chapter 1 - 4 exam Flashcards
Three core choices that confront every nation
- What to produce with our limited resources
- How to produce the goods and services we select
- For Whom goods and services are produced - that is, who should get them
Scarcity
is the lack of enough resources to satisfy all desired uses of those resources.
- Scarcity of resources limits the amount of goods and services that can be produced
- This means that somebody’s wants will have to go unfulfilled
- Scarcity requires economic choices to be made
Factors of Production
is resource inputs used to produce goods and services
The four factors of production are labor, land, capital, & entrepreneurship
Labor
is the skills and abilities of all humans at work
Capital
is the final goods produced for use in further production
- Capital is what money buys
- For example, at McDonald’s capital would be the grill or fryer
- Capital is what produces revenue
Entrepreneurship
is the assembling of resources to produce new or improved products, and or technologies
Economics
is the study of how best to allocate scare resources among competing uses
When choosing to use resources to produce one thing we must …
give up producing something else with those resources.
We allocate resources by
by price
- If a brand can’t sell a particular product they cut the price.
- They want people to buy it cheap
Opportunity cost
is the most desired goods or services forgone to obtain something else
- Opportunity cost are associated with every decision.
Production possibilities
- are the combinations of final goods and services that could be produced in a given time period with all available resources and technology
- The production Possibility model illustrates the economic concepts of scarcity, tradeoffs, opportunity cost
- For example, one factory can produce either trucks or tanks, or some of each with the limited resources available. To increase production of one, resources must be shifted away from the production of another
The production Possibility model illustrates…
the economic concepts of scarcity, tradeoffs, opportunity cost
Production possibility curve (ppc) example
- Scarcity is equal to a limit on output
- Trade-offs are equal to producing more and giving up the production of another
- Opportunity cost is equal to the number of resources given up to produce another
Increasing opportunity cost
Each time we give up on resource, we get less of another back in production. This is because resources are specialized to produce one good better than another
Economic Growth
is an increase in output and an expansion of production possibilities
- This is caused by increasing the available resources or by technology advancing
- It raises our standard of living, satisfies more wants and needs, and creates jobs
What to produce
s the point we choose on the production possibilities curve that determines what mix of output gets produced
- Produce goods and services that customers want
How to produce
is when someone must decide which production methods and technologies to use
- Profitably; produce goods and services while keeping production costs low
For Whom to produce
there must be a mechanism to determine whose wants and needs will be satisfied and who must go without.
- Produce for those who are both willing and able to pay for it
- The poor can’t afford to pay for it so we have programs to help take care of the poor
- If the poor don’t have the money we provide for them
- It is morally and economically acceptable
The Invisible hand
is the use of market prices and sales to signal desired outputs and resource allocations.
The index of Economic Freedom categorizes nations by
the extent of their actual market reliance
- Market: dominated economies rank high
- Government: run economies rank low
If the market does not produce the mix of goods that society desires,
market failure is said to occur.
This provides an opening for the government to step in
If the government can move us closer to the mix society desires
the intervention is successful.
- However, the government can do the opposite, or impose such high costs that a government failure occurs.
Positive analysis
focuses on “what is” and it based on facts
Normative analysis
focuses on “what should be” and is based on opinions and judgements
Macroeconomics
is the study of aggregate economic behavior, of the economy as a whole
- The “big picture”
Microeconomics
is the study of individual behavior in the economy, of the components of the larger economy
What are the goals of individual economic actors?
Ceteris paribus
is the assumption of nothing else changing
A measure of an economy’s size is
gross domestic product (also known as GDP) which is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a nation’s borders in a given timer period.
- is all the goods and services produced
One measure of a country’s standard of living
is per capital GDP
- To find you must calculate the GDP divided by the population
- An indicator of how much output the average person would get if all output were divided evenly among the population
If GDP grows faster than the population grows,
per capita GDP rises, and the standard of living rises
Economic Growth refers to
an increase in output or, on other words, an expansion of production possibilities
Regardless of how much output a nation produces
the mix of output always includes both goods and services.
How a country produces depends on
what resources inputs are available
Human capital
is the knowledge and skills possessed by the workforce
Physical capital
is the facilities, tools, equipment, and infrastructure available to the workforce
Richer countries tend to be capital-intensive, while
poorer countries tend to be labor intensive
Capital-intensive
- Capital is abundant and relatively low-cost
- Labor is costly
Labor- intensive
- Capital is unavailable or very expensive
- Labor is cheap
Reasons why the U.S. continues to sustain a high level of productivity
- factor mobility
- technological advancement
- outsourcing and trade
Factor mobility
rapid reallocation of resources from declining industries to expanding industries in response to changing demand and technology
Technological advancement
finding new and better ways to produce products. When technology advances, an economy can produce more output with existing resources. Its production possibilities curve shifts outward.
Outsourcing and trade
U.S. workers have a comparative advantage in high-skill, capital-intensive jobs.
Workers in other countries have a comparative advantage in lower-skill, labor-intensive jobs.
By outsourcing routine tasks to foreign workers, U.S. workers are able to focus on higher-value jobs
In assessing how goods are produced and economies grow…
we must also take heed of the role of the government plays
Market-reliant economies
grow faster than government-dominated economies
When the government owns the factors of production, imposes high taxes, or tightly regulates output,
there is little incentive to design new products or pursue new technology
Allocating the products to the users can be done by
- The government
- The market mechanism
- A mixture of the two
In market distribution, the higher the income
the greater the ability to buy goods and services
Market Participants
try to obtain the maximum return from the scare resources they have
Consumers
maximize utility (satisfaction) they get from available incomes