Chapter 1 What Is Economics?

A group of people are smiling in a mall.

Which CD to buy? How many hours to study? Which movie to see? If you’re like most people, you constantly face decisions because you don’t have enough time and money to do everything. At its most basic level, economics is the study of how people make choices when they face a limited supply of resources. In this chapter you will begin your study of economics by investigating two basic economic ideas: scarcity and trade-offs.


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Table of Contents

Economics: Principles in Action
About the Authors
Program Reviewers
Contents
Unit 1 Introduction to Economics
Chapter 1 What Is Economics?
Chapter 2 Economic Systems
Chapter 3 American Free Enterprise
Unit 2 How Markets Work
Chapter 4 Demand
Chapter 5 Supply
Chapter 6 Prices
Chapter 7 Market Structures
Unit 3 Business and Labor
Chapter 8 Business Organizations
Chapter 9 Labor
Unit 4 Money, Banking, and Finance
Chapter 10 Money and Banking
Chapter 11 Financial Markets
Unit 5 Measuring Economic Performance
Chapter 12 Gross Domestic Product and Growth
Chapter 13 Economic Challenges
Unit 6 Government and the Economy
Chapter 14 Taxes and Government Spending
Chapter 15 Fiscal Policy
Chapter 16 The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy
Unit 7 The Global Economy
Chapter 17 International Trade
Chapter 18 Economic Development and Transition
Reference Section
Personal Finance Handbook
Economic Atlas and Databank
Glossary
Spanish Glossary
Index
Acknowledgments
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