Section 001
Instructor Info:
Prof: Predrag Rajsic
Office location: HH 162
Office hours: T Th : 10:00 - 11:30 am
Email: prajsic@uwaterloo.ca
Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 30174 (pls no voice mails)
Table of Contents
What is economics all about?
- Will introduce you to the economic way of thinking
- What is the economic way of thinking?
- Why do we need the economic way of thinking?
- We will come back to answer these questions later
First quiz will be available today after class until next Tuesday before class
3 or 4 multiple choice questions ; 2 attempts ; better score is kept
Weekly Review Quizzes (5%)
Midterm 1 : Fri. January 29, 4:30 - 6:00 pm (20%)
Midterm 2 : Fri. March 4, 4:30 - 6:00 pm (25%)
Final Exam: TBA (50%)
All economic questions arise because we want more than we can get
+ what does that mean?
+ Example: Time
Our inability to satisfy all our wants is called scarcity
Economics is the social science that studies the choices that individuals, businesses, governments, and entire societies make as they cope with scarcity and the incentives that influence and reconcile those choices.
Economics divides in to main parts:
+ Microeconomics (micro- small)
+ Macroeconomics (macro- large)
Two big questions summarize the scope of economics:
+ How do choices end up determining what, how and for whom goods and services get produced?
+ When do choices made in the pursuits of self-interest also promote the social interest?
What, How, and For Whom?
goods and services are the objects that people value and produce to satisfy human wants
What is being produced
+ Influenced by choices that people made in the past
+ Why did people in China make different choices than people in Canada?
Goods and services are produced by using productive resources that economists call factors of production
Factors of production are grouped into four categories:
+ Land
+ Labour
+ Capital
+ Entrepreneurship
Who gets the goods and services depends on the incomes that people earn
+ Land earns rent
+ Labour earns wages
+ Capital earns interest
+ Entrepreneurship earns profit