Michaels R.J. Transactions and Strategies: economics for managers

South-Western College Pub – 2010, 576 p. in color
ISBN: 0538786094, 9780538786096Through its modern approach to managerial economics, Transactions and Strategies: economics for managers prepares students to become informed business decision makers by bringing the course materials for managerial economics up to date with the theory and practice of the field. Organized around the idea that transactions are the fundamental unit of economics, and that their governance by markets, contracts, or organizations is the most important economic question for businesses to cope with, this revolutionary text uses vivid examples from around the world to illustrate relevant theory.
The first portion of the text covers the familiar economic theory of markets when transactions are standardized while the second half focuses on contracts, risk and asymmetric information, and organizational designRobert J. Michaels is a Professor of Economics at California State University, Fullerton, and Daniel Haan Research Fellow in Law and Economics. He is also an independent consultant to the electricity and natural gas industries. He holds an A.B. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D from the University of California, Los Angeles, both in economics. His past positions include Staff Economist at the Institute for Defense Analyses and Senior Advisor to Hagler Bailly Consulting (now PA Consulting). He is an Adjunct Scholar at the Texas Public Policy Foundaton, the Cato Institute, the Institute for Energy Research and the National Center for Policy Analysis. His research on electricity and gas restructuring, measuring and constraining market power, vertical integration, and renewable energy requirements has appeared in industry and scholarly journals including Public Utilities Fortnightly, The Electricity Journal, Regulation, Antitrust Bulletin, Review of Industrial Organization, and Energy Law Journal. He is also Co-Editor of Contemporary Economic Policy, a peer-reviewed journal of the Western Economic Association. He has advised state commissions, electric utilities, power marketers, natural gas producers, pipelines, public interest groups, and governments on regulatory and antitrust matters. He has testified before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, the Illinois Commerce Commission, and the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Power.