ECO 201 Milestone Three Guidelines and Rubric

The purpose of this milestone is for students to explore thevarious costs their firm faces and to describe their firm’s market.Using the concepts and tools developed in Modules Four and Five,students will analyze the fixed and variable costs of their firm,how those costs have changed over time, and how those changeshave impacted their firm’s overall health and sustainability. Inanalyzing their firm’s market, students will detail the extentof their firm’s market power and their firm’s ability to influencethe market. Students will also describe major trends in the market,specifically concerning new products, technologies, and newentrants. Students can further determine the future health of theirfirm to inform their final recommendations by examiningtheir firm’s place within the market.

Prompt: Submit a draft of the Costs ofProduction (Section IV), Overall Market (Section V),and Recommendation (Section VI) of your research paper,including all critical elements listed below. You will reviewyour firm’s financial reports and other relevant data sources tocollect and analyze cost information for your firm over the pastfive or so years. Using real data and the economic tools developedin Module Four, you will analyze your firm’s profitability and howcosts impact its growth. Additionally, you will find data on yourfirm’s competitors in order to detail your firm’s place within themarket currently and over the past five or so years. Lastly, youwill develop a recommendation for how the firm can manage itsfuture production.

Specifically the following critical elements must beaddressed:

IV. Examine the costs of production for your firm.

1. a) Analyze the various costs a firm faces, their trendsover time, and how they have impacted yourfirm’s profitability.

2. b) Apply the concepts of variable and fixed costs to yourfirm for informing its output decisions. For instance, analyzehow different kinds of costs

   (labor, research and development, raw materials) affect thefirm’s level of output.

5. Explore

   1. a) Discuss the market share of the firm and itstop competitors by providing details on current percentages foreach firm and describing the trend

      over time. You might consider presenting the datagraphically.

   2. b) Analyze the barriers to entry in this marketto illustrate the potential for new competition and its impact onyour firm’s future in the market.

   3. c) Describe the market structure for this firmand analyze how this affects the firm’s ability to influencethe market.

6. Recommendation

   1. a) Develop a recommendation for how the firm can manageits future production by synthesizing the datapresented.

   2. b) Suggest how the firm’s position within the market andamong its competitors will allow it to take your recommendedaction.

   3. c) Describe how the firm can sustain itssuccess going forward by evaluating the findings from demandtrends and price elasticity.

My company is Amazon.com