ECO 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Comparative Advantage, Opportunity Cost

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7 Oct 2016

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What do economists expect the market to accomplish? o. The fundamental economic problem: how to best manage the resources of society, doing as well as possible with them, despite their scarcity. Resources- are the instruments provided by nature or by people that are used to create goods and services. Natural resources include minerals, soil, water, and air. Lab is a scarce resource, partly because of the number of skilled workers is limited. Factories and machines are resources made by people. These three types of resources are often referred to as land, labor, and capital. They are also called inputs or factors of production: opportunity cost- of any decision is the value of the next best alternative that the decision forces the decision maker to forgo o. The scarcity of physical resources is more fundamental than the scarcity of funds: virtually all resources are scarce, meaning that people have less of them than they would like.

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Need help revising, and recommendation for a conclusion.

Throughout this paper is my understanding of what I have learned in class chapters 1-4, expressing my understanding and opinions. Economics is the study of how we deal with scarce resources. Microeconomics specially deals with business in the home country exclusively. This type of economics affects small businesses in the home country only. On the other hand, macroeconomics concerns our national welfare concerning trade and international business.

I believe that many things affect our economy on a microeconomics level. Things such as our understanding of our country in reflection to the world are very important. That is why we study ourselves before we study the macroeconomic principle of the world. Understanding ourselves is what microeconomics teaches us. Working from the inside out. The world is a place where there are differences in our wants and what we get. That is what makes items scarce. That is what positive economics is. Positive economics deals with what is and what we have. The other type of economics is called normative statements. This deals with what we should receive instead of what is and deserved to some extent. It's our scarce resources that determine our allocation of resources and how we use our resources and time. This is where opportunity costs come in, giving up something to do something. A successful business or country never ignores opportunity costs. We must ensure that we have a comparative advantage instead of the absolute advantage. Our resources must be used to achieve maximum output. Comparative is met when we have fewer opportunity costs to make some certain products than the other person or entity.

My initial understanding was scarcity was oil potentially running out, but we have so much of it that you can always find more with techniques such as fracking. Now it's obvious to me, one of our most scarce resources is time. You cannot avoid the 8,760 hours in a year. I understand that people have unlimited wants but limited resources. Everything has a cost and we must make a choice as we don't have unlimited farms, factories workers, etc. scarcity forces choices and this ties in with opportunity cost, for every gun made, a theft from the hungry is made. The opportunity cost not being used to feed the poor, but to make guns. And I find it easy to understand no one can have everything choices must be made on benefits. If I'm going to school, imp giving up making cash, as I'm giving up money for an education, I value education more. Scarcity is also related to the invisible hand. As it's an achievement that leads free markets and capitalism through competition for scarce resources.

My understanding of the invisible hand is a person neither intends to promote public interest and does not know how much he is promoting it. Only intending on his own gain. Without being his intention a person can be lead by the invisible hand to do good for society by pursuing one's own self-interest. Going into equity and efficiency the invisible hand does ensure both equity and efficiency. People work in their selfish ways to maximize profit while also contributing to the economy as a whole. It can also be argued that as the invisible hand wants to ensure efficiency, it cannot guarantee efficiency, because it can fail to produce an efficient allocation of resources, which in turn lead to a market failure. It can also be argued that it can't guarantee equity because not everyone gets a fair price. The way I like to remember efficiency is with a real-life example, like a reduction in the number of workers needed to produce a particular good for a particular amount. Equity refers to the ownership interest in an asset, for example, if a person owns a house with a market value of $800,000 and owes $100,000 on the mortgage leaving a $700,000 equity in the home.

It can be predicted that if the price of beef increases - ceteris paribus-the quantity of beef demanded by buys will decrease. In other words, if the price of beef increases, then the quantity of beef increases, then the quantity of beef demanded will decrease because all things have to be equal. In-class lecture thought me all other things remaining the same. Economists use ceteris paribus to determine the effect of a factor when all other factors have been held the same and helps simplify the study and get a more refined data set.

Economists deal with many issues that pertain to assuring that both a countries domestic output is efficient and that there is an effective trade balance. This means that there are a balance and limit on the amount of imports. Also, this means home production must be able to meet export demands. There are many factors that affect the production of goods and their effect on shifting the production possibilities frontier. This involves evaluating every detail including knowing the products and any close substitutes and compliments. It also involves knowing how an action or other external force will affect demand. This is called price elasticity; Substitutes are products that can replace any given product or service. An example of this would be Coke and Pepsi. The presence of substitutes affects price elasticity because if there are other options, then any change to the price or quality of the product will cause a shift of the demand curve. O course, price is a huge reason why the demand for a product decreases or increases yet it doesn't shift the curve because of the price only. This price change will cause a domino effect that will end with the shifting of the demand curve because it will cause an increase or decrease in demand of the substitute good if the price change is either lower or higher respectively. This price change serves as a catalyst that will change people's desire to spend more money on a more expensive product and that will instead choose to buy the substitute good for cheaper or buy more of the desired product. The change in the price of actual products will not shift the demand curve yet the change of the price of substitutes will because it serves to change people's purchasing behavior. On the other hand, compliments serve to boost demand when there is a decrease in price. The use of complementary goods is dependent upon another product. An example of this would be hot dogs and buns. If the price of hotdogs decreases then, conversely, the demand for hot dog buns will increase because of this change in price. In this scenario, the decrease in price will cause a positive shift in the demand curve because of people's desire and willingness to buy more buns. This is an example of a demand shifter. There are a few other demand shifters. The shifters of the demand curve are changes in expectations, disposable income, price of substitute goods and complements, tastes and preferences, and population size and composition. Changes in income affect the demand curve because if income is lower then people tend to save any extra income instead of wasting it. Disposable income is minimized and spending is lower. This also causes people to see a perceived value of things and distinguishing between what is necessary and what is a relative luxury. The lower the income, the higher the saving and avoidance to spend. An example of this would be if someone needs to buy some medication and it is relatively expensive, that doesn't mean that someone won't buy the medication just because it is expensive. It is necessary. Other factors that contribute to spending and demand are having a price ceiling and price floor. Having a price ceiling is a limit on the price of the product this is a government-imposed idea that is meant to protect consumers from unfair pricing and other conditions that may be malicious or obscure. This affects demand because if there is a price ceiling there is a limit on profit on a unit-to-unit basis. The other factor is the price floor. This price floor was created to encourage competition and affect consumers' willingness to pay because sometimes this new price may be higher than the original price. This causes a negative impact on a product that has a less than wanted perceived value. Many factors contribute to economic prosperity and certainly do help assure that information is analyzed and implemented into an economic and business plan.

limejellyfish231

1. The cost-benefit approach to deciding whether or not to undertake any activity argues that you should engage in the activity if:
a. The marginal cost of the activity exceeds the marginal benefit of the activity.
b. The marginal benefit of the activity exceeds the marginal cost of the activity.
c. There are benefits associated with the activity
d. There are costs associated with the activity

2. In the circular flow model, the household sector:
a. Demand goods and services in output markets, while the business sector supplies them.
b. Supplies goods and services in output markets, while the business sector demands them.
c. Demands and supplies goods and services in output markets.
d. Neither demands nor supplies goods and services in output markets.

3. In resource markets, households operate on the ________ side and business firms operate on the ______ side; these activities represent ______for households and _______ for business firms.
a. Demand; supply; income; revenue
b. Demand; supply; expenditures; revenue
c. Supply; demand; expenditures; costs
d. Supply; demand; income; costs

4. Ice cream sales and the incidence of polio were strongly correlated prior to the development of the polio vaccine. Assuming that eating ice cream caused polio is an example of the:
a. Fallacy of composition
b. Fallacy of division
c. Fallacy of false cause
d. Fallacy of ceteris paribus

5. Assuming that everyone is better off when a bridge is built in Alaska to serve a small community is an example of the:
a. Fallacy of composition
b. Fallacy of division
c. Fallacy of false cause
d. Fallacy of ceteris paribus

6. A production possibilities frontier for two outputs is drawn assuming that:
a. Opportunity cost is fixed, but the quantity and quality of resources changes
b. Both outputs use the same quantity of each resource, but the technology differs
c. The amount of resources currently available for production is fixed
d. The technology available can only be applied to producing one of the outputs

7. When wants and needs exceed the resource available to satisfy them:
a. Scarcity exists and society must rely on the government to allocate resources.
b. Scarcity exists and society must rely on free markets to allocate resources.
c. Scarcity exists and decisions must be made about how to allocate limited resources among competing uses.
d. Scarcity does not exist so it is not necessary to allocate resources.

8. If Carl is able to produce a greater number of baskets per hour than Sheila, then:
a. Carl cannot have a comparative advantage in the production of baskets
b. Carl has an absolute advantage in the production of baskets
c. Sheila has an absolute advantage in the production of baskets
d. Sheila has a comparative advantage in the production of baskets

9. If Carl's opportunity cost per basket is 4 bowls, but Sheila's opportunity cost per basket is 3 bowls, then:
a. Carl has a comparative advantage in the production of baskets
b. Carl has an absolute advantage in the production of baskets
c. Sheila has an absolute advantage in the production of baskets
d. Sheila has a comparative advantage in the production of baskets

10. Which of the following is not an example of the factor of production or economic resource referred to as capital?
a. An office building
b. Computers used by a tax preparation business
c. Lawnmowers owned by a landscaping firm
d. Money used to start a new business.

lavenderhippopotamus513

1/ All the problems studied in economics arise from

a. the unequal distribution of income

b. the scarcity of resources

c. inappropriate government action

d. overpopulation

e. war

2/ The overall performance of the economic system as a whole is the focus of

a. macroeconomics

b. public economics

c. international finance

d. labor economics

e. microeconomics

3/ After graduating from high school, Steve had the following three choices for his immediate future, listed in order of preference: (1) attend our campus, (2) work in a printed circuit board factory, or (3) attend a rival college. His opportunity cost of going to college here includes which of the following?

a. The income he could have earned at the printed circuit board factory plus the direct cost of attending college here (tuition, textbooks, etc.)

b. The benefits he could have received from going to the rival college.

c. Only the tuition and fees paid for taking classes here.

d. Cannot be determined from the information given.

e. The cost of books and supplies at the rival college.

4/ The question of scarce resources and unlimited wants are addressed in

a. psychology

b. history

c. anthropology

d. political science

e. economics

5/ Consider an economic model designed to analyze the purchasing decisions of households. An assumption that a household chooses between only two goods would be an example of an

a. positive assumption

b. simplifying assumption

c. macroeconomic assumption

d. financial assumption

e. critical assumption

6/ Which of the following explains why economists may disagree over normative issues?

a. They have different beliefs and values.

b. They often employ different statistical techniques when examining data.

c. Some work only on microeconomic issues, while others focus exclusively on macroeconomic issues.

d. They examine the same data to draw their conclusions.

e. They need to disagree to publish their research findings.

7/ Suppose your friends take you out for dinner on your birthday, and you have a much better time than you would have had to do anything else. There is still an opportunity cost, even though they will not let you pay for anything. True/False

8/ Microeconomics

a. addresses scarcity from a global perspective

b. is purely theoretical and has little value in explaining real-world phenomena

c. focuses on what is happening in the economy as a whole

d. examines how individuals, households, and firms make economic decisions

e. answers the fundamental economic questions of how, when, where, and why.

9/ People and organizations have to make choices about how to allocate time and money because

a. religious values conflict with economics

b. time and money are both scarce

c. government require it

d. there are unlimited resources

e. corporations control our lives

10/ The objective of an economic model is to

a. yield a better understanding of important relationships

b. use simplifying assumptions to make positive economic statements

c. be an accurate description of reality

d. predict real-world occurrences with complete accuracy

e. use basic principles of economics to derive fundamental assumptions about human behavior.

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ECO 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Comparative Advantage, Opportunity Cost

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