Economics Concentration MBA Courses
- BECN 2401—Economic Analysis for Managerial Decisions: Firms and Markets—3 credits
- This course develops an understanding of how a market-based economic system reconciles the separate needs of consumers and producers, and provides an economic framework for managerial decisions. Additionally, the course provides tools of analysis and concepts that are used in the MBA program's functional fields. Centering on the basic concept of the business firm, it integrates the analysis of market demand with that of production and costs in the context of a variety of domestic and global market structures. Topics include pricing, output, and quality decisions; the impact of productivity improvements on costs; quality-cost tradeoffs; transaction costs as a determinant of the boundaries of the firm; and market imperfection and the role of regulation.
- Prerequisites: none.
- BECN 2504—Managing Risk in a Global Enterprise—1.5 credits
- This course is to familiarize students with the core tools utilized by senior managers who develop and implement an international business strategy. The course objectives are: (a) identify and evaluate marketplace drivers of risk-adjusted returns; (b) study the connectivity between global commercial, trade, and capital markets; (c) evaluate regional political and economic forces at play in the Americas, Europe, and Asia and their relevance to both business development opportunities and risk variables; (d) construct an inventory of forensic risk analysis tools and assess applications; (e) differentiate risk variables of concern to exporters, investors, and lenders; (f) build analytical and communications skills of use in a corporate setting.
- Prerequisites: BECN 2401.
- BECN 2509—Global Macroeconomics 1—1.5 credits
- This course focuses on the forces that drive or determine overall national economic activity. A study of macroeconomics is crucial for an appreciation of the set of factors at the national and global level that impact the business firm's demand cost patterns, and identify factors that are beyond the firm's ability to control, but that must be taken into account as part of the decision making and strategic planning process. Movements in major macroeconomic variables, especially inflation interest rates and exchange rates, also exert significant influence on the performance of national and global financial markets. The course is organized around the progressive development of an open economy macroeconomic model that is capable of handling a number of key policy and other variables. The model integrates the interactive roles of consumer, investment, and public sector spending; net exports; international capital movements; and the money supply in determining overall national output, employment levels, and interest rates. This first course focuses on the national economic model. A very practical approach is taken.
- Prerequisites: none.
- BECN 2510—Global Macroeconomics 2—1.5 credits
- This follow-up course continues the focus on the forces that determine overall global economic macroeconomic activity. It expands the national macroeconomic framework developed in BECN 2509 to a global framework. It considers the role of the foreign exchange rate regimes and capital movements on the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy and on the determination of output, interest, inflation, and unemployment rates. Again, a very practical approach is taken.
- Prerequisites: BECN 2509.
- BECN 2060—Independent Study in Economics—variable credits
- An independent course of study in economics may be arranged with a faculty member and a student advisor.
- Prerequisites:BECN 2401.
