ECO2013 Lecture 1 Outline of Current Lecture I Is life getting better or worse II Basic terms and definitions III Eight guideposts to economic thinking IV Positive and normative economics V Four pitfalls to avoid in economic thinking Current Lecture Chapter 1 Economic Approach Is life getting better or worse What objective measures should we analyze Life expectancy Health Income Education Entertainment Changes in Transportation Technology Medicine Entertainment What is Economics Economics The study of how we make choices under scarcity 1 Choice The act of selecting among alternatives 2 Scarcity The concept that there is less of a good freely available from nature than people would like Example Time money and college textbooks are all scarce Scarcity Scarcity isn t the same thing as poverty Scarcity necessitates rationing Rationing Allocating scarce goods to those who want them price is used to ration goods Scarcity leads to competitive behavior
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