Managerial Economics ec450
SYLLABUS
TEXTBOOK
There in NO textbook for this class.
There will be numerous reading assignments each week (see below).
ZOOM
https://loyola.zoom.us/my/thomaslyons
... this is the link if we need to have a zoom meeting... the password is on moodle.CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY
Students may NOT use computers, tablets, phones, earphones during class.
LECTURES, READINGS and RESOURCES
Introduction 0
HOW TO PREPARE
Economic Organization 1
Time, Uncertainty, Risk 2
HOW TO PREPARE
READ
Chapter 7 “The Meaning of Risk and Uncertainty”, pages 197-231
Chapter 8 “Structures and Methods for Meeting Uncertainty”, pages 232-263
CLASS LECTURE
Change 3
HOW TO PREPARE
READ
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Joseph Schumpeter, 1943
Chapter 7 “The Process of Creative Destruction”, pages 81-86
Chapter 2 “Entrepreneurship”, pages 30-75
CLASS LECTURE
Capital 4
HOW TO PREPARE
READ
Capital and Interest, Book II Positive Theory of Capital, Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk, 1889
"The Capitalist Production Process, page 79-88
Capital and its Structure, L. Lachman, 1956
Chapter 1 "The Order of Capital", pages 1-19
CLASS LECTURE
Information 5
CLASS LECTURE
Intellectual Property 7
GUEST SPEAKER : The Patent Process
Assignment 7
Due in Class April 16, 2024
In intellectual property law, patents grant the creator 20 years of exclusive use for a creation. After 20 years, the creation is in the pubic domain and anyone can use it.
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Write a short paper (2 pages) that explains how time is used to balance the competing economic goals for the system overall. What are those goals? Is 20 years the right duration of protection? How would each of the goals be affected by a longer or shorter protection time frame? How could we change the system to make it more efficient overall? [hint: see Posner page 61].
Innovation 6
HOW TO PREPARE
READ
The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen, 1997
Introduction, pages 7-19
Chapter 1 “How great firms can fail?”, pages 20-34
The Disruption Dilemma, Joshua Gans, 2016
Chapter 2 “What is Disruption?, pages 13-31
Chapter 3 “Sources of Disruption”, pages 33-47
“Why Innovation is Still Capitalism’s Star”, New York Times, August 17, 2013, Robert Shiller
CLASS LECTURE
Assignment 6
Due in Class April 23, 2024
Creative destruction is all around us, it is the way the market works.
Select a company where the process of creative destruction is currently underway, or likely to happen in the future.
Write a short paper (2 pages) that explains how creative destruction applies to the company that you selected and the product or service that they sell. Use the ideas in Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma : technological improvement > customer need, organization failure, mobility asymmetry, in your discussion. Is there any evidence that the disruption is Supply Side - Architectural disruption? Should the firm use Christensen's strategy (independent business unit) or Henderson's Strategy (deeper integration) to manage the threat from disruption?
Technology 8
CLASS LECTURE
Strategy 9
due Tuesday, May 7 at 12 noon
print your final exam submission in bring to my office - Sellinger 418
Supplemental Resources
The Role of Government
General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, J. M. Keynes, 1936
Chapter 12 “The State of Long Term Expectations”, pages 147-164
The New Industrial State, John Kenneth Galbraith, Princeton University, 1967
Chapter 7, “The Technostructure”
"The Technostructure in John Kenneth Galbraith's Vision"', Catalin Marginean, 2015
Globalization
“The Globalization of Markets”, Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business Review, (1983)
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property, by OpenStax
Strategy
“The Theory of Business, Peter Drucker, Harvard Business Review, 1994
“How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy”, Michael Porter, Harvard Business Review, 1979
Adaptability
The Disruption Dilemma, Joshua Gans, 2016
Chapter 7 “Insuring Against Disruption”, pages 97-111
Other
“My Years in Meetings”, Herbert L. Kahn, New York Times, A17, July 25, 1988
“The Entrepreneurial Society”, Thomas Lyons, working paper, (2022)
How Lower Transactions Costs are Changing the Structure of the Economy