2020-01-15
1171
Таблица 21
| Science (es) | Similarity | Difference |
| psychology | ||
| astronomy | ||
| meteorology | ||
| particle physics and molecular biology | ||
| art, fantasy writing, mathematics, metaphysics, cosmology, «and the like» |
1. Which of the following is not true about economics and economists:
A. There is no brief description of the content and character of economics.
B. Alfred Marshall and Lionel Robbins agreed that: «Economics is what economists do.»
C. In the 19th century economics was called «the science of wealth».
D. Economics is only a theoretical science.
E. Einstein once said, «One person's meat is another person's poison».
F. Economics deals with the problems of income, employment, and interest rates.
G. Economics also deals with weather forecasting, psychology and fantasy writing.
H. In recent years economists switched to the new fields, such as political science and sociology.
Say in your own words what each of the following
outstanding people thought of economics and economists:
a) George Bernard Show
b) Alfred Marshall
c) Lionel Robbins
3. What is the profession of people who work in the field of:
(example): Those working in the field of economics are economists.
a) physics
b) astronomy
c) meteorology
d) psychology
e) astronomy
f) meteorology
g) sociology
h) mathematics
Текст №12
Microeconomics
The word «micro» means small, and microeconomics means economics in the small. The optimizing behavior of individual units such as households and firms provides the foundation for microeconomics.
Microeconomists may investigate individual markets or even the economy as a whole, but their analyses are derived from the aggregation of the behavior of individual units. Microeconomic theory is used extensively in many areas of applied economics. For example, it is used in industrial organization, labor economics, international trade, cost-benefit analysis, and many other economic subfields. The tools and analyses of microeconomics provide a common ground, and even a language, for economists interested in a wide range of problems.
At one time there was a sharp distinction in both methodology and subject matter between microeconomics and macroeconomics.
The methodological distinction became somewhat blurred during the 1970s as more and more macro-economic analyses were built upon microeconomic foundations. Nonetheless, major distinctions remain between the two major branches of economics. For example, the microeconomist is interested in the determination of individual prices and relative prices (i.e., exchange ratios between goods), whereas the macro-economist is interested more in the general price level and its change over time.
Optimization plays a key role in microeconomics. The consumer is assumed to maximize utility or satisfaction subject to the constraints imposed by income or income earning power. The producer is assumed to maximize profit or minimize cost subject to the technological constraints under which the firm, operates. Optimization of social welfare sometimes is the criterion for the determination of public policy.
Opportunity cost is an important concept in microeconomics. Many courses of action are valued in terms of what is sacrificed so that they might be undertaken. For example, the opportunity cost of a public project is the value of the additional goods that the private sector would have produced with the resources used for the public project.
Theory of the Consumer
The individual consumer or household is assumed to possess a utility function, which specifies the satisfaction, which is gained from the consumption of alternative bundles of goods. The consumer's income or income-earning power determines which bundles are available to the consumer. The consumer then selects a bundle that gives the highest possible level of utility. With few exceptions, the consumer is treated as a price taker — that is, the consumer is free to choose whatever quantities income allows but has no influence over prevailing market prices. In order to maximize utility the consumer purchases goods so that the subjective rate of substitution for each pair of goods as indicated by the consumer's utility function equals the objective rate of substitution given by the ratio of their market prices. This basic utility-maximization analysis has been modified and expanded in many different ways.
