Econ 3 Business Economics and the Distribution of Income

Econ 3 Business Economics and the Distribution of Income

1. The Firm: Objectives, Costs and Revenues

   • The Objectives of Firms
   • The Divorce of Ownership and Control
   • The Law of Diminishing Returns and Return to Scale
   • Fixed and Variable Costs, Marginal Costs, Average and total Costs, Short run costs, Long run costs
   • Economies and Diseconomies of Scale
   • Technological Change
   • Total Average and Marginal Revenues

2. Competitive Markets

   • The Model of Perfect Competition
   • Competition and the Efficient Allocation of Resources
   • The Dynamics of Competition and Competitive Market Processes

3. Concentrated Markets

   • Monopoly
     • Sources of Monopoly Power
   • Oligopoly
     • Collusive and Non Collusive
     • Interdependence
     • Price discrimination
     • Contestible and Non contestible markets
   • Price Makers and Price Takers
   • The Growth of Firms
   • Market Structure, Static Efficiency, Dynamic Efficiency and Resource Allocation

4. The Labour Force

   • The Demand for Labour, Marginal and Productivity theory
   • influences on the Supply of labour
   • The determination of Relative Wage Levels and Levels of Employment in Perfectly competitive Labour Markets
   • The determination of Relative Wages Levels and Levels of Employment in Imperfectly competitive labour Markets
   • The influence of Trade Unions in Determining Wage and Levels of Employment
   • The Impact of the National Minimum Wage Rate
   • Discrimination in the Labour Market
   • The Distribution of Income and Wealth

5. Government intervention in the Market

   • Market Failure and Government Failure
   • Competition Policy
   • Public Ownership, Privatisation, Regulation and Deregulation
     • Government Policies to Alleviate Poverty and to Influence the distribution of Income and Wealth
   • Notions of Equity
   • The Problem of Poverty
   • Cost Benefit Analysis