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Managerial Economics
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About the Authors
Preface
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Student Edition
Instructor Edition
Managerial Economics, 9/e

Christopher R. Thomas, University of South Florida
S. Charles Maurice, Texas A&M University

ISBN: 0073402818
Copyright year: 2008

Preface



WHY MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS?

Over the past dozen or so years, business school curriculum committees have taken steps to strengthen the analytical and critical thinking skills of business students. While the trend toward stronger academic training in business schools stems from a number of factors, one of the most compelling reasons for doing so is, quite simply, that employers of business school graduates are demanding better thinkers. Many of us who teach economics to business students believe that training in economics not only helps business students better understand and predict the economic forces shaping real-world business decisions but also serves to develop and strengthen overall analytical skills of students of all majors.

Most business schools require students to take several courses in economics. Managerial economics, which is often one of these courses, brings together topics in microeconomics that can be applied to business decision making to create a valuable way of thinking about markets and business decisions. The objective of Managerial Economics is to help business students become architects of business strategy rather than simply middle managers plodding along the beaten path of others.

PEDAGOGICAL HIGHLIGHTS

The Ninth Edition of Managerial Economics maintains all of the pedagogical features that have made previous editions successful. These features follow.

Emphasis on the Economic Way of Thinking

The primary goal of this book has always been, and continues to be, to teach students the economic way of thinking about business decisions. Managerial Economics develops critical thinking skills and provides students with a logical way of analyzing business decisions.

Easy to Learn and Teach From

Managerial Economics has always been a self-contained book that requires no previous training in microeconomics. While maintaining a rigorous style, this book is designed to be one of the easiest books in managerial economics from which to teach and learn. Rather than parading students quickly through every interesting or new topic in microeconomics and industrial organization, Managerial Economics instead carefully develops and applies the most useful concepts for business decision making.

Dual Sets of End-of-Chapter Questions

To promote the development of analytical and critical thinking skills, which most students probably do not know how to accomplish on their own, two different kinds of problem sets are provided for each chapter. Much like the pedagogy in mathematics textbooks, which employ both “exercises” and “word problems,” Managerial Economics provides both Technical Problems and Applied Problems.

  • Technical Problems—Each section of a chapter is linked (by an icon in the margin) to one or more Technical Problems specifically designed to build and reinforce a particular skill. The Technical Problems provide a step-by-step guide for students to follow in developing the analytical skills set forth in each chapter. The answers to all of the Technical Problems are provided at the end of the text, so the Technical Problems
  • Applied Problems—Following the Technical Problems, each chapter has a set of Applied Problems that serve to build critical thinking skills as well as business-decision-making skills. These problems, which are much like the “word problems” in a math textbook, are a mix of stylized business situations and realworld problems taken from BusinessWeek, the Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and other business news publications. Business students frequently find classroom discussion of the Applied Problems to be among the most valuable lessons of their entire business training. Answers to Applied Problems are only available in the Instructor’s Manual.

The clarity of exposition, coupled with the integrated, step-by-step process of the technical Problems, allows students to learn most of the technical skills before coming to class. To the extent that technical skills are indeed mastered before class, instructors can spend more time in class showing students how to apply the economic way of thinking to business decision making.

Flexible Mathematical Rigor

Starting with only basic algebra and graph-reading skills, all other analytical tools employed in the book are developed within the text itself. The Student’s Resource CD that comes with this book contains an 18-page tutorial review of the basic algebra and graphing skills needed to work the problems in the text. This tutorial, entitled “Review of Fundamental Mathematics,” contains numerous mathematical exercises with answers.

While calculus is not a part of any chapter, instructors wishing to teach a calculus-based course can do so by using the Mathematical Appendixes at the end of most chapters. The Mathematical Appendixes employ calculus to analyze some of the key topics covered in the chapter. Most appendixes have a set of Mathematical Exercises that requires calculus to solve, and the answers to the Mathematical Exercises are available in the Instructor’s Manual. A “Brief Review of Derivatives and Optimization” is also provided on the Student’s Resource CD packaged with this book. This six-page tutorial covers the concept of a derivative, the rules for taking derivatives, unconstrained optimization, and constrained optimization.

Self-Contained Empirical Analysis

The Ninth Edition continues to offer a self-contained treatment of statistical estimation of demand, production, and cost functions. While this text avoids advanced topics in conometrics and strives to teach students only the fundamental statistical concepts needed to estimate demand, production, and cost, the explanations of statistical procedures nonetheless maintain the rigor found in the rest of the book. For those instructors who do not wish to include empirical analysis in their courses, the empirical content can be skipped with no loss of continuity.

Wide Audience

Managerial Economics is appropriate for undergraduate courses in managerial economics (or courses in applied microeconomics) and for M.B.A. and executive M.B.A. courses. The self-contained nature of the book can be especially valuable in night classes or executive M.B.A. courses where students may have limited opportunity to meet with an instructor for help outside class.


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