Unit 1: Economics Flashcards
What is the economic problem?
Asserts that there is scarcity, or that finite resources available are insufficient to satisfy all human wants and needs.
The fundamental questions of economics determines…
What is to be produced and how the factors of production are to be allocated.
What are the three economic questions?
1) What to produce? - best combination of goods and services to meet varied wants and needs, and how factors of production are to be allocated
2) How to produce? - best combination of factors to create desired output of goods and services
3) For whom to produce?- who benefits from the output, problem of distribution
What is choice?
An act of choosing between two or more possibilities.
What is opportunity cost?
The next best alternative foregone when a choice is made, benefits are lost due to sacrifices.
What do the factors of production impact?
Financial markets and investment outcomes
The inputs used to produce a good or service to produce income and is measured by GDP.
The success or failure of the outcome.
Define economic resources
The factors of production - land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship
Define the ceteris paribus assumption…
A Latin phrase meaning ‘other things being equal’
Define economic growth…
Sustained increase in the productive capacity of an economy over a specific period of time, usually indicated by the increased availability of goods and services in the economy.
Define efficiency…
Achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.
Define Production Possibility Curve / Frontier…
A model used by economists to demonstrate the concept of opportunity cost
Assumptions involved in the PPC/F are…
- economy aims to use all resources fully and efficiently
- only two goods produced in this simplified economy
- all resources can be used to produce each good - perfect mobility
- level of technology is assumed to be fixed
- resources are fixed
Define productivity…
How much output can be produced with a given set of inputs. Productivity increases when more output is produced with the same amount of inputs or when the same amount of output is produced with less inputs.
Define scarcity…
Insufficiency relative to wants. Universal problem - resources available for satisfaction of human wants are limited while wants are unlimited
Define recession…
A period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP
During a recession, the economy struggles, people lose work, companies make fewer sales and the country’s overall economic output declines. The point where the economy officially falls into a recession depends on a variety of factors.
Why is the economy so important?
It can influence the decisions we make, which influences how the economy is performing. It is important to us all and can equally affect our lives.
What are the four phases of the cycle?
- expansion
- peak
- contraction
- trough
What is economic expansion?
The upswing of the cycle towards a peak. It is associated with
- increase in production/output
- decrease in unemployment
- increase in wages
- increase in consumer spending
What is economic contraction?
The downswing of the cycle towards a trough. It is associated with
- decrease in production/output
- increase in unemployment
- decrease in wages
- decrease in consumer spending
What is a boom?
A period of strong economic expansion where businesses are operating at full capacity or above and the unemployment rate is very low. Income and production are at very high levels. This can lead to rapid growth in prices.
What is a depression?
very severe recession.
large contraction in the economy
very high unemployment rate
Efficiency is…
using the least amount of resources to produce the goods and services that people value most
how cheaply firms can combine land, labor, and capital resources to maximise output while generating profits
Underutilisation is…
using fewer resources than an economy is capable of using.
Trade-offs are…
a balance achieved between two desirable but incompatible features, a compromise
Economic models are…
used to explain economic concepts and relationships providing a simplified version of reality.
The PPC shows / demonstrates…
- maximum possible production and various combinations of two goods with a given factor of production
- scarcity, choice and opportunity cost
- point that any nation’s economy reaches its greatest level of efficiency during specialisation
- production of one commodity may increase only if the other decreases (law of opportunity cost)
Economic assumptions are…
- initial conditions made before a micro or macroeconomic analysis is built
- used for simplification and to isolate effects of changes in variables
Assumptions of the PPC are…
- economy aims to use all resources fully and efficiently
- only two goods produced in the economy
- all resources used to make either goods, so there is perfect mobility between the production of the two goods
- level of technology is fixed
- resources are fixed
Interpretations of the PPC are… (points in the graph)
- points on the curve show efficient use of resources - maximum output. Full employment and productive efficiency
- points beyond the curve are unattainable given the resource constraint - only after economic growth.
- points below the curve are feasible, but inefficient. Unemployment and productive inefficiency
Why is the PPC curved?
a reflection of the law of diminishing returns, the addition of a production factor has no impact
Shifts in the PPC are…
inward - economic shrinkage due to resource allocation failure, high unemployment, rising inflation
outward - economic growth, increase in highly trained workers, improved technology, greater access to capital funds