General Concepts 2 min read
Choice and opportunity cost
Choice and opportunity cost are two fundamental concepts in economics. Given that resources are limited, producers and consumers have to make choices between…
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The economic problem
All societies face the economic problem, which is the problem of how to make the best use of limited, or scarce,…
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The role of money in exchange
Money occupies a central role in market economies because it acts as a medium of exchange. The advent of money…
General Concepts 1 min read
Types of production
Production is undertaken by firms, also known as enterprises, or businesses. There are three stages of production: 1. Primary production, which involves the…
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Factors of production
Production involves the creation of goods and services by using scarce resources. Producers must exchange the income they earn for…
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Economic exchange
Economic behaviour involves the exchange of one scarce resource for another. When people engage in paid work, they exchange their…
General Concepts 2 min read
Positive and normative economics
As a social science, economics attempts to use the principles and methods of science to explain economic behaviour. This involves…
General Concepts 2 min read
The role of the professional economist
Professional economists apply their skills of description, analysis, model building, and prediction to generate knowledge and, from this, provide advice…
General Concepts 3 min read
The methods used by economists
Economists use scientific observation and deduction in their investigations. To achieve this they: Describe and measure the exchanges they observe Economists describe…
General Concepts 1 min read
The study of economics
The study of economics involves three related investigations. 1. Why scarce resources are exchanged? 2. How consumers and producers behave as they interact with each other in…
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The nature of economics
Economics is the scientific study of the ownership, use, and exchange of scarce resources – often shortened to the science of scarcity. Economics is…
General Concepts 4 min read
What is Economics?
What do you think Economics is? Is it a hard science used by bankers to make money? Like alchemists who conjure…