- •Харків. Вид. Хнеу, 2010
- •Харків. Вид. Хнеу, 2010
- •Introduction
- •Module 1. Basics of market economy Lecture 1. Basic economic terminology
- •1. Terminology
- •Economic resources
- •2. Economic reasoning
- •Choices made at the margin(край)
- •Three basic economic decisions
- •5. Economic forces
- •6. The role of theory in economics
- •Value judgments
- •Microeconomics and macroeconomics
- •8. Economics and other subjects
- •Lecture 2. Economic systems: capitalism, socialism and mixed economy
- •1. Evolving развитие Economic Systems
- •2. Socialism
- •3. Capitalism
- •Figure 2.1. The circular of income and expenditure in a market economy:
- •Specialization and Exchange обмен
- •4. Differences between soviet-style socialism and capitalism
- •Table 2.1 Capitalism’s and soviet-style socialism’s solutions to the three economic problems
- •5. Mixed Economy
- •Government and the Economy
- •Some modern models of mixed economy
- •6. Transition economy
- •Government price setting.
- •Passive macroeconomic policies.
- •7. Other classifications of economic systems
- •Lecture 3. Supply спрос and demand требование
- •1. Markets: purposes and functions
- •2. Demand
- •The Market Demand Curve and the Law of Demand
- •Table 3.1 a demand schedule for grade a eggs
- •Foundation for the law of demand:
- •Figure 3.2. Changes in demand
- •Figure 3.3. Changes in quantity demanded
- •3. Supply
- •The market supply curve and the law of supply
- •Table 3.2 a supply schedule for a eggs
- •4. The marriage of supply and demand (market equilibrium)
- •Lecture 4. Elasticity of supply and demand
- •1. Price elasticity of demand.
- •2. Price elasticity of supply.
- •1. Price elasticity of demand
- •Determinants of price elasticity of demand
- •3. The proportion of income consumers spend on the good.
- •2. Price elasticity of supply
- •Determinants of price elasticity of supply
- •Perfectly inelastic and perfectly elastic supply
- •Module 2. Basics of micro and macroeconomics Lecture 5. Business firm
- •3. Functions of business firms.
- •1. Terminology
- •Scale of production
- •2. Basic types of business enterprise
- •Pros and cons of corporate business
- •Other types of enterprises
- •3. Functions of business firms
- •4. Management
- •Lecture 6. Production, cost and profit
- •3. Variable costs, fixed costs, and total costs.
- •1. Production relationships
- •Period of Production
- •2. The law of diminishing marginal returns
- •Total product curve and marginal product curve
- •Average Product
- •3. Variable costs, fixed costs, and total costs
- •4. Measuring cost and profit
- •5. Normal profit and economic profit
- •Theories of profit
- •Profit as a pay for input
- •Table 7.1 Annual production possibilities for food and clothing
- •3. Law of increasing opportunity cost
- •4. Economic growth: expanding production possibilities
- •Lecture 8: Macroeconomics: economic growth, business cycles, unemployment, and inflation
- •2. Business cycles.
- •4. Inflation.
- •1. Economic growth and living standards
- •Productivity
- •2. Business cycles
- •Leading Indicators
- •3. Unemployment
- •Types of unemployment
- •4. Inflation
- •Types of inflation
- •Relationship between inflation and unemployment
- •Economic interdependence among nations
- •5. Macroeconomic policy
- •Types of macroeconomic policy
- •Lecture 9. Monopoly, oligopoly and competition
- •1. Monopoly
- •How monopoly is maintained: barriers to entry
- •2. Perfect competition
- •3. Monopolistic competition
- •Product differentiation
- •Price discrimination
- •4. Oligopoly
- •Concentration ratios
- •The competitive spectrum
- •1) Cartel.
- •Forming a cartel: directions and difficulties
- •2) Implicit Price Collusion.
- •3) Price war.
- •4) The Contestable Market Model.
- •5) Price leadership.
- •6) Price rigidity: the kinked demand curve model.
- •7) Entry-limit pricing.
- •A Comparison of Various Market Structures
- •Lecture 10. Money, banking and financial sector
- •2. The definition and functions of money.
- •1. Financial sector
- •Institutions and financial markets
- •Financial institutions
- •Types of financial Institutions
- •Financial Markets
- •Differences among Money Market Assets
- •The role of interest rates in the financial sector
- •References
- •Contents
Leading Indicators
Economists have developed a set of indicators to give a good idea of when a recession is about to occur and when the economy is in one. These signs are called leading indicators—insinuators that tell us what’s likely to happen 12 to 15 months from now. They include:
1. Average workweek for production workers in manufacturing.
2. Average weekly claims for unemployment insurance.
3. New orders for consumer goods and materials.
4. Vendor performance, measured as a percentage of companies reporting slower deliveries from suppliers.
5. Index of consumer expectations.
6. New orders for nondependent capital goods.
7. Number of new building permits issued for private housing units.
8. Stock prices—50 common stocks.
9. Interest rate spread—10 year government bond less federal lands rate.
10. Money supply, M2.
3. Unemployment
The unemployment rate, the fraction of people who would like to be employed but cannot find work, is a key indicator of the state of the labor market. When the unemployment rate is high, work is hard to find, and people who do have jobs typically find it harder to get promotions or wage increases.
One question of great interest to macroeconomists is why unemployment rates sometimes differ markedly from country to country.
The labor force is the number of people over the age of 16 who are either employed or actively seeking a job.
Unemployment occurs when people are looking for a job and cannot find one.
An unemployed person is defined as one over the age of 16 who is available for work and has actively sought employment during the previous 4 weeks.
The unemployment rate measures the ratio of the number of people classified as unemployed to the total labor force.
Types of unemployment
1. Cyclical unemployment is unemployment resulting from fluctuations in economic activity.
2. Structural unemployment is unemployment caused by economic restructuring making some skills obsolete. Structural unemployment is resulting from permanent shifts in the pattern of demand for goods and services or changes in technology.
3. Frictional unemployment (2%) is unemployment caused by new entrants into the job market and people quitting a job just long enough to look for job find another one and of a few "unemployables," such as alcoholics and drug addicts, along with a certain amount of necessary structural and seasonal unemployment resulting when the structure of the economy changed.
Frictional unemployment is usual amount of unemployment resulting from people who have left jobs that did not work out and are searching for new employment or people who are either entering or reentering the labor force to search for a job.
The target rate of unemployment is the lowest sustainable rate of unemployment that policy makers believe is achievable under existing conditions.
The total amount of unemployment in any month is the sum of frictional, structural, and cyclical unemployment.
The natural rate of unemployment is the percentage of the labor force that can normally be expected to be unemployed for reasons other than cyclical fluctuations in real GNP.