PART 1: MICRO ECONOMICS - KINH TẾ VI
MÔ
1. Definitions Of Economics
Some version of the traditional definition of economics is found in
almost every introductory economics textbook:
"Economics is the study of how scarce resources are most efficiently
allocated among alternative goals."
When an economist refers to "scarce resources," they do not necessarily
mean something rare, like diamonds. They mean resources that are not
available in unlimited quantity at zero cost. Thus, scarce resources include
everything we can think of that might be used in producing any kind of
good or service. Economists often classify resources into three types:
capital, labor, and land.
When an economist refers to an "efficient allocation," she means that the
mix of inputs chosen to produce a given quantity of some good or service is
the minimum cost mix of inputs.
Finally, "alternative goals" simply means that people cannot have
unlimited amounts of goods and services, so we have to choose among
them.
Because of this, economics is sometimes defined as the "study of
choice."
An excellent definition of economics was provided by the famous British
economist John Maynard Keynes: "... economics is a way of thinking..."
