Firms and Markets

This course provides students with key analytical tools that are essential to managerial and decision making at the corporate level. We begin with an overview of decision making by consumers and firms and how they interact in competitive markets, identifying the conditions under which markets function efficiently. We then analyze situations in which markets do not work efficiently. In turn, this highlights the role and importance of strategic behavior on the part of competitive firms. Through an analysis of optimal firm decisions involving pricing, entry, and exit, among others, students will acquire a deep understanding of the main concepts that drive consumers’ and firms’ decisions and how to use those concepts to analyze specific problems. The course will end with an analysis of firms’ strategies in global markets, understanding how price variations and cost variations across countries affect production decisions.

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