Introduction to Managerial Economics

3 – 4 hours per week

Course Information

Course Length : 5 weeks
Estimated Effort : 3 – 4 hrs per week

The ability to make informed decisions is one of the key qualities that define a successful manager. This is true for managers in large multinationals, in small businesses, in non-profit organisations and in the government. But it must be noted that decision-making is not exclusive to only managers. Individuals and households also make decisions regularly.

The ability to make the right decisions comes with a clear understanding of the various factors that impact their business and affairs. As for modern societies, most of their decisions depend on markets to organise economic activity: they are market economies.

A large number of decisions that people make as individuals or as managers relate to markets. So, it is important for anybody to know how markets work and how to make decisions as managers or as individuals operating in a market environment. Focusing on this need, the IIMBx course Introduction to Managerial Economics is designed specifically for enabling individuals to become better decision-makers in market economies by providing a simple introduction to Managerial Economics.

Subhashish Gupta

Associate Professor
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB)

Full Profile

Course Syllabus

Week 01: How Markets Work?

What is Economics
Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
Why should students of Business learn Microeconomics
Market Economies
Production Possibility Frontier
The Demand Curve
Factors that Affect Demand
The Supply Curve
Factors that affect Supply

Week 02: Demand, Supply and Equilibrium

The Equilibrium
Divergence from the Equilibrium Price
Effects of changes in business environment on the equilibrium
Price Elasticity of Demand and Supply
Income Elasticity and Cross Price Elasticity
Factors that affect the elasticity of demand
Taxes in the demand-supply Framework
Buyers and Sellers surplus
Government Intervention in the market: The Welfare Loss

Week 03: Production and Cost

The Production Function
Behavior of Average and Marginal Products
Law of Diminishing Returns
Productivity in the Long Run
Scale and Scope of Production
Costs of Different types
Behavior of average and marginal costs
Relationship between costs and productivity
Costs in the long run

Week 04: Markets - Part 1

Markets of Different types
Perfectly Competitive Market
Profits in a perfectly competitive Market
Perfect competition in the long run
Monopoly
Profits in a monopolistic market
Sources of Monopoly Power
The Multi-product firms
Monopolistic Competition

Week 05: Markets - Part 2

Oligopoly
Different Models of Oligopoly
Why do markets Fail
Game Theory: a strategic understanding

By the end of this course, the learners will be able to:

Illustrate how markets work, under the workings of supply, demand, and equilibrium
Define elasticity of supply and demand, taxes, and subsidies
Explain the production of goods and services and measures of productivity.
Determine how to make the hiring decisions and decisions on spending on infrastructure
Define opportunity costs, different cost concepts
Elaborate on the pricing and selling decisions under different types of competitive pressures
Explain the problems with markets and what we can be done about it

Executives, students pursuing post graduate and people aspiring to learn more in the field of managerial economics.

Great course structure and well explained, the explanation is very simple and easy to understand. The cause has helped me re-affirm my knowledge. Great course.
(Alok Singh)

First of all i would like to thank the MOOC for proving the Edx platform for quality education through the worlds most prestigious educational institute so affordable and easy and convenient way.It is like a dream come true and i expecting the much more new courses to be released. About course content, i can say it is designed so nicely and specially size/length of the video is small which provided more time to understand a new topic. About the instructor, i can say professor Subhasis Gupta is marvelous. His style of delivering the lecture very calmly and he deliver all his lecture very elaborately including his direct lecture at IIMB class room was excellent experience for me and off course for all those who wish to be there at IIMB. At last, I Thanks to whole team for their contribution for this noble cause.
(Anonymous)

Before starting this course i was zero at economics. But after now i felt this course as a gateway for me to enter into the world of economics. And really my interest increased along with progress of course.
(Student)

Prof. Subhashish Gupta has created a spark and kindled our mind to know more about this subject. Thank you Professor and the team. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and looking forward to learn more from IIMx thro’ edX platform.
(Krishnaswamy S)

I would like to say “Thanks” to Dr.Subhasish Gupta & team for all around effort in making the course complete & successful. I have never studied economics but it was a great experience as got some great insight on the basics.
(Sudhir Sharma)

The course content is excellent, exactly suitable for the title. I am very thankful to the instructor, Prof.Subhashish Gupta for his very clear and detailed explanation on the topics covered. Thanks to Edx! for making it all possible.
(R Baskar)

This course one of the finest course on edx.org, which provides enough insights on the subject of managerial economics. I believe that this course will also help independent business person to take various decisions pertaining to price and quantity. especially game theory will help them in that regard. All the very bets and Thanks to team IIMBx.
(Baxis Patel)

Thank You Dr Gupta. I am a masters student at University of Melbourne and being an engineer I had no idea about economics. This course really helped me understand the fundamentals of managerial economics and allowed me to be on par with people who had previous experience in the field. Kudos!
(Ruqayyah M)