Wednesday 29 January 2014

ECO 550 All Discussion Questions

Economics - General Economics
ECO 550 All Discussion Questions
ECO 550 Week 1 DQ1
Managerial Economic Decision Making" Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, assess how business leaders use managerial economics to make business decisions indicating how profits may be impacted. Analyze the principal-agent problem to determine how the relationship could be less adversarial. Provide support for your rationale. 
ECO 550 Week 1 DQ2
"Fundamental Economic Concepts" Please respond to the following:
Pick a recently released good or service. Then, determine the factors that must be evaluated regarding the product’s supply and demand. Analyze how these factors impact the decision to supply the product indicating the significance of each in the decision-making process. Using the same product example above, analyzing how the risk tolerance factors play in supplying the good or service and how this should influence management’s decisions
ECO 550 Week 2 DQ1
"Demand Analysis" Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, if you were a manager in a tobacco company, analyze the elasticity of demand for tobacco products. Evaluate the factors involved in making decisions about pricing tobacco products indicating which would be the most influential.  Using the same scenario above, discuss how the elasticity influence the short-term and long-term decisions of the company and the impact to the decision made related to profitability. 
ECO 550 Week 2 DQ2
"Estimating Demand" Please respond to the following:
Provide an example when it would be appropriate to conduct a time-series or cross sectional data. Discuss the potential problems that may arise with your example and identify strategies for minimizing the impact of the potential problems. Discuss the meaning of the regression coefficient of the independent variable(s) and how it could be used to estimate the elasticities of each of these variables. Discuss how managers use the elasticities measurements to make managerial decisions.
ECO 550 Week 3 DQ1
"Business and Economic Forecasting" Please respond to the following: • From the e-Activity, develop a regression equation using the data you collected from your research. Use the regression equation to focus the demand for the product you chose for the next three periods. Assess what the results of the regression equation tells managers and how it is likely to impact decisions made related to maximizing profitability. • Imagine you are a manager for the good or service used above. From the results of the regression equation, suggest strategies to either maintain demand (if an increase over three periods occurs) or improve demand (if a decrease over three periods occurs). Provide support for your recommendations 
ECO 550 Week 3 DQ2
"Managing in the Global Economy" Please respond to the following:
Evaluate the relationship between the European Euro crisis in 2012 and the American economy. Assess how this affects American businesses and decisions made by mangers related to sustainable profitability. Provide examples with your response. Aside from maximizing profits, assess the factors that managers must consider when making the decision to outsource or integrate forwards or backwards considering which factor would be most influential for decision-making. 
ECO 550 Week 4 DQ1
"Production Economics" Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, determine the environmental variable most likely to affect the short-run production over the next 12 months. Determine what managers can do to prepare for the possible change in short-run production. Pick a real or fictitious business. Create a scenario around this business in which a manager would decide to either stop operations in the short-run or going out of business in the long-run. Provide a rationale with your response 
ECO 550 Week 4 DQ2
General Questions - General General Questions
"Cost Analysis" Please respond to the following:
Pick a good or service. Distinguish between the short-run and the long-run production and cost function for that good or service. Discuss how price plays a role in short-run and the long-run decisions and how managers are likely to respond in each case.
Using the same good or service from above. Identify the fixed and variables costs are for the good or service. Based upon the costs identified, recommend whether to produce or not produce the good or service. Provide a rationale with your response 
ECO 550 Week 5 DQ1
"Applications of Cost Theory" Please respond to the following:
Imagine you are a manager of a chemical company. An accident has occurred in which chemicals leaked into the ground water nearby, the community is unaware. Assess the costs involved in cleaning up the water immediately (confessing) versus hiding the fact and possibly paying more in the future. Discuss the impact on profitability in both situations. From the first e-Activity, assess the factors involved in conducting a break-even analysis. Determine the conditions that may exist for a manager of this good or service may decide to move forward with operations even with the initial costs of operations is more than the potential revenue 
ECO 550 Week 5 DQ2
"Prices, Output and Strategy" Please respond to the following:
Pick a good or service you are familiar. Speculate how the price for that good or service may have been set and how well this price maximizes profit for the company and determine what shifts the company should made in its pricing strategy.  Provide support for your recommendations. From the second e-Activity, discuss how the company you selected should increase its competitive stance in the marketplace and how management would implement the recommendations. Provide specific examples to support your response
ECO 550 Week 6 DQ1
WEEK 6 DQ1
"Monopolies" Please respond to the following:
From the first e-Activity, imagine this company acting as a monopoly was to have a new competitor arrive in the marketplace. Assess how the monopoly would likely change its pricing strategy to compensate for the new competition.
From the first e-Activity, speculate how the monopolist could be more efficient in the long-run considering new competition has entered the marketplace
ECO 550 Week 6 DQ2
Week 6 DQ2:
"Oligopoly" Please respond to the following:
From the second e-Activity, assess the marketing and pricing strategies, for example rebates, to determine the goal(s) of the marketing and pricing strategies for one of the companies you researched. Make one recommendation for changes that the company should make to better maximize profits. The Internet has made shopping for airline tickets efficient for the consumer. As a result, the industry overall is price sensitive. Suggest how the airlines can maximize profits while avoiding price wars. 
ECO 550 Week 7 DQ1
"Game Theory"
Please respond to the following: • Demand for airline tickets fluctuates throughout the year, which affects the price of an airline ticket. Suggest the type of game that may be most appropriate for a specific airline to play to address the differences in demand and elasticity and the resulting impact on profitability. Provide support for your reply. • From the first e-Activity, propose a short-term and long-term pricing strategy for the product or service you researched including how the strategies would be implemented. Assess how your proposal ultimately maximizes profits 
ECO 550 Week 7 DQ2
"Pricing Techniques" Please respond to the following:
From the second e-Activity, propose the new target market segment for the product and its accompanying pricing strategy (for example, bundling and couponing). Provide a rational for why you feel the new target market and pricing strategy would be successful and the likely impact to the profitability of the firm. The pharmaceutical industry often has the luxury of implementing pricing strategies that appear high to consumers. Take a position on the fairness of the industry’s approach to pricing pharmaceutical products including offering an alternative strategy that may be more palatable to consumers. Provide a rationale with your position 
ECO 550 Week 8 DQ1
"Contracting" Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, propose a methodology for assessing the risk in business contracts. Assess the economic impact this methodology may have for the organization. Analyze a situation in which both parties entering into a contract could benefit, economically or otherwise, from slightly ambiguous language contained in the contract. Provide specific examples to support your response.  
ECO 550 Week 8 DQ2
"Organization Form" Please respond to the following:
Analyze the potential downfalls of any team effort and make at least one recommendation for minimizing risk. Provide specific examples to support your response. Evaluate the organization form that would be most efficient in minimizing the principal-agent problem. Provide a rationale with your response 
ECO 550 Week 9 DQ1
"Government Regulation" Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, take a position on whether more government regulation is needed in the banking industry. Support your position with evidence or examples. Provide an example of how government regulation is either constraining or enabling for a particular company indicating the impact to the operational efficiency of the company. Discuss how your response impacts maximizing shareholder wealth 
ECO 550 Week 9 DQ2
"Antitrust and Licensing" Please respond to the following:
Imagine how managerial decisions may be easier or more difficult if there were no antitrust restrictions in the U.S. Provide an example to support your response. The IT industry is full of patents. There are some companies, referred to as patent trolls, whom purchase these patents in hopes of making money by enforcing patents against alleged infringers. Determine the impact of government regulation against patent trolls. Identify who wins and who loses if regulation was adopted 
ECO 550 Week 10 DQ1
"Capital Investments" Please respond to the following:
With the current U.S. economy in a weakened state, many companies are reluctant to implement any capital improvements or capital expenditures in fear of the economic uncertainty that exists that may negatively impact the cashflow of the organization. Assess the impact of this behavior on productivity, cost efficiency, diversification of assets, or impact to future cashflows that may emerge if companies continue this mindset indicating the long-term risk to profitability. Provide an example or scenario to support your response. Analyze the challenges that companies face in entering global markets. Identify the potential impact to capital budgets in making the decision to move into a global market 
ECO 550 Week 10 DQ2
"Cost-Benefit Analysis" Please respond to the following:
Provide a cost-benefit analysis for a company which has to decide whether to hire more staff or hire temporary workers to meet production.schedules. Determine how managers would use your cost-benefit analysis to make this decision. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis of obtaining a graduate degree. Assess both the short-term and the long-term costs and benefits to determine why some people obtain the extra education while others do not

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