Strategic Business Management - Microeconomics

About this course: This course weds business strategy with the principles of microeconomics. It offers valuable a powerful toolbox together with cases and lessons across all major functions of business, management, from finance, operations management, and marketing to human resource management, organizational behavior, statistics, and, of course, business strategy.

Who is this class for: This course is for anyone interested in exploring the strategic elements of applied economics. It will be particularly valuable to executives, managers, entrepreneurs, and investment professionals seeking to expand their skills at the interface of strategy and business management. Students in, or seeking to enter, business or management schools, will likewise find this to be a very valuable resource and learning tool.

Created by:  University of California, Irvine

• Taught by:  Dr. Peter Navarro, Professor

  Paul Merage School of Business

Level Beginner Commitment 11 weeks of study, 2-3 hours a week Language English How To Pass Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.

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University of California, Irvine Since 1965, the University of California, Irvine has combined the strengths of a major research university with the bounty of an incomparable Southern California location. UCI’s unyielding commitment to rigorous academics, cutting-edge research, and leadership and character development makes the campus a driving force for innovation and discovery that serves our local, national and global communities in many ways.

Syllabus


WEEK 1


Introduction to Microeconomics for Managers



8 videos, 2 readings expand

1. Reading: Syllabus
2. Video: Microeconomics for Managers: Introduction
3. Video: Intro to UCI's Power of Microeconomics
4. Reading: Weekly Topics
5. Video: An Intro to Microeconomics for Managers
6. Video: Microeconomics in Our Everyday Business & Personal Lives
7. Video: Microeconomics Defined; Major Economic Models
8. Video: The Scarcity Problem; Three Basic Questions Every Nation Must Answer
9. Video: The Production Possibilities Frontier & Opportunity Costs
10. Video: The Fundamental Concepts of Microeconomics & Course Overview

Graded: Lesson 1

WEEK 2


Supply and Demand



5 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: The Law of Demand, Income-Substitution Effects, and Demand Curve Shift Factors
3. Video: Change in Demand vs. Change in Quantity Demanded; The Market Demand and Supply Curves; Supply Curve Shift Factors
4. Video: Equilibrium; Price Effects of Supply and Demand Curve Shifts
5. Video: Price Effects of Supply and Demand; Curve Effects
6. Video: Supply & Demand Analysis in Business Action

Graded: Lesson 2 Quiz

WEEK 3


An Introduction to Consumer Theory



7 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: An Introduction to Consumer Theory
3. Video: Consumer Choice; Cardinal vs. Ordinal Utility; Marginal vs. Total Utility; Downward Sloping Demand
4. Video: Consumer Optimization; The Equimarginal Principle; Nominal vs. Real Income; Income and Substitution Effects
5. Video: Demand Price Elasticity; The "Units of Measure" and "Choice of Units" Problems; Price Elasticity Formula
6. Video: Elastic, Unit Elastic, and Inelastic Demand; Demand Price Elasticity Determinants
7. Video: Price Elasticity and Total Revenue; Pricing and Marketing Strategies
8. Video: Strategic Marketing and Microeconomics

Graded: Lesson 3

WEEK 4


Production Theory



7 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: Overview of Production Theory and the Production Function
3. Video: Average, Marginal, Variable, and Total Costs; The Marginal Product and Law of Diminishing Return
4. Video: Marginal Cost; The AFC, ATC, and AVC Curves
5. Video: Long Run Cost Analysis and Economies of Scale
6. Video: Diseconomies of Scale; Minimum Efficient Scale; Natural Monopoly; The Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm
7. Video: Accounting vs. Economic Profits
8. Video: The Law of Supply; The Price Elasticity of Supply; An Overview of Operations and Supply Chain Management

Graded: Lesson 4

WEEK 5


Perfect Competition



7 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: Overview of Industry Structure, Conduct, and Performance
3. Video: Assumptions of Perfect Competition; The P=MR Condition
4. Video: Market Failures that Lead to Imperfect Competition; Externalities and the Public Goods Problem
5. Video: Pricing and Production Rules; P=MR=MC; The Shutdown Rule
6. Video: Long Run Equilibrium; Normal or Zero Economic Profits
7. Video: Allocative vs. Productive Efficiency; Pareto Optimality; Consumer and Producer Surplus and Deadweight Loss
8. Video: Efficiency vs. Equity; Normative vs. Positive Analysis

Graded: Lesson 5

WEEK 6


Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition



6 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: Why Study Imperfect Competition?
3. Video: Regulating Natural Monopoly; The P=AC Rule; X-efficiency Under Cost-Plus Pricing; Schumpeter’s Argument for Monopoly
4. Video: Monopoly Defined and Monopoly’s Pricing Rule
5. Video: Monopolistic Competition; Product Differentiation
6. Video: Market Conduct Under Monopolistic Competition
7. Video: An Introduction to Management Strategy

Graded: Lesson 6

WEEK 7


Oligopoly and Strategic Management



6 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: Oligopoly Defined; Strategic Interactions and Mutual Dependence Recognized
3. Video: Major Sources of Oligopoly
4. Video: Market Power and Action; Cooperative vs. Non-Cooperative Behavior; Explicit Collusion
5. Video: Tacit vs. Explicit Collusion; Forms of Tacit Collusion; Models of Oligopoly Conduct
6. Video: Joint Profit Maximization Model; Why Cartels Can Fail; Price Leadership Model
7. Video: Game Theory and the Prisoner’s Dilemma; The Payoff Matrix; The Nash Equilibrium

Graded: Lesson 7

WEEK 8


Strategic Capital Finance



7 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: Capital Analysis in the Real World; Big Questions of Corporate Finance
3. Video: Three Categories of Capital Goods; Interest Rate Defined; Rate of Return
4. Video: Depreciation; Theory of Loanable Funds; Two Interest Rate Functions
5. Video: How Shifts in Demand and Supply Affect Interest Rates; Investment Analysis Over Time; Net Present Value; Perpetuities
6. Video: NPV In the Real World; NPV Equations
7. Video: Interest Rates In The Real World; Factors Determining Interest Rates
8. Video: The Capital Asset Pricing Model

Graded: Lesson 8

WEEK 9


Land, Labor, and Organizational Behavior



10 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: The Big Questions; Key Concepts of Organizational Behavior
3. Video: The Wage Rate, Unions, and Monopsony
4. Video: The Derived Demand for Labor; The Marginal Productivity Theory of Resource Demand; The Profit Maximizing Rule; MRC=MRP
5. Video: Wages and Productivity; Wages and Product Prices; The Backward Bending Curve
6. Video: Wages in Imperfectly Competitive Labor Markets; Company Town Monopsony; Labor Union Monopoly
7. Video: Factors Affecting Wage Differentials; Compensating Differentials; Quasi-rents; Human Capital
8. Video: How Land is Priced; Rent Versus Economic Rent
9. Video: The "Corn Wars" and Theory of Ricardian Rents; Property Rights
10. Video: Henry George’s Land Tax; Tax Incidence Analysis
11. Video: Determinants of the Price of Land and Rents; Rent Seeking

Graded: Lesson 9

WEEK 10


Public Goods, Externalities, and Income Redistribution



9 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Weekly Topics
2. Video: The Logic of Government Intervention
3. Video: Public vs. Private Goods; Non-rival Consumption; Non-excludability; Free Rider Problem
4. Video: Economic Efficiency and Public Goods; Market Demand for Public Goods
5. Video: Benefit-Cost Analysis and the Decision Rule
6. Video: Negative and Positive Externalities
7. Video: Correcting Market Failures; Pigovian Taxes and Subsidies, Direct Regulation, Lawsuits, Coase Theorem
8. Video: Direct Government Intervention; Pigovian Taxes and Subsidies; Internalizing Externalities
9. Video: Wealth, Poverty, and the Redistribution of Income; Progressive, Proportional, and Regressive Taxes
10. Video: Public Choice, Median Voter Model, and Paradox of Voting

Graded: Lesson 10

WEEK 11


Finals Week

Graded: Final Exam