Help For Your Introductory Economics Course

Milestone One: Expedia Example.  For the accompanying video that explains this paper, please view on YouTube here and here . Microeconomic Analysis of Expedia Expedia Group is off to an excellent start in 2018. Reports from the first quarter show year-over-year growth rates of 15% in revenue, gross bookings, and room nights (Investors Overview, n.d.). As a consultant hired by Expedia Group I will be analyzing market and business data in order to make recommendations to ensure Expedia’s future success and sustainability in the market. This paper will provide a brief overview of the firm before diving into Expedia’s demand trends over the last 5 years, supply and demand conditions, and the price elasticity of demand for their products. A discussion of the costs of production will follow with an in depth look at variable costs, fixed costs, and the impact to profitability. The overall market section will include a discussion of the market share, barriers to entry, and market structur...

If you have not yet selected a firm for your final paper, these companies have proven successful for this assignment by previous students and all on this list are publicly traded, US-based companies. Their products and markets are easy to identify and analyze with the microeconomic tools developed in this course. If you would like to choose a company not on this list, please work with me to make sure it’s a good fit for the assignment. List of Pre-Approved Companies to use for your ECO-201 Final Paper 1. Starbucks 2. Nike 3. Southwest Airlines 4. Netflix 5. Ford 6. GM 7. Under Armour 8. Chipotle 9. American Outdoor Brands (formerly Smith and Wesson) 10. Coca Cola 11. Whole Foods 12. Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) 13. Anheuser-Busch 14. First Solar 15. Tesla 16. Wendy’s 17. McDonalds 18. Harley Davidson 19. Campbells 20. UPS 21. Goodyear 22. Hasbro 23. EA If any of these options interest you, then you can go ahead and email your selection to me and get start...

In this portion of your paper you will need to accurately assess how the price elasticity of demand impacts the firm’s pricing decisions and revenue growths. A good place to look to help you answer this question is in section 6.3 of your text: The Relationship between Price Elasticity of Demand and Total Revenue (pg. 181-184). When you write this section you should already have used several of the 5 determinants of elasticity of demand to determine whether or not your firm’s product faces an elastic or inelastic demand curve. If you are struggling with that section, look for an announcement posted this week that goes through these 5 determinates at length. Before we get into the relationship between elasticity of demand and total revenue, we should first understand what total revenue is and how it is calculated. Total revenue is the total amount of funds a seller receives from selling a good or service, which is calculated by multiplying the price per unit by the number of units sold. ...

Target (Example) • For finding Revenue you should find the Income Statement for your firm. The Income Statement (example below) is where you will find Revenues (needed for Milestone Two), Costs (needed for Milestone Three), and Net Earnings (or “Profit”). The first line will show you the revenue (or sales) and the line immediately below the total sales will show you the Costs of Goods Sold (COGS). Sometimes this is also called Cost of Revenue or Cost of Sales. These are the VARIABLE COSTS that your firms face, which is important in Milestone 3! Right beneath your variable costs you should see Selling General and Administrative expenses (SG&A), which are your FIXED COSTS. There is another post that explains why fixed and variable costs differ, but for now I want to focus on where you will see these costs on your Income Statement. • Notice for Total Revenues it shows from 2009 to 2014. If there isn’t a chart provided in the income statement that shows that trend you’ll need to cre...

In order to receive an exemplary score on this portion of your paper, you’ll need to meet the following criteria: -Analyze the various costs a firm faces, their trends over time, and how they have impacted the firm’s profitability using concrete examples to substantiate claims. To help complete this section, you’ll need to view the income statement for you firm, preferably for the last five years (if available). The income statement is a financial statement that shows a firm’s revenues, costs, and profit over a period of time. You can use the income statement (or other research, if available) to see how different production costs have changed over time. For help with understanding the income statement, see page 266 in your text. Remember to discuss how the costs have impacted the firm’s profitability. Profit is equal to total revenue minus total costs. -Accurately apply the concepts of fixed and variable costs to the firm for informing its output decisions and provides insight into h...

There are five determinants that we can use to determine whether the demand for your product is likely to be elastic or inelastic. You should cover at least two or three of the following characteristics to receive a score of proficient (or all five to receive an exemplary) and apply them to your product to support your determination of elastic or inelastic demand. Here is an example of the application of these determinants to gasoline, as we previously covered in a discussion board assignment. The availability of close substitutes to the good : Thinking back to module two, we learned that substitutes are goods and services that can be used for the same purpose.  If consumers have few options for substitutes, as in the case of gasoline, when the price rises the quantity demanded only falls slightly.  If few substitutes are available, the demand for the good tends to be more inelastic.  The demand for a good with many substitutes tends to be more elastic. The passage of ti...

There are various elements you must meet in the Overall Market section of your paper. I will summarize these requirements here, and then you can use the corresponding numbers (in bold) to find examples of each within the sample paper that follows. Market Share Market share is the percentage of an industry or market's total sales that is earned by a particular company over a specified time period. Market share is calculated by taking the company's sales over the period and dividing it by the total sales of the industry over the same period. You’ll need to cover the following in your paper: (1) Discuss the market share of the firm and its top competitors (2) Provide detail on the current percentages for your firm and its top competitors ( For more detail on finding market share data, take a look at this post .) (3) Present the data graphically (4) Describe the trend over time Barriers to Entry Barriers to entry represent something that keeps new firms from entering a...

There are various elements you must meet in the Recommendations section of your paper. I will summarize these requirements here, and then you can use the corresponding numbers (in bold) to find examples of each within the sample paper that follows. Recommendation for Future Production (1) Effectively develop a recommendation for how the firm can manage its future production by incorporating the data presented (2) Relate the recommendation to the economic principles presented in the paper Recommended Action (3) Suggest how the firm’s position within the market and among its competitors will allow it to take the recommended action (4) Provide advice for how the firm can strengthen its position in the market Recommendation to Sustain its Success (5) Describes how the firm can sustain its success going forward by evaluating the demand trends and price elasticity (6) Provides specific ideas for how the firm can sustain its success Here is an example of an exemplary Recommen...

Finding Market Share Data for Your Firm Statista is one of the best resources to find market data for your firm.  To access it, click on the A-Z Database List in the Quick Links box on the library home page . When the list of databases comes up, click on the letter "S" and then scroll to the bottom of the databases beginning with "S" and click on Statista . Simply type in the company name and the words "market share" into the search bar. If you can’t find what you’re looking for through Statista… Other databases available from the A-Z Database List that have market share information include: IBISWorld (search by company name and industries will come up; select an industry and then click on the "Major Companies" tab to view a bar graph and company descriptions of major market share holders) and   Mintel Reports (type in company name and "market share" and click on appropriate results).  Even with this criteria, the market share fo...