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| 社会科学 任务- 1 a.经济学的定义: 经济学是研究社会如何使用稀缺的资源来生产有价值的商品，然后分发给不同的人的。经济学是研究生产、分配和消费的商品和服务的社会科学。由于渴望使用更接近于自然科学的实证方法，在19世纪后期，政治经济领域的经济模型拓展出了更广泛的领域。 综合现代经济学的提法的一个定义是莱昂内尔罗宾斯在1932年发表的一篇文章中提到的:“…以其他用途的目的和稀缺手段之间的关系来研究人类行为的科学。” 稀缺性意味着可用资源不足以满足所有的需求。稀缺的和有可用的替代资源同样会存在经济问题。因此对这个概念的定义涉及到了研究的选择，因为他们受到了诱因和资源的影响。 b.机会成本的概念: 机会成本是某人在几个互斥的选项中的最好选择的价值。它是一个关键的经济学概念。 Social science Task - 1 a. Definition of Economics: Economics is the study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different people. Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Current economic models developed out of the broader field of political economy in the late 19th century, owing to a desire to use an empirical approach more akin to the physical sciences. A definition that captures much of modern economics is that of Lionel Robbins in a 1932 essay: "... the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." Scarcity means that available resources are insufficient to satisfy all wants and needs. Absent of scarcity and alternative uses of available resources there is no economic problem. The subject thus defined involves the study of choices as they are affected by incentives and resources. b. Concept of Opportunity Cost: Opportunity cost is the value of the next-best choice available to someone who has picked between several mutually exclusive choices. It is a key concept in economics. It is a calculating factor used in mixed markets which favor social change in favor of purely individualistic economics. It has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between scarcity and choice." The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring that scarce resources are used efficiently. Thus, opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary or financial costs: the real cost of output forgone, lost time, swag, pleasure or any other benefit that provides utility should also be considered opportunity costs. Graphing Exercise: Production Possibilities Curve The economizing problem - scarce resources and unlimited wants - highlights the need for society to make choices among available alternatives. The production possibilities curve is a graphical illustration of the options that are available at a given point in time. The first graph illustrates the amounts of pizza and industrial robots that can be produced with a hypothetical society's currently available resources and technology. Each point on the curve represents the greatest number of robots that society can produce if it chooses to produce the corresponding quantity of pizza. At any point on the curve, producing more pizzas means fewer robots can be produced. Likewise, producing more robots means less pizza can be produced. The graph shows that, initially, society is choosing to produce 2 units of pizza (200,000 pizzas) and 7 units of industrial robots (7,000 robots). To use the graph, drag the blue triangle on the Pizza axis to the left or right to change the production mix and investigate opportunity costs. Clicking again on the triangle will establish that as a starting point. If society produces 200,000 pizzas (2 units—point "C" on the graph), what is the greatest number of robots that can be produced? Starting from an initial 2 units of pizza, what is the opportunity cost of the third unit of pizzas? What happens to the opportunity cost of pizzas as even more pizzas are produced? What happens to the opportunity cost of robots as robot production is increased? Economic growth allows for expanded choices: larger quantities of both pizzas and robots become attainable with either advances in technology or the availability of greater resources. One way that greater resources may become available is by choosing to use some of society's currently available resources to invest in the future—for example, by spending on education or research, or by producing capital goods. The amount of resources available to an economy at some future point depends upon the choices it makes today. To use the graph, use the mouse to drag the scroll bar button to the left or right, observing the impact of different choices on the future position of the production possibilities curve. How must society choose to produce today if it wishes its economy to grow faster? What is the opportunity cost of faster economic growth? Example: A person who invests $10,000 in a stock denies herself or himself the interest that could have accrued by leaving the $10,000 in a bank account instead. The opportunity cost of the decision to invest in stock is the value of the interest. c. Difference between micro and macro economics: Macro- and microeconomics, and their wide array of underlying concepts,have been the subject of a great deal of writings. The field of study is vast; here is a brief summary of what each covers: Microeconomics is the study of decisions that people and businesses make regarding the allocation of resources and prices of goods and services. This means also taking into account taxes and regulations created by governments. Microeconomicsfocuses onsupply and demand and other forces that determine the price levels seen in the economy. For example, microeconomics would look at how a specific company could maximize its production and capacity soit could lowerprices and better compete in its industry. Macroeconomics, on the other hand,is the field of economics that studies the behavior of the economy as a whole and not just on specific companies, but entire industries and economies. This looks at economy-wide phenomena, such asGross National Product (GDP) and how it is affected by changes in unemployment, national income, rate of growth, and price levels. For example, macroeconomics would look at how an increase/decrease in net exports would affect a nation'scapital account or how GDP would be affected by unemployment rate. Task - 2 a. Show how an individual curve is derived and how market demand is derived? The individual Demand Curve illustrates the price people are willing to pay for a particular quantity of a good. The market demand curve will be the sum of all individual demand curves. It shows the quantity of a good consumers plan to buy at different prices A change in price causes a MOVEMENT ALONG the Demand Curve, In the diagram, the line labeled "D" shows a plot of that demand curve, say for blue jean prices and number of pairs demanded. Prices are P (in $) and quantity is Q (in number of product units) on this diagram. At a price of $75 (vertical axis), two pairs are demanded (Q on horizontal axis). As the price P on vertical axis is lowered from $75 to $50, the quantity demanded Q is increased from two pairs to three pairs of blue jeans Shifts in the Demand Curve This occurs when, even at the same price, consumers are willing to buy a higher quantity of goods. This will occur if there is a shift in the conditions of demand. A shift to the right in the demand curve can occur for a number of reasons: An increase in disposable income, this can occur for a variety of reasons such as higher wages and lower taxes An increase in the quality of the good e.g. computers are now more powerful. Advertising can increase brand loyalty to the goods and increase demand. An increase in the price of substitutes, e.g. if the price of Kodak films increase the demand for Fuji films will increase A fall in the price of complements. E.g. a lower price of Play Station 2 will increase the demand for compatible games. Weather: In cold weather there will be increased demand for fuel and warm weather. Expectations of future price increases. Evaluation: For some luxury goods income will be an important determinant of demand. e.g. if your income increased you would buy more CDs but probably not salt. Advertising is important for goods in which branding is important, e.g. coca cola but not for bananas Derived demand: This occurs when a good or factor of production such as labor is demanded for another reason b.A Firm's Output Decision in the short-run A perfectly competitive firm produces the quantity of output that equates marginal revenue, which is equal to price, and marginal cost, as long as price exceeds average variable cost. The profit-maximizing choices of output at alternative prices generate the perfectly competitive firm's short-run supply curve. |
