micro economics Flashcards
What is the economic problem?
Scarcity
Define scarcity
A situation that arises because people have unlimited wants in the face of limited resources
What are the ‘limited resources’
factors of production
Name the 4 FOP
Land
Labour
Capital
Enterprise
What are free goods?
Goods that have zero opportunity cost. This means they can be produced by society in as much quantity as needed with little/zero effect. They are not normally regarded as scarce.
eg. Air
What are economic goods?
Goods with an opportunity cost eg it takes time and resources to produce. They are scarce.
What is a positive statement?
About what it is eg a fact. They might be right/wrong and can be tested against facts.
What is a normative statement?
About what ought to be eg they depend on values and cannot be tested.
What are economic agents?
Those responsible for making economic decisions. The economic agents are: Households, Firms and Governments.
What economic choices do households make and what are their objectives?
Choices on their expenditure, and to do this they need income and so therefore need to choose where to supply their labour.
They aim to maximise utility from their expenditure and income from working.
What economic choices do firms make and what are their objectives?
Choices about what goods and services to produce, their production techniques and the prices they sell at.
They aim to maximise profit.
What economic choices do firms make and what are their objectives?
Choices about types of taxation, how much to tax, how to spend tax rev and how to regulate markets.
They aim to maximise welfare
Define FOP?
The resources people use to produce goods and services
What is land?
Natural resources available for production
What is the reward for land?
Rental income to the owners of the land
What is enterprise?
Entrepreneurs organising FOP and taking risks.
What is the reward for enterprise?
Profit
What is labour?
Human input into the production process.
What are the reward for labour?
Wages and salaries from employment
What is capital?
Goods used in the supply of other products. Eg machinery
What are the rewards for capital?
Interest (the return the firm gains from using the capital)
What is resource allocation?
Choices about how to deploy societies available resources across all their alternative uses. The way in which these resources are allocated influences the wellbeing of society.