Final Exam Flashcards
The study of the choices of consumers, business managers, and government officials make to attain their goals, given scarce sources
Economic definition
3 economic ideas
- People are rational
- People respond to economic incentives
- Rational people think @ the margin
When you know all the pieces and still make the decision
Rational
When you don’t know all the pieces and still make the decision
Irrational
Graph that shows the maximum attainable combination of two goods that may be produced with available resources & technology
Production possibilities frontier
The ability of an individual firm or country to produce at a lower opportunity cost then its competitor.
Comparative advantage
The ability to produce a good using fewer inputs.
Absolute advantage
3 characteristics of a perfectly competitive market?
- Homogeneous good
- Lots of buyers and sellers
- No barriers to new firms entering the market
An inverse relationship between the price of a product and the quantity of the product demanded
Law of demand
Two effects that drive the law of demand
Substitution effect
Income effect
An agreement between firms that usually compete against each other in efforts to set the price for their goods in order to gain an advantage
Collusion
Anything that keeps new firms from entering an industry in which firms are earning economic profits.
Barriers to entries
A pricing strategy that charges customers different prices for the same product or service
Price discrimination
A game in which pursuing dominant strategies results in non-cooperation that leaves everyone worse off.
Prisoners Dilemma
A firm that is the only seller of a good or service that does not have a close substitute
Monopoly
A market structure in which a small number of interdependent firms compete
Oligopoly
Three important barriers to entry:
- Economies of scale
- Ownership of key input
- Government imposed barriers
The situation when a firm’s long-run average costs fall as the firm increases output.
Economies of scale
If production of a good requires a particular input
Ownership of a key input
The exclusive right to a product for a period of 20 years from the date the __ is filed with the government
Patent
A buyer or seller that is unable to affect the market price.
Price taker
The period of time during which at least one of a firm’s inputs is fixed
Short run
The period of time in which a firm can vary all its inputs, adopt new technology, and increase or decrease the size of its physical plant
Long run
The cost of all the inputs a firm uses in production
Total cost