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Survey responses from 204 of 500 business schools identified most often topics in business statistics I and II courses. The most popular software at both levels was Minitab. Most schools required both statistics I and II. (SK)

Describes graphical techniques to help explain the multiple creation of deposits that accompany lending in a fractional reserve banking system. Presents a model that emphasizes the banking system, the interaction of total permitted, required, and excess reserves and deposits. Argues that the approach simplifies information to examining a slope line rather than solving a geometric progression. (DK)

The first few days of every year are usually characterized by apparently abnormal returns in stock markets, with small, low-priced stocks appreciating significantly more than other stocks. The appreciation is called excess return because it is significantly positive even after adjustment is made for the higher volatility of the stocks. The excess return yields gains which are large enough to be responsible for most of the gains in the entire calendar year. As this phenomenon occurs in the first month of the year, it has been called the January Effect. The Intergenerational Transfer Hypothesis explains the january effect in terms of the transfer of wealth from older to younger investors during the Christmas gift-giving season. Older investors sell their preferred assets, which are then purchased by younger investors. Markets in low-priced, small-growth companies are thin and hedging opportunities are few. Thus, purchases of these stocks push their prices up.

Points out that, although the analysis of the imposition of an excise tax is widely used in economics courses, the consequences of a change in the tax rate are different and ignored. This article presents an effective way to teach about such a change. (GG)

When demand is linear, and supply is perfectly elastic, tax revenue is maximized at a per-unit tax that causes demand elasticity to increase to twice its initial value, plus one. This is termed the 2+1 rule. This paper shows that the 2+1 rule also applies to classes of nonlinear demand functions, thus justifying the assumption of demand-function linearity for tax-revenue maximization in these cases. We also demonstrate that while optimal tax revenue and price elasticity of demand are inversely related, it is not necessarily best from a tax-revenue maximization perspective to tax the lower elasticity good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]