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    Microeconomics for MBAs : the economic way of thinking for managers / Richard B. McKenzie, Dwight R. Lee.

    • Title:Microeconomics for MBAs : the economic way of thinking for managers / Richard B. McKenzie, Dwight R. Lee.
    •    
    • Author/Creator:McKenzie, Richard B., author.
    • Other Contributors/Collections:Lee, Dwight R.
    • Published/Created:New York : Cambridge University Press, 2017.
    • Holdings

       
    • Library of Congress Subjects:Microeconomics.
      Managerial economics.
    • Edition:Third edition.
    • Description:xxxvii, 725 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm
    • Summary:"Now in its third edition, this textbook develops the economic way of thinking through problems that MBA students will find relevant to their career goals. Theory and math is kept as simple as possible and illustrated with real-life scenarios. The textbook package includes online video tutorials on key concepts and complex arguments, and topics likely to be assessed in exams. The distinguished author team has developed this textbook over 20 years of teaching microeconomics to MBA students. Chapters are clearly structured to support learning: Part I of each chapter develops key economic principles. Part II draws on those principles to discuss organizational and incentive issues in management and focuses on solving the 'principal-agent' problem to maximize the profitability of the firm - lessons that can be applied to problems MBA students will face in the future. Economics and management are treated equally; this unique textbook presents economics as part of the everyday thinking of business people"-- Provided by publisher.
      "Almost all (if not all) textbooks used in business students' first course in microeconomics are designed with undergraduate economics majors or first-year PhD students in mind. Accordingly, business students, especially MBA students, are often treated to a course in intermediate microeconomic theory, full of arcane mathematical explanations. The applications in such standard textbooks deal mainly with the impact of social or government policies on markets, with little discussion of how real-world managers can use microeconomics to make better decisions within their firms in response to market forces or how market forces can be expected to affect firms' institutional and financial structures"-- Provided by publisher.
    • Notes:Revised edition of the authors' Microeconomics for MBAs, 2010.
      Includes bibliographical references (pages 676-706) and index.
    • ISBN:9781107139480 (hardback)
      1107139481 (hardback)
    • Contents:Machine generated contents note: 1. Microeconomics: a way of thinking about business
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      emergence of a market
      economic problem
      scope of economics
      Developing and using economic theories
      Microeconomics and macroeconomics
      Private property rights, game theory, and the Prisoner's Dilemma
      Private property rights and the games economists play
      Private property rights and the market
      emergence of private property rights
      Game theory: Prisoner's Dilemmas
      Prisoner's Dilemma solutions: enforcement and trade
      Communal property rights and the "tragedy of the commons"
      Voluntary organizations and firms as solutions for "tragedies of the commons"
      tragedy of the anticommons
      Perspective 1 "I, Pencil," by Leonard E. Read
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      Managing through incentives
      Productivity increases
      growing importance of incentives
      classic Lincoln Electric case study
      Incentives and managed earnings
      Why incentives are important
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
      bottom line
      Review questions
      2. Principles of rational behavior in society and business
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      Rationality: a basis for exploring human behavior
      Rational decisions in a constrained environment
      Maximizing satisfaction; cost benefit analysis
      effects of time and risk on costs and benefits
      What rational behavior does not mean
      Perspective 2 The evolutionary foundations of cooperation
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      logic of group behavior in business and elsewhere
      common-interest logic of group behavior
      economic logic of group behavior
      Overcoming Prisoner's Dilemmas through tough bosses
      Take this job and...
      role of the residual claimant in abating Prisoner's Dilemmas in large groups
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      3. Competitive product markets and firm decisions
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      competitive market process
      Supply and demand: a market model
      Market equilibrium
      efficiency of the competitive market model
      Nonprice competition
      Competitive labor markets
      Perspective 3 Why queues?
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      Making worker wages profitable in competitive markets
      Henry Ford's "overpayment"
      Overpayments to prevent misuse of firm resources
      underpayment and overpayment of workers
      overpayment/underpayment connection
      Mandatory retirement
      role of employers' "credible commitments"
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      4. Applications of the economic way of thinking: domestic government and management policies
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      Who pays the tax?
      Price controls
      California drought and the effects of low and controlled water prices on conservation
      Fringe benefits, incentives, and profits
      Minimum wages
      draft versus the all-volunteer military service
      Perspective 4 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and economists' supply and demand curves, contrasting views on human (and economic) choices
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      How honesty can pay in business
      Game theory, again: games of trust
      Moral hazards and adverse selection
      role of "hostages" in business
      Firm logos
      Storefronts and fixtures
      Firm profitability
      Creation of competition
      Joint ownership
      Guarantees
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      5. Applications of the economic way of thinking: international economics
      Part A International trade theory and public policy applications
      Global economics: international trade
      Aggregate gains from trade
      law of comparative advantage
      distributional effects of trade
      Gains to exporters
      effects of trade restrictions
      Special interests' politics and trade restrictions
      Protection retaliation and trade wars
      Interconnections of comparative advantage
      Trade Authority Bill 2015
      Perspective 5 "A PETITION From the Manufacturers of Candles, ... and Generally of Everything Connected with Lighting," by Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), Sophismes economiques, 1845
      Part B International finance
      process of international monetary exchange
      exchange of national currencies
      Determination of the exchange rate
      Exchange rates and changes in domestic market conditions
      Monetary and fiscal policies
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      6. Applications of the economic way of thinking: environmental economics
      Part A Green economics: external costs and benefits
      Competitive markets and environmental failures
      External costs
      External benefits
      pros and cons of government action
      Methods of reducing externalities
      Choosing the most efficient remedy for reducing external costs of pollution
      Perspective 6 Why walking to work can be more polluting than driving to work
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      consequences of "quicksilver capital" for business and government
      Capital mobility and business competitiveness
      Capital mobility and government competitiveness
      Collective agreement problems in averting global-warming Armageddon
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      7. Consumer choice and demand in traditional and network markets
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      Predicting consumer demand
      Rational consumption: the concept of marginal utility
      Changes in price and the law of demand
      From individual demand to market demand
      Elasticity: consumers' responsiveness to price changes
      Applications of the concept of elasticity
      Determinants of the price elasticity of demand
      Changes in demand
      Normal and inferior goods
      Substitutes and complementary goods
      Acquisition and transactional utility
      Objections to demand theory
      Perspective 7 Common concerns relating to the law of demand
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      Pricing strategies and demand characteristics
      Scarcity, abundance, and economic value
      Software networks
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      8. Production costs and the theory of the firm
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      Various cost conceptions
      special significance of marginal cost
      cost-benefit trade-off
      Price and marginal cost: producing to maximize profits
      From individual supply to market supply
      Perspective 8 The last-period problem
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      Production costs and firms' size and organizational structure
      Reasons for firms
      Changes in organizational costs
      Overcoming the large-numbers' Prisoner's Dilemma problems
      Make-or-buy decisions
      value of reputation, again
      franchise decision
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      9. Production costs in the short run and long run
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      Fixed, variable, and total costs in the short run
      Marginal and average costs in the short run
      Marginal and average costs in the long run
      Long-run average and marginal cost curves
      Industry differences in average cost
      Shifts in the average and marginal cost curves
      very long run
      Perspective 9 Myth of the first-mover advantage
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      Firms' debt/equity structures and executive incentives
      Debt and equity as alternative investment vehicles
      Past failed incentives in the S&L industry
      Industry maturity and funds misuse
      Firm maturity and indebtedness
      bottom-line consequences of firms' financial structures
      emergence of the housing bubble and burst of the early 2000s
      bailout and stimulus policy debate, for and against
      Lessons learned from the housing and economic crisis?
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lecture
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      Review questions
      10. Firm production under idealized competitive conditions
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      Pricing and production strategies under four market structures
      perfect competitor's production decision
      Maximizing short-run profits
      Minimizing short-run losses
      Producing over the long run
      Marginal benefit versus marginal cost
      efficiency of perfect competition: a critique
      Price takers and price searchers
      perfection in perfect competition?
      Perspective 10 The "innovator's dilemma"
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      Competing cost-effectively through efficient teams
      Team production
      Paying teams
      Experimental evidence on the effectiveness of team pay
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Contents note continued: Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      11. Monopoly power and firm pricing decisions
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      origins of monopoly
      limits of monopoly power
      Equating marginal cost with marginal revenue
      comparative inefficiency of monopoly
      Monopoly profits
      Price discrimination
      Applications of monopoly theory
      total cost of monopoly
      Durable goods monopoly
      Monopoly in government and inside firms
      Perspective 11 The QWERTY keyboard: a case of "lock-in"?
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      Profits from creative pricing
      Price discrimination in practice
      Pricing cartels
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      Appendix: short-run profits and losses
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      Review questions
      12. Firm strategy under imperfectly competitive market conditions
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      Monopolistic competition
      Oligopoly
      Cartels: incentives to collude and to cheat
      Game theory: cartels and the Nash equilibrium
      case of the natural monopoly
      economics and politics of business regulation
      Perspective 12 Pedophiles and the regulation of hugging, with Kathryn Shelton
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      "Hostile" takeover as a check on managerial monopolies
      Reasons for takeovers
      market for corporate control
      efficiency of takeovers
      Will monopoly profits last into the very long run?
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
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      Review questions
      13. Competitive and monopsonistic labor markets
      Part A Theory and public policy applications
      demand for and supply of labor
      Why wage rates differ
      Overtime pay, an unmitigated benefit for covered workers?
      Monopsonistic labor markets
      Employer cartels: monopsony power through collusion
      Monopsony and the minimum wage
      Perspective 13 Why professors have tenure and businesspeople don't
      Part B Organizational economics and management
      Paying for performance
      When managers can change the rate of piece-rate pay
      Two-part pay systems
      Why incentive pay equals higher pay
      One-time bonuses versus annual raises
      Practical lessons for serious business students
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lectures
      bottom line
      Review questions
      14. Challenges of behavioral economists
      Part A The overall dimensions of the behavioral challenge
      Prospect theory
      Dominance and invariance
      Mental accounting
      Endowment effect
      Acquisition and transaction utility
      matter of sunk costs
      Perspective 14 Neuroeconomics, by Paul J. Zak
      Part B Behavioral finance
      efficient-market hypothesis, again
      Behaviorists' objections to conventional finance theory
      Further reading online
      bottom line
      Review questions
      15. Problems with behavioral economics
      Part A Concerns with basic principles of behavioral economics
      perfect rationality caricature
      Reliance on constrained laboratory studies
      human brain's internal inclination to correct errant decisions
      Ecologically adaptive environments
      Subjects' overall rationality
      Errant decisions, entrepreneurs, and market pressures
      rational emergence of choice options
      Perspective 15 NBC's anchor Brian Williams' fall from grace, "false memory," and incentives
      Part B "Nudges" and their problems
      Proposed nudges
      Problems with nudges
      From nudges to mandates: the slippery slope
      Further reading online
      Recommended video lecture
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      Review questions.
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