ECON 20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Opportunity Cost, Marginalism, Ceteris Paribus
Document Summary
A social science concerned with making optimal choices under conditions of scarcity. Opportunity cost (the ability to obtain more than one thing forgoes/sacrifices the opportunity to get the next best thing) Purposeful behavior to increase utility - (pleasure, happiness, satisfaction) Marginal analysis (used for decision making, most of what economists do, means extra/additional/change) To gain something you first must give up, to please yourself (utility) you must please another. Marginal cost- basically how much something costs in terms of money. Marginal benefit- sometimes comes in the form of utility. Observe - formulate a hypothesis - test hypothesis - accept, reject, or modify hypothesis - continue to test the hypothesis, if necessary. The study of the individual consumer, firm, or market. (a grain of sand) The study of the entire economy or a major aggregate of the economy. (an entire. Economic statements that are factual. (in 2018 everyone"s taxes were reduced)
