管理经济学课后答案（全套）.doc

CHAPTER 1 Economics: Foundations and Models Chapter Summary Learning Objectives Chapter Outline Teaching Tips/Topics for Discussion Solved Problems Solutions to Review Questions and Problems and Applications 1. Chapter Summary People must make choices as they try to attain their goals. These choices reflect trade-offs people make because we live in a world of scarcity; although our wants are unlimited, the resources available to satisfy our wants are limited. Economic models are simplified versions of some aspects of economic life. Economists construct models and use them to analyze economic issues. Economics focuses on the decisions buyers and sellers make through markets. Economists assume people (1) are rational, (2) respond to economic incentives, and (3) make optimal decisions at the margin. Each society faces the economic problem of having a limited amount of resources, and so can produce a limited amount of goods and services. Each society faces trade-offs, particularly when answering three questions: (1) What goods and services will be produced? (2) How will the goods and services be produced? (3) Who will receive the goods and services produced? Societies organize their economies in two main ways to answer these questions. A society can have a centrally planned economy characterized by extensive government decision making. Or a society can have a market economy in which the decisions of households and firms interacting in markets allocate resources. All the high-income democracies have predominately market economies with some central government control. Market economies tend to allocate resources more efficiently than do centrally planned economies, but efficient outcomes may not be perceived as fair. Determining what is a fair or equitable outcome calls for the application of normative economic analysis – what ought to be. Positive economic analysis is concerned with what is. While most or all economists can agree on the results of posit