Crash Course #1: Intro to Econ

Economics is most accurately described as

• The study of money

• The study of getting wealthy

• The study of business and markets

• The study of choices

Opportunity cost can best be described as

• How much money your product can be sold for

• The money you must pay to the government to produce goods

• The value lost of the next best alternative choice you could have made

• The money lost by purchasing something instead of making it yourself

Scarcity is the economic law that needs and wants are ________________ but resources are ________________.

• unlimited / limited

• limited / unlimited

• benefits / costs

• costs / benefits

Good economic decisions are made when the benefits of a choice are greater than the

• costs

• community

• needs

• desire

The opportunity costs of spending on the military including all of the following EXCEPT

• more schools

• improvements in wifi accessibility

• longer summer daylight hours

• lower cost public university education

In order to have everything we could ever want, we would need

• policies generally associated with Republicans

• policies favored by Democrats

• unlimited resources

• a strong religious base

In economics, incentives are used to

• insure government control of the people

• influence the choices people make

• insure the poor are taken care of

• drive a wedge between the rich and the poor

Incentives often backfire because they rely on predicting how people will behave. For example, an incentive to pay teachers based on the number of students who get A's would likely result in

• teachers giving all students A's

• students working harder

• teachers working harder

• students dropping out of school

A producer asking the question, "Should we use glass or interchangeable plastic on the face of our new phone?" is asking a

• microeconomic question

• macroeconomic question

• both a micro and macro economic question

• none of the above

Lawmakers asking the question "Will cutting taxes end the current recession?" are asking a

• microeconomic question

• macroeconomic question

• both a micro and macro economic question

• none of the above