfall in Illinois tax revenues -- which has caused Gov. George Ryan to call for $500 million in budget cuts -- was apparent long before Sept. 11, two economists say. (2/1/02)

Illinois Data: The 2001 Illinois Statistical Abstract, including the most complete economic and demographic data on the state, is available from the UI Bureau of Economic and Business Research. (2/1/02)

INDUSTRY
Corporate Governance: Ethics rules for corporate lawyers should be broadened by the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its mandate to reform corporate practice. (10/1/02)

Management: With corporate wrongdoing in the news, the push is on to make boards of directors more independent, but such boards donÕt improve a firmÕs performance, a scholar says. (9/1/02)

Executive Fraud: A six-year campaign by a University of Illinois law professor to hold lawyers accountable for preventing executive wrongdoing has led to tough federal requirements. (9/1/02)

Restaurant: Creatively named menu items sell better, researchers show "Succulent," "legendary," "hearty wholesome" and other words that evoke favorable associations with food can boost restaurant sales, two university researchers have found. (7/1/02)

Construction Methods: Incorporating environmentally sound products in the construction of buildings does not necessarily mean higher costs, a UI research specialist says. (4/1/02)

Industrial Design: UI industrial design students are teaming with engineers and other specialists to provide corporate partners with solutions to product-development challenges. (4/1/02)

Accounting: In a prescient 1987 article, a University of Illinois scholar warned that coziness between auditors and managers was distorting the "core standards" of big accounting firms. (4/1/02)

Crisis Communication: A study of how Germans and the Dutch responded to the mad cow crisis indicates the importance of honest communications from governmental agencies. (3/1/02)

Wall Street: An economist who studied company forecasts says the odds are significantly higher for a company to beat the consensus forecast if it's lowered two weeks prior to the announcement. (2/1/02)

LABOR
Labor Relations: The Taft-Hartley Act, which President Bush invoked to open West Coast docks following a labor dispute, is not "the panacea most people think it is," a scholar says. (11/1/02)

Employment Law: Sanctioned by a 1991 Supreme Court decision, alternative dispute resolution has been hailed -- and denounced -- as the number of workers covered by it has risen. (4/1/02)

Labor Law: A lack of wide interest among employers to share power with workers is among the factors that raise the prospect of class-action lawsuits, a University of Illinois scholar says. (3/1/02)

Privacy: A UI privacy expert says that though employers have concerns about employee behavior, the consequences of monitoring their Internet habits must be weighed. (2/1/02)