Economics 101: Test 1

Flashcards made for a test in a collegate introductory economics course.

72 cards   |   Total Attempts: 182
  

Cards In This Set

Front Back
Factors of production
The resources used to produce goods and services; also known as production inputs or resources
Natural resources
Resources provided by nature and used to produce goods and services
Labor
Human effort, including both physical and mental effort, used to produce goods and services
Scarcity
The resources we use to produce goods and services are limited because the earth is finite; scarcity implies limited output
Economics
The study of how to allocate scarce resources efficiently to produce goods and services wanted by society
Physical capital
The stock of equipment, machines, structures, and infrastructure that is used to produce goods and services
Human capital
The knowledge and skills acquired by a worker through education and experience and used to produce goods and services
Entrepreneurship
The effort used to coordinate the factors of production - natural resources, labor, physical capital, and human capital - to produce and sell products
Positive analysis
Answers the questions "What is?" or "What will be?"
Normative analysis
Answers the question "What ought to be?"
Economic model
A simplified representation of an economic environment, often employing a graph
Variable
A measure of something that can take on different values
ceteris paribus
The Latin expression meaning that other variables are held fixed
Marginal change
A small, one-unit change in value
Macroeconomics
The study of the nation's economy as a whole; focuses on the issues of inflation, unemployment, and economic growth