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1、,Thinking Like an Economist,Chapter 2,Copyright 2001 by Harcourt,Inc.All rights reserved.Requests for permission to make copies of any part of thework should be mailed to:Permissions Department,Harcourt College Publishers,6277 Sea Harbor Drive,Orlando,Florida 32887-6777.,Every field of study has its
2、 own terminology,Mathematics,Psychology,Law,Every field of study has its own terminology,Economics,Supply,Demand,Elasticity,Consumer Surplus,Comparative advantage,Opportunity cost,Deadweight loss,Economics trains you to.,Think in terms of alternatives.Evaluate the cost of individual and social choic
3、es.Examine and understand how certain events and issues are related.,The Economist as a Scientist,The economic way of thinking.Involves thinking analytically and objectively.Makes use of the scientific method.,The Scientific Method,Uses abstract models to help explain how a complex,real world operat
4、es.Develops theories,collects,and analyzes data to prove the theories.,Observation,Theory and More Observation!,The Role of Assumptions,Economists make assumptions in order to make the world easier to understand.The art in scientific thinking is deciding which assumptions to make.Economists use diff
5、erent assumptions to answer different questions.,The Economic Way of Thinking,Includes developing abstract models from theories and the analysis of the models.Uses two approaches:,Descriptive(reporting facts,etc.)Analytical(abstract reasoning),Economic Models,Economists use models to simplify realit
6、y in order to improve our understanding of the world Two of the most basic economic models include:,The Circular Flow Model,The Production Possibilities Frontier,The Circular-Flow Model,The circular-flow model is a simple way to visually show the economic transactions that occur between households a
7、nd firms in the economy.,The Circular-Flow Diagram,Firms,Households,Market for Factors of Production,Market for Goods and Services,The Circular-Flow Diagram,Households Buy and consume goods and services Own and sell factors of production,Firms Produce and sell goods and services Hire and use factors
8、 of production,The Circular-Flow Diagram,Markets for Factors of Production Households sell Firms buy,Markets for Goods&Services Firms sell Households buy,The Circular-Flow Diagram,Factors of Production Inputs used to produce goods and services Land,labor,and capital,The Production Possibilities Fron
9、tier,The production possibilities frontier is a graph showing the various combinations of output that the economy can possibly produce given the available factors of production and technology.,The Production Possibilities Frontier,Quantity ofComputersProduced,Quantity ofCars Produced,3,000,1,000,The
10、 Production Possibilities Frontier,Quantity ofComputersProduced,Quantity ofCars Produced,3,000,1,000,2,000,2,200,A,700,600,300,0,1,000,B,C,D,Production,possibilities,frontier,Concepts Illustrated by the Production Possibilities Frontier,EfficiencyTradeoffsOpportunity CostEconomic Growth,The Producti
11、on Possibilities Frontier,Quantity of ComputersProduced,Quantity ofCars Produced,3,000,2,000,A,700,0,1,000,An outward shift in the production possibilities frontier,Microeconomics and Macroeconomics,Microeconomics focuses on the individual parts of the economy.How households and firms make decisions
12、 and how they interact in specific marketsMacroeconomics looks at the economy as a whole.How the markets,as a whole,interact at the national level.,Two Roles of Economists,When they are trying to explain the world,they are scientists.When they are trying to change the world,they are policymakers.,Po
13、sitive versus Normative Analysis,Positive statements are statements that describe the world as it is.Called descriptive analysisNormative statements are statements about how the world should be.Called prescriptive analysis,?,?,Positive or Normative Statements?,An increase in the minimum wage will ca
14、use a decrease in employment among the least-skilled.,?,?,?,Positive or Normative Statements?,Higher federal budget deficits will cause interest rates to increase.,?,?,?,?,Positive or Normative Statements?,The income gains from a higher minimum wage are worth more than any slight reductions in emplo
15、yment.,?,?,?,Positive or Normative Statements?,State governments should be allowed to collect from tobacco companies the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses among the poor.,Economists in Washington.,.serve as advisers in the policymaking process of the three branches of government:Legislativ
16、eExecutiveJudicial,Why Economists Disagree,They may disagree on theories about how the world works.They may hold different values and,thus,different normative views.,Examples of What Most Economists Agree On,A ceiling on rents reduces the quantity and quality of housing available.Tariffs and import
17、quotas usually reduce general economic welfare.,Summary,In order to address subjects with objectivity,economics makes use of the scientific method.The field of economics is divided into two subfields:microeconomics and macroeconomics.,Summary,Economics relies on both positive and normative analysis.
18、Positive statements assert how the world“is”while normative statements assert how the world“should be.”Economists may offer conflicting advice due to differences in scientific judgments or to differences in values.,The Circular-Flow Diagram,The Production Possibilities Frontier,The Production Possibilities Frontier,The Production Possibilities Frontier,
