News Room

Financial education courses are easy to find online, along with countless podcasts, webinars and videos from people who say they understand your financial stress and how to get out of it. Success stories are also easy to find, as any program would want to amplify those, but the aggregate picture appears bleak. Numerous studies seem to show financial literacy programs just don’t work, where almost every measure of what it means to “work” comes down to changing behavior.

First impressions count, as any job seeker knows. New research now shows that such early appraisals can shape your career for years, long after they stop being valid. Marshall Vance, assistant professor of accounting and information systems in the Pamplin College of Business, co-authored the study, “Do first impressions last? The impact of initial assessments and subsequent performance on promotion decisions,” with Dirk Black, of the University of Nebraska. Their study is forthcoming in the journal Management Science. 

Surges of new infections in Florida, California, Texas, Arizona and other Southern states are prompting some governors to threaten shutting down their states again. Images of people crowded into restaurants and sunbathing on beaches not wearing face masks is disquieting to many. Will such behavior bring about a tsunami of hospitalizations and deaths like what New York experienced in April?

On this week's episode, we examine the economic blow of students leaving college towns and the health risks associated with their planned return.