Help For Your Introductory Economics Course

Another big week on deck in ECO-201.  Here is your list of resources to help get you through it! Milestone Three Resources: How to Write an Exemplary “Costs of Production” section (sample paper included) ***Make sure to use the link to the Excel Spreadsheet that can be found in the General Questions Discussion Board or in the Announcements*** Finding Market Share Data for Your Firm How to Write an Exemplary “Overall Market” section (sample paper included) Determining Market Structure for Milestone 3 Using the Four Firm Concentration Ratio to Determine Market Structure (flow chart included) How to Write an Exemplary “Recommendation” section Tips on Milestones Two and Three: Help With Using Financial Statements Milestone Three Guidelines and Rubric Milestone Three video The ECO YouTube Channel for recordings of webinars in previous terms How to Find What You Need from the Library for your Research Paper

Here is one more milestone three tip that I’d like to share in order to help you determine the market structure of your industry. Perfect Competition and Monopoly markets are very rare, so it is most likely that your firm operates in a monopolistically competitive industry or in an oligopolistic industry. How do you figure out which market fits your firm’s industry? A great way to do this is by utilizing the four firm concentration ratio. Suppose that the distribution of sales in an industry is as shown in the chart below (market share). You should have already found the market share data for your industry in a previous critical element, but if you are working out of order or skipped over that element, here are some tips on how to find the market share for your industry. What is the four-firm concentration ratio for this industry? To find this, we add up the market share percentage for the top 4 firms. Four firm concentration ratio = 20% + 18% + 12% + 10% = 60% If the top four firms m...

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 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...