microeconomics

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The Goals of This Course

• To understand how the economy really works.
• To determine how markets shape economic outcomes.
• To examine the role that government can and does play in (re)shaping economic performance.
• To understand how we ourselves can make better economic decisions.

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Learning Objectives

• 01-01. Know how scarcity creates opportunity costs and forces economic choices.
• 01-02. Know what the production possibilities curve represents.
• 01-03. Know the three core economic questions that every society must answer.
• 01-04. Know how market and government approaches to economic problems differ.

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The Core Issues

• The purpose of an economy is to produce goods and services that satisfy peoples’ wants using the limited resources available.
• There are three core choices that confront every nation:
• WHAT to produce with our limited resources.
• HOW to produce the goods and services we select.
• FOR WHOM goods and services are produced – that is, who should get them.

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What Is the Economy?

• The economy is us.
• It is the grand sum of all our production and consumption activities.
• For the United States, it is the collective behavior of the 310 million individuals who participate in it.

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Scarcity: The Core Problem

• Scarcity: lack of enough resources to satisfy all desired uses of those resources.
• There aren’t enough resources available to satisfy all our desires.
• Scarcity of resources limits the amount of goods and services that can be produced.
• Somebody’s wants will have to go unfulfilled.
• Whose?
• Scarcity requires economic choices to be made.
• Who will decide?

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Factors of Production

• Factors of production: resource inputs used in the production of goods and services, the desired outputs.
• Four types.
• Land – all natural resources.
• Labor – skills and abilities of all humans at work.
• Capital – goods produced for use in further production.
• Entrepreneurship – the assembling of resources to produce new or improved products and technologies.

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Economics Defined

• Economics: the study of how best to allocate scarce resources among competing uses.

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Exercise

• All resources are limited.
• Example: your time.
• Not enough time to do everything.
• You prioritize: do the most important things, leave less important things until later.
• Write down three situations in which you had to put off doing one thing because another was of higher priority to you.

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Opportunity Cost

• When we choose to use resources to produce one thing, we must give up producing something else with those resources. This trade-off comes with a cost.
• Opportunity cost: the value to you of the next most desired good forgone to obtain some other higher-priority good.
• What is given up to undertake a chosen activity.
• Associated with every decision:
• For example, if we choose to produce bread, then we cannot produce pizza crust with the same flour.

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Exercise: “Guns versus Butter”

• Should the government increase spending on defense, or should it reallocate those funds to provide more of the basic goods and services for the neediest among us?
• What is the opportunity cost of increased defense spending?
• What is the benefit of increased provision for the neediest?
• Do the benefits exceed the costs?
• How do we know?

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Production Possibilities

• Production possibilities: the various combinations of final goods and services that could be produced in a given time period with all available resources and technology.

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Trucks vs. Tanks

• One factory can produce either trucks or tanks, or some of each with the limited resources available to it.
• To increase truck production, resources must be shifted away from tank production, and vice versa.
• Note the opportunity cost in this trade-off.

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Production Possibilities Curve (PPC)

Note that as we move from

A to F, each time we give

up the same amount but

get back less and less in

return.

The trade-off gets worse

and worse.

Point	Trucks	Change	Tanks	Change
A	5		0
B	4	-1	2.0	+2
C	3	-1	3.0	+1
D	2	-1	3.8	+0.8
E	1	-1	4.5	+0.7
F	0	-1	5.0	+0.5

A

B

C

D

E

F

OUTPUT OF TRUCKS

5

4

3

2

1

0

1

2

3

4

5

OUTPUT OF TANKS

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• The opportunity cost of producing additional units of one good increases.
• Each time we give up one truck, we get less back in tank production.
• Resources are specialized to produce one good better than another.
• Good tank resources are shifted first.
• Later shifts involve resources less good for tank production.
• Accounts for the bowed shape of the PPC.

Law of Increasing Opportunity Costs

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Step 1: give up one truck

Step 2: get two tanks

Step 3: give up another truck

Step 4: get one more tank

A

B

C

D

E

F

OUTPUT OF TRUCKS

5

4

3

2

1

0

1

2

3

4

5

OUTPUT OF TANKS

Law of Increasing Opportunity Costs

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Production Possibilities Curve (PPC)

• The PPC illustrates two essential principles:
• Scarce resources: there is a limit to the amount we can produce in a given time with available resources and technology.
• This limitation positions the PPC.
• Opportunity costs: we can obtain additional quantities of one of the goods only by reducing production of another good.

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Efficiency and the PPC

• Efficiency: maximum output of a good from the resources used in production.
• Every point on the production possibilities curve is a point of efficiency.

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OUTPUT OF TANKS

A

B

C

Y

5

4

3

2

1

0

1

2

3

4

5

OUTPUT OF TRUCKS

Surveying Points on the PPC

X

Points outside the PPC

are unattainable with

available resources and

technology.

Only points on the PPC represent maximum efficient use of our production possibilities.

Points inside the PPC

represent incomplete

or inefficient use of

available resources.

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Economic Growth

• Economic growth: an increase in output; an expansion of production possibilities.
• Raises our standard of living.
• Satisfies more wants and needs.
• Creates more jobs.
• Economic growth is caused by increasing the resources available or by producing better technology.
• The PPC pushes outward.

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Economic Growth

0

OUTPUT OF TANKS

OUTPUT OF TRUCKS

Either increase resource inputs or

improve technology, or both

(B to X).

B

X

Y

Put idle resources

to work (Y to B).

First, reach the current PPC by putting idle resources to work.

Second, add resources or technology to achieve previously unattainable combinations.

PPC1

PPC2

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Three Basic Decisions

• WHAT to produce: the point we choose on the production possibilities curve determines what mix of output gets produced.
• HOW to produce: someone must decide which production methods and technologies to use.
• FOR WHOM to produce: there must be a mechanism to determine whose wants and needs will be satisfied and who must go without.

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The Mechanisms of Choice

• There are three basic ways to make the necessary choices:
• The market mechanism.
• Government directive.
• A mixture of both.

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The Market

• Adam Smith called it “the invisible hand.”
• It is as if we are “guided” to the correct point on the PPC.
• In fact, we get there by the interaction of millions of decisions made by buyers, sellers, and producers in their own self-interest (i.e., to make themselves better off).
• We call this the market mechanism:
• The use of market prices and sales to signal desired outputs and resource allocations.

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The Market

• Here is how the market answers the three basic questions:
• WHAT to produce? Produce goods and services that customers want.
• HOW to produce? Profitably; produce an acceptable good or service while keeping production costs low.
• FOR WHOM to produce? Produce for those who are both willing and able to pay for it.

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The Government

• At its extreme, government could dictate answers to all three questions.
• Such decisions would be made by political leaders and bureaucrats.
• Most likely these decisions would not mirror the individual desires of the people.
• The FOR WHOM decision would lean heavily toward favoritism: goods for those the government favors and none for those not in favor.

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A Mixture of Both

• The market is highly efficient in production of wanted goods and services.
• The government acts as a maintainer of balance in the economy.
• Makes sure the market does not go to excesses either in underproduction or overproduction.
• Regulates production to ensure that goods and services are safe.
• Acts to redress excessive inequalities.

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What Mix Is Best?

• Few governments have relied exclusively on either pure market or pure government to manage the economy.
• Public opinion around the world indicates that the free-market economic system is best.
• The Index of Economic Freedom ranks nations according to economic freedom.
• Market-dominated economies rank high; government-run economies rank low.

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Market Failure and
Government Failure

• If the market does not produce the mix of goods that society desires, market failure is said to occur.
• This provides an opening for government to step in.
• If government can move us closer to the mix society desires, the intervention is successful.
• However, government can do the opposite, or impose such high costs that the market simply ceases to produce. This is government failure.

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What Economics Is All About

• Society and its leaders set the nation’s economic goals. Economics focuses on the means of achieving those goals.
• Macroeconomics will focus on “big picture” economics while microeconomics will focus on economic interactions of consumers and producers.

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Types of Economic Analysis

• Positive analysis in economics focuses on “what is” and is based on facts.
• Normative analysis focuses on “what should be” and is based on opinions and judgments.

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The Economy Tomorrow

• Energy is always in demand. Harnessing the sun is an exciting prospect to provide power for homes and cars.
• How do we calculate the opportunity costs of acquiring solar power?
• Ultimately, trillions of dollars of resources may be needed for a full-scaled development of solar-power infrastructure.
• What alternative goods and services will we have to forsake in order to do this?

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Revisiting the Learning Objectives

• 01-01. Know how scarcity creates opportunity costs and forces economic choices.
• Factors of production are scarce in relation to our desires for goods and services.
• When we choose to produce one thing, we forsake the opportunity to produce some other good or service.

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Revisiting the Learning Objectives

• 01-02. Know what the production possibilities curve represents.
• Limits of possible production given available resources and technology.
• Opportunity costs: what is given up to get more of something else.
• Law of increasing cost: give up ever-larger amounts of one good to get one more unit of the other good.
• Economic growth: short run, become more efficient; long run, add resources or improve technology.

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Revisiting the Learning Objectives

• 01-03. Know the three core economic questions that every society must answer.
• Every country must decide WHAT to produce, HOW to produce, and FOR WHOM to produce with its limited resources.

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Revisiting the Learning Objectives

• 01-04. Know how market and government approaches to economic problems differ.
• Choices can be made by the market mechanism or by government directives, or by a combination of the two (a mixed economy).