a-level习资料：经济学AS讲义---basic ecnomic idea.docVIP

Topic 1 Basic Economic Ideas What is Economics? Economics – studies the allocation of scarce (scarce = limited) resources in response to unlimited wants. What is scarcity? Limited resources: 资源的有限性 In economic we categories the resources available to us into four types. There are known as factors of production: . Land: natural resources in their natural states. Examples: minerals, oil, water, forests. 2) Labor – the human capacity to work. 3) Capital – anything that is produced in order to increase productivity in the future; includes human capital and physical capital. In economics, capital does NOT include financial capital, such as money, stocks, and bonds!!! Examples: Machines, vehicles, buildings (factories, warehouses, offices, etc.), skills. Physical capital（物质资本） – includes buildings, machinery, and equipment. Human capital （人力资本）– acquired skills and abilities embodied within a person. 4) Entrepreneurship – personal initiative to combine resources in productive ways. Involves risk. Unlimited wants： 欲望的无限性 Scarcity: Wants are unlimited but resources are scarce. 相对于人类需要的无限性而言，任何资源和商品都是稀缺的 How scarcity implies choice？ Scarcity means we must choose. （because of scarcity, we need to decide how to use limited resources） When you use a resource for one good, you can’t use that resource for something else. Example: the building we are in is being used as a school. Therefore, we do not get to use it as a hotel, business office, or anything else that we want. We must choose one thing. 4. Opportunity cost: The benefit lost from the next best alternative The relationship between scarcity, choice and opportunity cost. 5. The three basic economic problems what to produce？ How to produce？ For whom to produce? The three basic economic problems can be answered differently in different economic systems: a: command economic system: Planners have to decide what is to be produced. Planners the