Managerial Economics

The goal of your analysis is to write about a or some of the topics covered in the classroom and how you can apply it outside the classroom. 

In other words, show you understand some key ideas from lecture or the textbook andapply it outside the classroom. The goal- show understanding. If you write about supply and demand, while it might be accurate, it is a poor subject to consider. Other students’ who write about more complicated ideas should have higher grades than students who write basic analysis that could have been written before this class was taken. 

There is no minimum page requirement; instead, there is a maximum. No more than 10 pages can be submitted. Do not go over 10 pages. Does this mean you can finish your assignment in 5 or 6 pages? Yes! The page count does not include graphs or other visuals. You goal is to write until you answer your question with clear, concise writing. 

This list is NOT comprehensive. It is a list to spark ideas and give you some direction. 

1. Mergers- are there any mergers, past or present, that you can use the statistics learned in class? How can the statistics be used? How do you estimate the statistics? Be sure to explain the merger. Don’t assume the reader knows about your subject. 

2. (dis)Mergers- any firms that have gotten smaller, past or present, that you can use the statistics learned in class? Ideas learned in class?

3. Prices- look at a business or an industry and discuss prices. One thought- Disneyland or Disneyworld prices. How often do they increase price? Can elasticity or any statistics learned in class be used for understanding Disney’s pricing models. 

While I generally have no preferences regarding formatting or other stylistic writing choices, there is one thing I care about…

Do NOT exceed 10 pages. Your MAXIMUM page count is 10 pages. This does not include charts, graphs, or pictures. 

A maximum is different from a minimum! Generally writing minimums are based on page count or word count. Not for this class. Clear concise writing is your goal. Papers that waste time with “fluff” or extra information that does not relate to managerial economics or your topic will be downgraded. You are budding economists and wasting your time, the grader/readers time, and my time is not the best use of our scarce resource (time). 

Write until you believe you have adequately explained your managerial topic(s) but you cannot go over 10 pages. You goal should NOT be “I need to write a 10 page paper” because that’s incorrect and you’re misleading yourself and anyone you talk too. Your goal “I need to examine an issue in managerial economics and I need to write clearly and concisely”.

Two Rules

1. Do not write more than 10 pages. Write 10 or LESS THAN 10 pages. 

2. Do not “fluff” up your paper with time wasting details or unnecessary details.