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DETERMINANT: A ceteris paribus factor that is held constant when a curve is constructed. Changes in these factors then cause the curve to shift to a new location. The most common determinants are demand determinants for the demand curve (income, preferences, other prices, buyers' expectations, and number of buyers) and supply determinants for the supply curve (resource prices, technology, other prices, buyers' expectations, and number of buyers). Other common curves and their determinants include: production possibilities curve (technology, education and the quantities of labor, capital, land, and entrepreneurship); aggregate demand curve (the four aggregate expenditures of consumption, investment, government purchases, and net exports); and short-run average cost curve (technology, wages, and other production cost).

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Lesson Contents
Unit 1: The Concept
  • A Definition
  • So What?
  • Unit 1 Summary
  • Unit 2: Resources
  • Factors
  • Working Together
  • Free or Scarce?
  • Comparisons
  • Unit 2 Summary
  • Unit 3: Opportunity Cost
  • The Concept
  • Economic Cost
  • Unit 3 Summary
  • Unit 4: College Cost
  • Out of Pocket
  • What Else?
  • Unit 4 Summary
  • Unit 5: THE Problem
  • No Free Lunch
  • Solutions?
  • Unit 5 Summary
  • Course Home
    Scarcity

    In this lesson you'll see why scarcity tends to make economists grumpy. You'll see that scarcity is a perpetual condition that exists because people have unlimited wants and needs, but limited resources. You'll also see how this scarcity problem underlies the common notion of cost, which is integral to the study of economics. The five units contained in this lesson provide a tour through the economic problem of scarcity.

    • The first unit, A Big Problem, examines the fundamental concept of scarcity -- the combination of limited resources and unlimited wants and needs -- that is virtually synonymous with the study of economics.
    • The second unit, Resources, discusses the four basic categories of limited resources -- labor, capital, land, and entrepreneurship -- which produce the goods that are used to satisfy unlimited wants and needs.
    • In the third unit, Opportunity Cost, we take a look at the notion of opportunity cost and see how it is related to the scarcity problem.
    • We then turn out attention in the fourth unit, College Cost, to a simple example of the explicit and implicit costs of attending college.
    • The fifth and final unit, THE Big Problem, in this lesson then ponders why scarcity is considered THE economic problem and provides a little insight into why economists are grumpy.

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    PERFECT COMPETITION, REALISM

    Perfect competition is an idealized market structure that does NOT exist in the real world. While some real world industries might come relatively close to one or two of the four key characteristics of perfect competition, none matches all four sufficiently that they can be declared PERFECTLY competitively. Some industries come close on the large number of small firms and the identical product characteristics. A few industries have relatively good, although not perfect, information about prices and technology. However, almost all industries fall far short of the perfect mobility characteristics.

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    APLS

    GREEN LOGIGUIN
    [What's This?]

    Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time wandering around the downtown area hoping to buy either a wall poster commemorating the 2000 Olympics or a flower arrangement with a lot of roses for your grandmother. Be on the lookout for neighborhood pets, especially belligerent parrots.
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    This isn't me! What am I?

    Post WWI induced hyperinflation in German in the early 1900s raised prices by 726 million times from 1918 to 1923.
    "Defeat is simply a signal to press onward. "

    -- Helen Keller, author, lecturer

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    london Inter-Bank Offered Rate
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