Damian Ward - Economics for Business

Economics for Business
Fifth Edition
David Begg and Damian Ward
ISBN-13 9780077175283
ISBN-10 007717528x

Published by McGraw-Hill Education

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Published by McGraw-Hill Education. Copyright 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education, including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.

Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that may be used herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to represent any real individual, company, product or event.

ISBN-13 9780077175283

ISBN-10 007717528x

2016. Exclusive rights by McGraw-Hill Education for manufacture and export. This book cannot be re-exported from the country to which it is sold by McGraw-Hill Education.

Dedication

For my mum Margaret Ward
Damian Ward

For my beloved Jen
David Begg

Brief Table of Contents

Detailed Table of Contents

Preface

This book is for students interested in business. It is not an economics book with some business applications. Instead, we highlight problems faced by real businesses and show how economics can help solve these decision problems.

Our approach

This approach is new, and focuses on what as a business student you really need. It is issue driven, utilizing theories and evidence only after a problem has been identified. Business decisions are the focus on the screen, and economic reasoning is merely the help button to be accessed when necessary. Of course, good help buttons are invaluable.

Our coverage

Our book offers a complete course for business students wanting to appreciate why economics is so often the back-up that you require. After a brief introduction, we help you to understand how markets function and how businesses compete, then we train you to evaluate problems posed by the wider economic environment, both nationally and globally.

As a business student, you do not need to know, nor should you want to master, the whole of economics. Your time is scarce and you need to learn how to manage it effectively. Economics for Business gets you off to a flying start by focusing only on the essentials.

Cases and examples

Business does not stand still and neither should you. You need a course embracing topical examples from the real world as it evolves. Whether we are discussing the pricing of Madonnas concert tickets, the profitability of Apple Inc. or the Greek debt crisis, we aim to bring you the business issues of the day and challenge you to think about how you would respond to them.

Strategic learning

Business students want an instant picture of where they are, what the problem is, and how an intelligent response might be devised. Each chapter begins with the executive summary at a glance and concludes with a summary and learning checklist, providing an informative link in the flow of ideas.

You are thus encouraged to become a strategic learner, accessing resources that support your particular lifestyle and learning pattern. You can follow the order that we propose, but you can also browse and move from one topic to another, as you might on the Internet. Active learning both engages your interest and helps you remember things.

Online of course

Our online supplements include access to Connect, McGraw-Hills web-based assignment and assessment platform. Connect allows instructors to assign auto-graded quizzes and tests, view reports on students results and get a clearer picture of student progress. For students, Connect provides access both to assignments from your lecturer and to resources for independent study. It provides immediate feedback on how well you know each topic from the book and gives you reading suggestions, MP3 revision notes, additional case studies, animations and practice tests to improve your understanding.

Summing up

We were prompted to write this book because fewer and fewer students are studying economics for its own sake. More and more students are switching to courses that study business as a whole.

This creates a market.

David Begg
Damian Ward
August 2015

David Begg is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School. He has been a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research since its inception in 1984 and an adviser to the Bank of England, the Treasury, the IMF, and the European Commission.

Damian Ward is Dean of the Business School at University of Hertfordshire. He has experience of teaching undergraduate and MBA students, including executive management programmes for leading global organizations. His research interests focus on the application of economic theory to the workings of the financial services industry. He regularly appears on TV and radio providing economic commentary and has acted as an adviser to the UK Financial Services Authority.

Acknowledgements

Our thanks go to the following reviewers for their comments at various stages in the texts development:

Adelina Gschwandtner, University of Kent

Alexander Tziamalis, Sheffield Hallam University

Chiara Donegani, Birmingham City University

Chris Jones, Aston University

Dragana Radicic, Bournemouth University

Georgios Magkonis, University of Bradford

Gerald ONolan, University of Limerick

Grinne Tuohy, University of Ulster

Jassodra Maharaj, University of East London

Mario Pezzino, University of Manchester

Michael Wood, London Business School

Neelu Seetaram, Bournemouth University

Pedro Martins, Queen Mary University of London

Sean Ryan, University of Limerick