This course is part of the Strategy track.
Introduction to Economics for Managers

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Economics for Managers

$1,850
Next 8-week session starts January 22nd
See the world through the lens of economics and gain the knowledge and skills to craft successful business strategy.
8
weeks
6-8
hours per week
5
modules
Self-Paced
with regular deadlines

 This course earns you a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online. What you earn.

Overview
Syllabus
Enrollment
Stories
FAQs

Key Concepts

Develop effective pricing strategies
Benchmark costs compared to competitors through relative cost analysis
Apply conjoint analysis to understand what features customers value most
Understand the power of network effects to drive demand
Identify sources of competitive advantage through differentiation

Who Will Benefit

Explore the world of business through the lens of economics as you prepare for your next opportunity.
Economics for Managers was immensely valuable. Hearing from founders and seeing the power of network effects through various case studies helped me see market opportunities through an entirely different lens. The market knowledge I acquired helped me refine and expertly craft research reports.
Asher Salik
Student at New York University
Prepare for the MBA classroom with the program Harvard Business School offers to incoming students.
I majored in engineering and minored in economics as an undergraduate, but the content of Business Analytics and Economics for Managers showed me new ways for using the theoretical foundations I already had.
Carolina Ragolta
MBA Student at Stanford Graduate School of Business
Understand how markets work and firms compete in order to develop successful business strategy.
Bharat Anand’s Economics for Managers course has proven to be the most influential for my career. Understanding the basic concepts of economics from the course really broadened my approach to various planning-related problems I tackle each day. My ability to identify details related to business efficiency and performance that I may have missed in the past was fine-tuned in the program, and my understanding of the business is now much stronger.
Pankaj Prashant
Medium Term Planning Engineer at Rio Tinto

What You Earn

Certificate of Completion

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: completing this course

Certificate of Specialization

Certificate of Specialization

Signify your deep expertise in strategy

Earn by: Completing any three courses within this subject area to earn a Certificate of Specialization

Syllabus

5 Modules, 60 Hours
Download full syllabus
12
hrs
Module 1

Customer Demand - Foundations

Understand the relationship between willingness to pay and price and determine a revenue-maximizing pricing strategy using the concept of elasticity.

Highlights

The Price is Right
Price Setting and the Concept of Elasticity
Elasticity as a General Concept
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Willingness to Pay
  2. A Different Visual Representation of WTP
  3. Elasticity

Featured Exercise

  • Construct supply and demand curves for individuals and markets and analyze the impact of market changes
12
hrs
Module 2

Strategies for Assessing and Increasing Demand

Appreciate how complements and network effects impact demand and evaluate techniques to increase demand and measure the tradeoffs and suitable applications of each approach.

Highlights

Introduction to Auctions
Experiments: Design Principles
Examples of Complements in Cross-Price Elasticity
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Direct Approaches for Assessing Demand
  2. Indirect Approaches for Assessing Demand
  3. Conjoint Analysis
  4. Strategies for Increasing Demand

Featured Exercises

  • Explore the dynamics of different forms of auctions
  • See how conjoint analysis can be used to understand customer preferences
12
hrs
Module 3

Suppliers and Cost

Understand fixed versus variable costs and economies of scale.

Highlights

The Profitability of Going Digital
Introduction to Relative Cost
Fixed Costs and Market Structure
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. An Introduction to Cost
  2. Fixed versus Variable Costs
  3. Relative Cost Analysis
  4. Supply Curves
  5. Scale Economies

Featured Exercises

  • Predict market structure by examining various costs and cost structures
  • Evaluate options by performing a relative cost analysis
12
hrs
Module 4

Markets

Apply market principles to analyze industries in which no traditional market functions.

Highlights

The Concept of Market Equilibrium
Internet versus Traditional Retail
Prediction Markets
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Market Outcomes
  2. Markets and Fairness
  3. Markets: Applications
  4. Creating Markets

Featured Exercises

  • Identify value creation and decompose its distribution to illustrate how trade occurs
  • Examine the competitive landscape by differentiating long- and short-run market outcomes and forces
12
hrs
Module 5

Competition and Differentiation

Assess monopolies and price discrimination and understand different strategies for differentiation.

Highlights

Bundled Pricing
Exploring Attribute Differentiation: A Simple Model
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Pricing by Monopolies
  2. Price Discrimination
  3. Simple Strategies for Differentiation

Featured Exercise

  • Explore competitive differentiation through the example of rival pizzerias setting price and location
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Our Difference

Apply fundamental economic principles to real-world business challenges.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading companies, including Ace Ticket, The New York Times, Penguin Random House, Amgen, and Bonobos.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading companies, including Ace Ticket, The New York Times, Penguin Random House, Amgen, and Bonobos.

About the Professor

Bharat Anand
Economics for Managers

Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration
“Economics for Managers is a course that we hope will give you much more confidence and a lot more fun in applying some deep economic principles to fascinating problems in business and management.”

Dates & Eligibility

Starting
Jan
22
8 Weeks  $1,850 + applicable international taxes
Enrollment deadline January 16
View weekly calendar
Enroll Now
  • No documentation required

All learners must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course.

Learn about bringing this course to your organization.

Learner Stories

76%
found HBS Online to be more impactful than other online business programs
The academic rigor was thrilling. What made it extra special was the people I met through the experience. That community stays with me every day.
Carla Dirlikov Canales
Opera Singer
The course has made me think more carefully about how I could create a competitive cost structure and make appropriate plans before entering the market. [Conjoint analysis] has also helped me think about what product features my consumers would really value and how to highlight those features. Having a better business vocabulary and understanding the underlying concepts has really helped me to contribute more productively to conversations and decisions.
Nicholas Grecco
Educator and Healthcare Administrator
* Source: 2022 surveys and course data
 
All FAQs

Economics for Managers FAQs

In addition to being a standalone certificate program, Economics for Managers is also one component course of the Credential of Readiness (CORe) program, which also includes Business Analytics and Financial Accounting. Designed for those interested in learning business fundamentals more broadly, CORe program participants progress through the three courses in tandem, and the program concludes with a final exam.

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This will mean meeting each week’s course module deadlines and fully answering questions posed therein, including satisfactory performance on the quizzes at the end of each module (earning an average score of 50% or greater). This helps ensure your cohort proceeds through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. A module is composed of a series of teaching elements (such as faculty videos, simulations, reflections, or quizzes) designed to impart the learnings of the course. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect participation in the social learning elements of the course by offering feedback on others’ reflections and contributing to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on individual course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Economics for Managers. Participants will either be evaluated as complete or not complete.

For more information on grading, please refer to the Policies Page.

Economics for Managers participants may be eligible for financial aid based on demonstrated financial need. To receive financial aid, you will be asked to provide supporting documentation. Please refer to our Payment & Financial Aid page.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program. At the end of each course module, you will be able to download a PDF summary of the module’s key takeaways. At the end of the program, you will receive a PDF compilation of all of the module summary documents.

Harvard Business School Online
Certificate in Economics for Managers
[Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" with the language from the Credential Verification page:

School: Harvard Business School Online
Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program]
Degree: Other; Certificate in Economics for Managers
Field of Study: Leave blank
Grade: Complete
Activities and Societies: Leave blank

For the program description on LinkedIn, please use the following:

Economics for Managers is an 8-week, 60-hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. Economics for Managers dives into fundamental economic principles like supply and demand, cost, markets, competition and differentiation. Participants gain the knowledge and skills needed to craft successful business strategy. Economics for Managers was developed by leading Harvard Business School faculty and is delivered in an active learning environment based on the HBS signature case-based learning method.

By enrolling in the Economics for Managers certificate program, participants will be ineligible to enroll in the CORe program. By enrolling in the CORe program, participants will be ineligible to enroll in Economics for Managers.

 

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