ECON 208 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Budget Constraint, Opportunity Cost, Population Ageing

• School: McGill University
• Department: Economics
• Course: ECON 208
• Professor: Wendy Dickinson

Document Summary

Productivity growth (possibly more incomes, there is a probability of being better off) Globalization: a lot of rms that didn"t have competition before now have a lot of competition because there is a lot of free trade (no barriers to imports and exports anymore) Economics is the use of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited human wants. The scarce resources are usually divided into land, labour, and capital (technology or even human capital- investing in yourself. ) Economists refer to resources as factors of production. Resources can produce only a fraction of the goods and services desired by people. Whenever you make a choice there is an associated cost called an opportunity cost. You"re giving up the opportunity to do something else and all the bene ts associated with it. Opportunity cost is de ned as the bene t given up by not using resources in the best alternative way. Something is scarce when it has a positive opportunity cost.