Economics - Taft College

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Econ Quick Notes

Unit 1

Economic Analysis

Definition: Applying basic economic principles for problem solving.

The economic way of thinking permits the student to reach informed conclusions about what is happening in the world.

Notes:

Marginal Analysis: Cost/benefit analysis, looking at the additional benefits

of an activity compared to the additional costs of that activity.

Marginal : the next one, additional, or incremental. "ONE"

Economics

Definition: The study of how people allocate their limited resources to satisfy their unlimited wants.

Notes:

The study of scarcity and choice .

Compare:

● Economy : The effort and system used to maximize the availability of

limited resources to meet as many human demands as possible.

● Microeconomics : Primary focus is the behavior and choices of

individual units WITHIN the overall economy.

● Macroeconomics : Deals with human behavior and choices as they

relate to the ENTIRE economy.

The Economic Approach

Definition: Economists assume that individuals act as if they pursue self-motivated interests and respond predictably to perceived opportunities to obtain those interests.

● The Rationality Assumption: The assumption that individuals will not

intentionally make decisions that would leave them worse off.

● Responding to Incentives: An incentive is the reward for engaging in a

given activity. People react to an incentive by making a rough

comparison of costs and benefits.

● Defining Self-Interest: The pursuit of goals that make the individual

feel better off. Can be measured in monetary terms, although other goals

such as prestige, love, or power can be analyzed using this concept.

Three Fundamental Economic Questions

Each society must address these questions:

1.) What to produce?

2.) How to produce?

3.) For whom to produce?

Two Opposing Answers:

The way in which society answers the three questions depends on

their economic system.

Economic Systems:

● Command / Centrally Planned

● Market / Price System

● Mixed

Bledsoe

Notes:

Notes:

Basic Economic Concepts

Chapters 1-2

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Econ Quick Notes

Unit 1

Basic Economic Concepts

Chapters 1-2

Command or Centrally Planned Economic System

● Government answers the three fundamental economic questions.

● Communism and Socialism

- Lacks individual incentives

Market or Price Economic System

● Individuals answer the three fundamental economic questions.

● Prices in a market system signal relative scarcity of different resources,

which in turn provides information about what and how many items.

● Capitalism

Property Rights

Definition: Establish ownership and grant individuals the right to trade

goods and services with each other.

● Incentives matter & property rights provide incentives.

- Capitalism is a belief system that revolves around private ownership

of the economic resources and free labor (ability to work for wages).

Adam Smith

● Scottish philosopher - "Father of Modern Economics"

Notes:

● The Wealth of Nations (1776)

- Describes how a market system can flourish.

- Claims workers should specialize to become more productive.

- Higher productivity increase the overall wealth of the nation.

● Laissez Faire

- "let them do as they please"

- Smith called for restricting the role of government in the economy.

- Argues that individuals must be as free as possible to pursue their

own interests if a market economy is to run smoothly.

Circular Flow Diagram of a Market Economy

Definition: Shows the interactions between households and firms in a

free market economy.

● Households own the factors of production.

● Firms are organizations that use resources to produce a good or

service in which they attempt to sell for a profit.

● Invisible hand

- Smith noticed that businesses could provide

the goods and services consumers needed

without the help of a central plan.

- Guides a nations resources to their most

productive use, maximizes social welfare.

Key Components:

Self Interest: Individuals that each pursue what is best for themselves will ultimately make decisions that benefit the nation.

Competition: When businesses try and raise prices to high, another will enter the market and compete by lowering prices.

PRODUCT MARKET

$

MONETARY FLOW

PHYSICAL

FLOW

Product Market

● Households pay firms for goods and services (monetary flow).

● Firms supply household with goods and services (physical flow).

HOUSEHOLDS FIRMS

PHYSICAL

FLOW

Factor Market

● Households supply firms with the factors of production (physical flow).

● Firms pay households for the factors of production (monetary flow).

MONETARY FLOW

$

FACTOR MARKET

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Econ Quick Notes

Unit 1

Mixed Economic System

● Modern economies are a combination of the three previous

economic systems.

● Continuum can be formed with some countries more on the

centrally planned end and others closer to the free market end.

Notes:

Economics as a Science

Definition: Economics is a social science that utilizes the same types of methods used in biology, chemistry, and physics. Economic models or theories, which are simplified representations of the real world, are developed and used as aids in understanding, explaining, and predicting economic phenomena in the real world.

● Models and Realism: Every model in every science requires

simplification compared to the real world.

● Assumptions: Define the set of circumstances in which a model is most

likely to be applicable. Models must be based on a set of assumptions.

Ceteris Paribus Assumption: All Other Things Being Equal.

It is used to isolate the effect of a change in one variable on another

one by assuming that all other variables do not change.

● Deciding on the Usefulness of a Model: A model is useful if it yields

usable predictions supported by real-world observations (empirical science).

● Models of Behavior, Not Thought Processes: Models relate to the way

people act in using limited resources and not to the way they think.

Notes:

Behavioral Economics and Bounded Rationality: An approach to consumer behavior that emphasizes psychological limitations and complications that potentially interfere with rational decision making.

1. Bounded Rationality: The idea that people are nearly, but not fully,

rational so that they cannot examine every choice available to them but

instead use simple rules of thumb to sortamong the alternative available

to them.

2. Rules of Thumb: A simplified method of decision making. An important

issue is that persons who appear to use rules of thumb may behave as if

they are fully rational.

3.

Behavioral Economics: A Work in Progress: So far, proponents of

behavioral economics have not conclusively demonstrated that paying

closer attention to psychological thought processes can improve economic

predictions.

Positive versus Normative Economics

● Positive Economics : The branch of economic analysis that describes

the way the economy actually works.

- Attempts to describe what is.

● Normative Economics : Makes prescriptions about the way the

economy should work.

- Addresses what should be.

Bledsoe

Notes:

Basic Economic Concepts

Chapters 1-2

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Econ Quick Notes

Unit 1

Basic Economic Concepts

Chapters 1-2

Scarcity

Definition: Limited quantities of resources to meet unlimited wants.

Characteristics:

● Limited

● Desirable

A scarce resource is not available in sufficient quantities to satisfy all the various ways society wants to use it.

Scarcity is not poverty. High incomes do not reduce scarcity.

Compare:

● Shortage : A situation in which a good or service is temporarily

unavailable.

The Crucial Problem of Economics

Definition: How to all allocate limited resources to unlimited wants.

Therefore, scarcity is the fundamental economic problem.

Resource: Anything that can be used to produce a good or service.

Wants vs. Needs: Needs are not objectively definable. Perhaps the best way to view a need is as an absolute necessity to stay alive. Wants refer to desired goods and are unlimited.

● Scarcity creates:

- Choice

- Competition

- The need for a rationing device

A rationing device is a means for deciding who gets what quantities of the available resources and goods.

Factors of Production

Definition: The economy's resources: land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship.

Land: All resources that come from nature.

Labor: The effort of workers.

Capital : In economics there are two types of capital.

Note: Financial capital ($) is NOT one of them.

Physical Capital: Often referred to simply as "capital"-consists of

manufactured productive resources such as equipment, buildings,

tools, and machines.

Human Capital: The improvement in labor created by education and

knowledge that is embodied in the workforce.

Entrepreneurship: Describes the efforts of individuals in organizing resources

for production, taking risks to create new enterprises, and innovating to

develop new products and production processes.

Bledsoe

Notes:

Notes:

What is the rationing device in our society?

Notes:

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Econ Quick Notes

Unit 1

Basic Economic Concepts

Chapters 1-2

Opportunity Cost

Definition: The most desirable alternative forfeited when a choice is made.

"2nd best choice"

● Explicit costs : Direct, purchased, out-of-pocket costs.

● Implicit costs : Indirect, non-purchased, opportunity costs.

Notes:

Mathematical Term: Total Opportunity Cost = Total Explicit Cost +

Total Implicit Cost

Trade-off

Definition: All the alternatives forfeited when a choice is made.

Notes:

"TINSTAAFL"

Production Possibilities Curves

Definition: Shows the combination of two goods that can be produced if an individual/economy uses all its resources fully and efficiently.

● Production Possibilities Frontier (PPF) : The line that represents

the combination of goods and services that can be produced.

- It represents the resources available to an economy or individual.

● Points : Represent production alternatives, not prices.

Assumptions Underlying the Production Possibilities Curve:

1. Resources are fully employed.

2. Production takes place over a specific time period—for example, 1 year.

3. Resources are fixed in both quantity and quality.

4. Technology does not change over this period of time.

a. Technology is defined as society’s pool of applied knowledge

concerning how goods and services can be produced.

Graph:

100

Represents basic economic problem of scarcity.

A

D

C

PPF

B

BUTTER

Represents Consumer Goods

E

100

Notes:

Production Possibilities Curves - Efficiency

● Productive Efficiency : Producing the maximum output given the level

of resources. All points on the frontier are productively efficient.

- Which points are productively efficient?

● Allocative Efficiency : Producing the optimal output (combination of

goods that provide the greatest benefit).

- Which points are allocatively efficient?

Graph:

100

A

D

C

PPF

B

E

BUTTER 100

If asked to identify which points are efficient, assume productive efficiency.

Notes:

Efficiency is also a situation in which a given output is produced at a minimum cost. An economy is efficient when it is on its PPC. An inefficient point is any point below theproduction possibilities curve.

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Econ Quick Notes

Unit 1

Production Possibilities Curves - Unemployed vs. Unattainable

Graph:

100

● Unemployed : Resources that are not being used or are underutilized.

All points to the left of the frontier are considered an inefficient use

of resources.

- Which point(s) represent unemployment or inefficient use of

resources?

● Unattainable : Production possibilities that are currently not possible

given the level of resources. All points to right of the frontier are

currently unattainable.

- Which point(s) are unattainable?

Notes:

Basic Economic Concepts

Chapters 1-2

A

D

C

B

BUTTER

PPF

E

100

Production Possibilities Curves - Constant Opportunity Cost

● Calculating Opportunity Cost : Delta (∆) = Change

- For Good X use the slope of the PPF: ∆Y / ∆X

- For Good Y use the inverse of the slope of the PPF: ∆X / ∆Y

Example 1:

1.) What is the opportunity cost of good X?

Example 1:

30

Resources are equally suited, opportunity cost is constant.

25

A

B

20

15

10

5

C

D

0

E

PPF

F

5 10 15 20 25

Good X

2.) What is the opportunity cost of good Y?

Example 2:

3.) How would you solve for the opportunity cost of a table?

4.) How would you solve for the opportunity cost of a desk?

Example 2:

30

25

20

15

10

5

A

Resources not equally suited, opportunity cost still constant.

B

0

C

5 10 15 20 25

Desks

PPF

Notes:

Bledsoe

5.) Solve:

Opportunity cost of a table =

Opportunity cost of a desk =

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Econ Quick Notes

Unit 1

Basic Economic Concepts

Chapters 1-2

Production Possibilities Curves - Increasing Opportunity Cost

Example 1:

● Law of Increasing Costs: the more of a good that is produced the

30

A

greater its opportunity cost.

- This occurs when resources are not perfectly adaptable to

alternative uses.

- Will cause the PPF to be concave to its origin, or bow out.

25

20

15

10

5

Said another way:

The Law of Increasing Additional Cost: The fact that the opportunity cost of

0 additional units of a good generally increases as society attempts to produce more of that good. This accounts for the bowed-out shape of the production possibilities curve.

Example 2:

B

E

C

F

PPF

5 10 15 20 25 30

D

Blu-Ray Players

Example 1:

1.) How would you solve for the opportunity cost of a computer?

Guns

0

2

4

Butter

10

6

0

2.) How does the opportunity cost of computers change?

When moving from point B to A =

When moving from point C to B =

When moving from point D to C =

8.) What is the maximum number of guns that can be produced?

3.) Which has the greater opportunity cost, producing the 1st or last computer? Explain.

9.) If the maximum number of guns are produced, how much butter could be produced?

10.) What is the maximum units of butter that can be produced?

4.) How would you solve for the opportunity cost of a blu-ray?

11.) If the maximum units of butter are produced, how many guns could be produced?

5.) How does the opportunity cost of blu-ray players change?

When moving from point A to B =

When moving from point B to C =

When moving from point C to D =

6.) Which has the greater opportunity cost, producing the 1st or last blu-ray player? Explain.

12.) The opportunity cost of producing the first two units of guns is how many units of butter?

12.) What is the opportunity cost of producing the first unit of guns?

13.) What is the opportunity cost of producing the first unit of butter?

7.) Which point has the lowest opportunity cost. Explain.

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Econ Quick Notes

Unit 1

Production Possibilities Curves - Preferred Points

Explanation: We can only say a point is preferred to another if it is attained at a zero opportunity cost.

1.) Which point(s) would be preferred to point F?

2.) On the graph shade in the area that would represent all points that would be preferred to point F.

Example:

30

25

20

15

10

5

A

0

B

C

D

F

E

PPF

5 10 15 20 25 30

Corn

Production Possibilities Curves - Shifts of the Frontier

Example 1:

•As an economy grows, its PPF shifts outwards

Growth can result from:

- the discovery or acquisition of new resources (land)

- growth in the labor force, an increase in the skills and abilities of

the labor force (labor)

- technological change or an increase in the amount or quality of

productive equipment available (capital)

Moving from point A to point B represents economic growth, as it would only be possible with a shift of the frontier.

Example 1:

Basic Economic Concepts

Chapters 1-2

A

C

B

Education

PPF

1

PPF

2

Moving from point A to point C represents a change in allocation of resources, NOT economic growth.

Example 2: Example 2:

•As an economy contracts, its PPF shifts inwards

Contraction can result from:

- Natural disasters

- Loss of life and property (war, terrorism, etc.)

- A persistent economic recession (depression)

Most recessions result in unemployment of resources

Moving from point A to point B represents unemployment, NOT a shift of the frontier.

A

B

PPF

2

Butter

PPF

1

Example 3: Example 3:

•Technological change in only one type of production can free up resources that can be used in the production of other goods and services

- Even though there were no direct improvements in the production

of health care, increased capabilities in education allow the

country to have more of both!

1.) Do the examples presented represent constant or increasing opportunity cost? Explain.

A

B

Education

PPF

1

PPF

2

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