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
