Production and Growth 产出与增长.pptVIP

Figure 2 The Growth in Real GDP Per Person Copyright?2003 Southwestern/Thomson Learning Growth Rate (percent per year) 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 1 8 7 0 – 1890 1 8 9 0 – 1910 1 9 1 0 – 1930 1 9 3 0 – 1950 1 9 5 0 – 1970 1 9 7 0 – 1990 1 9 9 0 – 2000 0 25.3.8 Population Growth Economists and other social scientists have long debated how population growth affects a society 25.3.8 Population Growth Population growth interacts with other factors of production: Stretching natural resources Diluting the capital stock Promoting technological progress Catch-up effect: the property whereby countries that start off poor tend to grow more rapidly than countries that start off rich. Diminishing returns: the property whereby the benefit from an extra unit of an input declines as the quantity of the input increases. Human capital: the knowledge and skills that workers acquire through education, training, and experience. Natural resources: the inputs into the production of goods and services that are provided by nature, such as land, rivers, and mineral deposits. Key Terms Physical capital: the stock of equipment and structures that are used to produce goods and services. Productivity: the quantity of goods and services produced from each unit of labor input. Technological knowledge: society’s understanding of the best ways to produce goods and services . Key Terms Summary Economic prosperity, as measured by real GDP per person, varies substantially around the world. The average income of the world’s richest countries is more than ten times that in the world’s poorest countries. The standard of living in an economy depends on the economy’s ability to produce goods and services. Summary Productivity depends on the amounts of physical capital, human capital, natural resources, and technological knowledge available to workers. Government policies can influence the economy’s growth rate in many different ways. Summary The accumulation of capital is subject to diminishi