Subject Overview

Business Economics applies microeconomic and macroeconomic theory to organizational decisions. The subject develops economic reasoning, quantitative analysis and practical insight for managers, with particular relevance to labor markets, workforce planning, strategy, regulation, sustainability and digital transformation.

Learning Goal

Students will be able to analyze markets and economic conditions, evaluate managerial alternatives using economic models and data, and make responsible business and human-resource decisions under changing technological, regulatory and global conditions.

Syllabus

1. Foundations of Business Economics

Learning Objective: Explain scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, incentives, marginal analysis, economic systems, positive and normative economics, and the role of models in managerial decision-making.

Category: foundation

2. Demand, Supply and Market Equilibrium

Learning Objective: Analyze demand and supply determinants, equilibrium, market adjustment, consumer and producer surplus, price controls, taxation and business implications of market changes.

Category: foundation

3. Elasticity, Demand Estimation and Forecasting

Learning Objective: Calculate and interpret price, income and cross elasticities; apply demand functions, regression, time-series methods and scenario analysis to forecasting and planning.

Category: core

4. Consumer Choice and Behavioral Economics

Learning Objective: Explain utility, budget constraints, indifference analysis, revealed preference, bounded rationality, biases, nudges and their ethical application to customers and employees.

Category: core

5. Production, Productivity and Cost Analysis

Learning Objective: Evaluate production functions, short-run and long-run costs, marginal and average measures, economies of scale and scope, learning effects and productivity decisions.

Category: core

6. Market Structures and Competitive Dynamics

Learning Objective: Compare perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly using output, pricing, profit, efficiency, entry barriers and concentration analysis.

Category: core

7. Pricing, Strategic Interaction and Game Theory

Learning Objective: Apply pricing methods, price discrimination, bundling, transfer pricing, break-even analysis and game-theoretic concepts—including dominant strategies, Nash equilibrium and repeated games—to competitive decisions.

Category: application

8. Managerial Decisions under Risk and Uncertainty

Learning Objective: Use expected value, probability, decision trees, sensitivity analysis, optimization and real-options reasoning to support investment, capacity, outsourcing and resource-allocation decisions.

Category: application

9. Labor Economics and Human Resource Decisions

Learning Objective: Analyze labor demand and supply, wage determination, human capital, productivity, compensation differentials, discrimination, unions, minimum wages, workforce mobility and the economics of automation.

Category: application

10. Macroeconomic Measurement and Business Cycles

Learning Objective: Interpret GDP, national income, aggregate demand and supply, business-cycle indicators, productivity and economic forecasts for organizational and workforce planning.

Category: core

11. Inflation, Unemployment and Economic Growth

Learning Objective: Evaluate inflation, unemployment, wage-price dynamics, the Phillips curve, growth theories, inequality and their effects on compensation, employment and business performance.

Category: core

12. Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy and Financial Conditions

Learning Objective: Explain government budgets, taxation, public debt, interest rates, money creation, central banking and policy transmission, and assess their consequences for business decisions.

Category: core

13. International Economics and the Global Business Environment

Learning Objective: Analyze comparative advantage, trade policy, exchange rates, balance of payments, capital flows, globalization, supply-chain shocks and multinational workforce implications.

Category: strategic

14. Market Failure, Regulation, Sustainability and Governance

Learning Objective: Assess externalities, public goods, information asymmetry, competition policy, regulation, cost-benefit analysis, ESG considerations, ethical trade-offs and responsible economic governance.

Category: strategic

15. Business Economics in the Digital and AI Economy

Learning Objective: Examine platform markets, network effects, data as an economic asset, algorithmic pricing, gig work, AI-driven forecasting, automation and emerging regulatory, employment and ethical challenges.

Category: contemporary