... opportunity
cost of producing 1 pound of meat is 2 pounds of
potatoes. Explain why the rancher’s opportunity cost of
producing 1 pound of meat is 1/8 pound of potatoes.
2. Maria can read 20 pages ofeconomics ... pound of potatoes costs the rancher 8 pounds of meat,
1 pound of meat costs the rancher 1/8 pound of potatoes. Similarly, because 1
pound of potatoes costs the farmer 1/2 pound of meat, 1 pound of ... The rancher buys 1
pound of potatoes for a price of 3 pounds of meat. This price of potatoes is lower
than her opportunity cost of 1 pound of potatoes, which is 8 pounds of meat. Thus,
the rancher...
... quantity of ice cream you are willing to produce
and offer for sale? Here are some possible answers.
Price
The price of ice cream is one determinant of the quantity supplied. When
the price of ice ... MARKET FORCES OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND 77
MARKET SUPPLY VERSUS INDIVIDUAL SUPPLY
Just as market demand is the sum of the demands of all buyers, market supply is
the sum of the supplies of all sellers. ... cream is profitable, and so the quantity
supplied is large. As a seller of ice cream, you work long hours, buy many ice-
cream machines, and hire many workers. By contrast, when the price of ice...
... dramatically alter the number of times they go to the
doctor, although they might go somewhat less often. By contrast, when the price of
sailboats rises, the quantity of sailboats demanded falls ... responsiveness of
quantity demanded or quantity
supplied to one of its determinants
price elasticity of demand
a measure of how much the quantity
demanded of a good responds to a
change in the price of that ... is
temporarily high. How does this baby boom affect the
price of baby-sitting services in 2010 and 2020? (Hint:
5-year-olds need baby-sitters, whereas 15-year-olds can
be baby-sitters.)
7. Ketchup is a...
... amount of income—
$100,000 in our example—were fixed. But, in fact, it is not. Utilitarians reject com-
plete equalization of incomes because they accept one of the TenPrinciples of
Economics ... the richest 2.8 percent of the population. About four
out of five of these millionaires made their money on their own, such as by start-
ing and building a business or by climbing the corporate ... extent, the goal of utilitarians is to ap-
ply the logic of individual decisionmaking to questions concerning morality and
public policy.
The starting point of utilitarianism is the notion of...
... living standard by cutting back on the luxury of meat
and buying more of the staple food of potatoes. Thus, it is argued that a higher
price of potatoes actually raised the quantity of potatoes demanded.
Whether ... effect on
labor supply of winning such a large prize is substantial.
Similar results were found in a study, published in the May 1993 issue of the
Quarterly Journal of Economics, of how receiving a ... of consumer choice does allow demand curves to slope
upward. Yet such occurrences are so unusual that the law of demand is as reliable
a law as any in economics.
Quantity
of Meat
A
Quantity of
Potatoes
0
E
C
I
2
I
1
Initial...
... the health of our children, the
quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty
of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public
debate ... Americans.
506 PART EIGHT THE DATA OF MACROECONOMICS
CASE STUDY
INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN GDP AND THE
QUALITY OF LIFE
One way to gauge the usefulness of GDP as a measure of economic well-being
is to ... value of final goods. The reason is that the value of
intermediate goods is already included in the prices of the final goods. Adding the
market value of the paper to the market value of the...
... Some prices rise by more than
others. Consumers respond to these differing price changes by buying less of the
goods whose prices have risen by large amounts and by buying more of the goods
whose ... a higher or lower standard of liv-
ing than today’s players.
MEASURING THE
COST OF LIVING
508 PART EIGHT THE DATA OF MACROECONOMICS
maternal mortality, higher rates of child malnutrition, and ... Bureau of Labor Statistics did revise the basket of goods
B
EHIND EVERY MACROECONOMIC STATISTIC
are thousands of individual pieces of
data on the economy. This article fol-
lows some of the people...
... ideas. In the rest of this chapter, we look at TenPrinciplesof Economics.
These principles recur throughout this book and are introduced here to give you
an overview of what economics is all ... raise its profits by
opportunity cost
whatever must be given up to obtain
some item
marginal changes
small incremental adjustments to a
plan of action
CHAPTER 1 TENPRINCIPLESOFECONOMICS 7
thinking ... promote
an end which was no part of
his intention. Nor is it always
the worse for the society that
it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he
frequently promotes that of the society more effectually
than...
... CHAPTER 1 TENPRINCIPLESOFECONOMICS 15
monetary and fiscal policy are potentially so powerful, how policymakers should
use these instruments to control the economy, if at all, is a subject of continuing
debate.
QUICK ... task. The
field ofeconomics is based on a few basic ideas that can be applied in many dif-
ferent situations.
Throughout this book we will refer back to the TenPrinciplesof Economics
highlighted ... introduction of competing products has
reduced the expected sales of your new product to
$3 million. If it would cost $1 million to finish
Problems and Applications
CHAPTER 1 TENPRINCIPLESOF ECONOMICS...
... source of the inefficiency were eliminated, the economy
could move from point B to point A, increasing production of both cars (to 700)
and computers (to 2,000).
One of the TenPrinciplesofEconomics ... less of the other. When the economy moves from
point A to point C, for instance, society produces more computers but at the ex-
pense of producing fewer cars.
Another of the TenPrinciplesofEconomics ... Just as a physicist be-
gins the analysis of a falling marble by assuming away the existence of friction,
economists assume away many of the details of the economy that are irrelevant for
studying...
... popular movie of all time? The answer might surprise you.
Movie popularity is usually gauged by box office receipts. By that measure,
Titanic is the No. 1 movie of all time, followed by Star Wars, ... well-being of others?
Explain.
2. Suppose that the residents of Vegopia spend all of their
income on cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots. In 2001
they buy 100 heads of cauliflower for $200, 50 bunches
of ... inflation rate as
measured by the consumer price
index. Notice that nominal and
real interest rates often do not
move together.
S
OURCE
: U.S. Department of Labor;
U.S. Department of Treasury.
CHAPTER...
... production of capital.
One of the TenPrinciplesofEconomics presented in Chapter 1 is that people face
tradeoffs. This principle is especially important when considering the accumula-
tion of capital. ... experienced more rapidly growing productivity.
Indeed, one of the TenPrinciplesofEconomics in Chapter 1 is that a country’s stan-
dard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services.
Hence, ... the
amount of capital it has. If today the economy produces a large quantity of new
capital goods, then tomorrow it will have a larger stock of capital and be able to
produce more of all types of goods...
... through
policies that promote economic growth. Most of this chapter is summarized in one
of the TenPrinciplesof Economics: A country’s standard of living depends on its
ability to produce goods ... returns
the property whereby the benefit
from an extra unit of an input
declines as the quantity of the
input increases
catch-up effect
the property whereby countries
that start off poor tend to grow
more ... takes
some of this additional income back to the United States in the form of profit. Sim-
ilarly, when an American investor buys Mexican stock, the investor has a right to
a portion of the profit...