Course Description
Successful business management demands more than naïve reactions to current economic events such as recession, trade spats and exchange rate swings. It requires an understanding of fundamental economic forces and trends at both national and international levels and of how they affect business performance in the long-run as well as the short-run. The core objective of this course is thus to strengthen students’ understanding of behaviour of the economy as a whole – the macroeconomy – and of its impact on firm performance and strategy. The state of the macroeconomy provides arguably the most important contextual factor that Ivey graduates will face in their future economic lives – as employees, consumers and saver-investors. A nuanced understanding of the workings of economies is therefore not only a necessary component of the practicing manager’s toolkit, but also of the educated citizen’s worldview. Through academic and practitioner readings, data analysis exercises, case studies, and group discussions, students will acquire the knowledge and experience needed to connect macroeconomic analysis to managerial decision-making. The material covered in the course complements other courses in the Ivey MSc program. For example, the ability to analyse country information, including macroeconomic data, is an essential skill for finance, analytics, international business and strategy.
Learning Descriptions
Throughout the course, students will be able to:
- Articulate analysis and conclusions during class discussions and written reports; and,
- Connect factors in the macroeconomy to firm-level decision making.
Elective