The beauty of science may be pure and eternal, but the practice of science costs money. And scientists, being human, respond to incentives and costs, in money and glory. Choosing a research topic, deciding what papers to write and where to publish them, sticking with a familiar area or going into something new—the payoff may be tenure or a job at a highly ranked university or a prestigious award or a bump in salary. The risk may be not getting any of that. At a time when science is seen as an engine of economic growth, Paula Stephan brings a keen understanding of the ongoing cost-benefit calculations made by individuals and institutions as they compete for resources and reputation. She shows how universities offload risks by increasing the percentage of non-tenure-track faculty, requiring tenured faculty to pay salaries from outside grants, and staffing labs with foreign workers on temporary visas. With funding tight, investigators pursue safe projects rather than less fundable ones with uncertain but potentially path-breaking outcomes. Career prospects in science are increasingly dismal for the young because of ever-lengthening apprenticeships, scarcity of permanent academic positions, and the difficulty of getting funded. Vivid, thorough, and bold, How Economics Shapes Science highlights the growing gap between the haves and have-nots—especially the vast imbalance between the biomedical sciences and physics/engineering—and offers a persuasive vision of a more productive, more creative research system that would lead and benefit the world.

Economic principles inform good business decision making. Although economics is sometimes dismissed as a discourse of practical relevance to only a relatively small circle of academicians and policy analysts who call themselves economists, sound economic reasoning benefits any manager of a business, whether they are involved with production/operations, marketing, finance, or corporate strategy. Along with enhancing decision making, the field of economics provides a common language and framework for comprehending and communicating phenomena that occur within a business, as well as between a business and its environment. This text addresses the core of a subject commonly called managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships between price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are presented in form of simple conceptual models. The text includes key elements from the economics of consumer demand and the economics of production. The book discusses economic motivations for expanding a business and contributions from economics for improved organization of large firms. Market price quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure on market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of the generic problems that create the need for regulation and possible remedies for those problems. Although the academic literature of managerial economics often employs abstract mathematics and large corporations create and use sophisticated mathematical models that apply economics, this book focuses on concepts, terminology, and principles, with minimal use of mathematics. The reader will gain a better understanding of why businesses and markets function as they do and how those institutions can function better.

Fundamentals of Economics for Business is an innovative text designed specifically for students in business education programs. It provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the key economic issues relevant to present or future business decision-makers. Reflecting the requirements of globalization, the content is international in scope and is applicable worldwide. The material is easily adaptable to courses of different lengths and educational objectives, including a one-semester MBA course, economics courses in an undergraduate commerce or business degree, or an executive MBA program.This second edition adds significant new material on production costs, managerial economics, growth and competitiveness, and includes new case studies with applications to international business.

In today's global recession, strong management of firms and organizations are of the utmost importance. Best-selling Economics of Strategy focuses on the key economic concepts students must master in order to develop a sound business strategy. Bringing economic theory and strategic analysis to life in an engaging and uniquely modern way, Besanko et al. have collaborated for over 15 years to build an introductory business course that combines basic concepts from economic theory of the firm and industrial organization with ideas from modern strategy literature. The newly revised 5th edition offers more real-world applications to make materials studied in undergraduate Managerial Economics, Business Strategy, and Industrial Organization courses relevant. Armed with general principles, today's students—tomorrow's future managers—will be prepared to adjust their firms' business strategies to the demands of the ever-changing environment.

In the 1990s, institutional and evolutionary economics emerged as one of the most creative and successful approaches in the modern social sciences. This timely reader gathers together seminal contributions from leading international authors in the field of institutional and evolutionary economics including Eileen Appelbaum, Benjamin Coriat, Giovanni Dosi, Sheila C. Dow, Bengt-Åke Lundvall, Uskali Mäki, Bart Nooteboom and Marc R. Tool. The emphasis is on key concepts such as learning, trust, power, pricing and markets, with some essays devoted to methodology and others to the comparison of different forms of capitalism. An extensive introduction places the contributions in the context of the historical and theoretical background of recent developments in economics and the social sciences. Essential reading for lecturers, researchers, graduates and advanced undergraduates in economics, business studies and sociology, this diverse yet complementary collection of essays will also find a broad readership amongst those wanting to understand the manifest changes apparent within modern socio-economic systems.