Economics for Business course

The course provides managers with an overview of relevant economic issues in a business context. The course starts by outlining fundamental economic concepts and examining the workings of the market system. Different market structures and their impact on organisations are reviewed and the role of government in the economy is examined. Relevant aspects of the macroeconomy are introduced with a focus on business impact and decision-making. This is followed by an exposition of international economic issues. The course ends with a research activity that will pull all the strands of the course together, and prepare students fully for the assessment.

On completion of this course students will be able to:

∙ Apply economic criteria for efficient resource allocation to a diverse range of dynamic business situations.

∙ Analyse changing market conditions in terms of supply, demand and possible government intervention and formulate appropriate and sustainable organisational responses.

∙ Propose appropriate economic solutions that draw on a robust, critical awareness of the role of information in the market economy.

∙ Evaluate and apply appropriate approaches to economic challenges in relation to social and private costs, taxation and government regulation.

∙ Propose relevant pricing and market strategies for a variety of market structures and in the presence of market failures.

∙ Recommend appropriate courses of action to deal with economic uncertainty, through evaluation of changes in macroeconomic variables and policy-making.

∙ Use diverse forms of economic information from both the environment and the organisation to evaluate and propose solutions to business problems.