28 Jan Many would argue that

MBA5004 Managerial Economics

Week 1 discussion

There will be two discussion questions listed below. By the due date assigned respond to one of the discussion questions and submit your response to the Discussion Area. Use the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading. Support your answers with examples and research and cite your sources using APA format.

Discussion Question 1:

Spending by the consumer sector is the driving force in the US economic system. Although the business and government sectors make a considerable contribution to the success of the economy, it is the spending by the consumer or household sector of the economy that determines prosperity or recession in the economy.

Do you agree or disagree with this argument?

Why or why not?

How has the spending behavior of the government sector changed over the past decade, and what effect had these changes had on the economy?

Justify your answers

Discussion Question 2:

Decision making in a business environment requires an understanding of cost and revenue data. This includes an understanding of marginal and incremental analysis, as well as basic cost and revenue relationships. Explain how a basic understanding of these concepts, as well as of managerial economics, can enhance the managerial decision-making process. Justify your answer.

Start reviewing and responding to at least two of your classmates’ postings as early in the week as possible. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between one or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Please post peer responses by the end of the week.

MBA5004 Managerial Economics

Week 2 discussion

There will be two discussion questions listed below. By the due date assigned respond to one of the discussion questions and submit your response to the Discussion Area. Use the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading. Support your answers with examples and research and cite your sources using APA format.

Discussion Question 1:

Many factors affect the demand for a product, which is a concern for management and the decision-making process. To correctly assess the demand for their products, managers must determine the effect of all relevant variables. Select a particular industry or product and define the following variables:

Inferior versus normal goods

Substitution and income effects

Derived demand

Changes in real and projected incomes

Discuss how these variables can affect the demand for your product or industry and what methods could be used to estimate the effect of these variables. Justify your answer.

Discussion Question 2:

As a manager, when you are making decisions for the company, you need to consider the distinction between how the decisions will impact the company in the short term and in the long term. Describe the information needed to make these decisions. What tests can you run to help make your decisions? Justify your answer.

Start reviewing and responding to at least two of your classmates’ postings as early in the week as possible. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between one or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Please post peer responses by the end of the week.

MBA5004 Managerial Economics

Week 3 discussion

There will be two discussion questions listed below. By the due date assigned respond to one of the discussion questions and submit your response to the Discussion Area. Use the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading. Support your answers with examples and research and cite your sources using APA format.

Discussion Question 1:

One of the problems in a competitive market environment is deadweight losses.

What are deadweight losses, and what are their causes?

What are the market effects of a deadweight loss?

What are the major factors that determine who will bear the burden of a tax or the incidence of a tax?

Discussion Question 2:

Adam Smith, usually referred to as the father of economics, expounded the theory of free markets and opposed any form of concentration of economic power. He believed that any authority establishing a price that provided a fair price to the providers of the factors of production would distort the market’s natural ability to determine prices and output levels. In general, he believed that competitive markets would allocate resources to their highest and best use. However, in recent times, we have seen the market mechanism fail and allocate too many or too few resources to the consumption or production of some goods and services.

What are some of the reasons for this failure?

Has government intervention into competitive markets changed the efficiency of these markets? Why or why not?

Was Smith correct or incorrect in his theories concerning the efficiency of the markets in allocation of resources?

Justify your answer.

Start reviewing and responding to at least two of your classmates’ postings as early in the week as possible. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between one or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Please post peer responses by the end of the week.

MBA5004 Managerial Economics

Week 4 discussion

There will be two discussion questions listed below. By the due date assigned respond to one of the discussion questions and submit your response to the Discussion Area. Use the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading. Support your answers with examples and research and cite your sources using APA format.

Discussion Question 1:

You have just been hired by a company as an economist and strategic planner. Your company has asked you to generate a report explaining the consequences of the market structure in which the company operates. Assume that the market structure is an oligopoly. Explain to management how this structure could influence decision making, especially pricing, output, advertising, and the use of resources in an oligopolistic market, as compared to other market structures. Justify your answer.

Discussion Question 2:

Price discrimination is the practice of charging different customers or groups of customer’s different prices for the same product.

Why does price discrimination occur?

Describe the conditions that must be present for price discrimination to occur.

Justify your answer.

Start reviewing and responding to at least two of your classmates’ postings as early in the week as possible. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between one or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Please post peer responses by the end of the week.

MBA5004 Managerial Economics

Week 5 discussion

There will be two discussion questions listed below. By the due date assigned respond to one of the discussion questions and submit your response to the Discussion Area. Use the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading. Support your answers with examples and research and cite your sources using APA format.

Discussion Question 1:

Many would argue that in a capitalistic economy, the government cannot provide goods and services as efficiently as the private sector. For example, most arguments for and against the Affordable Health Care Act center on the efficiency of the government in managing and operating a health care system. Do you think the government can provide goods and services to the public as efficiently as or better than the private sector? Justify your answer.

Discussion Question 2:

In a free-market economy, firms face some degree of uncertainty, or risk. Some of this risk is controllable, and some is not. Identify the different types of risk that a business might encounter in the marketplace and identify whether they are controllable or uncontrollable. Justify your answer.

Start reviewing and responding to at least two of your classmates’ postings as early in the week as possible. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between one or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Please post peer responses by the end of the week.