Lesson 1 Flashcards
principle 1
people face trade-offs
principle 2
the cost of something is what you give up to get it
principle 3
ration people think at the margin (how many scoops of icecream)
principle 4
people respond to incentives
efficiency
society gets the most from scarse resource
equity
the benefits of resources are fairly distributed among members of society
marginal changes
small, incremental adjustments to an existing plan of action (ice cream)
principle 5
trade can make everyone better off
principle 6
markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity
principle 7
governments can sometimes improve economic outcomes
market economy
allocates resources through the decentralized decision of many as they interact in markets
property rights
ability of an idividual to own and exercise control over a scarse resource
market failure
when market fails to allocate resources efficiently
cause of market failure
externality and market power
microeconomics
focuses on individual part of the economy (how do individuals behave and interact in a particular market)
macroeconomics
looks at economy as whole (many markets that have interaction)
principle 8
a country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services
principle 9
prices rise when the government prints too much money
principle 10
society faces a short-run trade-off betwen inflation and unemployment
economic growth
the increase in the amount of goods and services in an economy over a period of time
gross domestic product per head
the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time divided by the population of a country to give a per capita figure
ways of measuring standards of living
compering personal incomes, compering the total market value of a nation’s production
productivity
amount of goods and services produced from each hour of a worker’s time
inflation
increase in the overall level of prices in the economy