New Location for North Georgia MBA

Dear readers,

This blog has moved to University's official blogging platform. Please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds to our new home at http://blog.northgeorgia.edu/mba/.

Also, the MBA offices have moved from the Cumming Graduate Center to the new University Center | GA 400. We can be reached at:

300 Aquatic Circle
Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 205-5448
mba@northgeorgia.edu

Sincerely,

MBA Admin Team
Mike Cottrell School of Business
North Georgia College & State University

Learn Teamwork on the Ropes

Last weekend our 2013 cohort took a trip to NGCSU's Dean Hyams Leadership Center & Ropes Course at Pine Valley for several exercises in teamwork and leadership.

MBA Economics Professor Publishes Research via ESPN

Dr. Joel Potter's research was
featured in ESPN The Magazine.

Research by Dr. Joel Potter, economics professor in the university's Mike Cottrell School of Business, has been featured in recent news that examined new safety regulations in the NFL. Potter's research, featured in ESPN The Magazine in October, noted that new safety regulations being imposed in Formula One racing to limit injury might actually lead to more injuries.

The phenomenon is known as risk compensation-where individuals engage in riskier behavior due to the addition of rules or equipment designed to protect them. Potter became interested in this after reading a paper published in 1975, in which Sam Peltzman wrote that although safety regulations have improved the safety of cars, drivers have offset it by taking greater risks.

Potter's research centered on Formula One racing-a dangerous sport involving very high speeds and asymmetrical tracks. He proved that as Formula One cars became safer, death rates dropped-yet the rate of accidents increased. His paper was published in the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports.

Still focused on the impact of incentives on human behavior, Potter is now working on a study involving the three-point competition in the NBA. In this competition players shoot a number of balls from the three-point line-and there are some balls of a special color that are worth double the points of a standard ball.

"Standard economic theory holds that players will perform better with the 'bonus' balls because they know them to be more important," Potter said. "But so far, there has been a statistically significant difference showing that players actually do worse on the bonus balls." He added that he has been pleased to do this research because it is "a more controlled test of incentive. This is the first study looking at professionals doing what they do best."

Although Potter clearly enjoys his research, he maintains that it holds more importance than his own interest. "I do feel it's important for professors to conduct their own research," he said. "When we are part of the learning process it makes it much easier to relate to students, and the students are more responsive to the subject when they know you are involved with research in the field."

Reposted from North Georgia News