Assignment:
Course Description
This course applies economic concepts to make management decisions. Students employ the concepts of scare resources and opportunity costs to perform economic analysis. Other topics include supply and demand, profit maximization, market structure, macroeconomic measurement, money, trade, and foreign exchange.
Course Topics & Objectives
Week One: The Basic Concepts for Economic Reasoning
• Analyze how economics explores the use of scarce resources and forces choice among alternatives.
• Explain the economizing problem and the models used in economics.
• Analyze how the laws of supply and demand determine equilibrium price and quantity.
Week Two: Cost Concepts & Profit Maximization
• Differentiate the costs of production in a firm.
• Explain profit maximization principles in a purely competitive market.
• Apply incremental cost and contribution analysis to make a business decision.
Week Three: Market Structure & Strategic Choice
• Differentiate among the pure competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly market models.
• Describe pricing and non-pricing strategies in monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly market models.
• Describe the role of technology, R&D, and efficiency within the market models.
Week Four: Macroeconomic Measurement & Basic Concepts
• Explain the concepts and measurement of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• Analyze the trends and cycles of real GDP growth in business cycle.
• Analyze the causes and remedies of unemployment and inflation.
• Analyze the basic macroeconomic relationships.
Week Five: Money, Creation & Control and Monetary Policy
• Explain the concepts of money and interest rates.
• Explain how banks create money.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the central banks monetary policy in stabilizing the economy.
Week Six: Global Context: Business Beyond National Borders
• Explain the concept of comparative advantage and its recommendation for specialization.
• Explain the effects of barriers to free trade and the reasons countries impose them.
• Explain how the foreign exchange market works and how exchange rate risk is managed.
Course Materials
McConnell, C. R. & Brue, S. L. (2004). Economics: Principles, problems, and policies (16th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.
Pugel, T. A. (2007) International Economics (13th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.