Dr. Z's Beat the Racetrack

William T. Ziemba is professor of management science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is an expert in operations research and portfolio management and has served as consultant to the Canadian government on lotteries and pari-mutuel betting systems. Donald B. Hausch has a doctorate in managerial economics and decision sciences from Northwestern University, and is currently teaching in the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Hausch has co-authored two books and two edited volumes, and written numerous articles that have been published in the American Economic Review, Review of Financial Studies, International Economic Review, Management Science, Journal of Business, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Economic Theory, RAND Journal of Economics, and other journals. He was an associate editor of Management Science for 10 year. He has consulted for the World Bank on the resolution of systemic financial distress, and he received a Vilas Research Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research has explored the game-theoretic analysis of auctions and competitive bidding, with a special focus on information acquired prior to and discerned through the auction process itself. He also has researched bankruptcy reorganization and financial restructuring through negotiations and security design, the design of contracts and their ability to achieve efficient trade outcomes, and an empirical investigation of market inefficiency.