Business Economics

N. Gregory Mankiw is Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He studied economics at Princeton University and MIT. Dr. Mankiw is a prolific writer and a regular participant in academic and policy debates. His research includes work on price adjustment, consumer behavior, financial markets, monetary and fiscal policy, and economic growth. His published articles have appeared in academic journals, such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, and in more widely accessible forums, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Fortune. Dr. Mankiw has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Congressional Budget Office, and a member of the ETS test development committee for the advanced placement exam in economics. From 2003 to 2005, he served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Mark P. Taylor is Dean of the John M Olin Business School at Washington University, US and was previously Dean of Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, UK. He obtained his first degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University. He then worked as a foreign exchange dealer in London for two years while simultaneously studying part-time for a master’s degree in economics at London University, from where he also holds a doctorate in economics. Professor Taylor has taught economics at various universities (including Warwick, Oxford, Marseille and New York), at various levels (from principles courses to advanced graduate and MBA courses) and in various fields (including macroeconomics, microeconomics and econometrics). He also worked for several years as a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund and before that at the Bank of England. His work has been extensively published in scholarly journals, such as the Journal of Political Economy and the Economic Journal, and he is today one of the most highly cited economists in the world in economic research. In addition, Professor Taylor has acted as an advisor to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Bank of England, the European Commission and to senior members of the UK government. He is a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a member of council of the Royal Economic Society, and a fellow of both the Royal Statistical Society and the Royal Society of Arts. Andrew has over twenty years’ experience as a teacher and author across all levels of education. His speciality lies within assessment having been a former Chair of Examiners for a major awarding body in the UK for Business and Economics, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors and a consultant for regulatory bodies. Andrew has written texts on business and economics across different levels including A-level and undergraduate economics texts and had articles published as a result of his PhD research. This research is looking at assessment and the notion of threshold concepts in economics. He is the Editor of Teaching Business and Economics, the journal of the Economics, Business and Enterprise Association (EBEA) and lives in Rutland with his wife, Sue and twin sons Alex and Johnny.

Part 1: THE ECONOMIC AND BUSINES ENVIRONMENT - SETTING THE SCENE
1. What is Business Economics
2. The Business Environment
3. Economics and Business Decision-Making
Part 2: MICROECONOMICS - THE MARKET SYSTEM
4. Supply and Demand I: How markets work
5. Elasticity and its applications
Part 3: MICROECONOMICS - THE ECONOMICS OF FIRMS IN MARKETS
6. Firm Behaviour and the organization of industry
7. Business goals and behaviour
8. The Firm’s Production Decisions
9. Corporate strategy and pricing policy
10. Market Structures
11. Other types of imperfect competition
Part 4: MICROECONOMICS - THE LIMITATIONS OF MARKETS
12. Market failure
13. The Consumer and Consumer Behaviour
Part 5: MICROECONOMICS - FACTOR MARKETS
14. Labour markets
15. Financial markets
Part 6: AN INTRODUCTION TO MACROECONOMICS
16. Macroeconomic Concepts
17. Macroeconomics - Aggregate supply and demand
18. Macroeconomics - Employment and unemployment
19. Macroeconomics - Inflation and price stability
20. Macroeconomics - Fiscal, monetary and supply side policy
Part 7: GLOBAL BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
21. The global economy