Eyes opened, but not by high-brow

These two volumes cover similar territory, but in very different ways. J. R. McGuigan et al 's book is a fine example of the synoptic US managerial economics text, whose starting point is that the goal of firms is to maximise shareholder wealth.

Net present value and risk are introduced at the outset, establishing the quantitative approach. Students will need a foundation in economics and experience in quantitative methods and statistics. Complementing the micro-economic topics are sections on estimating demand functions and cost functions, business and economic forecasting and on linear programming. There are excellent chapters on markets with asymmetric information and on game-theoretical rivalry.

The text is supported by a website. It would suit an applied economics course within a business economics degree.

Students with no prior knowledge of economics would be well served by Ivan Png's text. It presents tools and ideas for managers without the use of "technical jargon" and "high-brow mathematics". Png shows that understanding can be achieved using simple diagrams. This book could easily be adopted for an introductory course in economics for MBA students.

Martin Carter is lecturer in economics, University of Leeds.