The purpose of this book is to show how economic analysis can be used in formulating business policies. The book draws upon economic analysis for the concepts of demand, cost, profit, competition, and so on, that are appropriate for the development, of an economic approach to executive decisions. Although the text is preoccupied with concepts rather than detailed techniques of estimation, it concentrates on those concepts that can be measured and applied to management problems.

The book does not attempt to cover all aspects of either management or economics: it deals with those phases of enterprise economics that are particularly useful to the management of a large industrial corporation. The author’s endeavour successfully bridges the gap between the problems of logic that intrigue economic theorists and the problems of policies that plague practical management needs in order to give executive access to the practical contributions that economic thinking can make to top-management policies.

CONTENTS:

1. Profits—Introduction, Nature of Profits, Profit Measurement, Policies on Profit Maximization, Profits for Control.
2. Competition—Introduction, Kinds of Competitive Situations, Destructive Competition, The Nature of Monopoly and Oligopoly, Market. Structure and Competitive Behavior, The Monopoly Problem, Measuring the Concentration of Economic Power.
3. Multiple Products—Introduction, Opportunities for Multiple Products, Policy on Adding New Products, Policy on Dropping Old Products, Summary.
4. Demand Analysis—Introduction, Demand Theory, Methods of Forecasting Demand, Price Relations, Income Relations, Multiple Relations, Demand for Automobiles, Demand for Steel.
5. Cost—Introduction, Cost Concepts, Cost and Rate of Output, Cost and Size of Plant, Costs of Multiple Products, Cost and Profit Forecasting
6. Advertising—Introduction, Contribution of Economic Theory, Methods for Determining Total Advertising Budget, Cyclical Fluctuations of Advertising, Measuring the Economic Effects of Advertising.
7. Basic Price Introduction, Pricing Products of Lasting Distinctiveness, Pricing Products of Perishable Distinctiveness, Pricing Standard Products When Competitors Are Few, Cost-Plus Pricing, Cyclical Pricing
8. Product-Line Pricing—Introduction, General Considerations in Product-Line Pricing. Specific, Problems of Product-Line Pricing.
9. Price Differentials—Introduction, Distributor Discounts, Quantity Discounts, Cash Discounts, Geographical Price Differentials.
10. Capital Budgeting—Introduction, Demand for Capital, Supply of Capital, Capital Rationing, Classification of Capital Expenditures.