The Government of Business

As global economic shifts continue to impact everything from the stock market to the supermarket, the role governments play in business and finance can change drastically. For Dr. Rob Nash, that intersection] between government and private sector has fueled his research for nearly three decades.

Nash, who came to Wake Forest in 1997 and currently serves as Thomas K. Hearn, Jr., Professor in Finance, has focused much of his work examining the role of governments in the global economy.

“I look at different countries and how they decide the optimal role of the government in their economy,” Nash says. “And it’s fascinating because different countries have different cultures and institutional settings and ways of thinking about the proper role of the government.”

Nash studies these approaches to governmental involvement in the economy not only across the globe, but also through time. He points to major events such as World War II and the financial crisis of 2008, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic, as instances where greater governmental intervention was beneficial. 

But he says that circumstances change, and that evolution of the government’s role figures prominently in his research.

“We’re kind of swinging back and forth around the world in terms of how involved the government is in business,” he says. “It’s clearly not a one-size-fits-all circumstance — the role of government in different countries is contingent on the conditions in that country, the culture and its specific economy.”

Nash translates that research to the classroom in a course that focuses on capitalism and how the government interacts with the economy in a capitalist society.

“I’m able to draw directly from my research over the last 30 years in that class to talk about the role of the government within an economy, be it a capitalist economy or a less-capitalist one,” he says. “We look at how that is determined and the effect of the government’s role in the economy, both the good and bad.”

Nash says one of the benefits of being at Wake Forest is the interconnectivity between disciplines and fellow faculty in the School of Business, who he has collaborated with on several papers. And in the classroom, that synergy creates a richer, more beneficial experience for students.

“I want students to be aware that what they’re learning in my class is not just finance,” Nash says. “You can apply these concepts in any area of business — we want to make sure students see the interconnections between finance and accounting and economics and marketing.”

Nash says one of the most universal of those concepts is financial literacy. And he sees financial literacy as the bedrock of success for his students, no matter their major.

“There are so many ways that we can make people’s lives better when we help them to better understand finance,” he says. “To demystify the idea of finance in my class, I try to boil it down to a few basic concepts that are very intuitive. I tell my students that they already know a lot about finance, they just don’t realize it because they don’t know the frameworks or the vocabulary.”

Nash and his students take those lessons beyond campus, too. For nearly two decades, he and his students have provided financial literacy training for youth in foster care in Forsyth County. The workshops prepare these young people to be successful once they age out of the foster system. Nash says he’s grateful to Wake Forest for the support to continue doing this important work.

“One of the things that I found most rewarding about being here, one of the reasons why I’m still here, is that the university supported me in doing financial literacy work within the community,” he says. “We live the Pro Humanitate motto, and contributing to that has been a fantastic opportunity for me and something that I feel really blessed to be able to do.”

Dr. Rob Nash

Thomas K. Hearn, Jr. Professor in Finance; Research Affiliate & Advisor, Center for the Study of Capitalism

(336) 758-4166 |

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