经济学第一章.pptVIP

Water water every where and not a drop to drink … Many regions across the Australian continent face intense water scarcity The challenge … efficient management of this scarce resource to maximize the possible benefits across various uses This is an economic problem !! Source The Australian 2012 (.au/news/gallery-e6frg8zf-1226262000579?page=10) * Trade-offs force society to make choices Three important economic questions * What goods and services will be produced? This is determined by the choices made consumers do I buy a paper copy of the text book or the e-book version? firms does Apple devote more of its resources to making iPods or Macs? does a farmer grow wheat or corn? governments does a government fund more places at University or beds in hospitals? do we build more dams or desalination plants? Three important economic questions: what? * How economist see choices? Or let’s talk about opportunity cost When choosing between alternative options, economists use the concept of opportunity cost there is an opportunity cost to everything we do that cost is expressed in terms of the most valuable alternative that is sacrificed Why do economists use the concept of opportunity cost ? it links directly back to scarcity and the economic problem every time we do one thing we have to forgo doing something else as we are limited by the resources we have an example … if the govt funds more places at University, these resources cannot now be devoted to the next best activity (hospital beds) For an economist there is no such thing as a free lunch * Opportunity cost of a University degree Tuition and fees are not, for most students, the major cost of going to University Biggest cost of University is what students could otherwise earn by working on average 75% of the private cost of University borne by the student and the students family is the income that University students give up by not working a good measure of this opportunity cost is the income th