University of Alberta Scholl of Business
Department of Marketing, Business Economics and Law
BUEC 311 A3: Business Economics, Organization and Management Fall 2005 Instructor: Richard Hinton, B.Eng., M.B.A.
Class: TR 1530-1650 Location: BUS 1-05
Office: HUB Mall sessional office Phone: 497-5283
Office hours: Thursdays 2:30 –3:30 pm or by appointment E-mail: [email protected]
Course Description:
Business organizations are systems of mutually reinforcing functional areas. Underlying
economic forces will drive decision–making and poor decisions result from ignoring such forces.
Economic theory can be applied to functional areas of management to facilitate complex decision–making. Topics in the course include the organization of firms and industries; buyer behaviour and meeting customer needs; and making decisions regarding production, resource use, risk/uncertainty, scale/scope of operations, competitive advantage and product pricing. In contrast to courses in economic theory that concentrate on public policy by governments with the objective of maximizing economic benefit for society as a whole, this course will focus on the individual business and how it can use microeconomic theory to maximize its own profits.
Text:
Robert S. Pindyck and Daniel L. Rubinfeld: Microeconomics, sixth edition, 2005. Pearson
The although the text is essential as a reference and the course schedule follows the chapters as laid out in the text, the heart of the course will be contained in the presentations by the instructor in class, which will vary in timing and content from the text.
Grading:
Course grades will be through a combination of assignments, midterm and final exams. If you miss a midterm exam or fail to submit an assignment on time, you will receive a grade of zero unless you provide the instructor with appropriate documentation of the reason you missed the exam or assignment submission. This might include doctors’ notes for illness, police reports for accidents, etc. With appropriate documentation, the weight of the missed exam or assignment will be added to the final exam weight.
If you feel the exam or assignment grading was incorrect, you must advise the instructor in writing within one week following the return of the exam or assignment. That written advice must include a brief outline of why you believe the grade was incorrect. If you are absent when the exam or assignment is returned, the one week time limit will be from the date the exams or assignments were first returned to the class, not from the date when you actually received your exam. Any request for re-grading will be considered to be a request to re-grade the entire exam or assignment, not just the issue that you raised.
Deferred final exams will be allowed for students following University procedures for obtaining deferrals noted in
http://www.bus.ualberta.ca/Bcom/Current/PolicyProcedures/deferredexams.htm#1.
The weights given are as follows:
Assignment 1 5%
Midterm 1 20%
Assignment 2 5%
Midterm 2 20%
Assignment 3 5%
Final exam 45%
Assignment due dates are noted on the enclosed course schedule. The assignments are to be submitted to the BUEC course assignment slots outside of the general office located on the third floor of the business office by 4:00 pm on the stated due date.
Exams:
The first and second midterm exams will include material covered as shown in the course schedule below. The final exam will be cumulative, and will cover material from the entire course, although it will concentrate on the material covered not examined in the first or second midterm exams. Bring picture ID to each exam, along with your own calculator with sufficient battery power.
Students are expected to follow the student code of behaviour. See NOTICE TO INSTRUCTORS for the policy on plagiarism and CODE OF STUDENT BEHAVIOUR.
Course Schedule
(Other than assignment due dates and exam dates, the timing is subject to change by the instructor)
Date Topics Covered Read
Thurs, Sep 8 Introduction Ch. 1
Tues, Sep 13 Basics of Supply and Demand Ch. 2
Thurs, Sep 15 Consumer Behaviour 3.1-3.4
Tues, Sep 20 Individual and Market Demand Assignment 1 due 4.1-4.5
Thurs, Sep 22 Uncertainty and Consumer Behaviour 5.1-5.4
Tues, Sep 27 First Mid-Term Exam, Ch 1 to 5
Thurs, Sep 29 Production Ch. 6
Tues, Oct 4 Cost of Production 7.1-7.6
Thurs, Oct 6 Profit Maximization and Competitive Supply Ch. 8
Tues, Oct 11 Analysis of Competitive Markets Ch. 9
Thurs, Oct 13 Analysis of Competitive Markets Ch. 9
Thurs, Oct 20 Market Power: Monopoly and Monopsony Ch. 10 Tues, Oct 25 Pricing with Market Power Assignment 2 due Ch. 11
Thurs, Oct 27 Pricing with Market Power Ch. 11
Tues, Nov 1 Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly Ch. 12 Thurs, Nov 3 Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
Tues, Nov 8 Second Mid-Term Exam, Ch 6 to 12
Thurs, Nov 10 Fall Term Class Break
Tues, Nov 15 Game Theory and Competitive Strategy Thurs, Nov 17 Game Theory and Competitive Strategy
Tues, Nov. 22 Game Theory and Competitive Strategy Assignment 3 due
Thurs, Nov 24 Investment, Time and Capital Markets Ch. 15 Tues, Nov. 29 General Equilibrium & Economic Efficiency * 16.5-16.7 Thurs, Dec 1 Markets with Asymmetric Information * 17.1-17.4
Tues, Dec 6 Externalities and Public Goods * 18.1-18.2
* Topics with an asterisk might be deleted.