Ten Key Principles of Economics

1. Everything has a cost. There is no free lunch. There is always a trade-off.
2. Cost is what you give up to get something. In particular, opportunity cost is cost of the tradeoff.
3. One More. Rational people make decisions on the basis of the cost of one more unit (of consumption, of investment, of labor hour, etc.).
4. Incentives work. People respond to incentives.
5. Open for trade. Trade can make all parties better off.
6. Markets Rock! Usually, markets are the best way to allocate scarce resources between producers and consumers.
7. Intervention in free markets is sometimes needed. (But watch out for the law of unintended effects!)
8. Concentrate on productivity. A country’s standard of living depends on how productive its economy is.
9. Sloshing in money leads to higher prices. Inflation is caused by excessive money supply.!!
10. Caution: In the short run, falling prices may lead to unemployment, and rising employment may lead to inflation.



Saturday, September 19, 2009

Your Parents Must Love You!!

In a classic example of marginal thinking, cost/benefit analysis, and opportunity cost data has been recently released revealing a surprising increase in time dedicated to child care during the 1990s. It's interesting for two reasons: first it reversed a trend began in the 1960s of shrinking time parents were dedicating to the rearing of their children and secondly, it occurred in a decade when the value of labor was increasing dramatically. The data seems to indicate that college educated adults were willing to sacrifice their income generating hours at an accelerated pace precisely at the point in which they were most valuable. Click on the link above to access the reason for this lunacy and reflect on the balance of work and parenting during your own childhood.

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