1. Scarcity The fundamental problem of economics is scarcity
The world has finite resources (limited)
People’s wants are unlimited, but the earth does not have the resources to provide for unlimited wants

2. A. 3 Economic Questions
i. As a result of scarcity economic societies must ask themselves three basic questions:
a. What to Produce
Can not produce everything everyone wants
Have to decide how they will allocate resources
Are they going to produce more military equipment or focus on the building of roads

3. Three Basic Questions Cont’d
b. How to Produce
Mass production vs hand making goods
Are they going to produce goods in the United States or abroad?
c. For Whom to Produce
Are they producing for students or professionals?

4. Factors of Production
B. Factors of Production: resources required to produce the things we want
i. Land: natural resources (oil, sand, fertile fields, wood, etc)

5. 2. Capital: Any Human-made resource used to produce goods and services
a. Physical Capital: tools, equipment, factories, etc used to produce goods/services
b. Human capital: The labor, the skills and knowledge of people used to produce goods/services

6. Entrepreneurs
3. Entrepreneurs: Organize the factors of production (land, labor, and capital) Bring something new to the market.
a. Produce Goods (physical object) or Services (actions performed for another)
b. Use resources in an effort to make a profit..
Steve Jobs (Apple),
Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google)
Local business owners

7. Decision Making I. Trade Offs
Hi, I’m Econ Emily
Decision Making
I. Trade Offs
A. Trade offs: all the alternatives that are present when making an economic decision.
B. Take advantages and disadvantages into consideration
e.g. Emily can decide between going to the movies, buying a CD, or going to lunch
If she decides to go to the movies she is forgoing buying a CD and going to lunch

8. Decision Making II. Opportunity Cost
A. Opportunity Cost: The cost or value of the next best alternative use of one’s money, time, or resources when making a choice.
If Emily spends $20 on a new shirt, she gives up 3 cans of hair spray or a movie ticket and large popcorn.
The One she values the most is the opportunity cost. Both of them are trade-offs

9. Production Possibilities: Scarcity and Opportunity Costs in Action

10. Like wait a sec, Mr. Cooper
Like wait a sec, Mr. Cooper! I like totally love guns and I totally love butter, why can’t we just have a ton of both?
Well Emily, it is the fundamental problem we have in Economics that is the answer to your question…

11. Decision Making: Cost Benefit Analysis
B. Cost Benefit Analysis : Compares the opportunity costs of an action to the benefits received
Options
Benefit
Opportunity Cost
1 hr of extra study time
Grade of C on a test
One hour of sleep
2 hr of extra study time
Grade of B on a test
2 hours of sleep
3 hr of extra study time
Grade of B+ on a test
3 hours of sleep

12. What units are we comparing here??
Margins
i. Thinking at the Margin: Making your decision based how much benefit you will gain or lose from adding or subtracting one unit (minute, hour, dollar, etc)
What does the student get if they study for just 1 hour? What are they giving up? 2 hours of study time? 3 hours?
What happens to the benefit after adding an additional 1 hr unit of study time? How does this affect the student’s decision making?
Options
Benefit
Opportunity Cost
1 hr of extra study time
Grade of C on a test
One hour of sleep
2 hr of extra study time
Grade of B on a test
2 hours of sleep
3 hr of extra study time
Grade of B+ on a test
3 hours of sleep
What units are we comparing here??

13. Thinking at the Margin
Cost Benefit at the Margin: Individuals, employers, legislators, etc constantly make compare opportunity costs and benefits at the margin
Think about it the next time you go to purchase a meal at McDonalds and they ask if you want to supersize – you will be engaging at cost benefit analysis and McDonalds bets you will weigh the benefits and choose to supersize.

14. Production Possibility Frontier
C. The production possibility frontier (PPF) is a curve depicting all maximum output possibilities for two goods, given a set of inputs consisting of resources and other factors. The PPF assumes that all inputs are used efficiently
D. 3 assumptions can be made while looking at a production possibilities curve
1. Fixed Time
EX: time is not extended for decades
2. Fixed Resources
Society has all of the resources it needs to produce the goods
3. Maximum Efficiency
Workers are efficiency

15. Charting A Production Possibility Curve
Watermelons
(millions of tons)
Shoes
(millions of pairs) 15 8 14 12 18 9 20 5 21

16. Law of Increasing Costs/Diminishing Returns
IV. Costs and Returns A. Law of Increasing Costs: As production shifts from one item to a second item, more and more resources are needed to increase production of the second item.
How many millions of pairs of shoes do we give up to produce 8 million tons of watermelons?
How many millions of tons of watermelons am I getting for that cost of 1 million pairs of shoes?
Watermelons
(millions of tons)
Shoes
(millions of pairs) 15 8 14 12 18 9 20 5 21
How many ADDITIONAL millions of pairs of shoes do we give up to produce 14 million tons of watermelons?
How many additional millions of tons of watermelons am I getting for that cost of 2 million pairs of shoes?
How many ADDITIONAL millions of pairs of shoes do we give up to produce 18 million tons of watermelons?
How many additional millions of tons of watermelons am I getting for that cost of 3 million pairs of shoes?

17. Underutilization V. Efficiency
A. Underutilization: Point inside the production possibility curve that shows when an economy is using less resources than it is capable of
What would be an example of a production combination that would show underutilization on our graph?

18. VI. Movement in PPC A. Growth and Contraction: If economies become more efficient (technology) or gains more resources it can produce more = growth. If something happens to hurt production (natural disaster, less resources) = contraction a. Growth = shift in PPC to the right b. Contraction = shift in PPC to left