ECO 6301 III

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Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

1. Evaluate the ethical outcomes of free market outcomes using supply and demand models. 1.1 Differentiate the two main approaches to ethics. 1.2 Discuss how free markets create wealth.

6. Analyze the basis of trade.

6.1 Explain opportunity costs. 6.2 Differentiate costs important for decision-making and trade from costs unimportant for decision-

making and trade.

Required Unit Resources Chapter 1: Solving Problems with Economics (ULO 1.1) Chapter 2: The One Lesson of Business (ULO 1.2) Chapter 3: Benefits, Costs, and Decisions (ULOs 6.1 and 6.2)

Unit Lesson Welcome to Economics for Managers (ULOs 1.1, 1.2, 6.1, 6.2) This unit lesson will give you an overview of what to expect in this course and introduce you to concepts covered in this unit.

Welcome MBA Students! Students, the following welcome video introduces you to the Columbia Southern University Master of Business Program with a summary of the program..

APA Use in Academic Writing Before getting into course content, here is some information on research, APA format, and other resources to assist you with your academic progression in the program. Research and citing sources is very important in an academic program. Academics is about learning and expanding knowledge. This is done through research. That research also has to be of an appropriate and high quality. You probably would not want to ask your baker for advice on fixing a leaky faucet. Likewise, you probably would not want to ask your plumber to bake you a cake. Similarly, simply opening up an Internet search engine, typing in a question, and opening the first couple of links that come up is not research. You need to ensure you are using trusted sources. The best sources for conducting research are peer-reviewed journals. These are articles that have been written by scholars and reviewed by other scholars for accuracy. You might find that some assignments (in any of your courses) require information that does not fit in peer- reviewed journals. Information about current events, for example, is not likely to be found in a journal article. For these, you can use trusted periodicals, such as Forbes, The Economist, and The New York Times. Be careful, however, as there is a lot more than just current event information. These sources often have

UNIT I STUDY GUIDE

Problem Solving and Decision-Making

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editorials and other opinion pieces. These articles get into the realm of theory, but they are not academic articles and should not be used to support theory. A final type of source that can have useful information is government websites. Government institutions often produce important data on the economy that are important to business decision-making. As with news sources, government sources need to be used appropriately. When pulling data or information on government actions, government websites are appropriate. When evaluating the effect of government policies, government sources are not unbiased and, thus, are not an acceptable source of information. An excellent source for learning more about research strategies specifically in the CSU Online Library is the Database Search Strategies video (Transcript for Database Search Strategies video). Now that you have your research, you need to cite it and reference it. Columbia Southern University uses APA Style. Citing is important because it tells the reader where information came from and enables the reader to look up the sources to evaluate them. The formatting of the references and citations is important because consistency ensures the necessary information is provided and allows the reader to know exactly where to look for the information on the source they need. The CSU Writing Center has several examples within its Learning Resources page for writing in APA Style. Below are a few highlights of the resources available from the Writing Center. Essays, research papers, case studies, and other written assignments should have a few standard features: a title page, running head, and page numbers. These are illustrated in the Title Page Example. Research is an important part of academic work and how that research is cited is an important part of APA writing. APA Style uses parenthetical in-text citations with the author’s last name and year of publication. For example, an in-text citation of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations would be (Smith, 1776). Some sources have multiple authors or other different rules for citing. The Writing Center’s Citation Guide has specific guidelines for different situations. One other point to stress, in-text citations should be used whenever information from a source is used. This does not just mean only for direct quotes but for paraphrased material as well. In fact, quoting should be avoided. Information from sources should be paraphrased rather than quoted. Paraphrasing, rewording content into your own words, demonstrates an understanding of the material. Quoting simply demonstrates an ability to copy and paste. The Writing Center’s tutorial on Paraphrasing will show you how to (and how not to) paraphrase. One effective rule for paraphrasing and avoiding plagiarism is to research, read, reflect, and then write. Reflecting on readings, then putting the research away, forces the writer to explain what they read rather than copying it. If a writer cannot explain what he or she has read, then the writer does not actually understand the material. If a source is cited in a paper (any one of the example assignments listed above and more), the source should appear in a reference page at the end of the paper (not a bibliography, not a works cited, but a references page). A references page is specifically for sources referred to in a paper. If it is not referred to, it does not belong within the list of references. The Writing Center provides many examples of references for a variety of different sources under the APA Individual Reference Examples on the Learning Resources page in the myCSU Student Portal. The most important reference to become familiar with as an academic writer is the reference for a journal article. Here is an example of the proper way to reference a journal article: Evans, C., & Evans, G. (2019). Adverse childhood experiences and public service motivation. Public

Personnel Management, 48(2), 123–146. Business Source Ultimate database. There is more detail in the Writing Center, but there are a few important points to make. References should have enough information for the reader to evaluate the source and find it if they so desire. Links can be unreliable and, by themselves, do not give enough information to evaluate the source. Notice how the second line is indented. This is called a hanging indent. The first line of a reference should not be indented but

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subsequent lines of that reference should be. Finally, references on a reference page must be listed in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author of each source. Another important part of APA Style is the proper formatting and use of headings. Headings can serve as a good guide for a paper. When writing a paper, they keep the writer focused. When reading a paper, they give the reader a roadmap for what they are reading. The most common heading is a Level 1 heading. A Level 1 heading should be centered and boldface with uppercase and lowercase letters. For example:

APA Formatting A Level 2 heading should be left-aligned and boldface with uppercase and lowercase letters. For example: Heading Levels APA Style has five levels of headings. The Formatting Formal Assignments tutorial covers most of the important APA Style formatting for assignments at Columbia Southern University, such as the running head, abstracts, level headings, hanging indent, and more. You can easily navigate to the desired APA element by selecting it in the table of contents on the right side of the screen. Also, it is a good idea to view a Sample Paper with Proper APA Formatting. Finally, it is recommended that you read and print this CSU Library Resource and letter from MBA Lead Faculty, Dr. Evans, before continuing on to the business content of this lesson.

Basis for Trade When people hear the word trade, particularly in an economics context, they often think of it in an international context. Certainly international trade is an important topic in economics, and one this course will cover. But trade happens all around us, all the time, and on very small levels. A basic tenant of economics is that trade is beneficial. Economists often show this with fairly complicated math, but it can be shown with some fairly simple reasoning. A simple way to think about trade being beneficial is that if it was not, people would not do it. Now, this does not mean that people do not get buyer’s remorse or sometimes regret engaging in a trade, but they at least expected to benefit from the trade at the time of the trade. If they regularly lost in a trade or regretted the trade, they would stop trading. For another example of how people benefit from trade, consider the following example: A person, call this Person A, buys a pack of Starburst and sits down on a park bench. There happens to be another person, call this Person B, on the park bench who also just bought a pack of Starburst. The two strike up a conversation and find out that Person A’s favorite flavor is cherry (also known as red), and Person B’s favorite flavor is orange (also known as orange). Further, Person A’s least favorite flavor is orange, and Person B’s least favorite flavor is cherry. The two decide they could trade their reds and oranges. Now Person A has twice as many reds as before and no oranges, and Person B has twice as many oranges as before and no reds. Who wins in this trade? They both win. Both get more of what they like and have less of what they do not like. Who wins more? Impossible to determine. Even if it was a lopsided trade (say 4 oranges for 2 reds), the winner could not be determined. To know that, comparable values of the reds and the oranges to each person would have to be known. It is possible that Person A really dislikes the oranges so getting rid of them is almost costless, but Person B might kind of like the reds, so giving them up is a bit more of a burden. This is an important point with trade. In this example, there are no winners and losers, there are only winners. As stated previously, if they did not both win, then at least one of the parties would not have engaged in the trade. Here is a quick point on who loses from the trade because this is where the controversial nature of international trade agreements originates. Assume Person B had a regular trading partner for the Starbursts. Call this Person C. But in their regular trade, they traded four reds for four oranges. Now that Person B has

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found Person A, Person B is able to trade only two reds for four oranges. This is certainly a better trade for Person B. So now Person B trades with Person A and does not trade with Person C. Person C is left out of the trade and thus loses from the trade agreement. But their loss is not from participating in trade, it is from not participating in trade. The idea of trade arises from opportunity costs. Opportunity costs are the value of what you give up to get something else. In the case of the above trade, when Person B trades with Person C, Person B gives up four reds to get four oranges. But when Person B trades with Person A, Person B only gives up two reds to get four oranges. That is, Person B chooses to trade with Person A because doing so means Person B has a lower opportunity cost to acquire the four oranges. Every trade is based on opportunity cost, even if it is not obvious. When a working parent decides to grab fast food dinner on the way home, it is, in part at least, because the time saved cooking (and potentially grocery shopping) is worth more than the cost of the meal. By paying attention to opportunity costs, workers are able to specialize in their production and be more productive. This additional productivity means more production for society to consume, thus making society better. This is why capitalism and markets work so well at generating wealth. People are able to determine for themselves where their lowest opportunity costs are. If they make mistakes, they can change what they do until they figure it out. Other systems, based on government control and centralized planning, require the planners to make correct choices, not just for themselves, but for everybody in the economy. Sometimes, the planners might get things right, but often they will get things wrong. If the planners do not make correct decisions, they have to recognize the errors and make changes. This can often be a slow process, if it is undertaken at all. The market approach will often lead to uneven results. This shows up in increasing income inequality, but it also shows up in declining poverty rates. Much like the trade example above, some might nominally win more than others, but everybody benefits.

Reference StosselClassroomDVDs. (2017, November 6). SITC contests - price gouging [Video].

https://c24.page/vnkuyfn7saznfqhhgzzcn8dw6

Suggested Unit Resources Video: SITC Contests – Price Gouging (Optional) In this video, John Stossel speaks with economists as well as the attorney general of Mississippi regarding price gouging after natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina. A transcript and closed-captioning are available once you access the video.

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Learning Activities (Nongraded) Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information. Two nongraded learning activities focused on the use of APA Style are provided for you in this unit.

1. In order to check your understanding of several of the APA concepts covered in this unit, complete the Unit I APA Check For Understanding activity.

Unit I Activity Alternate Format PDF NOTE: Be sure to maximize your internet browser so that no part of the presentation gets cut off.

2. To practice APA Style and library research, write a brief paper in APA Style summarizing the

arguments in two papers. To find these two papers, use the database search function in the library. (Note that the following information does not constitute complete references.) This is just enough information to help you find the articles.

Sorrentino, N. (2019) in Independent Review Hodgson, G. (2019) in Independent Review Be sure to use a title page, page numbers, properly formatted in-text citations, properly formatted reference page, and properly formatted headings. Two pages would be a good length, but again, this is a nongraded activity. In order to receive feedback on this activity, you will need to email your practice paper to your professor as there is nowhere to submit a nongraded activity to your professor within Blackboard.