Download Economics of Technology and Management

Economics of Technology and Management
Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering – Sapienza University of Rome
Settore scientifico‐disciplinare: ING‐IND/35 Ingegneria Economico‐Gestionale
Teacher: Tiziana D’Alfonso (soon my personal website)
Learning outcomes
Students are expected to be able at examining firms' decision-making processes and markets. In
particular, attention is devoted to:
- microeconomic analysis of the firm (technology, production and costs) and markets (competitive
markets, monopoly, monopolistic competition)
- accounting
- corporate finance and investment decisions
Prerequisites
Fundamentals of optimization
Program
Technology
Technological sets and production function. Total, average and marginal productivity. Isoquants and
marginal rate of technical substitution. Elasticity of substitution and types of technology. Long run vs
short run. Returns to scale and returns to varying proportions. Elasticity of scale. Technological
Progress. High tech labour vs low tech labour.
Costs
The cost function and isocosts. Conditional input demands and Shephard’s lemma. Price and output
elasticity of input demands. Expansion path. Short run vs long run cost functions. Total costs. Variable,
fixed and quasi-fixed costs. Sunk costs. Average and marginal costs. Economies of scale and the
minimum efficient scale. Economies of scope and learning curves
Profits
Economic profits and opportunity costs. Profit maximization in the long run. Duality of production,
cost and profit functions. Hotelling’s lemma. Short run profit maximization. Profit maximization and
return to scales. Supply curves and producer’s surplus. Short run vs long run supply curves.
Competitive markets
Market demand. Individual supply and market supply. Perfect competition. Short run and long run
market equilibrium. Meaning of 0-profits. Pareto efficiency
Monopoly
Demand elasticity. Elasticity and revenues. The monopolist maximization problem. Inefficiency of
monopoly and deadweight loss. Causes of monopoly. Subadditivity of costs and economies of scale.
Natural monopoly. Price discrimination (first degree, second degree, third degree).
Innovation
Product innovation vs process innovation. Drastic innovation. Willingness to pay for innovation.
Innovation and market structure.
Value
Future Values and Present Values. Net Present Value. Risk and Present Value. Present Values and
Rates of Return. Calculating Present Values When There Are Multiple Cash Flows. The Opportunity
Cost of Capital. Perpetuities and Annuities. Continuous Compounding. Real and Nominal Rates of
Interest. Calculating the Present Value of an Investment.
Financial accounting
The Balance Sheet and Account Categories: Assets, Liabilities, Owners 'Equity. The Income Statement:
Revenues, Cost of Sales, Gross Margin, Expenses, Net Income. Relation between Balance Sheet and
Income Statement. The Statement of Cash Flows. Misconceptions about Depreciation. Sources and
Uses of Cash. Working capital flows. Analysis of the Cash Flow Statement.
Investment Decisions
Net Present Value and Other Investment Criteria. Discounted Payback. Internal Rate of Return. Pitfalls
of IRR. Making Investment Decisions with the Net Present Value. Relevance of Cash Flow. Estimation
of Cash Flows on an Incremental Basis. Treating of Inflation. Investment Timing. Equivalent Annual
Cash Flows and Inflation. Equivalent Annual Cash Flow and Technological Change
Textbooks
1) Varian, H. R., Intermediate microeconomics: a modern approach (8th Edition). WW Norton &
Company.
Available
at:
https://www.academia.edu/6541818/Intermediate_Microeconomics_8th_Edition_A_Modern_Appr
oach
Cap:
1: The market
14: Consumer's surplus
15: Market demand
16: Equilibrium
18: Technology
19: Profit maximization
20: Cost minimization
21: Cost curves
22: Firm Supply
23: Industry Supply
24: Monopoly
25: Monopoly behaviour
2) Robert N Anthony, David Hawkins and Kenneth A. Merchant, Accounting: Texts And Cases (13th
Edition). Mc Graw Hill.
Cap:
2: Basic accounting concepts: the balance sheet
3:Basic accounting concepts: the income statement
5: Revenue and monetary assets
6: Cost of sales and inventories
7: Long-lived non monetary assets and their amortization
8: Sources of capital: debt
9: Sources of capital: equity
11: The statement of cash flows
13: Financial statements analysis
3) Brealey, R. A., Myers, S. C., Allen, F., Principles of corporate finance (12th Edition). Mc Graw Hill.
2: How to Calculate Present Values
5: Net Present Value and Other Investment Criteria
6: Making Investment Decisions with the Net Present Value Rule
4) Cases and material provided by the teacher