Economics Subjects at the AGSM

AS WELL AS the subjects offered in the full-time MBA program, which are outlined below, the Cluster also offers subjects in the Executive MBA program, and the Executive Programs, as well as doctoral study in Economics at the AGSM.

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Full-Time MBA Program:

Suggested progression of gateway and electives.

SUBJECTS

MFP: Economic and Strategic Thinking

• When: Term 1
• Instructor: Chongwoo Choe
• Objectives:
• Applications: one of the eight core courses, required for all first-year full-time MBA students.

Managerial Economics

• When: Term 3
• Instructor: Chongwoo Choe
• Objectives: The prime elective of Economics at the AGSM: the prerequisite or corequisite of all other Economics elective subjects. A formalisation of microeconomics.
  
  • Foundations of managerial economics: techniques for managerial decision making and the analysis of markets;
  • Market structure and managerial decisions: diverse pricing techniques and strategic issues in various market settings;
  • Managerial decisions in organizations: private information, organization design and incentive compensation
• Applications: A foundation not just for later Economics electives, but also for Finance, Marketing, and Strategy subjects.
• Assessment: assignments, mid-term exam, final exam.

Strategic Game Theory for Managers

• When: Term 3 or Term 5
• Instructor: Bob Marks
• Objectives: For tools to better understand strategic interactions between firms, individuals, countries. Include game trees, payoff matrices. Positive-sum interactions, or win-win situations. Auctions, bargaining, information.
• Applications: For all managers. For all consultants.
• Assessment: a term project (singly or in pairs), and three assignments.
• Outcomes:
  93% positive responses for subject
  74% positive responses for lecturer (Bob Marks)

Economic Investment Appraisal

• When: Term 2 or Term 6
• Instructors: Bob Marks
• Objectives: Beyond the bottom line: to understand the wider social implications of firms' decisions; to understand the distinctions between financial appraisal and social cost-benefit analysis. Multi-attribute decision making.
• Applications: For general managers concerned with government-business relations. Essential for market consultants.
• Assessment: a term project (singly or in pairs), a mid-term exam, and an assignment.
• Outcomes:
  98% positive responses for subject
  90% positive responses for lecturer (Bob Marks)

Macroeconomics for Managers

• When: Term 2 or Term 6
• Instructors: Associate Professor Jeff Sheen
• Objectives: To understand how and why government macro policies affect firms. The character of the business cycle. The meaning and measurement of interest rates, inflation, growth, foreign exchange issues, unemployment, savings; how these are influenced.
• Applications: For general managers in all companies. For all business consultants.
• Assessment:

Industry Economics

• When: Term 4
• Instructors: Robin Stonecash
• Objectives: To understand issues of structure, conduct, and performance of firms and industries. Market efficiency. Competition and trade-practices policy. Profitability, efficiency, and competition in an industry.
• Applications: For market-oriented general managers in private and public firms. Essential for market consultants.
• Assessment:

Incentives, Contracts, and Economics

• When: Term 5
• Instructors: Robin Stonecash
• Objectives: To look inside the firm or organisation and understand its structure and internal contracts. Issues of coordinating employees and ensuring their performance, using economic tools.
• Applications: For line managers in any firm or organisation. For organisational consultants.
• Assessment:

Trade & International Business

• When: Term 4, 2002
• Objectives: To understand the opportunities and constraints of firms operating internationally. How and why firms engage in international trade, and the growth of trade with globalisation.
• Applications: For managers in trans- and multi-national firms, and involved with international financing. For consultants who work in Australian-Asian trade opportunities.
• Assessment:

Systems, Strategy and Sustainability

• When: Not currently offered.
• Instructors: Paul Martin, Bob Marks, Marc Orlitzky, James Carlopio
• Objectives: The objectives of this subject are:
  a. to provide an integrated perspective on issues of ecological sustainability, social equity, and economic performance;
  b. to point the way towards opportunities which may arise at the intersection between these considerations; and
  c. to provide students with tools (VenSim) to allow them to engage constructively with complex systems management issues.
• Student Outcomes: At the end of this subject students should expect that they will have the following competences.
  a. An ability to map out system relationships for the purpose of understanding complex relationships and determining management approaches to complex problems.
  b. The capacity to perceive and explain the interconnection between natural systems, social systems, and decision/action systems.
  c. The capacity to design strategies which can bring into alignment the requirements of sustainability, social equity, and the financial performance of organisations.
• Assessment: Assessment of the student's achievement of the outcomes noted above is through the satisfactory completion of a project, within which the student will analyse a complex sustainability/systems issue, through to the generation of an actionable strategy. This will be done in a number of stages throughout the subject. The overall criteria for judging this work will be whether the student has been able to demonstrate:
  1. an understanding of systems thinking, and its use in understanding the interaction between natural systems, individual and organisation decision systems, and social systems.
  2. insightful identification of system elements, interactions, and processes which underpin the behaviour of that system; and
  3. the capacity to determine actionable sustainability-promoting strategies on the basis of this analysis.

Managerial Decision Making

• When: Not currently offered.
• Objectives: This is joint with OB: a synthesis! To understand how decision are made, including errors and traps that intuitive decisions may lead to. To understand how rational decisions may be made, with tools such as influence diagrams, decision trees, and the value of information.
• Applications: For line managers, and personnel managers. For all consultants.
• Assessment:

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