Economic resources

Human resources	Nonhuman and other resources
Labor including entrepreneurship and management	Land Natural resources including minerals and water Capital Technology Time Information

2. Economic reasoning

Economics is concerned касается with choices: with evaluating оцениванием and selecting among alternatives, realizing that each time we make a choice we also forgo(воздержаться) an opportunity.

The economy is a dynamic, constantly changing mechanism. Natural resources, the supply запас of workers, managers, innovators, equipment, structures, and the amount of technical know-how available to produce useful goods and services are all in some way limited. The wants we seek to satisfy, however, are seemingly на вид unlimited. We all have biological needs for minimum amounts of food, clothing, and other basic goods – but few of us are content удовлетворяется with minimum amounts of these items. We want amenities удобства, comfort, and luxuries.

The fundamental economic problem is scarcity, the imbalance between our desires and the means of satisfying those desires. It is a problem faced by rich as well as poor societies. The importance of scarcity as a unifying обьединенная topic in economics is highlighted основной момент by the fact that many economists would define their discipline in the following way:

Economics is the study of how human beings make choices to use source resources as they seek to satisfy their seemingly видимо unlimited wants.

3. Choices made at the margin(край)

Accounting costs are direct прямые costs of an activity measured принятый in dollar terms, out-of-pocket costs.

Opportunity возможная costs are the value placed on opportunities forgone in choosing to produce or consume scarce goods.

Opportunity costs and opportunity benefits are the expected incremental возрастающий or additional costs incurred понесенный and the expected incremental benefits of a decision that matter. Economists use the term marginal when referring вспоминают to additional or incremental. Marginal costs and marginal benefits are key concepts.

A marginal cost is the additional cost to you over and above the costs you have already incurred.подвергатся

Similarly так же with marginal benefit. A marginal benefit is the additional benefit above what you have already derived. извлекать

Comparing сравнивая marginal (additional(дополнительный)) costs with marginal (additional) benefits will often tell you how you should adjust подогнать your activities to be as well off as possible. If the marginal benefit of engaging привлечение in an activity exceeds превышать the marginal cost of doing so? You should do it. But if the marginal benefit is less than the marginal cost, you should do something else.

The economic decision rule (marginal analysis):

If the marginal benefits of doing something exceed превышающее the marginal costs, do it.

If the marginal costs of doing something exceed the marginal benefits, do not do it.

The first fundamental principle of economics is that most things in life come at the opportunity cost of something forgone. They are never free.

Margin is the difference in costs or benefits between the existing situation and a proposed change.

Marginal analysis is the study of the difference in costs and benefits between the status quo and the production or consumption of an additional unit of a specific good or service. This, not the average средняя cost of all goods produced or consumed, is the actual basis for rational economic choices.