Managerial Decision Making
Harvard Undergraduate Economics Course
Managers are an organization’s decision makers. They are challenged each day with a variety of difficult decisions, the consequences of which impact their organization’s competitiveness in the market. Students will use the economics toolkit to understand how managers make these decisions. Drawing on research from labor, organizational, and innovation economics, students will learn how managers can run productive organizations.
Course details
- Level: Undergraduate
- Class size: 8
- Instructor rating: 5.0/5.0
Course objectives
- practice applying statistical methods to the analysis of data
- read and write high-quality research papers in economics
- apply economic analyses to specific subject areas (management)
Student reviews
- "He's easily the best instructor I have ever had. I felt very lucky to be in Omar's section. He's able to break down really difficult topics, such as how to read research papers well, challenges within management, business, and technology, and econometric methods, and make them extremely accessible. This, combined with in-depth feedback on assignments, very clear expectations on any activity we do, and engaging in-class activities, really helped me learn the course's content well. Although this was a really difficult class, I always felt like I would be able to succeed, and this was because of Omar. He clearly cares a lot about all of his students."
- "Omar's teaching was creative and engaging. Truly one of the best lecturers I've had in my time at Harvard."
- "His willingness to listen, learn, and collaborate with us students made this one of the best if not the best class I’ve taken so far at Harvard. If he does happen to teach the course sometime again, please do take it with him if you have even a slight interest in business. I’ve learned so much about a side of managers that I had previously not considered that I think will be so applicable to my future."
- "BEST CLASS I'VE TAKEN AT HARVARD and this was due to our incredible instructor, Omar. I absolutely loved this class. Our tutorial focused on managerial decision making, and the readings that Omar selected tied into important business and technology problems and helped me to critically think about real-world business challenges. I found this to be much more applicable than many other courses I've taken here, and it's a course I feel confident will shape the way I think about business problems for many years to come. It also drastically improved my ability to read research papers, understand econometric methods, and write essays, largely because of the way that Omar broke down these topics, provided in-depth feedback, and always made expectations clear for assignments. He is incredibly knowledgeable about econometrics, business, and technology, and he knew the papers very well and helped our class think about them on a much deeper level. Not only that, but we had many engaging class activities that I really enjoyed and that helped me learn in a more hands-on way. This course could have doubled as instruction about how the ideal class should be taught."
- "His willingness to learn from, collaborate with, and help us students was so greatly appreciated. He regularly updated the class format to reflect the needs of us students. I do not think I have ever gotten such willingness to collaborate in a class at Harvard before. He’s also very knowledgeable about the subject area and I learned so much because of it."