A STUDENT ATTITUDE SURVEY. I am once again teaching a junior level course on the economics of public policy and as was the case in the fall 2002 and fall 2003 semester I borrowed two survey questions from the National Association of Scholars. I again modified a couple of the questions from the poll. First, I offered the statement, "Here are several examples of business practices that are generally regarded as good. Which one of these business practices would probably rank as the most important?" This year, 16% (7 of 44 responses) chose "recruiting a diverse workforce in which women and minorities are advanced and promoted." Not much change from the 5 of 35 in 2003 or the 3 of 30 in 2002.

The modal choice was "providing clear and accurate business statements to stockholders and creditors," with seventeen, or 39%, compared with thirteen, or 37.1 percent, in 2003, and half the class a year ago. Enron and World Com fade. Six people chose "minimizing environmental pollution by adopting the latest anti-pollution technology and complying with government regulations," up from three in 2003 but down from the quarter of the class that selected it in 2002.

I wonder if we have an indicator of local conditions. In 2002, one respondent chose "avoiding layoffs by not exporting jobs or moving plants from one area to another." The figure rose to eleven in 2003 and fell to nine, a smaller share of the class this time. Five were not sure.

I also offered the assertion, "The only real difference between executives at Enron and those at most other big companies, is that those at Enron got caught."

Three respondents strongly agreed, 22 (half the class) agreed somewhat, nine disagreed somewhat, five strongly disagreed, and five were not sure. That's not much change from the previous surveys.