Executive Economics: Ten Tools for Business Decision Makers

Maital (Economic Games People Play) here confronts a major problem with the discipline of economics: business managers are often skeptical about what the dismal science has to offer the ``real world.'' The author claims that economics can be of considerable value to managers if concepts are conveyed in understandable terms and in a way that is relevant to managers' experiences and needs. In answer to two basic questions-``What is it worth? What do I give up to get it?''-Maital demonstrates how concepts of economics like costs, value, price, inefficiency, productivity, information and comparative advantage can be utilized by general managers if presented in plain English unhampered by convoluted mathematical models. His homilies-``Good executives create customers. Great ones create markets''-make sense. Illustrations. (Sept.)