we use this economics book, to also answer these questions: how are the prices of goods and services...
TRANSCRIPT
We use this economics book, to also answer these questions:
• How are the prices of goods and services determined?
• How does pollution affect the economy, and how should government policy deal with these effects?
• Why do firms engage in international trade, and how do government policies affect international trade?
• Why does government control the prices of some goods and services, and what are the effects of those controls?
Economics
The study of how scarce, or limited resources are used to satisfy unlimited material wants and needs; the study of decision
making in a world of scarcity.
Unlimited wants
Limited resources to satisfy wants
Choose between alternatives
Scarce GoodsFood (bread, milk, meat, eggs, vegetables, coffee, etc.) Clothing (shirts, pants, blouses, shoes, socks, coats, sweaters, etc.) Household (tables, chairs, rugs, beds, goods dressers, television sets, etc.)
Space exploration
Education
National defense
Recreation
Leisure time
Entertainment
Clean air Pleasant (trees, lakes, rivers, environment open spaces, etc.)
Pleasant working conditions
Limited Resources
Land (various degrees of fertility)
Natural (rivers, trees, minerals, Resources oceans, etc.)
Machines and other human-made physical resources
Non-human animal resources
Technology (physical and scientific “recipes” of history)
Human (the knowledge, skill, resources and talent of individuals)
Scarcity and Choice
Causes prices to change accordingly
PricesCompetition for scarce
goods
Basic Assumptions
As we study how people make choices and interact in markets, we will return to these important ideas:
a. Consumers and firms use all available information as they act to achieve their goals, weighing the benefits and costs of each action, and choosing an action only if the benefits outweigh the costs—even if it is not always the “best” decision..
1. People are rational.
Basic Assumptions
Consumers make rational decisions, based on costs
2. Incentives matter
As personal benefits (costs) from choosing an option increase, other things constant, a person will be more (less) likely to choose that option.
Basic Assumptions
Obesity is an increasing problem in the United States.
Does Health Insurance Give People an Incentive to Become Obese?
By reducing some of the costs of obesity, health insurance may give people an economic incentive to gain weight.
Makingthe
Connection
3. Economic reasoning focuses on the impact of marginal changes.
Decisions will be based on marginal costs
-the cost of buying or making one more unit
and marginal benefits (utility).
- The increase in satisfaction from buying or making one more unit
Basic Assumptions
TradeoffsChoices involve tradeoffs and consequences.
- give up to get
It involves a value judgment.
- decide the relative importance of alternatives
Opportunity Cost
Involves evaluating the costs and benefits of choices.
What must be given up to get one more unit of another good or
service
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Trade-offs force society to make choices when answering the following three fundamental questions:
1.What goods and services will be produced?. Each choice made comes with an opportunity cost, measured by the value of the best alternative given up.
2.How will the goods and services be produced? Firms often face a trade-off between using more workers or using more machines.
3.Who will receive the goods and services produced? There are disagreements over whether there should be more or less redistribution of income.
How Decisions are MadeUsing an Economic System
Method of organizing the relationship between businesses, households and the government to make the production decisions4 Types
1. Agrarian or TraditionalA. What?
What the family business has been producing (for generations)
B. How?Using the same method that have been used (for generations)
No incentive for change
C. For Whom?Determined by place in society.
2. Market EconomiesA. What?- Goods and services that are profitable
- Goods and services consumers want.B. How?
Efficiently- least cost combination of resources
C. For Whom?Those who can pay.
3. Planned EconomiesA. What?-Goods needed to meet economic planning targets
B. How?Aimed at achieving targets
Switch resources around to meet targetsC. For
Whom?Government decides who gets goods
Bonuses for important workers
4. Mixed Economies- Combine aspects of market
and planned economies
- Includes almost all economies
4. Mixed Economies
Coordinating Mechanism
Reso
urc
e
Ow
ners
hip
Market System Planning
Private
Public
US
CubaChina
Nazi German
y
1. Businesses are free to produce what ever they want and are always looking for cost-cutting techniques of production.
Traditional? Mixed?Planned?Market?
MarketMarketMarket
2. A catering business goes bankrupt, but its employees receive unemployment compensation while they look for other jobs.
Traditional?Mixed?
Planned?Market?MixedMixedMixed
3. Union and management representatives submit a deadlocked labor contract negotiation to the government for mediation.
Traditional? Mixed?
Planned?Market?MixedMixedMixed
4. Workers who have lost their jobs and incomes cut back their spending because there is no alternative source of emergency financial support once their savings runs out.Traditional?Mixed?Planned?Market?MarketMarketMarket
5. Consumers are unable to obtain fuel injectors and
windshield wiper motors for their cars because they are not being produced, yet accordions, which are plentiful and not in demand,
continue to be produced.Traditional?
Mixed?
Planned?
Market?
PlannedPlannedPlanned
It also means doing the job they were trained or
designed to do
Productive Efficiency
Goods and services are produced at the lowest cost.
or
Equity (the distribution of economic benefits)
Should people receive based on their relative need for the goods and services?
Should every person receives as much as every other person?
or
Should people be rewarded for their contribution to the production?
modeling
1. Make Assumptions
a. Principle - relationship
b. Theory – string of principlesc. Law –theory proven to hold true most times
a. Inductive
Hypothesis
Use facts to develop a modelTake a survey and study the results
b. DeductiveSee if the facts support a hypothesisStart with a theory and see if facts support it
2. Use data to test hypothesis
“Need facts to support theories and theories to make sense of facts.”
facts
Predicting BehaviorPositive Economic Statements
- relationships that can be tested
- The class is half full
- Unemployment is 6%
- if incomes rise people spend money
Normative Economic Statements
- statements about “what should be” or make a value judgment
- It is too hot
- Unemployment should be around 4%
- we should raise the minimum wage.
Pitfalls
1.Ceteris Paribus – other things being equal - only consider price changes
2. Cause and Effect – one event may not be the cause of
another- sunrise and the rooster
Pitfalls
- you, me and this class
3. Fallacy of Composition – what is good for some may not be
good for others- increased wages-time of this class
Pitfalls
1. Graphs of one Variable - market shares - bar graphs, pie charts
Economic graphs
Figure 1A.1 Bar Graphs and Pie Charts
2. Graphs of two Variables - price, quantity - demand curve
Economic graphs
2. Inverse, or negative, relationship - Graph slopes down from left to
right
1. Direct, or positive, relationship - Graph slopes up from left to right
Economic graphs
3. Slope Rise Run
3. Percent change new - old old
4. Area of a triangle 1\ 2 base x height
1. When an economist states that a good is scarce, he means that:a. Production cannot expand the availability of the good.b. It is rare.c. Desire for the good exceeds the amount that is freely
available from nature.d. People would want to purchase more of the good at any
price.
2. The highest valued alternative that must be given up in order to choose an action is called its
a. opportunity cost.b. utilityc. scarcityd. ceteris paribus
3) By definition, economics is the study ofA) how to make money in the stock market.B) how to make money in a market economy.C) the choices people make to attain their goals, given their scarce resources. D) supply and demand. 4) Economists assume that individualsA) behave in unpredictable ways.B) will never take actions to help others.C) prefer to live in a society that values fairness above all else.D) are rational and respond to incentives. 5) Marginal analysis involves undertaking an activityA) until its marginal costs start declining.B) only when its marginal benefits are positive.C) until its marginal benefits equal marginal costs.D) only if its marginal costs are greater than its marginal benefits.
6) The highest valued alternative that must be given up to engage in an activity is the definition ofA) economic equity.B) marginal benefit.C) opportunity cost.D) marginal cost. 7) How are the fundamental economic questions answered in a market economy?A) The government alone decides the answers.B) Individuals, firms, and the government interact in markets to decide the answers to these questions. C) Households and firms interact in markets to decide the answers to these questions. D) Large corporations alone decide the answers.
8) ________ is a situation in which a good or service is produced at the lowest possible cost.A) Allocative efficiencyB) Productive efficiency C) EquityD) Optimal marginalism
9) Which of the following questions or statements regarding medical school is normative?A) How do changes in expected future incomes affect the decisions of medical students about which specialty to choose?B) Medical students who enter specialized fields make a larger contribution to society than do student who enter primary care.C) What role does tuition play in a student's decision about whether to attend medical school?D) Have tuition increases had a large effect or a small effect on the number of applications to medical school?
10) In economics, the accumulated skills and training that workers have is known as A) human capital. B) entrepreneurship.C) physical capital. D) innovation. 11) The machines workers have to work with are consideredA) human capital. B) physical capital.C) entrepreneurship. D) financial capital. 12) The relationship between consumer spending and disposable personal income isA) an inverse relationship. B) a direct relationship.C) a negative relationship. D) independent.