Pensare come un economista
- People face trade-offs: To get one thing,
you have to give up something else.
Making decisions requires trading off one
goal against another
- The cost of something is what you give up
to get it: Decision makers have to
consider both the obvious and implicit
costs of their actions
- Rational people think at the margin: A
rational decision maker takes action if and
only if the marginal benefit of the action
exceeds the marginal cost
- People respond to incentives: Behavior
changes when costs or benefits change
- Trade can make everyone better off:
Trade allows each person to specialize in
the activities he or she does best. By
trading with others, people can buy a
greater variety of goods or services
- Markets are usually a good way to
organize economic activity: Households
and firms that interact in market
economies act as if they are guided by an
“invisible hand” that leads the market to
allocate resources efficiently. The
opposite of this is economic activity that
is organized by a central planner within
the government
- Governments can sometimes improve
market outcomes: When a market fails to
allocate resources efficiently, the
government can change the outcome
through public policy. Examples are
regulations against monopolies and
pollution
- A country’s standard of living depends on
its ability to produce goods and services:
Countries whose workers produce a large
quantity of goods and services per unit of
time enjoy a high standard of living.
Similarly, as a nation’s productivity
grows, so does its average income
- Prices rise when the government prints
too much money: When a government
creates large quantities of the nation’s
money, the value of the money falls. As a
result, prices increase, requiring more of
the same money to buy goods and
services
- Society faces a short-run trade-off between
inflation and unemployment: Reducing
inflation often causes a temporary rise in
unemployment. This trade-off is crucial for
understanding the short-run effects of
changes in taxes, government spending, and
monetary policy
