General Eonomic Knowledge英美国家经济常识.docVIP

PAGE  PAGE 5 Lecture 8: General Economic Knowledge (I) Three types of economic systems: The traditional system: Production and consumption patterns are governed by tradition. Transactions also take place on the basis of tradition. A person’s position within the economic system is fixed by his or her parentage, religion and custom. People have obligation to care for each other). So progress may be difficult to achieve. A stagnant society may result. The administered system (planned economy): Production and consumption patterns are administratively controlled by some agency (e.g. “government”), which will issue edicts or commands as to how much good and service should be produced, exchanged and consumed by each economic unit. Central planning of production, exchange, and consumption for the whole economy The market system: Individual economic units are free to interact (buy and sell commodities) with each other in a marketplace. Production, distribution and consumption are adjusted by market. Three parts in economy: The primary sector concerned with: the extraction of raw materials the provision of agricultural crops and animal produce. The secondary sector (The industrial sector) concerned with: the manufacture of goods The primary sector + the secondary sector = Goods-producing sectors Agriculture, mining, oil and gas extraction, forestry, husbandry, manufacture, construction, fishing and hunting The tertiary sector (the service industry or the third industry): Offers service by putting producers in touch with consumers. In some developed countries, the tertiary sector has become the major sector of the economy. (1) Distributive services: the distribution of resources and products Logistics (ordering, transportation, storage, warehouse, loading and unloading, packing, processing and delivery), Wholesale (large quantity and cheaper price), retail trade (extensive distribution network: stores, department stores, supermarket, hypermarket, shopping center