III. Read the text and explain the highlighted words.

Economics is the study of how society allocates scarce resources and goods. Resources are the inputs that society uses to produce output, called goods. Resources include inputs such as labor, capital, and land. Goods include products such as food, clothing, and housing as well as services such as those provided by doctors, repairmen, and police offices. These resources and goods are considered scarce because of society's tendency to demand more resources and goods than are available.

Most resources are scarce, but some are not — for example, the air we breathe. Its price is zero. It is called a free resource. Economics, however, is mainly concerned with scarce resources and goods, as scarcity motivated the study of how society allocates resources and goods.

The term market refers to any arrangement that allows people to trade with each other. The term market system refers to the collection of all markets, also to the relationships among these markets. The study of the market system, which is the subject of economics, is divided into two main theories; they are macroeconomics and microeconomics.

Macroeconomics

The prefix macro means large, indicating that macroeconomics is concerned with the study of the market system on a large scale. Macroeconomics considers the aggregate performance of all markets in the market system and is concerned with the choices made by the large subsectors of the economy — the household sector, which includes all consumers; the business sector, which includes all firms; and the government sector, which includes all government agencies.

Microeconomics

The prefix micro means small, indicating that microeconomics is concerned with the study of the market system on a small scale.

Microeconomics considers the individual markets that make up the market system and is concerned with the choices made by small economic units such as individual consumers, individual firms, or individual government agencies.

Economic Policy

An economic policy is a course of action that is intended to influence or control the behavior of the economy. Economic policies are normally implemented and administered by the government. The goals of economic policy consist of value judgments about what economic policy should strive to achieve. While there is some disagreement about the appropriate goals of economic policy, there are three widely accepted goals including:

1.Economic growth: It means that the incomes of all consumers and
firms (after accounting for inflation) are increasing over time.

2. Full employment: It means that every member of the labor force who
wants to work is able to find work.

3. Price stability: It means to prevent increases in the general price level
known as inflation, as well as decreases in the general price level
known as deflation.

Date: 2014-12-21; view: 1190