ECON 20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ceteris Paribus, Economic System, Demand Curve

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amaranthgrasshopper262

28 Aug 2020

School

Irvine Valley College

Department

Economics

Course

ECON 20

Professor

mcneil

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Document Summary

The ppf shifts to the right as the economy grows. Change in something that used to be constant. All of these involve price theory (how you get people to buy things/work for you) How a firm decides how much to make depends on the price of the resources and the price that consumers are willing to buy them for. Firm: an organization that transforms inputs into outputs. Market: the institution through which buyers and sellers interact and engage in exchange. Product or output markets: the market in which goods and services are exchanged (the firm is the seller and the consumer is the buyer) Input or factor markets: the markets in which the resources use to produced are exchanged (households are sellers and firms are buyers; ex: labor market) A household"s decision about what quantity of a particular output, or product, to demand depends on a number of factors including.

Related Questions

Microeconomics

A	B	Answer
As a student of economics, when you speak of scarcity, you are referring to the ability of society to.	A. Extra benefit
What is the economic meaning of the expression that "There is no such thing as a free lunch?"	B. Entrepreneur.
Which expression is another way of saying "marginal benefit"?	C. Very limited government role in the economy
A tradeoff exists between two economic goals, X and Y. This tradeoff means that.	D. Price ceilings and the resulting product shortages.
The individual who brings together economic resources and assumes the risk of business ventures in a capitalist economy is called the	E. Explicit costs.
The Soviet Union economy of the 1980s would best be classified as	F. Easy entry, many firms, and differentiated products
The simple circular-flow model shows that workers, entrepreneurs, and the owners of land and capital offer their services through	G. Product markets
Laissez-faire capitalism is characterized by	H. Satisfy economic wants given limited resources.
Black markets are associated with	I. Oligopoly
Cash expenditures a firm makes to pay for resources are called	J. The Resource Markets
Which set of characteristics below best describes the basic features of monopolistic competition	K. A command System
Mutual interdependence would tend to limit control over price in which market model	L. Getting more of X requires getting less of Y
Markets in which firms sell their output of goods and services are called	M. It means that there is an opportunity cost when resources are used to provide "free" products

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Market Analysis Market Participants Market participants act as if they are rational, self-interested, and forward-looking. For example, financial managers try to maximize the present value of profits for their particular companies, rather than ignore future values. Companies pursue many goals, but it is a financial mistake for managers to pursue any goal that conflicts with the primary goal of maximizing their firm's profits. Decentralized decision making by individual market participants is more economically efficient that centralized decision making by government policymakers. For example, it is more economically efficient to have financial managers obtain financing for their particular companies than to have government obtain it. A high degree of competition among market participants is the most economically efficient disciplining mechanism. For example, highly competitive financial markets discipline financial managers to pay fair market interest rates on the debt securities issued by their particular companies. The market system of prices is the most economically efficient allocative mechanism. For example, it is more economically efficient to distribute a firm's corporate stock to those buyers who are willing and able to pay the market price of the stock than to have the government distribute the stock. It is economically efficient for market participants to buy low and sell high globally. For example, it is economically efficient for U.S. firms to sell their financial securities to the highest bidders, no matter where they live in the world economy. Market imperfections can create considerable risk to market participants. For example, because of market imperfections, firms operating in the international financial markets encounter foreign exchange rate risk, political risk, interest rate risk, and default risk. Consumer Sovereignty The principle of consumer sovereignty tells us that by making their dollar votes, consumers indirectly determine the quantity and quality of products that firms will produce. For example, it is not economically efficient for financial managers to obtain more financing for their particular firms than is needed for their firms to produce the profit-maximizing level of output demanded by consumers. Market Economy A highly competitive market economy is largely self-regulating, in the absence of substantial market imperfections, in that economic conditions cannot be substantially improved by government regulation or other types of government intervention beyond laissez-faire policies. For example, if a firm's corporate stock is overvalued by a market economy, market forces will tend to drive down the value of the stock to a market price at which it is neither overvalued nor undervalued. As if by an invisible hand, highly competitive market forces will tend to create a harmony of interests among individual market participants, in the absence of substantial market imperfections. Consequently, the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders are compatible. For example, in trying to maximize profits, firms produce employment, income, consumer products, and wealth for households, as well as tax revenue for government, which helps maximize consumer utility and maximize social welfare. In a market economy, resources, products, and assets flow to their highest valued uses among alternative uses. For example, the shares of firms' corporate stocks will be acquired by those market participants who most highly value them, as indicated by the fact that they are willing to pay the most to acquire them. The efficient economic role of government is limited to Laissez-Faire ("hands off") policies, which create very little intervention in a market economy. For example, government regulations of banking and securities industries to maintain healthy, reasonably profitable, consumer-oriented financial markets would not be needed in a highly competitive market economy in the absence of substantial market imperfections. In a market economy, it is economically efficient for each market participant to specialize according to comparative advantage in producing what they can produce relatively better than other market participants, rather than produce all the outputs they can produce absolutely better than others. For example, it is economically efficient for people who are relatively better at being financial managers than others, to specialize in financial management even if they are absolutely better than others in doing many other types of work. If all labor were allocated to its comparative advantage, then no possible reallocation of labor would exist that could increase the rate of return to labor (i.e., the wage). There is no such thing as a free lunch, because all resources, products, and assets in a market economy are scarce. For example, current federal government budget deficits are not free to current market participants in that the deficits must be financed by future tax increases and/or future decreases in government spending and/or future inflation. For additional information on the Market Economy click here. Marks, R. E. (2006, December). There Is No Such Thing As Free Lunch. Australian Journal of Management. 31(2). 1-7. Financial Decisions An efficient financial decision, practice, transaction, or condition is one that is optimal -- meaning best; it cannot be improved, from society's perspective. If there is some profitable way to improve some business practice that would benefit society, that practice is somewhat inefficient. Any change in a financial decision, practice, transaction, or condition that improves society is an efficiency improvement. For example, it is an efficiency improvement for a business to cut production costs by reducing waste (e.g., by reducing spending on unprofitable activity. A financial decision, practice, transaction, or condition is fair-- meaning just or equitable, if the financial benefits are distributed to those involved in proportion to how much they each voluntarily contributed to produce those benefits. For example, a financial practice that discriminates against some people on the basis of race, age, gender, nationality, or religion is unfair. For example, an unethical business practice is unfair. For additional information relating to Market Analysis and fair financial decisions, click on the following: Teaching Ethical Economic Practices to Business Managers. Johnston, C. (2009, October). The Proceedings of the Annual Conference of The International Academy of Business and Economics. Fairness is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition, for efficiency. All efficient financial practices are fair, but some fair practices may still fail to be efficient. For example, embezzling company funds is an unfair and inefficient, criminal financial activity. As another example, an ethical business practice that could be improved is fair but not efficient. Opportunity Cost Principle Opportunity cost principle: The efficient measure of the cost of any allocation of resources, products, money income, wealth, or time is its opportunity cost -- the value of the next best use. The opportunity cost of how one uses his or her resources is the value of the highest valued alternative use. The opportunity cost of one investment is the expected return on the next best investment available to the firm. For example, the opportunity cost of a firm using some of its profits to pay dividends to its stockholders would be the present value of future income those profits could have earned if invested in the firm's highest valued investment project.

Discussion Questions These questions stem from the Class Discussion Questions you will be anwering in the Discussion Board. Think about the questions and how they relate to the financial management principles above.

2. Applications: State the financial management principle that appears to be violated in each of the following cases and explain how it is violated:

(a) A corporation is maximizing sales growth and the price of its corporate stock is falling.

(b) A highly paid financial manager in the auto industry quit his job to set up his own small auto repair shop, which is expected to incur a loss for the first three years then earn normal profits.

Part I. Multiple Choice Questions. Please circle the right answer (one mark each)

1. Which of the following are economic goods?

a. Atlantic Ocean sea water.

b. Iowa farm land.

c. California coast line.

d. All of the above.

e. All of the above, except a.

2. The three fundamental questions of economic organization are:

a. closely related to the concept of scarcity.

b. not nearly as important today as they were at the dawn of civilization.

c. what, how, and why.

d. land, labor, and capital.

e. all of the above.

3. Which of the following statements applies to a mixed economy?

a. There is confusion and a lack of organization.

b. The allocation of resources changes from production period to production period.

c. There are no real examples of truly mixed economies.

d. Mixed economies include aspects of both market and command economies.

e. None of the above statements apply.

4. Capital is:

a. the same as money.

b. the headquarters of economic planning.

c. both an input and an output.

d. all of the above.

e. none of the above.

5. Land, labor, and capital are:

a. available only in finite amounts.

b. used to produce outputs.

c. the primary factors of production.

d. combined with technology in the production process.

e. all of the above.

6. Which of the statements below does not apply to the production-possibility frontier, or PPF?

a. The PPF is closely related to the concept of scarcity.

b. Quantities of inputs are measured along the axes of the PPF.

c. The PPF may shift over time.

d. Movements along the PPF may occur as the allocation of resources changes.

e. Technology may change the shape of the PPF.

7. Which of the statements below is a reason why an economy might produce a level of output that is beneath its production-possibility frontier?

a. The available resources are not equally suited to the production of both outputs.

b. The available body of technological knowledge is not being fully utilized.

c. Society prefers one product over the other.

d. In reality, economies produce thousands of goods not just two.

e. There are no frontiers left anymore.

8. In order to shift the PPF out (above and to the right), an economy would have to:

a. somehow increase its stock of inputs.

b. remove some incompetent bureaucrats from their jobs.

c. eliminate the sources of significant abuse of monopoly power.

d. all of the above.

e. none of the above.

9. Sana notices that no matter how many paper cups she buys, she always pays the same price per cup. This means that the supply curve which confronts her is:

a. perfectly inelastic.

b. perfectly elastic.

c. unit-elastic.

d. elastic, but not necessarily perfectly elastic.

e. none of these things, necessarily

10. A perfectly inelastic supply curve would be shown in the ordinary supply-and-demand graph as a:

a. vertical line.

b. horizontal line.

c. straight line, but neither horizontal nor vertical.

d. curved line.

e. any of the above.

ECON 20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ceteris Paribus, Economic System, Demand Curve

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