Unit 3 AOS 1 Flashcards
What is relative scarcity?
Relative scarcity refers to having unlimited needs and wants but only having limited resources to fulfill them
What is opportunity cost?
The value of the next best option foregone whenever a choice or decision is made
What is allocative efficiency?
Allocative efficiency is the most efficient allocation of resources where living standards have been taken into account and are being maximised
What is productive/technical efficiency?
Productive/technical efficiency is when an economy achieces the most efficient level of production from a given level of inputs - does not take living standards into account
What is dynamic efficiency?
Dynamic efficiency is how quickly an economy can reallocate its resources to achieve allocative efficieny
What is inter-temporal efficiency?
Inter-temporal efficiency is how well resources are allocated over different time periods so the living standards of current generations are not impacting future generations living standards
The nature of a free and perfectly competitve market
Consumer sovereignty exists, ability of the consumer to direct or allocate resources, large number of buyers and sellers (price takers), homogenous products, low barriers to entry and exit
What are the assumptions for a perfectly competitive market?
Buyers and sellers operate with full information, resources are mobile and buyers and sellers act rationally
What is the market/price mechanism?
Describes how the forces of demand and supply influence relative prices of goods and sevices which then coordinates the way productive resources are allocated in the economy
What is the law of demand?
Demand is the willingness and ability of consumers to purchase goods or services
The quantity demanded increases, as the price decreases
The quantity demanded decreases, as the price increases
What is the income effect?
A reduced consumption of a good or service whose price has increased that is due to the reduction in the consumers purchasing power or an increase in consumption of a good or service whose price has decreased that is due to the increase in the consumers purchasing power
What is the substitution effect?
The reduced consumption of a good or service whose price has increased that is due to the changed trade off: the fact that one must give up more of another goods or services to get more units of the high priced good or service
Demand side non-price factors
Changes in disposable income, price of a substitute, price of complements, preferences and tastes, interest rates, population demographics and consumer confidence
What is disposable income?
Disposable income is income available for spending after the receipt of welfare benefits and deduction of personal taxes
What is discretionary income?
Discretionary income is the disposable income available for consumption following the payment of all ‘non-discretionary’ or ‘non-avoidable’ expenditures such as those related to food, clothing and shelter
What are the supply side non-price factors?
Changes in cost of production, number of suppliers, technological change, productivity and climatic conditions
What is the law of supply?
As price rises, the quantity supplied increases and as price falls, the quantity supplied decreases
What is the 7 step method?
1: Explain the situation in own words
2: Supply or demand
3: Increase or decrease
4: Cruve shifts to the left or right
5: If price remains at P1 temporary shortage/surplus
6: Market forces put downward/upward pressure on price to adjust to new equilibrium
7: Overall impact on price and quantity
What is market equilibrium?
Equilibrium is where the quantity demanded for a good or service is equal to the quantity supplied of a good or service