Preliminary Economic Concepts and Principles:



Fund. Econ. Questions & Gains from Specialization:(“Economics” – Chapter 2)At a very basic level, recognize that…Goods/services are created using productive resourcesProductive resources (e.g., land, labor, natural resources) are scarceSociety faces a tradeoff in terms of levels of output of goods/services => at the limits of our production, having more of one good/service is only possible if we get by with less of some other good/serviceThese recognitions lead to the contemplation of …Three Fundamental Economic Questions – every society must address three basic economic questions:What to produce? (production decision – what mix of goods/services should be created?)How to produce it? (resource use decision – what resources should be used for the production of which goods/services?)For whom to produce it? (distributional decision – who gets to consume which goods/services?)Much of the focus of this course is concerned with addressing how these basic questions have been answered in different countries at different points in time, under different “economic systems.”In the present day U.S. we answer most of these questions by way of individual decision making in free-markets.Production Possibilities Frontier:The tradeoffs in production that confront a society can be illustrated by a Production Possibilities Frontier (PPF)…Production Possibilities Frontier – a curve summarizing the limits of production that a society faces by illustrating the maximum amount of one good that can be produced for every possible level of production of another good.The PPF presents a society with a “menu of available options” over levels of output of the goodsDistinction between “attainable” and “unattainable” points:A combination of goods is Attainable or Feasible if it can in some way be produced with the resources available to society. (Graphically, such combinations are on or below the PPF.)A combination of goods is Unattainable or Not Feasible if it cannot possibly be produced with the resources available to society. (Graphically, such combinations are beyond the PPF.)Further characterization for all feasible points:A feasible combination is characterized by Productive Inefficiency if it is possible to increase the production of at least one good, without having to decrease the production of any other good. (Graphically, such combinations are below the PPF.)A feasible combination is characterized by Productive Efficiency if it is not possible to increase the production of any good, without decreasing the production of some other good. (Graphically, such combinations are on the PPF.)ApplesE9,250BananasDC6,00012,000B013,000100,00085,00065,00035,000A0Unattainable: D [e.g., given our scarce resources, there is no way that we could produce 85,000 Bananas and 12,000 Apples]Attainable and Efficient: A, B, and C [e.g., starting at B, we could produce 20,000 more Bananas, but we’d have to be willing to give up 3,250 Apples => “tradeoff as we move from B to C”]Attainable but Inefficient: E [e.g., starting at E, we could increase production of either good (or both) without decreasing production of any other good]In general…“Downward sloping nature of curve” reflects “tradeoff in production that results from scarcity of resources”“Curve becomes steeper as we move down the curve” results from “allocating resources in the most efficient manner”In a modern society, people engage in a great deal of “specialization in production.” Why?When trying to acquire goods and services, why should people bother interacting with others (as opposed to producing everything themselves)?We will address this question by illustrating potential “gains from specialization and trade” in a simple “2 person, 2 good” model. Short answer:Such “specialization in production” allows society to produce individuals to consume greater amounts of goods/service.Example: Two individuals (Cindy and Dave) produce two goods (apples and bananas). Suppose each individual wants an equal number of apples and bananas. Consider their production decision over the course of a five day workweek. Different abilities, summarized by:Apples:Bananas:Cindy15 per day60 per dayDave12 per day8 per dayIf each individual were to produce only for their own consumption, then:Cindy: spend 4 days making apples and 1 day making bananas (60 units of each good).Dave: spend 2 days making apples and 3 days making bananas (24 units of each good).Total output of society: 84 units of each good.What if we instead had individuals “focus their production” on those things that they were “relatively good at producing”?Absolute Advantage. One person has an absolute advantage over another in the production of a good if she can produce more of the good with a common amount of productive resources.In our example, Cindy has an Absolute Advantage in the production of both bananas and apples. So, on which good should Dave “focus his production”?Let’s think about it a different way… What is the “Cost of a Banana” for each individual?To get one more banana a worker would have to spend more time making bananas, and therefore less time making apples (tradeoff, due to the “scarce nature” of time). So, the cost of a banana should be measured in terms of the number of apples that must be given up to get the banana.Think of a worker switching “one day of labor” away from apple production toward banana production:Cindy produces 15 fewer apples and 60 more bananas. Cost of each banana for Cindy is “(15/60) = (1/4) of an apple.”Dave produces 12 fewer apples and 8 more banana. Cost of each banana for Dave is “(12/8) = (3/2) apples” (or “one and a half apples”).The Opportunity Cost of an activity is the value of the next best alternative that must be forgone in order to undertake the activity.In our production example: the opportunity cost of a banana for Cindy is “one quarter of an apple”; the opportunity cost of a banana for Dave is “one and a half apples.” => and Could also show: the opportunity cost of an apple for Cindy is “four bananas”; the opportunity cost of an apple for Dave is “two thirds of a banana.” => and In general, for any “worker ,” i.e., the worker’s “Opportunity Cost for producing good B” must be equal to “the reciprocal of her Opportunity Cost for producing good A”Comparative Advantage. One person has a comparative advantage over another in the production of a good if her opportunity cost of producing the good is lower.Cindy has a comparative advantage in the production of bananas (i.e., her OC of producing bananas is lower than Dave’s)Dave has a comparative advantage in the production of apples (i.e., his OC of producing apples is lower than Cindy’s).What if Cindy “focuses her production on bananas” while Dave “focuses his production on apples”? Specifically:Dave spends 5 days making apples and 0 days making bananas => produces (5)(12)=60 apples and (0)(8)=0 bananas.Cindy spends 3.2 days making apples and 1.8 days making bananas => produces (3.2)(15)=48 apples and (1.8)(60)=108 bananas.Total output of society is 108 units of each good => through “specialization in production” they produced 24 more apples and 24 more bananas than before.After specializing in production, individuals could “trade” so that each is better off. Continuing our example:Dave could give Cindy 20 apples in exchange for 40 bananas.This would leave Dave with 60–20=40 apples and 0+40=40 bananas (better than the 24 apples and 24 bananas he had without specialization/trade)This would leave Cindy with 48+20=68 apples and 108–40=68 bananas (better than the 60 apples and 60 bananas that she had without specialization/trade)Specialization and Trade not only increased the total output of society, but it made each person better off individually.Generally, “voluntary trade” makes all parties to the trade individually “better off.”Intuition: if a voluntary trade did NOT make an individual better off, then she would simply choose NOT to trade.The driving force behind these gains is the…Law of Comparative Advantage – when increasing the production of a good, a society should do so by using the available productive resource with the lowest opportunity cost (i.e., the resource which possesses the comparative advantage at producing the good).by applying this rule, a society is able to guarantee that they are producing the maximum amount of “good 2” for any chosen level of “good 1”from here, we can sketch out a PPF (with specialization) for our two person societyNote how, if we realize the outcome described above, we have answered the “Three Fundamental Economic Questions”…production decision (what mix of goods/services should be created?): 108 apples and 108 bananasresource use decision (what resources should be used for the production of which goods/services?): 5 units of Dave’s labor and 3.2 units of Cindy’s labor will be used to make apples; 1.8 units of Cindy’s labor will be used to make bananasdistributional decision (who gets to consume which goods/services?): Dave will consume 40 apples and 40 bananas; Cindy will consume 68 apples and 68 bananasagain, both individuals are better off than they were without specialization and trade!“Weekly PPF for society” from previous example:“kink” => Dave produces only apples, while Cindy produces only bananasapples00“vertical intercept” => Both Dave and Cindy produce only bananas8460bananas300+40=340Dave produces 60 apples and 0 bananas, while Cindy produces 48 apples and108 bananas300108“horizontal intercept” => Both Dave and Cindy produce only applesInefficient point (perhaps from “no specialization”)135=75+6010884General insights:PPC provides society with a “menu of available options,” from which society chooses “one particular combination of goods” (the choice obviously depends upon preferences/priorities of society)“Downward sloping nature” of PPF illustrates the “tradeoff that society faces between apples and bananas” at every efficient pointThe value of the slope of the PPF is equal to “minus the opportunity cost of the good on the horizontal axis for the marginal worker” (e.g., starting at “vertical intercept,” the slope of the flatter segment is and the slope of the steeper segment is ) ................
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