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You’re in school!
Did you make the right
decision?
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Getting Started 1
CHAPTER CHECKLIST
When you have completed your
study of this chapter, you will be able to

1 Define economics and explain the questions that

economists try to answer.

2 Explain the ideas that define the economic way of

thinking.

3 Explain how economists go about their work as social

scientists and policy advisers.
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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

All economic questions and problems arise because

human wants exceed the resources available to satisfy
them.
Scarcity
Scarcity is the condition that arises because wants
exceeds the ability of resources to satisfy them.
Faced with scarcity, we must make choices—we must
choose among the available alternatives.
The choices we make depend on the incentives we
face.
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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

Economics Defined
Economics is the social science that studies the choices
that individuals, businesses, governments, and entire
societies make as they cope with scarcity, the incentives
that influence those choices, and the arrangements that
coordinate them.

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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

Economics divides into two parts:

Microeconomics: The study of the choices that
individuals and businesses make and the way these
choices interact and are influenced by governments.
Macroeconomics: The study of the aggregate (or
total) effects on the national economy and the global
economy of the choices that individuals, businesses,
and governments make.

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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS
Two big economic questions:
• How do choices determine what, how, and for
whom goods and services get produced?
• When do choices made in self-interest also
promote the social interest?

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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

What, How, and For Whom?

Goods and services are the objects (goods) and
actions (services) that people value and produce to
satisfy human wants.
What goods and services get produced and in what
quantities?
How are goods and services produced?
For Whom are the various goods and services
produced?

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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

Can the Pursuit of Self-Interest Be in the

Social Interest?
The choices that are best for the individual who
makes them are choices made in the pursuit of
self-interest.
The choices that are best for society as a whole are
choices made in the social interest.

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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

Can choices made in self-interest also serve the

social interest?
Let’s illustrate with four topics:

1 Globalization
Globalization—the expansion of international trade
and the production of components and services by
firms in other countries—has been going on for
centuries.

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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

But in recent years, its pace accelerated.

Microchips, satellites, and fiber-optic cables have
lowered the cost of communication.
This explosion of communication has globalized
production decisions.
For example, Nike produces shoes in Malaysia; Toyota
produces cars in the United States.
Globalization is in the interest of the owners of
multinational firms that profit, but is it in the social
interest?
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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

2 The Information Revolution

Makers of computer chips and programs
developed products in their self-interest, but did
they develop their products in the social
interest?
3 Climate Change
The choices we make concerning how to
produce and use energy are made in our self-
interest, but do they serve the social interest?

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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

4 Government Budget Deficit and Debt

Every year since 2000, the U.S. government has
run a budget deficit. On average, it has spent $2.3
billion a day more than it has received in revenue.
The government’s debt has increased each day by
that amount.
Over the 15 year period from 2000 to 2018,
government debt increased by $12.5 trillion.
Your personal share of this debt is $56,000.
This large deficit and debt is just the beginning of an
even bigger problem.
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1.1 DEFINITION AND QUESTIONS

From about 2020 onwards, the retirement and health-

care benefits to which older Americans are entitled are
going to cost increasingly more than taxes can cover.
With no changes in tax or benefit rates, the budget
deficit will increase and the debt will swell ever higher.
Debts must be repaid. Who will repay them?
When we make our voter choices, we pursue our self-
interest. Do our choices serve the social interest?
Do the choices made by politicians promote the social
interest, or do they serve their self-interests?
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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

Economic Ideas:
Six ideas define the economic way of thinking:
• Choice is a tradeoff
• Cost is what you must give up to get something
• Benefit is what you gain from something
• People make rational choices by comparing
benefits and costs
• Most choices are “how much” choices made at the
margin
• Choices respond to incentives

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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

A Choice Is a Tradeoff
Because we face scarcity we must make choices.
To make a choice we select from alternatives.
Whatever choice you make, you could have chosen
something else.
You can think about your choices as tradeoffs.
A tradeoff is an exchange—giving up one thing to get
something else.

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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

 Cost: What You Must Give Up

Opportunity cost is the best thing that you must give
up to get something—the highest-valued alternative
forgone.
 Benefit: What You Gain
Benefit is the gain or pleasure that something brings.

Benefit is measured by what you are willing to give up.

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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

Rational Choice
A rational choice is a choice that uses the available
resources to best achieve the objective of the person
making the choice.
We make rational choices by comparing costs and
benefits.

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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

 How Much? Choosing at the Margin

A choice made at the margin is a choice made by
comparing all the relevant alternatives systematically
and incrementally.

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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

Marginal Cost
Marginal cost is the opportunity cost of a one-unit
increase in an activity.
The marginal cost of something is what you must give up
to get one additional unit of it.
Marginal Benefit
Marginal benefit is the what you gain when you get one
more unit of something.
The marginal benefit of something is measured by what
you are willing to give up to get one additional unit of it.
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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

Making a Rational Choice

You make a rational choice when you take those actions
for which marginal benefit exceeds or equals marginal
cost.

Choices Respond to Incentives

An incentive is a reward or a penalty—a “carrot” or a
“stick”—that encourages or discourages an action.

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1.3 ECONOMICS AS SOCIAL SCIENCE AND
POLICY TOOL
Economics as a Social Science
Economists try to understand and predict the effects of
economic forces by using the scientific method first
developed by physicists.
The scientific method is a common sense way of
systematically checking what works and what doesn’t
work.
An economist begins with a question or a puzzle about
cause and effect arising from some observed facts.

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1.3 ECONOMICS AS SOCIAL SCIENCE AND
POLICY TOOL
Economic Models
An economist’s second step is to build a model that
provides a possible answer to the question of interest.
An economic model is a description of some feature of
the economic world that includes only those features
assumed necessary to explain the observed facts.
Check Models Against Facts
An economist’s third step is to check the proposed
model against the facts.

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1.3 ECONOMICS AS SOCIAL SCIENCE AND
POLICY TOOL
To check an economic model against the facts,
economists use
• Natural experiments
• Statistical investigations
• Economic experiments

Natural experiments: A situation that arises in the ordinary

course of economic life in which the one factor of interest
is different and other things are equal.

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1.3 ECONOMICS AS SOCIAL SCIENCE AND
POLICY TOOL
A statistical investigation looks for a correlation.
Correlation is the tendency for the values of two
variables to move together in a predictable and related
way.
An economic experiment puts people in a decision-
making situation and varies the influence of one factor
at a time to discover how they respond.

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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

Economics as Policy Tool

Economics provides a way of approaching problems in
all aspects of our lives:
• Personal
• Business
• Government
Should you take out a student loan?
Is Clayton Kershaw worth $30 million?
How can the government balance its budget?

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1.2 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING

 Disagreement: Normative versus Positive

Economists sometimes disagree about assumptions and
models and also about what policy to use.
Some disagreements can be settled by appealing to
further facts, but others cannot.
Disagreements that can’t be settled by facts are normative
statements—statements about what ought to be.
Disagreements that can be settled by facts are positive
statements—statements about what is.

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Does school provide a big enough benefit to justify its cost?
The benefits of being in school include the present
enjoyment of student life and a higher future income.
The costs of being in school for a full-time student include
tuition, books, other study costs, and forgone earnings.
Is school always best?
The costs are incurred now, but the benefits accrue over a
working lifetime.
For most people, the net benefit is big!

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Is school always best?

Bill Gates quit Harvard; Mick Jagger quit the London School of
Economics; Clayton Kershaw turned down a scholarship at Texas A &
M!

All three expected the benefit from school to be less than the opportunity
cost of being in school.

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