Synopses & Reviews
This text seeks to train students to think analytically in a business context. Specifically, it uses over 250 real-world, managerially-oriented applications to show students how managers apply theories and techniques to solve real-world business problems. This approach motivates student learning and extends student thinking well beyond the final exam. The book includes extensive coverage of the latest analytical tools in managerial economics: game-theoretic tactics, best-practices mechanism design, information economics, and organizational architecture, as well as a thorough integration of international issues.
Review
McGuigan, Moyer, and Harris covers quantitative issues that I want to include (demand elasticity estimation, forecasting), and it pushes the envelope of the topics in managerial economics by featuring asymmetric information and strategic behaviorà.I will continue to use the book as it brings in strategic issues facing firms, and present the competence and clarity market structures, pricing issues, and best practices.
Review
The concepts are presented in a very clear manner and the authors have done an excellent job in gathering real-world applications of the theory. In fact, it is because of all of the practical applications and examples used by the authors that I adopted the book for use in my MBA managerial economics courseà. The applications are the strong point of this text and the reason I use it.
Review
In the past five years I have used [this] text. I consider it to be the best managerial text available today. It has the best PowerPoint presentation of an economics text that I have seen, excellent problems at the end of each chapter, and is current and comprehensive in topics covered.
About the Author
James R. McGuigan owns and operates his own numismatic investment firm. Prior to this business, he was Associate Professor of Finance and Business Economics in the School of Business Administration at Wayne State University. He also taught at the University of Pittsburgh and Point Park College. McGuigan received his undergraduate degree from Carnegie-Mellon University. He earned an MBA at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago and his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to his interests in economics, he has coauthored books on financial management. His research articles on options have been published in the JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS.R. Charles Moyer earned his BA in Economics from Howard University and his MBA and PhD in Finance and Managerial Economics from the University of Pittsburgh. Professor Moyer is Dean of the College of Business and Public Administration at the University of Louisville. He is Dean Emeritus and former holder of the GMAC Insurance Chair in Finance at the Babcock Graduate School of Management, Wake Forest University. Previously, he was Professor of Finance and Chairman of the Department of Finance at Texas Tech University. Professor Moyer also has taught at the University of Houston, Lehigh University, and the University of New Mexico and spent a year at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Professor Moyer has taught extensively abroad in Germany, France, and Russia. In addition to this text, Moyer has coauthored two other financial management texts. He has been published in many leading journals including FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS, JOURNAL OF FINANCE, FINANCIAL REVIEW, JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FORECASTING, JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS, and JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS. Professor Moyer is a member of the Board of Directors of King Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Frederick H. deB. Harris is the McKinnon Professor of Managerial Economics and Finance at the Babcock Graduate School of Management, Wake Forest University. His specialties are pricing tactics and capacity planning, two topics that ideally integrate functions traditionally ascribed to marketing, operations, and finance. Professor Harris has taught integrative managerial economics, marketing, and finance courses in three business schools in the U.S. and Europe.
Professor Harris has published widely in financial and economics journals including Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Industrial Economics, and Journal of Financial Markets. From 1988-93, Professor Harris served on the Board of Associate Editors of the Journal of Industrial Economics. His current research focuses on the application of capacity-constrained pricing models to specialist and electronic trading systems for stocks. In addition, he often benchmarks the pricing, order processing, and capacity planning functions of large companies against state-of-the-art techniques in yield management and writes about his findings in journals like Marketing Management and the Journal of Operations Management.
Awards and recognitions include: Outstanding Faculty, Inc. Magazine, October 1998, Most Popular Courses, Business Week On-Line 2000-2001, and Outstanding Faculty, Business Week's Guide to the Best Business Schools, 5th - 8th eds., 1997 - 2003.
Table of Contents
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction and Goals of the Firm 2. Fundamental Economic Concepts PART II: DEMAND AND FORECASTING 3. Demand Analysis. App. 3A. Indifference Curve Analysis of Demand 4. Estimation of Demand 5 Business and Economic Forecasting 6. Exchange Rates and International Trade: Managing Exports PART III: PRODUCTION AND COST 7. Production Economics. App 7A. Maximization of Production Output Subject to a Cost Constraint. App 7B. Production and Linear Programming 8. Cost Analysis 9. Applications of Cost Theory. App. 9A. The Learning Curve PART IV: PRICING AND OUTPUT DECISIONS: STRATEGY AND TACTICS 10. Prices, Output, and Strategy: Pure and Monopolistic Competition 11. Competitive Markets Under Asymmetric Information 12. Price and Output Determination: Monopoly 13. Price and Output Determination: Oligopoly 14. Game-Theoretic Rivalry: Best Practice Tactics App. 14A. Capacity Planning and Pricing: Case Study of Piedmont Airlines v. People Express App. 14B. Large Scale Entry Accommodation 15.Organizational Form, Governance, and Mechanism Design 16. Pricing Techniques and Analysis App. 16A. Revenue Management 17 Government Regulation PART V: LONG-TERM INVESTMENT DESCISIONS 18. Long- Term Investment Analysis WEBCHAPTERS (Available on text Web site only) Web Chapter A. Optimization Techniques Web Chapter B. Linear Programming Applications Web App. 4A. Nonlinear Regression Models Web App. 8A. The Cobb-Douglas Production Function and the Long-Run Cost Function