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LABOR-LEISURE TRADEOFF: The perpetual tradeoff faced by human beings between the amount of time spent engaged in wage-paying productive work and satisfaction-generating leisure activities. The key to this tradeoff is a comparison between the wage received from working and the amount of satisfaction generated from leisure. Such a comparison generally means that a higher wage entices people to spend more time working, which entails a positively sloped labor supply curve. However, the backward-bending labor supply curve results when a higher wage actually entices people to work less and to "consume" more leisure time.

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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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    MARGINAL UTILITY AND DEMAND

    An explanation of the law of demand and the negatively-sloped demand curve based on utility analysis and the law of diminishing marginal utility. The law of diminishing marginal utility states that marginal utility declines as consumption increases. Because demand price depends on the marginal utility obtained from a good, price also declines as consumption increases, meaning price and quantity demanded are inversely related, which is the law of demand.

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    APLS

    GRAY SKITTERY
    [What's This?]

    Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time flipping through mail order catalogs looking to buy either a country wreathe or galvanized steel storage shelves. Be on the lookout for slightly overweight pizza delivery guys.
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    This isn't me! What am I?

    Mark Twain said "I wonder how much it would take to buy soap buble if there was only one in the world."
    "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. "

    -- Seneca, statesman, dramatist, philosopher

    OECD
    Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
    A PEDestrian's Guide
    Xtra Credit
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