FIN 616 Managerial Economics
Course Catalog Description
Introduction
This course introduces students to the essence of economics – the theories, concepts and ideas that form the economist’s tool kit encompassing both the microeconomic and macroeconomic environments. Microeconomic topics include demand and supply, elasticity, consumer choice, production, cost, profit maximization, market structure, and game theory while the Macroeconomic topics will be GDP, inflation, unemployment, aggregate demand, aggregate supply, fiscal and monetary policies, and exchange rates. In addition, basic concepts in international trade and finance will be discussed. It is critical for finance students to have a solid understanding of the economic climate within which their business operates along with an understanding of the economic factors involved in internal decision making.
Course Objective
- Understand and be able to use economic terminology
- Use strategic reasoning to understand and explain economic and financial events, and other social phenomena.
- Use basic calculus to solve optimization problems faced by economic agents.
- Understand how strategic behavior influences the decisions about which goods and services to produce, how to produce them, and who gets them.
- Understand how government policies affect the allocation of resources in a market economy.
- Understand how market structure (perfect competition, monopoly, duopoly and oligopoly) influences the allocation of resources.
- Use economic reasoning to explain the strategic choices of individuals or organizations.
Campus | Fall | Spring | Summer |
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On Campus | X | X | |
Web Campus | X | X |
Instructors
Assistant Professor | Office | |
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Alexander Rodivilov
|
arodivil@stevens.edu | Babbio Center Room: 624 |
More Information
Course Outcomes
After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Use supply and demand to explain various economic phenomena and principles.
- Explain the measurement and importance of GDP, inflation, unemployment, money, and trade. Explain the economic meaning of price, elasticity, and production costs. Describe the cause and effect of changes in all of these variables.
- Draw and analyze cost and revenue curves that maximize profit. Discuss differences and critically analyze the pros and cons of different market structures, including competitive, monopolistic and oligopolistic markets.
- Read and explain the content of economic materials from a secondary source (such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc.) Relate economic concepts to these real world events and critically evaluate the impact of economic policy.
Course Resources
Textbook
- N. Gregory Mankiw. Principles of Economics, 8th edition. Cengage Learning.
Grading
Grading Policies
1 | Attendance | 5% |
2 | Class Participation | 5% |
3 | Homework | 20% |
4 | Exam I | 35% |
5 | Exam II | 35% |
Lecture Outline
Topic(s) | Readings | Assignment | |
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Week 1 | The Market Forces of Supply and Demand Elasticity and Its Application | Mankiw, ch.4,5 | |
Week 2 | Supply, Demand, and Government Policies Consumers, Producers, and the Efficiency of Markets Applications: The Costs of Taxation, International Trade | Mankiw, ch.6-9 | HW 1 |
Week 3 | The Economics of the Public Sector | Mankiw, ch. 10 | |
Week 4 | Firm Behavior and the Organization of Industry:The Costs of Production | Mankiw, ch. 4 | |
Week 5 | Firms in Competitive Markets | Mankiw, ch. 15 | HW 2 |
Week 6 | Monopoly | Mankiw, ch. 16 | |
Week 7 | Oligopoly | Mankiw, ch.17 | EXAM 1 |
Week 8 | Measuring a Nation’s Income, Production and Growth | Mankiw, ch.19 | |
Week 9 | Saving, Investment, and the Financial System | Mankiw, ch.20 | |
Week 10 | Unemployment | Mankiw, ch.29 | |
Week 11 | The Monetary System | Mankiw, ch. 30 | HW 3 |
Week 12 | Money Growth and Inflation | Mankiw, ch.31 | |
Week 13 | Open-Economy Macroeconomics:Basic Concepts | Mankiw, ch.32 | HW 4 |
Week 14 | Short-Run Economic Fluctuations: Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply | Mankiw, ch. 33 | EXAM 2 |