1. Microeconomics ECON 2302 May 2011
Marilyn Spencer, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Chapter 2

2. Quiz 1
Before class on Tuesday, May 17, send me an from the address you’ll be using regularly during this course.
My address is
4 points

3. 2 Trade-offs, Comparative Advantage, & the Market System
CHAPTER
Trade-offs, Comparative Advantage, & the Market System
To compete in the automobile market, the managers of BMW must make many strategic decisions, such as whether to introduce new car models.

4. 2 Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives 2.1
Production Possibilities Frontiers and Opportunity Costs
Use a production possibilities frontier to analyze opportunity costs and trade-offs.
2.2
Comparative Advantage and Trade
Understand comparative advantage and explain how it is the basis for trade.
2.3
The Market System
Explain the basic idea of how a market system works.

5. Trade-offs, Comparative Advantage, and the Market System
Scarcity A situation in which unlimited wants exceed the limited resources available to fulfill those wants.

6. Production Possibilities Frontiers and Opportunity Costs
2.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Use a production possibilities frontier to analyze opportunity costs and trade-offs.
Production Possibilities Frontiers and Opportunity Costs
Production possibilities frontier (PPF) A curve showing the maximum attainable combinations of two products that may be produced with available resources and current technology.
Opportunity cost The highest-valued alternative that must be given up to engage in an activity.

7. Production Possibilities Frontiers and Opportunity Costs, cont.
BMW faces a trade-off: To build one more roadster, it must build one less SUV. The production possibilities frontier illustrates the trade-off BMW faces.
Combinations on the production possibilities frontier—like points A, B, C, D, and E—are technically efficient because the maximum output is being obtained from the available resources.
Combinations inside the frontier— like point F—are inefficient because some resources are not being used.
Combinations outside the frontier—like point G—are unattainable with current resources.
FIGURE 2-1
BMW’s Production Possibilities Frontier
Graphing the Production Possibilities Frontier

8. Solved Problem
2-1
Drawing a Production Possibilities Frontier for Rosie’s Boston Bakery
HOURS SPENT MAKING
QUANTITY MADE
CHOICE
CAKES
PIES A 5 B 4 1 2 C 3 D 6 E 8 F 10
Moving from choice D to choice E increases Rosie’s production of pies by 2 but lowers her production of cakes by 1. Therefore, her opportunity cost of making 2 more pies is making 1 less cake.

9. Facing the Trade-offs in Health Care Spending
Making the Connection
Facing the Trade-offs in Health Care Spending
Although the consequences of being uninsured can be severe, particularly if someone develops a serious illness, economists are not surprised that higher prices for health insurance lead to less health insurance being purchased: Faced with limited incomes, people have to make choices among the goods and services they buy.
Spending more on health care means spending less on other goods and services.

10. PPF & Opportunity Costs: Increasing Marginal Opportunity Costs
As the economy moves down the PPF, it experiences increasing marginal opportunity costs because increasing automobile production by a given quantity requires larger and larger decreases in tank production.
Increasing Marginal
Opportunity Costs
FIGURE 2-2

11. PPF & Opportunity Costs: Economic Growth
Economic growth The ability of the economy to increase the production of goods and services.
FIGURE 2-3

12. Comparative Advantage & Trade
2.2 LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Understand comparative advantage and explain how it is the basis for trade.
Comparative Advantage & Trade
Trade The act of buying and selling
The table shows how many pounds of apples and how many pounds of cherries you and your neighbor can each pick in one week.

13. Comparative Advantage & Trade: Specialization & Gains from Trade
Panel (a) shows your PPF. If you devote all your time to picking apples and none of your time to picking cherries, you can pick 20 pounds. If you devote all your time to picking cherries, you can pick 20 pounds.
FIGURE 2-4
Production Possibilities for You & Your Neighbor, without Trade
Panel (b) shows that if your neighbor devotes all her time to picking apples, she can pick 30 pounds. If she devotes all her time to picking cherries, she can pick 60 pounds.

14. Comparative Advantage & Trade: Specialization & Gains from Trade
If you specialize in picking apples, you can pick 20 pounds. If your neighbor specializes in picking cherries, she can pick 60 pounds. If you trade 10 pounds of your apples for 15 pounds of your neighbor’s cherries, you will be able to consume 10 pounds of apples and 15 pounds of cherries— point B in panel (a).
Gains from Trade
FIGURE 2-5
Your neighbor can now consume 10 pounds of apples and 45 pounds of cherries—point D in panel (b). You and your neighbor are both better off as a result of trade.

15. Comparative Advantage & Trade: Specialization & Gains from Trade
TABLE 2-1
A Summary of the Gains from Trade
YOU
YOUR NEIGHBOR
APPLES (IN POUNDS)
CHERRIES (IN POUNDS)
Production and consumption without trade 8 12 9 42
Production with trade 20 60
Consumption with trade 10 15 45
Gains from trade (increased consumption) 2 3 1

16. Comparative Advantage & Trade: Absolute Advantage v
Comparative Advantage & Trade: Absolute Advantage v. Comparative Advantage
Absolute advantage The ability of an individual, a firm, or a country to produce more of a good or service than competitors, using the same amount of resources.
Comparative advantage The ability of an individual, a firm, or a country to produce a good or service at a lower opportunity cost than competitors.
TABLE 2-2
Opportunity Costs of Picking Apples and Cherries
OPPORTUNITY COST OF PICKING 1 POUND OF APPLES
OPPORTUNITY COST OF PICKING 1 POUND OF CHERRIES
YOU
1 pound of cherries
1 pound of apples
YOUR NEIGHBOR
2 pounds of cherries
0.5 pound of apples

17. Comparative Advantage & Trade: Absolute Advantage v
Comparative Advantage & Trade: Absolute Advantage v. Comparative Advantage
The basis for trade is comparative advantage, not absolute advantage.
Individuals, firms, and countries are better off if they specialize in producing goods and services for which they have a comparative advantage and obtain the other goods and services they need by trading.
Don’t Let This Happen to YOU! Don’t Confuse Absolute Advantage and Comparative Advantage

18. Solved Problem 2-2 Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Trade
CANADA
UNITED STATES
HONEY (IN TONS)
MAPLE SYRUP (IN TONS)
MAPLE SYRUP (IN TONS) 60 50 10 45 40 20 30 15
BEFORE TRADE
AFTER TRADE
HONEY (IN TONS)
MAPLE SYRUP (IN TONS)
MAPLE SYRUP (IN TONS)
CANADA 30 15 20
UNITED STATES 10 40

19. Solved Problem 2-2 (continued)
Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Trade

20. Quiz #2 Be prepared for an in-class quiz during our next class!
It will consist of 5 multiple choice questions, from Chapter 2 & Chapter 3.

21. 2.3 LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Explain the basic idea of how
a market system works.
The Market System
Market A group of buyers and sellers of a good or service and the institution or arrangement by which they come together to trade.
Product markets Markets for goods—such as computers—and services—such as medical treatment.
Factor markets Markets for the factors of production, such as labor, capital, natural resources, and entrepreneurial ability.
Factors of production The inputs used to make goods and services.

22. The Market System, cont.
Factors of production are divided into four broad categories:
Labor includes all types of work, from the part-time labor of teenagers working at McDonald’s to the work of top managers in large corporations.
Capital refers to physical capital, such as computers and machine tools, that is used to produce other goods.
Natural resources include land, water, oil, iron ore, and other raw materials (or “gifts of nature”) that are used in producing goods.
An entrepreneur is someone who operates a business. Entrepreneurial ability is the ability to bring together the other factors of production to successfully produce and sell goods and services.

23. The Market System: The Circular Flow of Income
Two key groups participate in markets:
• A household consists of all the individuals in a home.
Firms are suppliers of goods and services.
In factor markets, households receive wages and other payments from firms in exchange for supplying the factors of production. Households use these wages and other payments to purchase goods and services from firms in product markets. Firms sell goods and services to households in product markets, and they use the funds to purchase the factors of production from households in factor markets.
Circular-flow diagram A model that illustrates how participants in markets are linked.

24. The Market System: Circular Flow of Income, cont.
Households and firms are linked together in a circular flow of (1) production, (2) income, and (3) spending.
Blue arrows: flow of the factors of production. Households supply labor, entrepreneurial ability, land & capital. Firms use these factors of production to make goods and services for households in product markets.
Red arrows: flow of goods and services from firms to households.
Green arrows: flow of funds.
The Circular-Flow Diagram
FIGURE 2-6

25. The Market System: The Gains from Free Markets
Free market A market with few government restrictions on how a good or service can be produced or sold or on how a factor of production can be employed.

26. The Market System: The Market Mechanism
Individuals usually act in a rational, self-interested way. Adam Smith understood that people’s motives can be complex.
In a famous phrase, Smith said that firms would be led by the “invisible hand” of the market to provide consumers with what they wanted.

27. A Story of the Market System in Action: How Do You Make an iPod?
Making the Connection
A Story of the Market System in Action: How Do You Make an iPod?
All told, an iPod contains about 450 parts, designed and manufactured by firms around the world. Many of these firms are not even aware of which other firms are also producing components for the iPod.
The invisible hand of the market has led these firms to contribute their knowledge and resources to the process that ultimately results in an iPod available for sale in a store in the United States.
The market coordinates the activities of the many people spread around the world who contribute to the making of an iPod.

28. Market System: Role of the Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur Someone who operates a business, bringing together the factors of production— labor, capital, and natural resources—to produce goods and services.

29. The Market System: Legal Basis of a Successful Market System
Protection of Private Property
Property rights The rights individuals or firms have to the exclusive use of their property, including the right to buy or sell it.
Enforcement of Contracts and Property Rights
If property rights are not well enforced, fewer goods and services will be produced. This reduces economic efficiency, leaving the economy inside its production possibilities frontier.

30. Property Rights in Cyberspace: YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace
Making the Connection
Property Rights in Cyberspace: YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace
Controlling unauthorized copying is more difficult today than it was when “copying” meant making a physical copy of a book, CD, or DVD.
The popularity of YouTube and MySpace highlights the problem of unauthorized copying of videos and music.
Some recording artists worry that the copyrights for their songs are not being protected on the Internet.

31. Detroit Challenges Hybrids w/ New Technology
AN INSIDE LOOK
>>
Detroit Challenges Hybrids w/ New Technology
Gas Engines Get Upgrade in Challenge to Hybrids
Choosing between producing hybrids and producing direct-injection cars.

32. Review: Why is the PPF usually drawn with a bowed- out shape
Review: Why is the PPF usually drawn with a bowed- out shape? What would be the implications of a different shape?

33. Review: Concepts Illustrated by the Production Possibilities Frontier
Efficiency
Fixed technology
Tradeoffs
Opportunity Cost
Economic Growth 21 33

34. What would it look like if…?
Not all resources were being used?
A new, better technology was adopted?
A war, hurricane or earthquake destroyed some of the resources?
People decided they wanted to drive bigger cars?
More resources were discovered?
A percentage of the workers became infected with AIDS?

35. Circular-flow diagram Comparative advantage Economic growth
KEY TERMS
Absolute advantage
Circular-flow diagram
Comparative advantage
Economic growth
Entrepreneur
Factor markets
Factors of production
Free market
Market
Opportunity cost
Product markets
Production possibilities frontier (PPF)
Property rights
Scarcity
Trade

36. Questions?

37. Reality check, to be completed before our next class:
Read Chapter 1 of Hubbard & O’Brien and be able to answer:
3rd edition Review Questions:
p. 20, 1.2; p. 21, 2.1 & 2.3; p. 22, 3.1 & 3.3 (2nd edition: p. 20, 1.2; p. 21, 2.1 & 2.3; p. 22, 3.1 & 3.3 ; 1st edition: p. 19, 1, 3, 5, 6 & 8)
3rd edition: Problems and Applications:
p. 22, 2.7; p. 23, 3.8 (2nd edition: p. 22, 2.7; p. 23, 3.8 ; 1st edition: p. 20, 13 and 15)

38. Reality check, to be completed before our next class:
Read Chapter 2 and be able to answer:
3rd edition Review Questions:
p. 58, 1.2, 1.3; p. 60, 2.2; p. 62, 3.1 (2nd edition: p. 60, 1.2, 1.3; p. 62, 2.2; p. 63, 3.1; 1st edition: pp , 2, 3, 5, 6 & 11).
3rd edition Problems and Applications:
p , 1.4 & 1.8; p. 60, 2.4 (2nd edition: p , 1.4 & 1.8; p. 62, 2.4 ; 1st edition: pp. 57 & 59, 1, 5 and 11).

39. Reality check, to be completed before we begin Chapter 3:
Read Chapter 3 introduction and major topic headings.
Read Review Questions, 3rd ed.:
#1 “In a market system, who ultimately decides which goods and services will be produced?” p. 90, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4; p. 91, 2.2; p 92, 3.1, 3.2; and also: What happens to the equilibrium price in a market if the demand curve shifts to the right? Draw a demand and supply graph to illustrate your answer. (2nd ed. p. 92, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4; p. 93, 2.2; p. 94, 3.1, 3.2,; 1st edition: 1-8 on pp ).
Read Problems and Applications, 3rd ed.:
“Is it possible for a good to be an inferior good for one person and a normal good for another? If yes, cite some examples;” and p. 90, 1.7; p 91, 2.3; p. 95, 4.15 (2nd ed., p. 92, 1.7; p. 93, 2.3; p. 96, 4.15; 1st edition: 3, 4, 7, 14 & 21 on pp ).

40. Reality check to have been completed before we begin Ch. 4:
Pre-read Ch. 4, including:
Review Questions:
Consumer surplus is used as a measure of a consumer’s net benefit from purchasing a good or service. Explain why consumer surplus is a measure of net benefit.
Why would economists use a term like “deadweight loss” to describe the impact on consumer and producer surplus from a price control?”
Problems and Applications:
3rd ed., p. 130, 4A.5, 4A.6, 4A.7 & 4A.8; (2nd ed., p. 134, 4A.5, 4A.6, 4A.7 & 4A.8; 1st edition: 1-4 on p. 129).

41. Quiz 1
Before class on Tuesday, May 17, send me an from the address you’ll be using regularly during this course.
My address is
4 points

42. Quiz #2 Be prepared for an in-class quiz during our next class!
It will consist of 5 multiple choice questions, from Chapter 2 & Chapter 3.