Knowledge at Wharton

The controversy over carbon emissions is just one of several surrounding ExxonMobil -- a list that includes gasoline prices surging towards $4 a gallon the company’s push for expanded oil exploration and drilling and its high-profile war of wills with the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. Yet during a presentation as part of the Wharton Leadership Lecture series Donald D. Humphreys senior vice president and treasurer of the Irving Texas-based behemoth set out to erase what he said are widely held misconceptions about the powerful company that traces its roots back to the 19th century and John D. Rockefeller.

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Fashionable clothes jewelry flashy cars.... They are all items of conspicuous consumption that give their owners status on the street. Some groups such as blacks and Hispanics seem to spend more on such emblems of success than others. Or is that just a stereotype? In a new research paper Wharton finance professor Nikolai Roussanov and two co-authors found some truth to the ethnic stereotypes on spending but concluded that the explanation lies in economics not culture.

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For many of the world’s richest families SFOs -- Single Family Offices -- play an essential role in their investment strategy. SFOs manage the family financial portfolio and often provide other services such as handling children’s college applications or managing the family fleet of jets. Up until now however little has been known about these powerful entities. Yet new Wharton research shows that they play an important role in managing major investment portfolios guiding significant philanthropic endeavors and maintaining a core set of values across generations of extremely wealthy families.

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The economy seems to be sinking toward recession with new home sales at their lowest since the early 1990s. At the same time inflation is picking up. Some Americans are paying $4 for a gallon of gas and coming home from the supermarket with sticker shock. Today the Fed deemed recession the bigger worry and cut short-term interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point from 2.25% to 2%. Was this the right choice? How will it affect the financial markets? Should investors bet on a stock market rebound or hide on the sidelines? Knowledge at Wharton put these questions to Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel author of The Future for Investors.

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Richard Fain is chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises the Miami-based global cruise company that operates 36 ships under the Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International brands among others. He joined the company in 1981 as an outside director and became chairman and CEO in 1988. He spent 13 years before that at Gotass-Larsen Shipping Corp. a London-based owner and operator of cargo ships. Knowledge at Wharton asked him to update us on the cruise business.

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Call it a gold rush of sorts. Gold topped out at more than $1 000 an ounce in mid-March up from about $680 a year ago. Although it dipped to just under $900 late in April it has had a tremendous run up from $350 five years ago. What has driven these price gains? What does gold tell us about the economy’s future? Should ordinary investors buy it? Knowledge at Wharton talks to the experts.

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Is selling police equipment to a notoriously brutal government tantamount to assisting in torture? William Schulz believes that it can be and that these types of sales are one of the principal ways in which businesses find themselves tangled up with torturers. During a presentation sponsored by Wharton’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research Schulz former executive director of Amnesty International and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress spoke about the challenges that companies face doing business with repressive governments.

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While China’s manufacturing sector booms and people sock away money in savings accounts the country’s financial markets remain in their infancy according to international finance experts who gathered at the recent 2008 Wharton China Business Conference. One reason for the relative underdevelopment of China’s capital markets they note is the role of the country’s powerful central government. ”Regulators are not comfortable letting the market do its own work ” noted one conference participant.

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A thorny question lies at the heart of meaningful health care reform. How much is human life worth? New Wharton research based on Medicare kidney dialysis data shows that the average figure -- $129 090 per additional year of quality life -- is higher than prior studies have shown. Perhaps more important the study also puts a value on the cost-effectiveness of treatment across percentiles of the entire dialysis population in an attempt to develop a benchmark for coverage decisions. Chris P. Lee a Wharton professor of operations and information management co-authored the paper titled ”An Empiric Estimate of the Value of Life: Updating the Renal Dialysis Cost-effectiveness Standard.”

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Condos in Miami traditional music stores gas-guzzling cars pharmaceuticals that get unfavorable press foods made with trans fats: All marketers from time to time confront products that for whatever reason become difficult to sell. What strategies should companies follow to reposition their products in ways that might attract new audiences or at least retain existing ones? One answer: segmenting. ”There are so many different kinds of customers out there. You just need to find them ” says one Wharton expert.

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