Description
Introduction to the functioning and limits of markets. Strategic decision-making process, considering the economic environment in which the firm operates, including international trade, government interventions, market structures as well as the economic and financial situation.
This course covers all the concepts required to better understand constraints, opportunities and risks from the firm's internal and external points of view. The course focuses on developing a comprehensive strategic vision and contextually optimal decisions.
We study the competitive context of the firm as well as adapted strategies in terms of price, quality and quantity related to market structure, including the type of consumers and the industrial structure (competition, cost structure, etc.).
We also study the short- and long-term dynamics of the economy as a whole in order to better understand temporal considerations related to the economic context: interest rates, macroeconomic policies, inflation and exchange rates, unemployment and growth.
The global vision that emerges is all the more useful in that it can be directly applied to developing the firm's vision, strategies and decision-making.
Themes covered
Theme 1: The functioning of a market economy
Constraints and opportunity costs exchange and value creation; productivity and competition.
Theme 2: The market
Market supply and market demand. Surplus value. Shocks and adjustments. Elasticity.
Theme 3: Costs and the perfectly competitive firm
Structure and types of costs of the typical in the short run and in the long run.
Theme 4: Market power
Marketing and strategic behaviour. Induced and natural monopolies. Price strategies. Network effects.
Theme 5: Markets and production factors
Labour supply and demand; optimal labour-capital combination. Productivity and factor demand. Outsourcing and offshoring.
Theme 6: Market failures and government interventions
Market failures and government interventions. Interventions without market failures.
Theme 7: International trade and global markets
Internal market external market and total demand. Import prices and input prices. Unit labour costs. Industrial clusters.
Theme 8: Macroeconomic environment and strategic vision
Key macroeconomic trends and phenomena. Basic concepts relating to economic fluctuations and financial markets.
Important notes
Course in French : ECON 40830
Equivalent course(s) : ECON 40842
This course is offered for the graduate overseas programs only.