Economics for Business

Halftitle
Title
Copyright
About the authors
Brief Contents
Contents
List of figures and tables
Preface
Guide to the book
Online resources
1 Economics and business
	1.1 Introduction: what is economics?
	1.2 Why economics matters to business, indeed to everyone
	1.3 Understanding the roles of firms, consumers and government in markets
	1.4 Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost
	1.5 Opportunity cost and incentives
	1.6 Microeconomics, macroeconomics and business
	1.7 Positive and normative economics
	Everyday economics 1.1 answers
	One thing you should read
2 The market
	2.1 Introduction: the market, an old but still very useful institution
	2.2 Consumers and demand in the market
	2.3 Firms and supply in the market
	2.4 The market: bringing demand and supply together
	2.5 Applying market analysis 1: the example of economic integration in the European Union
	2.6 Elasticity in the market
	2.7 Price elasticity of demand
	2.8 Determinants of price elasticity of demand
	2.9 Why firms need to know about price elasticity of demand
	2.10 Applying market analysis 2: OPEC and the market for oil
	2.11 Other forms of elasticity
	2.12 Markets and asymmetric information
	2.13 Markets and the rational consumer
	2.14 Markets: concluding remarks
	Everyday economics 2.1 answers
	One thing you should read
3 The firm
	3.1 Introduction
	3.2 What do firms do?
	3.3 Why is the firm a necessary institution?
	3.4 Different kinds of firm
	3.5 Reflections on the strategies of firms: profit maximization, economics and business strategy, organic growth and growth by merger and acquisition
	3.6 Firms’ strategies for survival: resolving the principal–agent problem, coping with asymmetric information problems
	3.7 The death of a firm
	3.8 Firms and entrepreneurship: an Austrian view
	Everyday economics 3.1 answers
	One thing you should read
4 Firms’ costs and revenues
	4.1 Introduction
	4.2 The short run and the long run
	4.3 The short-run production function and the law of diminishing marginal returns
	4.4 Short-run costs
	4.5 Production in the long run
	4.6 Long-run costs
	4.7 Firms’ revenues
	4.8 Profit maximization
	Everyday economics 4.1 answers
	One thing you should read
5 Market concentration and market power
	5.1 Introduction
	5.2 Market power
	5.3 Market structures, market power, price competition and non-price competition
	5.4 Perfect competition
	5.5 Monopoly
	5.6 Imperfect competition (also known as monopolistic competition)
	5.7 Oligopoly
	5.8 Oligopoly and game theory
	5.9 Market structures: an institutionalist view
	Everyday economics 5.1 answers
	One thing you should read
6 Business and government
	6.1 Introduction
	6.2 Market failure
	6.3 Public goods
	6.4 Externalities
	6.5 Public goods, externalities and business
	6.6 The liberal view: market failure and state failure
	6.7 Privatization
	6.8 Competition policy
	6.9 Industrial policy
	Everyday economics 6.1 answers
	One thing you should read
7 Factor markets
	7.1 Introduction
	7.2 The labour market
	7.3 The demand for labour
	7.4 The supply of labour
	7.5 Issues in the labour market: bringing demand and supply together
	7.6 Factor incomes and economic rent
	Everyday economics 7.1 answers
	One thing you should read
8 The macroeconomy, macroeconomic policy and business
	8.1 Introduction: the macroeconomic context of business
	8.2 Economic growth
	8.3 Unemployment
	8.4 Inflation
	8.5 The balance of payments
	8.6 A brief overview of macroeconomic policy since 1945
	Everyday economics 8.1 answers
	One thing you should read
9 Unemployment: causes and cures
	9.1 Introduction: the debate over the causes and cures for unemployment
	9.2 The classical approach
	9.3 The orthodox Keynesian approach
	9.4 The monetarist approach
	9.5 The new classical approach
	9.6 The new Keynesian approach
	9.7 A case study: unemployment in Europe
	Everyday economics 9.1 answers
	One thing you should read
	Appendix: An alternative presentation using an Aggregate Demand (AD)–Aggregate Supply (AS) model
10 Inflation: causes and cures
	10.1 Introduction: the inflation debate
	10.2 The monetarist view
	10.3 The non-monetarist view
	10.4 A case study: maintaining price stability in the euro area
	10.5 Concluding remarks
	One thing you should read
	Appendix: Keynesians, monetarists and new classicists and the expectations-augmented Phillips curve
11 Economic growth and business cycles
	11.1 Introduction
	11.2 Economic growth: an overview
	11.3 The Solow growth model
	11.4 The new endogenous growth models
	11.5 Wider influences on economic growth
	11.6 Main features of business cycles
	11.7 The debate over the cause and control of business cycles
	11.8 Concluding remarks
	One thing you should read
	Appendix: The Solow growth model
12 Stabilizing the economy
	12.1 Introduction
	12.2 Discretionary policy and policy rules
	12.3 The rules versus discretion debate: problems of stabilization policy
	12.4 Changing views on stabilizing the economy
	12.5 Concluding remarks
	One thing you should read
13 International trade
	13.1 Introduction
	13.2 The theory of comparative advantage
	13.3 Reflecting on comparative advantage: further developments in trade theory
	13.4 Patterns of trade since 1945
	13.5 International trade policy
	Everyday economics 13.1 answers
	One thing you should read
14 The balance of payments and exchange rates
	14.1 Introduction
	14.2 The balance of payments accounts
	14.3 The balance of payments and business
	14.4 Exchange rates and exchange rate determination
	14.5 Exchange rate systems
	14.6 Exchange rate systems in practice
	14.7 The euro
	14.8 The balance of payments, exchange rates and business
	Everyday economics 14.1 answers
	One thing you should read
15 Globalization
	15.1 Introduction
	15.2 What is globalization?
	15.3 How far has globalization progressed?
	15.4 What are the attractions of globalization?
	15.5 What threats might globalization pose?
	15.6 On reflection, how new is globalization anyway?
	One thing you should read
Glossary
Index