ECON 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Positivism, Normative Science, Invisible Hand

• School: University of Virginia
• Department: Economics
• Course: ECON 2010
• Professor: Kenneth G.Elzinga

Document Summary

The central economic problems and the approach of economics. Fact - salsa now outsells ketchup in the us. Story - limitation of building height in dc, but deaths from building jumps increased. Metaphor - the invisible hand, people acting in their self-interest in fact promotes the public interest. Economics is a positive science positive as opposed to being normative. Physics as a positive science can tell us where a missile will land, whereas normative science would involve the question should the missile be launched? . Econ gives you information, you go somewhere else to get the values . Econ statements may not necessarily be right, but they can be tested whether or not they"re true or false. Scarcity of resources leads society to answer economic questions: The reason why we ask ourselves these questions is because these resources are scarce. Scarcity is necessary for these questions to exist. Short definition of economics: the science of choice.