CAS EC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Human Capital

• School: Boston University
• Department: Economics
• Course: CAS EC 101
• Professor: Michael Manove

Document Summary

Economics: the scientific study of human behavior associated with the production and distribution of the necessities and conveniences of life (wealth of nations by adam. Production: transformation of goods/services (inputs) to other goods and services (outputs) Consumers tend to put more value on the output than the input (incentive to produce) Primitive economies - individuals produce for themselves and consume their own production (no distribution) Specialist producers use large quantities of inputs to produce large quantities of outputs. Inputs must be distributed to producers (including labor) Necessities and conveniences of life: refers to goods/services that people need/want (bread, clothes, music) A study of the things people buy. How people organize themselves for the production and distribution of goods and services. About what people do to create necessities and conveniences. Similar to real-world objects in details that are important to intended analysis, but simpler in details that are unimportant to analysis (airplanes, mice)