Bens Quick Econ flashcards Theme 1
What is ceteris Paribus?
When all other things remain unchanged
What is opportunity cost ?
The next best alternative foregone between 2 or more choices.
What is a positive statement?
Statements that can be testable, amendable and rejectable tend to have factual evidence
What is a normative statement ?
Statement that is a value judgement which tend to be opinion based.
What is the economic problem?
There are infinite wants and scarce resources allocated.
What are the four factors of production?
Land
Labour
Capital
Enterprise
What are examples of Land(Factors of production)
Non-renewable resources
renewable resources
Animals found in Area
Water
materials
What is Labour?(Factors of production)
Labour force
Employed (Active population)
What is Capital?
Capital is equipment used in producing goods and or services
What is enterprise ?
Entrepreneur who takes on risk and creates products or services using the other three factors of production.
Name some stakeholders impacted by the economic problem?
Consumers(Decide what they want to buy and for how much)
Government (How much to intervene on how consumers and producers act)
Producers(What to make how much to sell for)
Explain how firms,Government and Consumers act rationally
Consumers(Maximise utilities)
Government (Maximise social welfare)
Firms(Maximise profits)
What is a PPF(Production possibility frontier)
Shows the maximum amount of combinations for good x and good y an economy can produce
What is a trade-off?
You have to choose between conflicting objectives because you cannot achieve at the same time(Opportunity cost)
What factors affect a PPF to shift outwards?
Increased resources
Improved tech
Improved labour
suggests economic growth
What factors affect a PPF to shift inwards?
Fewer resources
natural disasters
suggests negative economic growth
What is a market?
A market is where buyers and sellers come together to exchange something they have for something they’d prefer to have.
What is a free market economy?
a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers
What are the pros and cons of a free market economy?
Pros:
Efficiency
(Only best value items will be in demand, Motivate for good items innovation )
Entrepreneurship
(risk to reward ratio , reward for good innovation)
Choice
(greater choice for consumers)
Cons:
Inequalities
(different incomes)
Non-profitable goods may not be made
monopolies
(dominating markets)
What is a command economy ?
Command economy government decide how resources should be allocated
pros and cons of a command economy
pros:
Maximise social welfare
(Prevent inequality , redistribute income fairly)
Low unemployment
Prevent monopolies
Cons:
Poor-decision making
(Lack of information asymmetric information gaps)
Restricted choice
Lack of risk-taking and efficiency
What is a mixed economy ?
Government and markets both play a part in allocating resources
Adam Smith context
Invisible hand (Resources allocated in societys best interest)
No Monopolies , Low barriers to entry, maximise competition
What does Margin mean?
The change in variable caused by an increase of one unit of additional variable
How to calculate marginal cost?
Total cost(new output level)- Total cost(one unit less than that)
The total cost of producing 100 ice creams is £100 and the Total cost of producing 101 ice creams is £102
£102-£100=2 =MC
What is marginal utility?
benefit gained from consuming one additional unit of a good
What is total utility?
Overall benefit gained from consuming a good
What is the law of diminishing marginal utility? How does this affect demand?
each additional unit consumed decreases satisfaction of previous unit consumed
From a demand and supply diagram Demand always slope downwards as The more consumption the cheaper price and higher price less demand.
What are Producers economic objectives?
Maximise profits(TR-TC)
(Survival, reinvest for greater profits, expand )
Maximise total sales
(Become a monopoly, dominance)
Ethics
(May buy from a supplier nearby to help domestically)