Exam 1 -Chapter 1 Flashcards
Economists believe that all people, all businesses and all nations are faced with the same economic problem
Human wants that exceed the resources available to satisfy those wants.
Scarcity
Resources are always scarce relative to wants
Economics
Science of scarcity
A consumer is limited by their
Income
Time
Other circumstances
Economic problem
This world of limits and choice is what economists call the economic problem.
Scarcity forces what?
Choice making.
Economic problem
- Human wants are unlimited
- Resources, including Monet, time, almost everything else are limited.
- Scarcity is therefore a fundamental fact of life.
- Scarcity requires us to make choices.
- This life of scarcity and choices is called the economic problem.
What is economics
Economics is the study of how people, businesses, and government deal with the problem of scarcity.
Scarcity applies to
Both monetary and nonmonetary aspects of life
Alfred Marshall in the late 1800s wrote that
“Political economy or economics is the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life”
He suggested economics is mainly about “incentives to action and resistance to action”
Scarcity of resources is not
Just about a scarcity of money.
What will yield itself to economic analysis?
Anything that has to do with choices, incentives, and scarcity will yield itself to economic analysis.
People, we believe, make choices designed to
Maximize their happiness
Businesses choose to
Maximize their profits, the money they make above their costs.
People and businesses respond to
Incentives
Economics real job is to
Figure out what those behaviors will be, and what incentives will work to change them, if needed.
Utility
Is the economists term for happiness or satisfaction
Disutility
Negative utility
Economic theory is based on the presumption that
People will attempt to maximize their utility.
Good
A good is something that creates utility for a person. And, food, and love are all goods. A good does not have a price, it only has to make us happy.
Economic good
Economic good is a special type of good it was a board that is so scarce that someone is willing to pay for it.
Economic bad
Economic bad is the bed that is so plentiful that someone is willing to pay to get rid of it. Example pollution control equipment in our cars.
To produce a good, the business uses
Resources
Economists classify resources into for basic groups or factors of production
Natural resources [land]
Capital
Labor
Entrepreneurship