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The Foundations of MicroeconomicsD I A N N A D A S I L V A - G L A S G O W
D E P A R T M E N T O F E C O N O M I C S
U N I V E R S I T Y O F G U Y A N A
1 4 S E P T E M B E R , 2 0 1 7
Wk 3 Lectures I and II . . .
THE FOUNDATIONS OF MICROECONOMICS (PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES FRONTIER)
ScarcityScarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore cannot produce all the goods and services people wish to have. Just as each member of a household cannot get everything he or she wants, each individual in a society cannot attain the highest standard of living to which he or she might aspire.
All Rights Reserved DR. DAVID P ECHEVARRIA 3
Why do we have Scarcity?We have Unlimited Wants and Needs
But
Limited Resources
Create Scarcity
So we need to make Choices
What to produce, How to Produce, For Whom to produce (tomorrow’s lesson)
Trade OffsWhen you choose between two possible uses for a resource, giving up one alternative for another.
Trade off: Sleep vs. Study
Options Benefit Opportunity
Cost
1 hour of extra
study time
Grade of C on
test
1 hour of sleep
2nd hour of
extra study
time
Grade of B on
test
2 hours of
sleep
3rd hour of
extra study
time
Grade of B+
on test
3 hours of
sleep
Cadillacs ... 1944 and 1946
M5 Tank Cadillac Coupe
Opportunity cost of tank = 10 passenger autos
Opportunity CostsWhen you make a trade off, there are costs. The value of time, money, goods, and services given up in an economic choice. The #1 alternative is the Opportunity cost.
Opportunity Costs
Opportunity cost of any choice ◦ What we forego when we make that choice
Most accurate and complete concept of cost
Opportunity cost of a choice includes both explicit costs and implicit costs
◦ Explicit cost—dollars actually paid out for a choice◦ Implicit cost—value of something sacrificed when
no direct payment is made
Opportunity Cost and Society
All production carries an opportunity cost◦To produce more of one thing
◦ Must shift resources away from producing something else
Production Possibilities Frontiers (PPF)
The PPF is a valuable tool for illustrating the effects of scarcity and its consequences.
PPF is a curve showing all combinations of two goods that can be possibly produced
Given the available◦ Factors of production (labor, capital, materials)
◦ Production technology (capital intensity)
Society’s choices are limited to points on or inside the PPF
Production Alternative
Type of
Product
A B C D E
Pizzas 0 1 2 3 4
Cars 10 9 7 4 0
Exercise: Plot the PPF
◦ A B C D E F G H I J
◦
◦Cupcakes: 0 2 6 10 14 18 22 26 28 30
◦Robots: 30 28 26 22 18 14 10 6 2 0
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES◦The PPF illustrates three features of production possibilities
• Attainable and unattainable combinations
• Full employment and unemployment
• Tradeoffs
Because the PPF shows the limits to production, it separates attainable combinations from unattainable ones.
Attainable and Unattainable Combinations
Points outside the PPF such as point G are unattainable.
We can produce at any point inside the PPF or on the frontier.
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES
Points outside the the PPF are not feasible with existing resources.
Pizza
Beer
.A
All points on the curve correspond to full use of resources.
Pizza
BeerA
B
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES AND COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE 19
Full Employment and Unemployment
When resources are fully employed, production occurs at points on the PPF such as D and E.
When resources are unemployed, production occurs at a point inside the PPF such as point H.
Full employment occurs when all the available resources are being used. Unemployment occurs when some resources are available but are not used.
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES AND COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE 20
Tradeoffs
When production is on the PPF, we face a tradeoff. To get more of one good we must forgo some of the other good as we move along the PPF.
A tradeoff is a constraint or limit to what is possible that forces an exchange or a substitution of one thing for something else.
Figure 1: The Production Possibilities Frontier
Number of Lives Saved per Period
Quantity of All Other Goods per
Period
100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000
1,000,000950,000850,000
700,000
500,000
400,000
BA
C
D
E
F
W
At point A, all resources are used for "other goods."
Moving from point A to point Brequires shifting resources out of other goods and into health care.
At point F. all resources are used for health care.
Increasing Opportunity Cost
According to the law of increasing opportunity cost◦ The more of something we produce the greater the opportunity
cost of producing even more of it.
◦ The law of increasing opportunity cost is reflected in the shape of the PPC. The curve is bowed out from the origin of the graph.
A typical PPF has the following shape:.
23
Pizza
Beer
The curve has a negative slope.
The curve is concave to the origin.
Concave shape, increasing opportunity costs.
Pizza
Beer
Beer given up, the
opportunity cost, is
increasing
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES
The PPF and Opportunity Cost: Illustration
26
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES
The PPF and Opportunity Cost: Illustration
Consider a straight line PPF
Beer
Pizza
Beer given up, the
opportunity cost,
remains constant
Efficiency and the Production Possibility Frontier
The PPF shows choices which are
-- efficient (exactly on the frontier)
-- inefficient (within the frontier)
Periods of unemployment or inefficiency in production correspond to points under the PPF.
Pizza
Beer
.A
Full production implies two kinds of efficiency, productive efficiency and allocative efficiency.
Productive efficiency is the production of any particular mix of goods and services in the least costly way.
While, allocative efficiency is the production of that particular mix of goods and services most wanted by society.
The PPF and Growth
The PPF assumes;◦Fixed Resources – the available supply of factors of production are fixed in both quantity and quality. Nevertheless, they can be reallocated, within limits, among different uses.
◦Fixed Technology – the state of technology does not change.
◦These assumptions imply that we are looking at an economy at a certain point in time or over a very short period of time.
G. Mankiw 32
The PPF and Growth Productivity
The PPF will shift outward due to
Growth in resources◦Population growth increases the supply of labour
◦Productivity growth due to increased skills of labour force
◦ Increase in capital stock
◦ Improvements to land
◦Technological advancement
◦ Improvement in machinery and equipment
A shift in the production possibilities frontier
3
Quantity of
Computers
Produced
Quantity of
Cars Produced
0 600 650 1,000
3,000
A2,2002,300
A technological advance in
the computer industry
enables the economy to
produce more computers
for any given number of
cars. As a result, the
production possibilities
frontier shifts outward. If
the economy moves from
point A to point G, then the
production of both cars and
computers increases.
4,000
G
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES
A country that chooses point B, representing a relatively lower level of current consumption and a relatively higher level of investment, sees its future PPF shift out to PPF 2010 with B.
A country that chooses point A, representing a relatively high level of current consumption and a relatively low level of investment, sees its future PPF shift out to PPF 2010 with A.
The PPF and Economic Growth
G. Mankiw 36
The PPF and Growth Productivity
The PPF will shift inward due to ◦Decrease in population (due to disease, war etc.)
◦Loss of land
◦Decrease in productivity due to aging population, poor health etc.
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