Economics Flashcards
What does the Neoclassical school believe?
Changes in aggregate demand/supply are caused by technological changes. Business cycles are caused by deviations from long-run equilibrium
What does the Keynesian school believe?
Business cycles are caused by business expectations (overly optimistic and overly pessimistic). They believe both monetary and fiscal policy should be used to control aggregate demand
What do New Keynesians believe in?
Prices of production inputs other than labor are also downward sticky
What do Monetarists believe?
Business cycles are caused by inappropriate decisions by monetary authorities. Steady and predictable increases in the money supply will keep aggregate demand stable and growing.
What does the Austrian school believe in?
Business cycles are caused by government interventions in the economy.
What does the New Classical school believe in?
They believe in Real Business Cycle theory, which emphasizes changes in technology and external shocks instead of monetary factors
What is the equation to calculate marginal revenue for a monopoly?
MR = P(1 - 1/E)
What is the equation for GDP using the expenditures approach?
GDP = C + I + G + (X - M)
What is the equation for GDP using the income approach (give both equations)?
GDP = national income + capital consumption allowance GDP = C + S + T
What is the equation for national income?
National income = employee compensation + corporate/government profits before taxes + interest income + unincorporated business net income (owners’ income) + rent + indirect business taxes - subsidies
What is stagflation?
When output decreases and prices rise. Usually caused by a leftwards shift of the SRAS curve
What is a common value auction?
When the item’s value is the same to any bidder, but the bidders don’t know the value beforehand e.g. oil lease auctions
What is a private value auction?
The item’s value is different to each bidder e.g. art collection auction
What is an ascending price auction (English auction)?
Highest bidder wins
What is a sealed bid auction?
Bidders place one bid. The highest bid wins
What is a second price sealed bid auction (Vickery auction)?
Highest bidder wins but pays the price of the 2nd highest bid
What is a descending price auction (Dutch auction)?
Offer price starts high and is reduced until a buyer is willing to pay for it
What is a modified Dutch auction?
A Dutch auction in which all winning bidders pay the same price
What is producer surplus?
Total revenue - total variable costs
What is statutory incidence?
Refers to who is legally responsible for paying the tax
If demand is less elastic, which party (consumers or suppliers) bear more of the tax burden?
Consumers
What is price elasticity?
%change demanded / %change price
At what elasticity point is total revenue maximized?
Unitary elasticity
What 2 major factors affect demand elasticity?
- Portion of income spent on good - the larger the portion of income spent, the more elastic
- Time - elasticity increases as time goes on
What is a normal good?
A good for which income elasticity is positive (demand goes up as income increases)
What is an inferior good?
A good for which income elasticity is negative (demand decreases as income increases)
What does it mean if two goods are substitutes?
Demand for one good increases as the price of the other good increases
What does it mean if two goods are complements?
Demand for one good decreases as the price of the other good increases
What does utility theory try to explain?
Consumer behavior based on preferences for different combinations of goods in terms of their relative level of satisfaction
What is consumer choice theory?
A theory that relates consumers’ wants and to the good/services that they buy
What is a utility function?
U(Q_A, Q_B, Q_C…Q_N)
What is the condition of non-satiation?
Holding all other quantities constant, increasing one good always increases utility
What is a budget constraint (expressed as a budget line)?
A line that shows all combinations of goods X and Y that the consumer can exhaust with his income
What is the opportunity set in a budget constraint?
All combinations of goods X and Y that a consumer can afford (shaded area under a budget line)
What is an indifference curve?
A plot that represents equal points of utility for goods X and Y
What is the marginal rate of substitution (MRS)?
the rate at which the consumer would be willing to exchange units of X for units of Y (also equal to the slope of the indifference curve at any point)
What is a consumer’s equilibrium bundle of goods?
The point where the highest attainable indifference curve is tangent to the budget line
What is the substitution effect?
When the price of good X decreases, the consumer buys more of X and less of Y (moving along the same indifference curve, resulting in a new budget line)
What is the income effect?
It moves the budget line up to a new indifference curve. It may be in the same or opposite direction as the substitution effect
What is a Giffen good?
An inferior good in which the negative income effect is stronger than the substitution effect - consumption of good decreases. It would have an upwards sloping demand curve
What is a Veblen good?
A good in which a higher price would increase demand for the good. Not supported by consumer choice theory
What is economic profit?
Economic profit = accounting profit - implicit opportunity costs
What is a normal profit?
An accounting profit that results in zero economic profit AKA implicit opportunity costs and explicit costs are covered by revenue
What is economic rent?
Payment to a factor of production above its value in its next highest-valued use (opportunity cost)
What is Average Revenue?
Total Revenue/Quantity Sold
What type of demand curves do firms in imperfect competition face?
Downwards sloping
What type of demand curves do firms in perfect competition face?
Horizontal AKA perfectly elastic. Also equivalent to the market price, AR, and MR
What is Marginal Revenue?
The change in Total Revenue from selling one more unit of a good/service
What are examples of a firm’s factors of production?
Land, labor, physical capital, and materials
What is a production function?
Q = f(K,L) where Q is quantity outputted, K is physical capital, and L is labor
What are Total Variable Costs?
Inputs whose cost varies with output i.e. wages, raw materials
What are Total Fixed Costs?
Inputs whose costs cannot be avoided; include normal profit
What is Total Cost?
Total Cost = TVC + TFC (include explicit and implicit costs)
What is Marignal Cost?
Change in Total Cost / Change in Quantity outputted
On a graph with output as the x-axis and cost on the y-axis, what does the Average Fixed Cost curve look like?
Downwards sloping, because costs are constant but are spread out over more products as output increases
On a graph with output as the x-axis and cost on the y-axis, what is the vertical distance between Average Variable Cost and Average Total Cost
The vertical distance is equal to Average Fixed Cost
On a graph with output as the x-axis and cost on the y-axis, what does the Marginal Cost curve look like?
It decreases initially and then slopes upwards (a J-shape). This is because marginal productivity initially increases as labor specializes, but at some point there is a diminishing return of labor
On a graph with output as the x-axis and cost on the y-axis, where does the Marginal Cost curve fall with respect to the Average Variable Cost curve and the Average Total Cost curve?
The MC curve intersects the AVC and ATC curves at their minimums
On a graph with output as the x-axis and cost on the y-axis, what do the Average Variable Cost and Average Total Cost curves look like?
They are U-shaped. AVC decreases initially but increases once diminishing returns of labor set in.
What does the minimum point on the Average Total Cost curve represent?
It represents the unit at which cost per unit is the lowest AKA the firm is maximizing profit per unit but not necessarily maximizing profits overall
What does the Marginal Cost curve above the Average Variable Cost curve represent?
The firm’s short-run supply curve in a perfectly competitive market
In perfect competition, at what point should a firm shut down in the short-run and long-run?
If the price of its products are below AVC AKA Average Revenue is less than Average Variable Costs
In perfect competition, at what point should a firm shut down in the long-run but operate in the short-run?
If the Average Revenue is greater than AVC but less than ATC
In imperfect competition, at what point should a firm shut down in the long-run but operate in the short-run?
If Total Revenue is greater than Total Variable Cost but less than Total Cost
At what quantity are economic profits maximized for a firm? There are 2 ways to measure this
- At the quantity where Marginal Revenue = Marginal Cost
2. At the quantity where Total Revenue - Total Cost is at a maximum
What is the minimum efficient scale?
The point of price and output where the Long Run Average Total Cost curve (LRATC) is at minimum
What is an increasing-cost industry and what does its long-run supply curve look like?
An industry where input prices increase as more firms enter due to increased demand, pushing up the market price of the firms’ product and their input prices. The long-run supply curve is upwards sloping
What is a decreasing-cost industry and what does its long-run supply curve look like?
Input prices decrease as firms enter the industry. The long-run supply curve is downwards sloping
What is a constant-cost industry and what does its long-run supply curve look like?
Input prices remain the same as firms enter the industry. The long-run supply curve is flat
What is the total product of labor?
Output for a specific amount of labor
What is the average product of labor?
Total product of labor / number of workers
What is the marginal product of labor?
Addition to total product of labor by adding one more worker
For a firm with N inputs, what does cost minimization require?
MP_1 / P_1 = MP_2 / P_2 … = MP_N / P_N
What is Marginal Revenue Product?
Monetary value of the marginal product of an input. It is the firm’s increase in total revenue from selling the additional output from employing one more unit of labor. Equal to MP * MR of the additional output
What is the profit-maximizing quantity of an input i?
The quantity for which Marginal Revenue Product_i = P_i