Managerial Economics: Markets, Profits and Managers
MGE302 Fall 2015 TENTATIVE SYLLABUS
MGE 302 Lec-A: Digital Access 08/31/2015 – 12/11/2015
MGE 302 F1F: Jacob 106 at 8am-9:20am M&W 8/31/2015 – 12/11/2015
MGE 302 –
Instructor:
Office:
Office Hrs:
Email:
Fall 2015
Hodan S. Isse Ph.D.
245 Jacobs: Phone Number: 645-3219
Monday &Wednesday 9:30am – 10:20 am or by appointment.
Hsisse@Buffalo.edu
Web 1:
http://ublearns.buffalo.edu
Web2: http://connect.mheducation.com/class/h-isse-mge-302-managerialeconomics-all-sections-fall-2015
Teaching Assistants:
Kevin Lonek:
Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 11am – 12:30 pm
231 Jacobs e-mail: kevinlel@buffalo.edu
Course objective and Strategy:
This course lays out basic microeconomic tools for business strategic decisionmaking, goal setting, value maximizing, choices, and relationship between choices
and outcome. Students will learn that succeeding in the world of business, no
matter how you slice it, means winning in the market place. Managers cannot
expect to succeed in business without a clear understanding of how market forces
create opportunities and constraints for business enterprises. We will emphasize
how economic forces in the marketplace determine the demand for products, the
prices of resources, cost of production, the number of rival firms, decisions under
risk and uncertainty, and the nature of pricing strategies, insider trading, and
ultimately the profitability of business investment. Incentive misalignment, unclear
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ownership, accountability or price strategy and many other effective analytical
tools will be explored to increase chances of successful implementation of business
model.
While it is certainly true that managers must constantly be aware of new
development in the market place, the economic way of thinking about business
decision-making is timeless. This applied economics course provides a systematic,
logical way of analyzing both today’s and tomorrow’s business decisions.
Ultimately this course should prove useful to managers across a wide range of
business conditions and situations. The course should equip students with tools that
better their decision-making skills and sharpen students’ analytical skills and
application.
After completing this class you should be able to:
 Examine the economic concepts and power of incentives as a managerial
tool for predicting human behavior and making sound business decisions.
 Compute the relevant costs of any decision and understanding cost benefit
analysis.
 Discuss the problems arising from separation of ownership and control and
explore some corporate control mechanisms to address these problems.
 Use excel and regression analysis for quantifying outcomes, trend analysis
and forecasting.
 Use game theory to predict how your actions influence those of others and
improve strategic pricing techniques.
 Scrutinize why uniform pricing does not generate the maximum profit and
how price discrimination can generate more revenue.
 Examine the nature of market failures and discuss some of the more
important and effective ways government can attempt to make markets
generate social surplus.
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Classroom Policies, Expectation and communications:
Lectures:
 Lectures are delivered through digital access online lectures on Mondays
and Wednesdays from 8:00 am to 9:20 am. The lectures should be available
shortly thereafter.
 The students are expected to watch online lecture regularly and on time,
prepare before class and finish all assigned reading, Learn Smart
assignment, group projects and quizzes on time.
Discussion Board:
All students (both live and digital students) are encouraged to become active
participants in class discussions via discussion board; it is a useful tool available
for students to exchange information among themselves. The TAs and professor
Isse will monitor the discussion board regularly. The TAs will respond to
questions a couple of times a day from Wednesday – Sunday.
You should verify that your question has not already been asked before posting
a question. The best way to learn managerial economics is to help out your
fellow classmates by posting responses to be able to clearly explain to others the
concepts we will be discussing in class.
Ethics and Policy:
I expect students to adhere to and enforce the long-standing academic honesty
policies as set forth by the University Student handbook for rules concerning
academic integrity.http://mgt.buffalo.edu/files/degrees/undergrad/handbook.pdf.
Please refer to page 32 of the student handbook. Plagiarizing, cheating or lying
is extremely prohibited. Students caught with such acts will be failed in this
course. Be honest!
Email Polices:
You are expected to check your emails periodically. To ensure timely response
for your email, you are also expected to use your UB email.
No makeup exams
No makeup exams!
In case of extreme emergency, discuss it with Professor Isse prior to exam.
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Students are expected to have prior knowledge of some basic math such as
graphing, calculus, statistics and some skills in excel applications. This is NOT a
theory course and I will not use much math or calculus in my course. However, be
able to graph a linear equation on a two-dimensional graph and solve a system of
two linear equations and two unknowns.
Course Material
TEXTBOOK:
Managerial Economics and Business Strategy customized Edition, by Michael R.
Baye and Jeffrey T. Prince, McGraw-Hill, 2013, ISBN 9781121962170.
(Required). Please see Appendix A at bottom of this document for further
information.
This is the text for the class, and will correspond closely to the lectures. Learn this
material well. It may seem easy, but it is powerful and practice is a must.
PowerPoint slides and Lecture notes posted under My Documents on UBlearns.
“Inside Business” application assigned per discretion of the instructor.
Course requirement grading and deliverables
We use the following scale for grades
91 to 100
86 to 90
83 to 85
78 to 82
75 to 77
73 to 74
68 to 72
65 to 67
63 to 64
55 to 62
0 to 54
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
F
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Your grade in this course will be based on the following seven assessments:
Learn Smart
10%
Homework Assignment 20%
Group Quiz 1
5%
Group Quiz 2
5%
Midterm Exam
30%
Final Exam
30%
Total
100%
1. Weekly Learn Smart (LS), 10% (total), assignment due before the beginning
of each chapter. Check link for Learn smart tab at UBlearns.
Where? Connect: Web 2: Connect Course URL to register:
http://connect.mheducation.com/class/h-isse-mge-302-managerialeconomics-all-sections-fall-2015
All weekly Learn smart assignments must be completed on Connect.
Learn Smart Tentative due dates:
Chapter 1
9/9/2015
at 8:00am
Chapter 2
9/14/2015
at 8:00am
Chapter 3
9/21/2015
at 8:00am
Chapter 4
10/05/2015 at 8:00am
Chapter 5
10/12/2015 at 8:00am
Midterm Examination
10/23/2015
Chapter 7
10/26/2015
at 8:00am
Chapter 8
11/9/2015
at 8:00am
Chapter 10
NO Learn Smart
Chapter 14
11/30/2015
at 8:00am
Final Examination
12/15/2015
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2. Weekly Homework assignments, 10% (total), due after the completion of
each chapter. Check link for Homework assignments tab at UBlearns.
Where? Connect: Web 2: Connect Course URL to register:
http://connect.mheducation.com/class/h-isse-mge-302-managerialeconomics-all-sections-fall-2015
All weekly homework assignments must be completed on Connect.
Homework Assignment Tentative due dates:
Chapter 1
09/12/2015 at 11:50pm
Chapter 2
09/19/2015 at 11:50pm
Chapter 3
10/03/2015 at 11:50pm
Chapter 4
10/10/2015 at 11:50pm
Chapter 5
10/17/2015 at 11:50pm
Quiz .1(chapters 1-5)
10/17/2015 to 10/19/2015.
Quiz is due 10/19/2015 at 11:50pm
Midterm Examination
10/23//2015
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Chapter 14
No Homework for chapter Seven
11/14/2015 at 11:50pm
11/21/2015 at 11:50pm
12/05/2015 at 11:50pm
Quiz .2(chapters 1-5)
12/05/2015 to 12/07/2015.
Final Examination
Quiz is due 12/07/2015 at 11:50pm
12/15/2015
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Please note
all homework
assignments
are due on
Saturdays.
3.Group Quiz 1, 5%, will be available from 10/17/2015 – 10/19/2015 and is due
on Tuesday 10/19/2015 at 11:50pm. It covers chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Please
follow the lecture for more information concerning the quiz.
4.Group Quiz 2, 5%, will be available from 12/05/2015 – 12/07/2015 and is due
Tuesday 12/15/2015 at 11:50pm. It covers chapters 7,8, 10, and 14.
There are two group quizzes: one before the midterm and one before the final.
These will serve as study guides before each exam. Quiz 1 will cover material from
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Quiz 2 will cover Chapters 7, 8,10 and 14. You are
encouraged to work as a team to learn the material, but each individual is expected
to work alone and share their ideas with the group to maximize learning. You will
turn in these quizzes individually before the deadline at UBLERNS.
6.Mid-term examination, 25%, is scheduled for Friday October 23, 2015
between 6pm-8pm in Knox hall 20, Knox 109 and Knox 104. More information
will be available at UBlearns and in digital access lectures.
7.Final examination, 25%, is scheduled for December 15, 2015 from 8am-10am
in NSC 218, NSC 201 and Noton115. It covers chapters 7, 8,10, and 14. More
information will be available at UBlearns and in lectures.
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Final Remarks on grading.
If you:
 Watch all the lectures
 Finish all assigned homework, Learn
Smart assignments and group project
and group quizzes.
 Hand in all the group projects on
time.
 Take both exams.
Then Regardless of your exam scores,
your grade will be at least C+.
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Course Outline/due dates
Chapters/topic
Part I: Some Preliminaries
Learn smart assignment: are found
connect at Connect Website
Chapter 1: lecture notes at UBlearns
Learn Smart due on 9/9/2015 at 8am;
Part II: Demand Analysis
Chapter 2 lecture notes at UBlearns
Learn Smart due on 9/14/2015 at 8am
Chapter 3
Learn Smart due on 9/21/2015
at 8am
Chapter 4
Learn Smart due on 10/05/2015 at 8am
Chapter 5: lecture notes at UBlearns
Learn Smart due on 10/12/2015 at 8am
Group Quiz is found at ublearns
Group Quiz.1 assigned on 10/17/2015 And
is due at 10/19/2015 at 11:50pm.
Review Session 10/19/2015
Midterm Examination
Part IV: Profit Maximization in various
market structures
Chapter 7: Learn Smart due on at 8am.
Learn Smart due on 10/26/2015 at 8am
Chapter 8:Managerial decisions with three
markets
No Learn smart due this week
Chapter 8: Managerial decisions with three
markets. Learn Smart due Nov.9 at 8am
Chapter 10: Oligopoly
No lecture Learn for this chapter
Chapter 14:Learn Smart due on Nov.30
8am
Review Session 12/07/2015
Group Quiz.2. Assigned 12/5/2015
Final Examination: 8am-10am on
12/15/2015
Estimated time/due dates
Mangers, Profits, and
Markets
All Homework: are found at
connect website
Aug.31-Sep9;Lectures (1-3)
Homework due Sep.12 at 11:50pm
Demand & supply
Market Equilibrium
Elasticity, regression and
demand forecasting
Sep.14-16; Lectures (4-5)
Homework due Sep.19 at 11:50pm
Sep.21-28; Lectures (6-8)
Homework due Oct.03 at 11:50pm
Theory of Consumer
Behaviors
Production and cost:
Short run and Long run
Quiz #1 will cover
Chapters 1-5. Check
ublearns for quiz.1
Chapters 1-5
Friday, October 23, 2015
6 pm to 8 pm.
Oct.5- 07; Lectures (9-11)
Homework due Oct.10 at 11:50pm
Oct.12-14 Lectures (12-13)
Homework due Oct.17 at 11:50pm
Quiz#1 due Oct. 19 at 11:50pm
Location: Ublearns
Market Concentration
Oct. 26-28 Lecture (15-16)
No home due for chapter 7
Nov. 2-4 Lectures (17-18)
Managerial Decisions in
Competitive Markets
Managerial decisions
Markets with substantial
market Power: Monopoly
Strategic Decision
Making in Oligopoly
Markets
Market failure and
government failure
Chapters 7,8,10 and14
Chapters 7,8,10 and 14.
Chapters 7,8,10 and 14
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Review lecture: (14)
Knox 20, Knox109,and
Knox104 between 6pm to 8 pm.
Chapter 8 homework is available
Nov.9-11; Lectures (19-20)
Homework 8 is due 11/14/2015
Nov.16-18 ;Lectures (21-22)
Homework due 11/21/2015 at
11:50pm
Nov. 23-Dec2 Lectures(22-23)
Homework due 12/5/2015 at
11:50pm
Review Lecture (24-25)
Quiz.2 is due 12/07/2015
NSC 218, NSC201 and Norton 112
Appendix A:
MGE 302: Applied Economics
Fall 2015 Required Course Materials
For this course you will be required to purchase McGraw-Hill Connect® access for BAYE:
Managerial Economics & Business Strategy, 8e. All required online assignments and the
interactive eBook for this course are available in Connect®. Connect is worth 30% of your total
grade in this course. You are not required to have a print text and please be aware that if you
purchase a used textbook you will still need to purchase Connect® access. The cost for
Connect® access is $100. This is your most cost effective option available.
A print-upgrade option is also available via Connect® if you find yourself wanting a print
companion at some point during the semester. This will be a full color, binder-ready version of
the text for just $40 additional (after Connect® purchase). You will find the print-upgrade
option on the student home page and also under the student library tab.
If you have financial aid, and must make your purchase at the bookstore, the bookstore is
carrying a discounted bundle of the text with Connect® access. See below for more information
on this option. Pricing for this option is available at the bookstore.
Information on bookstore offering course material:
Title
Custom edition of Managerial
Economics and Business Strategy
Edition
8th
Author
Baye
Publisher
McGraw-Hill Education
ISBN
9781121962170
Getting Started in Connect®:
To get started, go to this Connect Section URL:
Web2: http://connect.mheducation.com/class/h-isse-mge-302-managerialeconomics-all-sections-fall-2015
Next you will need to enter your email address and click Submit. If you already have a Connect
Registration Code, enter the code and click Submit. If you don’t have a Registration Code, you
can buy access at this time, or begin your 14-day Courtesy Access period. Complete the
remaining steps to complete your registration for Connect.
Need Assistance? Contact our Customer Experience Group (CXG):
Call: (800) 331-5094
Monday – Thursday: 7 AM - 3 AM | Friday: 7 AM - 8 PM | Saturday 9 AM - 7 PM | Sunday 11
AM – 1 AM
(all times Central)
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