Economics
A social science; the central problem is the allocation and distribution of limited recourses in order to best satisfy out unlimited needs and wants
Economist
A person who studies the economic choices
Microeconomics
The study of choices made by economic factors such as households, companies, and individual actors; small economies
Macroeconomics
Big economics- a nation
Consumers
The people who decide to buy things
Producers
The people who make the things that satisfy the consumers needs and wants
Goods
Physical objects that can be purchased
Services
Actions or activities that are performed for a fee
Resource
Anything that people use to make or obtain money
Factors of reproduction
Resources that can be used to produce goods and services. 4 sections; natural recourses, human recourses, capital recourses, and entrepreneurship
Natural resources
Items provided by nature that can be used to produce goods and to provide services
Human resources
Any human effort t exerted during production; a worker
Capital resources
The manufactured material used to create products
Capital goods
The buildings, structures, machinery, and tool that are used in the production process
Consumer goods
The goods and services that people buy
Technology
The use of technical knowledge and methods to create new products more efficiently
Entrepreneurship
The combination or organizational abilities and risk taking involved in starting a new business or introducing new product
Entrepreneur
A person who creates a new business or introduces a new product
Scarcity
The combination of limited economic resources and unlimited wants; the most basic problem in economics because it forces people to make decisions about how to use resources effectively
Allocate
To distribute, recourses in order to satisfy the greatest number of needs and wants
The three basic economic ?'s
What to produce, how to produce it, for whom to produce
Productivity
The level of output that results from a given level of input
Efficiency
The use of the smallest amount of resources to produce the greatest amount of output
Division of labor
The assigning of a small number of tasks to each person
Specialization
The focus on one activity
Trade off
The sacrifice of one good in order to produce another good or service
Opportunity cost
The cost of the trade off or the value of the next best alternative that is given up to obtain the preferred item
Production possibility curve
A graph that shows of the possible combinations of two goods or services that can be produced within a stated time period.
Exchange
Where producers and consumers produce agree to provide one type of item for another
Barter
The exchange of one set of goods for another
Money
Any item that is readily accepted by people in return for goods and services
Credit
Allows consumers to use items before completing payment for the merchandise
Value
(need definition of value)
Utility
The usefulness to a person
Self sufficiency
When people can fulfill all of their needs without outside assistance
Interdependence
When events or developments in one region of the world or sector of the economy influence events or developments in other regions or sectors