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KEY CONCEPT

Chapter 1: The Economic Way of Thinking. KEY CONCEPT Scarcity is the situation that exists because wants are unlimited and resources are limited. WHY THE CONCEPT MATTERS

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KEY CONCEPT

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  1. Chapter 1: The Economic Way of Thinking KEY CONCEPT • Scarcity is the situation that exists because wants are unlimited and resources are limited. WHY THE CONCEPT MATTERS • The concept of scarcity is an issue you confront in everyday life. Suppose you have $20 to cover the cost of lunches for the week. How would you use the money to cover your wants Monday through Friday? How would buying a late afternoon snack for $1 on two of the days affect your lunch choices?

  2. Section-1 Scarcity: The Basic Economic Problem What Is Scarcity? KEY CONCEPTS • Wants— desires that can be met by consuming products • Needs— things necessary for survival • Scarcity— lack of resources available to meet all human wants not a temporary shortage • Economics— study of how people use resources to satisfy wants — examines how individuals and societies choose to use resources — organizes, analyzes, interprets data about economic behaviors — develops theories, economic laws to explain economy, predict future

  3. The Economic Way of Thinking

  4. What Is Scarcity? Principle 1: People Have Wants • People make choices about all their needs and wants • Wants are unlimited, ever changing

  5. What Is Scarcity? Principle 2: Scarcity Affects Everyone • Scarcity affects which goods and services are provided • Goods — physical objects that can be bought • Services— work one person does for another for pay • Consumer— person who buys good or service for personal use • Producer— person who makes a good or provides a service

  6. Scarcity Leads to Three Economic Questions KEY CONCEPTS • Scarcity affects society and producers as well as individuals • Society must answer three basic economic questions: — what will be produced? — how will it be produced? — for whom will it be produced?

  7. Scarcity Leads to Three Economic Questions Question 1: What Will Be Produced? • Societies must decide on mix of goods to produce — depends in part on their natural resources • Some countries allow producers and consumers to decide • In other countries, governments decide • Must also decide how much to produce; choice depends on societies’ wants

  8. Scarcity Leads to Three Economic Questions Question 2: How Will It Be Produced? • Decisions on production methods involve using resources efficiently — decisions influenced by a society’s natural resources • Societies adopt different approaches — with unskilled labor force, might use labor-intensive methods — with skilled labor force, might use capital-intensive methods

  9. Scarcity Leads to Three Economic Questions Question 3: For Whom Will It Be Produced? • How goods and services are distributed involves two questions — how should each person’s share be determined? — how will goods and services be delivered to people?

  10. The Factors of Production KEY CONCEPTS • Factors of production — resources needed to produce goods and services — include land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship — supply is limited

  11. The Factors of Production Factor 1: Land • Land means all natural resources on or under the ground — includes water, forests, wildlife, mineral deposits

  12. The Factors of Production Factor 2: Labor • Labor is all the human time, effort, talent used to make products — physical and mental effort used to make a good or provide a service

  13. The Factors of Production Factor 3: Capital • Capital is a producer’s physical resources — includes tools, machines, offices, stores, roads, vehicles — sometimes called physical capital or real capital • Workers invest in human capital — knowledge and skills — workers with more human capital are more productive

  14. The Factors of Production Factor 4: Entrepreneurship • Entrepreneurship — vision, skill, ingenuity, willingness to take risks • Entrepreneurs anticipate consumer wants, satisfy these in new ways — develop new products, methods of production, marketing or distributing — risk time, energy, creativity, money to make a profit

  15. Reviewing Key Concepts Explain the relationship between the terms in each of these pairs: • wants and scarcity • consumer and producer • factors of production and entrepreneurship

  16. Section-2 Economic Choice Today: Opportunity Cost Making Choices KEY CONCEPTS • Economic choices shaped by — Incentives — benefits that encourage people to act in certain ways — Utility — benefit or satisfaction gained from using a good or service • To make choices, people economize: — make decisions according to best combination of costs and benefits

  17. Making Choices Factor 1: Motivations for Choice • People motivated by incentives, expected utility, desire to economize • They weigh costs against benefits to make purposeful choices — motivated by self-interest: look for ways to maximize utility

  18. Making Choices Factor 2: No Free Lunch • All choices have a cost — choosing one thing means giving up another, or paying a cost — cost can take form of money, time, other thing of value

  19. Trade-Offs and Opportunity Cost KEY CONCEPTS • Trade-off is alternative people give up when they make a choice — usually means giving up some, not all, of a thing to get more of another

  20. Trade-Offs and Opportunity Cost Example 1: Making Trade-Offs • Shanti wants to earn college credit over summer — semester-long university course offers more credits — six-week high school course leaves time for vacation

  21. Trade-Offs and Opportunity Cost Example 2: Counting the Opportunity Cost • Opportunity cost is value of next-best alternative a person gives up — not the value of all possible alternatives • Dan chooses to work for six months so he can travel for six months — opportunity cost: six months of salary

  22. Analyzing Choices KEY CONCEPTS • Cost-benefit analysis — examination of costs, expected benefits of choices — one of most useful tools for evaluating relative worth of economic choices

  23. Analyzing Choices Example: Max’s Decision-Making Grid • Decision-making grid shows what one gets, gives up with each choice • Max’s grid shows all possible choices for his free hours each week — lists choices, benefits and opportunity cost of each choice • With time, costs and benefits change; also goals and circumstances — Changes influence decisions, make people alter original choices

  24. Analyzing Choices Example: Marginal Costs and Benefits • Marginal cost — lists choices, benefits and opportunity cost of each choice • Marginal benefit — additional benefit of using one more unit of a good or service

  25. Reviewing Key Concepts Explain the relationship between the terms in each of these pairs: • incentive and utility • trade-off and opportunity cost • marginal cost and marginal benefit

  26. Section-3 Analyzing Production Possibilities Graphing the Possibilities KEY CONCEPTS • Economic models — simplified representations of economic forces • Production possibilities curve (PPC) is one model — maximum goods or services that can be produced from limited resources — also called production possibilities frontier

  27. Graphing the Possibilities KEY CONCEPTS • PPC based on assumptions that simplify economic interactions — resources are fixed — all resources are fully employed — only two things can be produced — technology is fixed

  28. Graphing the Possibilities Production Possibilities Curve • PPC runs between extremes of producing only one item or the other • Data is plotted on a graph; lines joining points is PPC — shows maximum number of one item relative to other item • PPC shows opportunity cost of each choice — more of one product means less of the other

  29. What We Learn from PPCs KEY CONCEPTS • Concepts revealed by PPC: — Efficiency — producing the maximum amount of goods and services possible — Underutilization — producing fewer goods and services than possible

  30. What We Learn from PPCs Example: Efficiency and Underutilization • Each point on PPC represents efficiency — points inside curve mean underutilization; outside curve cannot be met • Law of increasing opportunity costs — as production switches from one product to another, more resources needed to increase production of second product

  31. What We Learn from PPCs Example: Increasing Opportunity Costs • Increase in opportunity cost — each new unit costs more than last one • Reasons for increasing cost of making more of one product — need new resources, machines, factories — must retrain workers • Costs paid by making less and less of other product

  32. Changing Production Possibilities Example: A Shift in the PPC • A country’s supply of resources changes over time — Example: U.S. in 1800s grew, gained resources, workers, new technology — new resources mean new production possibilities beyond frontier • Increased production shown on PPC as shift of curve outward • Increase in total output called economic growth

  33. Reviewing Key Concepts Explain how each term is illustrated by the production possibilities curve: • underutilization • efficiency

  34. Section-4 The Economists Toolbox Working with Data KEY CONCEPTS • Statistics — numerical data or information — show patterns of human behavior • Economic models help organize and interpret data

  35. Working with Data Using Economic Models • Economic models focus on a limited number of variables — thus based on assumptions and use simplification — expressed in words, graphs, equations

  36. Working with Data Using Charts and Tables • Economists look for statistical relationships, trends, connections • Charts and tables display data in rows and columns — can reveal patterns by showing numbers in relation to other numbers

  37. Working with Data Using Graphs • Graphs use two sets of variables: along horizontal, vertical axes • Line graphs useful for showing changes over time — in economics, line referred to as a curve, even if straight • Bar graphs good for showing comparisons • Pie graph (or pie chart, circle graph) shows numbers in relation to whole

  38. Microeconomics and Macroeconomics KEY CONCEPTS • Microeconomics — studies behavior of individual players in an economy — includes individuals, families, businesses • Macroeconomics — studies behavior of economy as a whole — topics include inflation, unemployment, aggregate demand and aggregate supply

  39. Microeconomics and Macroeconomics Microeconomics • Microeconomics examines specific, individual elements in an economy — prices, costs, profits, competition, consumer and producer behavior • Some Topics of Interest: business organization, labor markets, environmental issues

  40. Microeconomics and Macroeconomics Microeconomics • Microeconomics examines specific, individual elements in an economy — prices, costs, profits, competition, consumer and producer behavior • Some Topics of Interest: business organization, labor markets, environmental issues

  41. Microeconomics and Macroeconomics Microeconomics • Macroeconomics studies sectors — combination of all individual units — Includes consumer, business, public or government sectors • Macroeconomics studies national or global topics: — monetary system, business cycle, tax policies, international trade

  42. Positive Economics and Normative Economics KEY CONCEPTS • Positive economics— describes and explains economic behavior as it is — uses verifiable facts; does not make judgments • Normative economics— studies what economic behavior should be — makes value judgments to recommend future actions

  43. Positive Economics and Normative Economics Positive Economics • Positive economics uses scientific method — observe data, hypothesize, test, refine, continue testing • Statements tested against real-world data — proved (or strongly supported) or disproved (or strongly questioned)

  44. Positive Economics and Normative Economics Normative Economics • Normative economics studies facts, asks if course of action is good • Recommendations differ because values they are based on also differ

  45. Adam Smith: Founder of Modern Economics Seeing the Invisible • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776 — challenged mercantilism; argued for free trade • Invisible hand guides free marketplace, benefits sellers and buyers — people pursue own economic self-interest — producers sell at prices that satisfy them and that consumers will pay

  46. Reviewing Key Concepts Explain the differences between the terms in each of these pairs: • statistics and economic model • macroeconomics and microeconomics • positive economics and normative economics

  47. Case Study: The Real Cost of Expanding O’Hare Airport Background • Chicago’s O’Hare Airport is one of the busiest airports in the United States. • Delays at O’Hare are commonplace. • Considerable debate over the best solution to improve efficiency. What’s the Issue • What are the real costs involved in airport expansion? Study these sources to determine the costs tied to the expansion of O’Hare airport.

  48. Case Study: The Real Cost of Expanding O’Hare Airport {continued} Thinking Economically • Explain the real cost of expanding O’Hare Airport. Use information presented in the documents to support your answer. • Who are the most likely winners and losers as a result of the O’Hare expansion? Explain your answer. • How might supporters of expansion use a production possibilities model to strengthen their case?

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