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WHAT IS
ECONOMICS?
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Definition of Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that studies the choices
that individuals, businesses, governments, and entire
societies make as they cope with scarcity and the
incentives that influence and reconcile those choices.
social science
choices that individuals (household) / businesses / governments
scarcity and the incentives that influence and reconcile those choices
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Definition of Economics
All economic questions arise because
“we want more than we can get”
Our inability to satisfy all our wants is called
=> scarcity - >limited sources
Because we face scarcity, we must make
=> choices.
The choices we make depend on the
=> An incentive
reward that encourages an action
penalty that discourages an action.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
The Economic Way of Thinking
Six key ideas define the economic way of thinking:
A choice is a tradeoff.
People make rational choices by comparing benefits &
costs.
Benefit is what you gain from something.
Cost is what you must give up to get something.
opportunity cost
Most choices are “how-much” choices made at the
margin.
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014 OF ECONOMICS
Choices respond to incentives.
The Economic Way of Thinking
A Choice Is a Tradeoff
TRADEOFF : scarcity => exchange => choices
The economic way of thinking places scarcity and its
implication, choice, at center stage.
You can think about every choice as a tradeoff—an
exchange—giving up one thing to get something else.
On Saturday night, will you study or have fun?
You can’t study and have fun at the same time, so you
must make a choice.
Whatever you choose, you could have chosen something
else. Your choice is a tradeoff.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
The Economic Way of Thinking
Making a Rational Choice
A rational choice is one that compares costs and
benefits and achieves the greatest benefit over cost
for the person making the choice.
Only the wants of the person making a choice are
relevant to determine its rationality.
The idea of rational choice provides an answer to the
first question: What goods and services will be produced
and in what quantities?
The answer is: Those that people rationally choose to
buy!
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
The Economic Way of Thinking
How do people choose rationally?
The answers turn on benefits and costs.
Benefit: What you Gain
The benefit of something is the gain or pleasure that it
brings and is determined by preferences
Preferences are what a person likes and dislikes and the
intensity of those feelings.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
The Economic Way of Thinking
Cost: What you Must Give Up
The opportunity cost of something is the highest-
valued alternative that must be given up to get it.
What is your opportunity cost of going to a live concert?
Opportunity cost has two components:
1. The things you can’t afford to buy if you purchase the
concert ticket.
2. The things you can’t do with your time if you attend
the concert.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
The Economic Way of Thinking
How Much? Choosing at the Margin
To make a choice at the margin, you evaluate the
consequences of making incremental changes in the use of
your time.
The benefit from pursuing an incremental increase in an
activity is its marginal benefit.
The opportunity cost of pursuing an incremental increase in an
activity is its marginal cost.
If the marginal benefit from an incremental increase in an
activity exceeds its marginal cost (MB>MC), your rational
choice is to do more of that activity.
• marginal benefit from an incremental increase > marginal
cost
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
The Economic Way of Thinking
Choices Respond to Incentives
A change in marginal cost or a change in marginal benefit
changes the incentives that we face and leads us to
change our choice.
The central idea of economics is that we can predict how
choices will change by looking at changes in incentives.
Incentives are also the key to reconciling self-interest and
the social interest.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Definition of Economics
Microeconomics is the study of choices that
individuals and businesses make, the way those
choices interact in markets, and the influence of
governments.
An example of a microeconomic question is: Why are
people buying more e-books and fewer hard copy books?
Macroeconomics is the study of the performance of the
national and global economies.
An example of a macroeconomic question is: Why is the
unemployment rate in the United States so high?
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Two Big Economic Questions
Economics questions summarize the scope of economics:
How do choices end up determining what, how, and for
whom goods and services get produced?in the pursuit
of self-interest also promote the social interest?
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Two Big Economic Questions
What, How, and For Whom?
Goods and services are the objects that people value and
produce to satisfy human wants.
What? What goods and services will be produced and in
what quantities
Agriculture accounts for less than 1 percent of total U.S.
production, manufactured goods for 22 percent, and services
for 77 percent.
In China, agriculture accounts for 11 percent of total
production, manufactured goods for 47 percent, and services
for 43 percent.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Two Big Economic Questions
How?
Goods and services are produced by using
productive resources that economists call:
=> factors of production.
Factors of production are grouped into four
categories:
Capital
Entrepreneurship
Labor
Land
“CELL”
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Two Big Economic Questions
The tools, instruments, machines, buildings, and other
constructions that businesses use to produce goods and
services are capital. => financial capital
The human resource that organizes land, labor, and
capital is entrepreneurship.
The work time and work effort that people devote to
producing goods and services is labor.
▪The quality of labor depends on human capital, which is the
knowledge and skill that people obtain from education, on-the-job
training, and work experience.
The “gifts of nature” that we use to produce goods and
services are land.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Two Big Economic Questions
For Whom?
Who gets the goods and services depends on the incomes
that people earn.
Capital earns interest.
Entrepreneurship earns profit.
Labor earns wages.
Land earns rent.
People with large income will able to buy more.
“CELL = IPWR”
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Economic Coordination
To reap the gains from trade, the choices of individuals
must be coordinated.
To make coordination work, four complimentary social
institutions have evolved over the centuries:
Firms
Markets
Property rights
Money
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Economic Coordination
A firm is an economic unit that hires factors of production
and organizes those factors to produce and sell goods and
services.
A market is any arrangement that enables buyers and
sellers to get information and do business with each other.
Property rights are the social arrangements that govern
the ownership, use, and disposal of resources, goods or
services. E.g. intellectual property, financial property
Money is any commodity or token that is generally
acceptable as a means of payment.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Economic Coordination
Circular Flows Through
Markets
Figure 2.7 illustrates how
households and firms Payment
interact in the market
economy.
Factors of production, and …
goods and services flow in
one direction.
Money flows in the opposite
direction. Real Flows
Coordinating Decisions
Markets coordinate individual
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014 Pearson Education
ECN 3010- PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
decisions through price adjustments.
Economics: A Social Science and
Policy Tool
Economist as Social Scientist
Economists distinguish between two types of statement:
• A positive statement can be tested by checking it against
facts.
Government-funded healthcare increases public expenditures
• A normative statement expresses an opinion and cannot
be tested. => ‘what ought to be”
Government should provide basic healthcare to all citizens
Higher interest rate cause people save more?
Unemployment is more harmful than inflation?
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
Economics: A Social Science and Policy
Tool
Economist as Policy Adviser
Economics is a toolkit for advising governments and
businesses and for making personal decisions.
All the policy questions on which economists provide
advice involve a blend of the positive and the normative.
Economics can’t help with the normative part—the goal.
But for a given goal, economics provides a method of
evaluating alternative solutions—comparing marginal
benefits and marginal costs.
N.A.M Naseem, Department of Economics, UPM
© 2014
ECN 3010- Pearson Education
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS
