Introduction to Microeconomics Concepts
Introduction to Microeconomics Concepts
Module
In
ECON 112
BASIC MICROECONOMICS
Topic
ECONOMICS AND THE WORLD
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Instruction to the User
Hello students!
This module will provide you with an educational experience while independently
accomplishing the task at your own time and pace. It also aims to ensure that learning is
unhampered by health and other challenges. It will cover topics about consumer behavior.
Value this module for your own learning by heartily and honestly answering and doing the
exercises and activities. Time and effort were spent in the preparation of this module in
order that your learning may continue amidst this Covid-19 pandemic.
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Introduction
Credits: 3 units
Numbers of Hours: 54
A. LEARNING OUTCOMES
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C. PRE-TEST
Directions:
This pre-test is given to measure your prior knowhow on the topic. Do not worry if
you do not get a perfect score as this will not be graded. However, this will be recorded as
part of your subject requirement.
Read each statement carefully and answer each question carefully and honestly.
Indicate the letter of your answer by changing the color of the option from black to red.
1. Economics refers to the study of how people choose to use their scarce resources to
attempt to satisfy their limited wants.
a. True
b. False
c. Depends on the location
2. The term “firms” also refers to business establishments.
a. True
b. False
c. It depends on the location of the business
d. It depends on the product sold by the business
3. Which of the following statements briefly describes why we need to study
economics?
a. Because we have unlimited resources.
b. Because resources are limited and we need to allocate them according to our
priorities.
c. Because we have limited wants and we need to know which ones to acquire first.
d. Because Adam Smith is the father of Economics.
4. Which of the following term is described by this statement? This is the shortage
that exists when less of something is available than is wanted at a zero price.
a. Factors of production
b. Basic wants
c. Scarcity
d. Basic needs
5. This is the term used to refer to any good that is scarce.
a. Economic good
b. Economic bad
c. Wants
d. Economics
6. Which of the following is considered as an economic bad?
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a. Air from oxygen tank
b. Garbage
c. Good scenery when you go to the mountains
d. Expensive clothing
7. This term refers to a good for which there is no scarcity.
a. Economic good
b. Economic bad
c. Free good
d. Scarce good
8. This term refers to a good for which we would pay to have less.
a. Economic good
b. Economic bad
c. Free good
d. Scarce good
9. Which of the following refers to all natural resources, such as minerals, timber, and
water, and land?
a. Labor
b. Capital
c. Land
d. Money
10. This is the term used to refer to the products such as machinery and equipment
that are used in production.
a. Labor
b. Capital
c. Land
d. Money
*** END OF PRE-TEST***
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D. DISCUSSION
LESSON 1 Origin of Consumer Behavior
“The objective of economics is to understand why the real world is what it is”
(Boyes and Melvin, 2002). However, this is not easy as people tend to act and behave
according to what they think will make them happier and more convenient.
In the process, people make decisions and choose the best option available to them at a
given period of time. For example, enrolling and finishing college may seem as the best
option for one individual who sees education as a way to earn higher after graduation.
On the other side of town, this same situation may not have the same benefit for others
who see education differently.
Several factors affect the decision-making of an individual. But generally,
decisions are based on someone’s analysis of the costs and benefits of a choice. This
knowledge of human behavior is the subject is said to be the subject matter of
economics.
In the book of Boyes and Melvin (2002), they stated that “to study economics is to
seek answers not only for why people choose to go to college but also for why economies
go through cycles, at times expanding and creating new jobs and at other times dipping
into recessions”. This chapter will introduce you, students, to the study of economics.
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common. A household faces many decisions just like nations do. According to Mankiv
(2021) households “must decide which household members do which tasks and what
each member receives in return”. For example, “who does the laundry? Who cooks
dinner? Who drives the car? In short, a household must allocate its scarce resources
(time, food, car mileage) among its various members, taking into account each member’s
abilities, efforts, and desires.”
Like a household, a society faces many decisions, too. It must find some way to
decide what jobs will be done and who will do them. It needs some people to grow food,
other people to make clothing, and still others to design computer software. Once society
has allocated people (as well as land, buildings, and machines) to various jobs, it must
also allocate the goods and services they produce.
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how people make decisions: how much they work, what they buy, how much they save,
and how they invest their savings. Economists also study how people interact with one
another. For instance, they examine how the many buyers and sellers of a good together
determine the price at which the good is sold and the quantity that is sold. Finally,
economists analyze the forces and trends that affect the economy as a whole, including
the growth in average income, the fraction of the population that cannot find work, and
the rate at which prices are rising” (Mankiv, 2019).
Microeconomics
Specifically, microeconomics is the study of economics at the level of individual
agents within the economy, like the individual household, the individual worker, and the
individual firm or business. It is concerned with how supply and demand interact in
individual markets for goods and services. In Microeconomics, the object of analysis is a
single market—for example, whether price rises in the automobile or oil industries are
driven by supply or demand changes. Microeconomics can have an international
component as well. Single markets often are not confined to single countries; the global
market for petroleum is an obvious example.
Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics looks at the economy as a whole and focuses on broad issues
such as growth, unemployment, inflation, and trade balance. In macroeconomics, the
subject is typically a nation—how all markets interact to generate big phenomena that
economists call aggregate variables. Rather than looking and studying the behavior of
one consumer, the sum of the behaviors of all consumers, called the consumer sector, is
being studied. Similarly, instead of studying the behavior of one business firm, in
macroeconomics, the sum of the behaviors of all firms, called as business sector, is
examined.
Macroeconomics has two types of policies for pursuing its goals:
1. Monetary policy
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Monetary policy (policy that involves altering the level of interest rates, the
availability of credit in the economy, and the extent of borrowing), which
involves policies that affect bank lending, interest rates, and financial capital
markets, is conducted by a nation’s central bank.
2. Fiscal policy
Fiscal policy (economic policies that involve government spending and taxes),
which involves government spending and taxes, is determined by a nation’s
legislative body. This is the Congress and the executive branch, which
establishes the budget.
To keep the differences between these policies straight, remember that the term
monetary relates to money, and the term fiscal relates to government revenue
or taxes.
These are the main tools the government has to work with. Americans tend to
expect that government can fix whatever economic problems we encounter, but to what
extent is that expectation realistic? These are just some of the issues that will be explored
later in this course.
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Free good refers to a good for which there is no scarcity. Meaning, they
are abundant that people do not need to pay to acquire it, such as air or beautiful view.
However, this “free air” might not be absolutely “free”. For instance, for a healthy
individual, breathing air can be free and unlimited. However, for sick people who needs
oxygen support to breath, the “air” coming from the oxygen tank cannot be considered
free good anymore because using oxygen constitute payment. This is also the same case
with “beautiful view” that we see when we visit places and tourist destinations. Although
beautiful views can be enjoyed without cost in some location, this “beautiful view” might
come with a prize when one visits a tourist destination where entrance fee is required. In
short, whenever free good is defined, example/s must first be qualified by the situation
that surrounds it to prevent misconception.
Another important concept in economics is what is known as economic bad.
Economic bad refers to any item for which we would pay to have less.
Examples of “economic bads” are pollution, garbage, and disease.
In reality, households and individuals pay a certain amount to their homeowners’
association or through their taxes so that pollution and garbage are removed and taken
away. On the same manner, people pay their doctors and spend money to buy medicines
so that their illness/disease may be cured or minimized.
Importance of Economics
So, why is economics important? Why are students required to study economics?
Economics seeks to solve the problem of scarcity, which is when human wants for
goods and services exceed the available supply. A modern economy displays a division of
labor, in which people earn income by specializing in what they produce and then use
that income to purchase the products they need or want.
The division of labor allows individuals and firms to specialize and to produce
more for several reasons:
a) It allows the agents to focus on areas of advantage due to natural factors and
skill levels;
b) It encourages the agents to learn and invent;
c) It allows agents to take advantage of economies of scale.
Division and specialization of labor only work when individuals can purchase what they
do not produce in markets. Learning about economics helps you understand the major
problems facing the world today, prepares you to be a good citizen, and helps you
become a well-rounded thinker.
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Some goods are used to produce other goods. For instance to make chocolate chip
cookies, we need flour, sugar, chocolate chips, butter, our won labor, and an oven. To
distinguish between the ingredients of a good and the good itself, we call the ingredients
resources. The ingredients of the cookies are the resources, and the cookies are the
goods.
Resources are also called factors of production and inputs. Thus:
Resources = factors of production = inputs
These three are synonyms. Meaning, they have the same meaning when it comes
to economics.
There are three types of resources that are used to produce goods and services:
land, labor, and capital. On Figure 1, the owners of resources are provided income for
selling their services.
resources output
•Goods, and
•Land
•Services
•Labor
•Capital
Fig
1. Resources or Factors of Production
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On Figure 2, landowners are paid rent; laborers receive wages; and capital
receives interest.
Resources Income
Land Rent
Labor Wages
Capital Interest
Figure 3 links figures 1 and 2, such that, people use their resources to acquire income
with which they purchase the goods they want.
Payment of goods in $
Resource Producers
Goods
owners of goods
Resource services
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Positive analysis – analysis of “what is”. This means that a situation is being
analyzed without imposing the analyzer’s opinions or value judgments on the
decision of others.
Normative analysis – analysis of “what ought to be”. This means that you are
imposing your value judgments on the decision or desires of others.
Ex 1. If you claim that there ought to be a law to stop people from buying
foreignmade cars, you are imposing your own judgments on the situation, thus you
are now making a normative analysis.
Ex 2. ‘..the recent fall in house prices is unfair to the rich..’.
b. Scientific Method
- A manner of analyzing issues that involves five steps:
1) Recognizing the problem
2) Making assumptions
3) Building a model
4) Making predictions
5) Testing the model
Theory or model – a simplification or abstraction of the real world that enables
scientists to organize their thoughts.
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Advertising
sales
Marketing
Good economic models are those that explain or predict well; poor models are
those that do not explain or predict well. However, as with other theories or models,
an economic model (or theory) must undergo tests to see whether it is consistent with
the facts or whether it can be used to make accurate predictions.
One of the most commonly used assumptions is “everything else held constant”
or referred to quite often in its Latin form “ceteris paribus”, which also means
“other things being equal”.
Ex. We might say that fewer people attend college as the tuition of college rises, ceteris
pabribus.
This means that if only the tuition and number of people attending college are
allowed to change, then a higher tuition means fewer people attend college.
Assumptions allow as to focus on the relationship between the variables in which we
are interested, in this case tuition and the number of people attending college.
Kinds of graphs
There are three general kinds of graphs used by economists
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“A line graph, also known as a line chart, is a type of chart used to visualize
the value of something over time. The line graph consists of a horizontal x-
axis and a vertical y-axis.”
“Most line graphs only deal with positive number values, so these axes
typically intersect near the bottom of the y-axis and the left end of the x-axis.
The point at which the axes intersect is always (0, 0). Each axis is
labeled with a data type.”
For example, the x-axis could be days, weeks, quarters, or years, while the y-axis
shows revenue in dollars.
The x-axis is also called the independent axis because its values do not
depend on anything.
For example, time is always placed on the x-axis since it continues to move
forward regardless of anything else.
The y-axis is also called the dependent axis because its values depend
on those of the x-axis: at this time, the company had this much money. The result
is that the line of the graph always progresses in a horizontal fashion and each x
value only has one y value (the company cannot have two amounts of money at
the same time).” ([Link] 2020).
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Source: [Link] 2020
For example, it’s easier to see which items are taking the largest chunk of your
budget by glancing at the above chart rather than looking at a string of numbers.
Source: [Link]
bar-graph-examples/, 2020
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Fig 7. Cost comparison of household fixtures and appliances
3. Pie graph or pie chart – does not show relationship between variables; least
popular, but also important.
“PIE Chart can be defined as a circular chart with multiple divisions in
it and each division represents some portion of a total circle or total value.
Simply each circle represents the total value of 100 percent and each division
contributes some percent to the total” ([Link]
2020).
Most line and bar graphs involve just two variables, an independent variable and
dependent variable.
1. Independent variables – the variable whose value does not depend
on the value of other variables
2. Dependent variable – the variable whose value depends on the value
of the independent variable. Its value is determined after the value of the
independent variable is determined.
Ex. The independent variable is the educational status of the man or a woman,
the dependent variable is the incidence of unemployment (percentage of the
group that is unemployed). The incidence of unemployment, therefore, depends
on the educational attainment of the man or woman. In other words, if the
respondents (man or woman) are well educated or have high educational
attainment, then it is somewhat safe to assume that the incidence of
unemployment will decrease.
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Relationships seen in Graphs
1. Direct or positive relationships – the relationship that exists when
the value of related variables move in the same direction. Thus, if the value of
the dependent variable increases as the value of the independent variable
increases.
2. Inverse or negative relationships – the relationship that exists
when the values of related variables move in opposite directions. Thus, if the
value of the dependent variable decreases as the value of the independent
variable increases, the relationship between the two types of variables.
Constructing a Graph
In constructing a graph, consider the horizontal and vertical axes, or lines. In
constructing a straight-line curve, remember that Economists often refer to the
“demand and supply curve” as a curve, that that curve maybe a straight line.
The Axes
Most economic data are positive numbers, so often only the upper right
quadrant of the coordinate system is used in economics.
“The horizontal axis in the coordinate plane is called the x-axis. The vertical
axis is called the y-axis. The point at which the two axes intersect is called the origin.
The origin is at 0 on the x-axis and 0 on the y-axis. The intersecting x- and y-axes
divide the coordinate plane into four sections. These four sections are called
quadrants. Quadrants are named using the Roman numerals I, II, III, and IV
beginning with the top right quadrant and moving counter clockwise. Locations on
the coordinate plane are described as ordered pairs. An ordered pair tells you the
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location of a point by relating the point’s location along the x-axis (the first value of
the ordered pair) and along the y-axis (the second value of the ordered pair).
In an ordered pair, such as (x, y), the first value is called the x-coordinate and
the second value is the y-coordinate. Note that the x-coordinate is listed before the
ycoordinate. Since the origin has an x-coordinate of 0 and a y-coordinate of 0, its
ordered pair is written (0, 0)”.
“To identify the location of this point, start at the origin (0, 0) and move right
along the x-axis until you are under the point. Look at the label on the x-axis. The 4
indicates that, from the origin, you have traveled four units to the right along the x-
axis. This is the x-coordinate, the first number in the ordered pair”
([Link] 2020).
“From 4 on the x-axis move up to the point and notice the number with which
it aligns on the y-axis. The 3 indicates that, after leaving the x-axis, you traveled 3
units up in the vertical direction, the direction of the y-axis. This number is the y-
coordinate, the second number in the ordered pair. With an x-coordinate of 4 and a
y-coordinate of 3, you have the ordered pair (4, 3)”
([Link] 2020).
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Ex 2.
Shifts or Curves
A curve shifts when a variable that affects the dependent variable is not measured
on the axes changes.
Ex.
Formula:
Slope = rise/run
Slope = change in Y/change in X;
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This is written as ΔY/ΔX and read as Delta Y over Delta X.
Therefore,
Slope = Y2-Y1
X2-X1
The slope of a straight-line curve is the same at all points along the curve. The
slope of any inverse relationship is negative. The slope of any direct relationship is
positive.
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E. References
Boyes, W. & Melvin, M. (2002). Micro Economics. Fifth Edition. Houghton Mifflin
Company. USA
Greenlaw, S.A. & Shapiro, D. (2018). Principles of Microeconomics, 2 nd edition.
Openstax, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
______. 2020. [Link]
______.2020. [Link]
criptivestatistics/barchart-bar-graph-examples/
______. 2020. [Link]
Mankiw, N.G. (2021). Brief Principles of Macroeconomics, 9 th edition. Cengage Learning.
USA.
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Congratulations for completing this module
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Vision 2020
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Mission
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development through relevant instruction,
research and extension services.
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