Module 1. Basics of market economy Lecture 1. Basic economic terminology
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Terminology.
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Economic reasoning.
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Choices made at the margin предел.
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Three basic economic decisions.
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Economic forces.
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The role of theory in economics.
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Microeconomics and macroeconomics.
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Economics and other subjects.
1. Terminology
The economy is the mechanism through which the use of labor, land, structures, vehicles трпнспорт, equipment, and natural resources is organized to satisfy the desires of those who live in a society.
An economic system is the system by which the economy is organized.
The discipline of economics is concerned касается with the use of available productive resources in a society to satisfy what often are conflicting desires and demands.требования
An economic theory is generalizations обобщения about the workings of an abstract economy (fig.1.1).
Figure 1.1. Scientific processes in economics
An economic institution is a physical or mental structure that significantly значительно influences economic decisions. Corporations, governments, and cultural norms are all economic institutions.
An economic policy политика is an action (or inaction) taken, usually by government, to influence economic events.
Goods are all tangible осязаемые things that humans desire.
Services are all forms of work done for others – such as medical care and car washing – that do not result in production of tangible goods.
Resources are inputs necessary to supply снабжения goods and services.
Economic resources: land, labor, capital and entrepreneurial ability способность (factors of production).
You may feel that some things are not scarce редки and that the best things in life – such as love, sunshine, and water – are free. In economic terms, free goods are goods that are available in sufficient достаточный supply запасе to satisfy all possible demands. But are many things truly free? Surface поверхностные water is usually unfit негодные for drinking except in areas far from human habitation. Water suitable for drinking must be raised to the surface from deep wells or piped from reservoirs and treatment plants, operations invoking призывая resources that are scarce even when water itself is not.
All scarce goods – from television to chlorinated water – are called economic goods. Their scarcity leads руководит to costs. While it is customary to associate соединять cost with the money price of goods, economists define cost as the value of what individuals have to forgo отказатся to acquire приобрести a scarce good.
Free goods are things that are available in sufficient достаточный quantity to fill all desires.
Economic goods: scarce(недостаточный) goods.
Costs are the value важность of opportunities forgone отказатся in making choices among среди scarce goods.
Human resources are all forms of labor used to produce goods and services.
Nonhuman resources are inputs other than human labor involved введенный in producing goods and services.
Economic resources include all human and nonhuman resources that are scarce in supply запас (table 1.1). Technology and time are scarce and can be categorized as resources.
Table 1.1