Chapter 1

1. Chapter 1 • Introduction to Managerial Economics • Structure of Decision Models • Profit’s Role • Agency Problems & Solutions • Not-for-Profit Organizations • Why Corporations Have Succeeded Over Other Organizational Forms

2. Managerial EconomicsAn Applied Course Integrates the use of economics, math, and financial analysis to make good business decisions

3. TOPICS • Demand and Supply Analysis and how to estimated elasticities • Production and Cost Analysis and how to estimate relationships • Monopoly, Competition, and Oligopolies and how to make good pricing decisions

4. Economic Decisions CONSTRAINTS GOALS & OBJECTIVES • Constraints -- limitations of time, energy, money, productive capacity, regulatory climate, etc. • Information -- forecasting, relationships, expectations, possible retaliation by rivals, etc. INFORMATION

5. 管理經濟的定義 • 管理經濟學是一門研究如何使用有限資源，以達到成本效率管理的科學 • 有限 • 目的：有成本效益的管理，充分利用資金，不一定是有效果，最重要的是要有成本效益 • 技術人員經常忽視關鍵：用最大的發動機、用功能強大的伺服器，但卻忽略了成本問題 • 資源：財務、人力、其他資源 • 區別 • 有效果 • 有成本效益

6. Objectives of the Firm • Profit maximization • Shareholder wealth The value of the firm =V0 (shares outstanding), is the present value of expected future profits or cash flows, discounted at the shareholders required rate of return, ke, ignoring taxes. V0 (shares outstanding) = t /(1+ke) t t=1

7. Goals or Objectives • Maximize Present Value of Profits = N (Revenuet - Costst) / (1+ke)t t=1 • Decision Model Language: • Objective Function = sets up the goals & the constraints • Decision Rule = shows what is optimal

8. EXAMPLE: MAX { A, B } • simple objective function, simple decision rule • Pick A if profit {A} > profit {B}, otherwise pick B. • Max Profit { Q} for a competitive firm • produce where P = MC MC P Profit = TR - TC = P•Q - TC Q- Q Q+

9. To make good economic decisions, managers need to be able to forecast & estimate relationships • Will be forecasting demand • applies to for-profit corporations • non-profit organizations • Hospital Administrators -- # patients • University Administrator -- enrollment • Regression analysis, time series methods, and qualitative forecasting methods used for forecasting

10. The Role of Profits • Economic Cost(or opportunity cost) is the highest valued benefit that must be sacrificed as a result of choosing an alternative. • Economic profitis the difference between revenues and total economic cost (including the economic or opportunity cost of owner supplied resources such as time and capital.

11. Theories of Why Profit Varies Across Industries • RISK-BEARING THEORY • DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM (or FRICTIONAL) THEORY OF PROFIT • MONOPOLY THEORY OF PROFIT • INNOVATION THEORY OF PROFIT • MANAGERIAL EFFICIENCY THEORY OF PROFIT

12. Agency Problems • Modern corporations allow managers to have no, or limited, ownership participation in the profitability of the firm. • Shareholders may want profits, but managers may wish to relax. • The shareholders are principals, whereas the managers are agents. • Conflicting motivations between these groups are called agency problems.

13. The Principal-Agent Problem • Shareholders (principals) want profit • Managers (agents) want leisure & security • Examples • KKR’s takeover of RJR Nabisco to refocus on wealth-maximization • The LBO by O.M. Scott from ITT improved Scott’s performance

14. Solutions to Agency Problems • Compensationas incentive • Extending to all workers stock options, bonuses, and grants of stock • Help make workers act as owners of firm • Incentives to help the company, because that improves the value of stock options and bonuses.

15. What Went Right?What Went Wrong? • Saturn Corporation • Different kind of car company in 1991 • No-haggle pricing • Sales were above expectations • But, margin of only $400 per car to GM • GM earned only 3% on capital • Saturn customers wanted bigger Saturns rather than trade up to Buick, as GM hoped. • When the dollar appreciated, Japanese firms could price their cars more competitively.

16. Shareholder Wealth Maximization: Conditions • COMPLETE MARKETS -liquid markets for firm's inputs and by-products (including polluting by-products). • NO SIGNIFICANTASYMMETRIC INFORMATION - buyers and sellers all know the same things. • KNOWN RECONTRACTING COSTSfuture input costs are part of the present value of expected cash flows.

17. Goals in the Public Sector and the Not-For-Profit (NFP) Enterprise Instead of profit, NFP organizations may have as their goals: 1. Maximization of the quantity of output, subject to a breakeven constraint. 2. Maximization of the utility (happiness) of NFP administrators. 3. Maximization of cash flows. 4. Maximization of the utility of contributors to the NFP organization.

18. Which goal a NFP manager selects affects decisions made. • A food shelter manager may decide to maximize the utility of contributors by selecting only "healthy foods" • Public sector managers are performance monitored. • V.A. hospital administrators are rewarded by reducing the cost per bedover a year. Hence, they become efficient with respect to costs. • The"friendliness"of the hospital staff is harder to measure, so friendliness will tend not be a high priority of the public sector manager.

19. 新經濟與傳統經濟 • 網路效果：供應者提供產品的利益在於使用者人數的多寡 • 詳細討論網路效果：第十二章外部性 • 電話服務 • 電子郵件服務 • 規模經濟與多角化經濟 • 提供訊息的規模經濟：比較 • 雅虎 • 圖書館員的的服務