Chapter 1 Vocab Flashcards
Agricultural Economics
An applied social science that deals with how producers, consumers, and societies use scarce and natural resources in the production, processing, marketing, and consumption of food and fiber products
Biological resources
Scarce resources such as livestock, wildlife, and different genetic varieties of crops.
Capital
Also know as manufactured resources
Examples include machines, equipment, and a product that has not been used in the year it was made
Capitalism
The free market economic system in which individuals own resources and have the right to employ their time and resources however they choose, with minimal legal constraints from the government
Prices signal the value of resources and economic goods (supply and demand)
Communism
A type of economic system in which resources are generally collectively owned and the government decides how human and nonhuman resources are to be utilized across the various sectors of the economy
Used in places such as North Korea
Economics
A social science that deals with how consumers, producers, and societies choose among the alternative uses of scarce resources in the process of producing, exchanging, and consuming goods and services
Fallacy of Composition
What is true in an individual situation is not necessarily true for a large population
Doubling your wheat production is good for you, but if everyone does it, wheat becomes less valuable.
Food and fiber system
An example of microeconomics.
Has issues related to resource use in production, processing, distribution, and consumption of products in this markets
Human Resources
Services provided by laborers and management to the production of goods and services that are also considered scarce
Macroeconomics
A branch of economics that focuses on broad aggregates such as the growth of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), the gaps between the economy’s potential GDP and its current GDP, and trade-offs between unemployment and inflation.
Management
Another form of human resource, provides entrepreneurial services, which may entail the formation of a new firm, the renovation or expansion of an existing firm, the taking of financial risks, and the supervision of the use of the firm’s existing resources so that its objectives can be met.
Manufactured resources
A category of scarce resources
Examples are machines, equipment, and structures
Also known as capital
Microeconomics
A branch of economics that focuses on the economic actions of individuals or specific groups of individuals
Mixed economic system
Markets are not entirely free to determine price in some markets, but are free in others
The United States is an example of this economic system
Natural resources
A scarce resource
Examples of this are land and mineral deposits
Normative economics
Focuses on “What should be?” or “What ought to be?” questions.
Opportunity cost
Refers to the implicit cost associated with the next best alternative in a set of choices available to decision makers
Do the economic benefits of one choice exceed the costs, including the forgone income associated with the next best alternative
Positive economics
Focuses on “what is…?” and “What if…?” questions
Scarce resources
Resources with only a limited quantity available
Can be broken down into the following categories 1) natural and biological resources; 2) Human Resources; and 3) manufactured resources
Scarcity
A relative concept that refers to the fixed quantity of resources that are available to meet societal needs.
Socialism
Winston Churchill called this “a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; it’s inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery”
A type of economic system in which resources are generally collectively owned and the government decides how human and nonhuman resources are to be utilized across the various sectors of the economy
Specialization
Focusing the use of out resources on a specific task
Ex: Idaho making a bunch of potatoes, and choosing to import wheat and oranges from somewhere else
