Managerial economics utilizes tools from economic theory and econometrics to derive optimal solutions to managerial decision problems.

Read the background material and then write a 3 to 4 page report describing the diverse tools that managerial economics uses to derive optimal solutions, i.e., explain, using a variety of examples, the main tools of economic theory (the theory of markets, the role of prices, and the drive to profit maximization). Then express your views on the following questions:

• Are these concepts, tools and methodologies universal? That is, do they apply to any institutions? For example, do they apply to the military? Or to City Hall? If not, should they?
• Can a company that operates in the market afford to be inefficient (i.e., to waste resources)? For how long? What about the military? Or City Hall? That is, what are the forces and incentives that, in your opinion, are present in the market and absent in the military and in City Hall?

SLP Assignment Expectations

In the Module 1 SLP Assignment, you are expected to:

• Describe the purpose of the paper and provide a conclusion.
• Present information in a professional manner.
• Answer the SLP Assignment question clearly and provide necessary details.
• Write clearly and correctly—that is, no poor sentence structure, no spelling and grammar mistakes, and no run-on sentences.
• Provide citations to support your argument and place references on a separate page. (All the sources that you listed in the references section must be cited in the paper.) Use APA format to provide citations and references [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/].
• Type and double-space the paper.
• Whenever appropriate, please use Excel to show supporting computations in an appendix, present economic information in tables, and use the data to answer follow-up questions.