Principles of microeconomics 4th ed robert h frank and bernanke

PART 1 Introduction 1 Thinking Like an Economist 3 2 Comparative Advantage 35 3 Supply and Demand 61 PART 2 Competition and the Invisible Hand 4 Elasticity 97 5 Demand 125 6 Perfectly Competitive Supply 150 7 Efficiency and Exchange 175 8 The Invisible Hand in Action 203 PART 3 Market Imperfections 9 Monopoly, Oligopoly, and Monopolistic Competition 233 10 Games and Strategic Behavior 269 11 Externalities and Property Rights 297 12 The Economics of Information 325 PART 4 Economics of Public Policy 13 Labor Markets, Poverty, and Income Distribution 349 14 The Environment, Health, and Safety 375 15 Public Goods and Tax Policy 397

PRINCIPLES OF MICRO

Fourth Edition

Fourth Edition

Robert H Frank Ben S Bernanke

9 7 8 0 0 7 3 3 6 2 6 6 3

9 0 0 0 0

www.mhhe.com

ISBN 978-0-07-336266-3 MHID 0-07-336266-2

The Seven Core Principles

Scarcity: Having more of one good thing usually means having less of another.

Cost-Benefi t Analysis: No action should be taken unless the marginal benefi t

is as great as the marginal cost.

Incentives Matter: Comparing cost-benefi t analyses enables us to predict

actual decisions people make.

Comparative Advantage: Everyone does best if they concentrate on their

relatively most productive activity.

Increasing Opportunity Cost: Resources with the lowest opportunity cost

should be used before turning to those with higher opportunity costs.

Equilibrium: A market in equilibrium leaves no unexploited opportunities for

individuals but may not exploit all gains achievable through collective action

Effi ciency: When the economic pie grows larger through effi ciency, everyone

can have a larger slice.

Students need the ability to understand and evaluate our changing economy

Principles of Microeconomics, by Robert H Frank and Ben S Bernanke, provides

stu-dents with the tools necessary to analyze current economic problems By eliminating

overwhelming detail and focusing on Seven Core Principles, the Fourth Edition helps

students achieve a deep mastery of what is essential to understanding economics.

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PRINCIPLES OF

ECONOMICS Fourth Edition

Frank and Bernanke

Principles of Economics, Principles of

Microeconomics, Principles of

Macroeconomics

Fourth Edition

Frank and Bernanke

Brief Editions: Principles of

Economics, Principles of

Microeconomics, Principles of

Macroeconomics

First Edition

McConnell, Brue, and Flynn

Economics, Microeconomics, and

Macroeconomics

Eighteenth Edition

McConnell, Brue, and Flynn

Brief Editions: Economics,

Samuelson and Nordhaus

Economics, Microeconomics, and

Macroeconomics

Eighteenth Edition

Schiller

The Economy Today, The Micro

Economy Today, and The Macro

Sharp, Register, and Grimes

Economics of Social Issues

Brickley, Smith, and Zimmerman

Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture

McConnell, Brue, and Macpherson

Contemporary Labor Economics

King and King

International Economics, tion, and Policy: A Reader

Princeton University [affiliated]

Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

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ECONOMICS

MICRO-with special contribution by

LOUIS D JOHNSTON

College of Saint Benedict | Saint John’s University

PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS Published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10020 Copyright © 2009, 2007, 2004, 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced

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ISBN 978-0-07-336266-3 MHID 0-07-336266-2 Design of book: The images in the design of this book are based on elements of the architecture

of Frank Lloyd Wright, specifically from the leaded glass windows seen in many of his houses Wright’s design was rooted in nature and based on simplicity and harmony His windows use elemental geometry to abstract natural forms, complementing and framing the natural world outside This concept of seeing the world through an elegantly structured framework ties

in nicely to the idea of framing one’s view of the world through the window of economics The typeface used for some of the elements was taken from the Arts and Crafts movement The typeface, as well as the color palette, bring in the feeling of that movement in a way that complements the geometric elements of Wright’s windows The Economic Naturalist icon is visually set apart from the more geometric elements but is a representation of the inspirational force behind all of Wright’s work.

Editor-in-chief: Brent Gordon Publisher: Douglas Reiner Developmental editor: Angela Cimarolli Senior marketing manager: Melissa Larmon Senior project manager: Susanne Riedell Senior production supervisor: Debra R Sylvester Lead designer: Matthew Baldwin

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Frank, Robert H.

Principles of microeconomics / Robert H Frank, Ben S Bernanke ; with special contribution

by Louis D Johnston.—4th ed.

p cm.—(The McGraw-Hill series in economics) Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-07-336266-3 (alk paper) ISBN-10: 0-07-336266-2 (alk paper)

1 Microeconomics I Bernanke, Ben S II Johnston, Louis (Louis Dorrance) III Title HB172.F72 2009

338.5—dc22

2008026579

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ROBERT H FRANK

Professor Frank is theHenrietta Johnson Louis Pro-fessor of Management andProfessor of Economics atthe Johnson GraduateSchool of Management atCornell University, where hehas taught since 1972 His

“Economic View” column

appears regularly in The New York Times After re-

ceiving his B.S from Georgia Tech in 1966, he taught math

and science for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in

rural Nepal He received his M.A in statistics in 1971 and

his Ph.D in economics in 1972 from The University of

California at Berkeley During leaves of absence from

Cor-nell, he has served as chief economist for the Civil

Aero-nautics Board (1978–1980), a Fellow at the Center for

Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1992–93), and

Professor of American Civilization at l’École des Hautes

Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (2000–01)

Professor Frank is the author of a best-selling

intermedi-ate economics textbook—Microeconomics and Behavior,

Seventh Edition (Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2008) He has

pub-lished on a variety of subjects, including price and wage

dis-crimination, public utility pricing, the measurement of

unemployment spell lengths, and the distributional

conse-quences of direct foreign investment His research has

fo-cused on rivalry and cooperation in economic and social

behavior His books on these themes, which include

Choos-ing the Right Pond (Oxford, 1995), Passions Within Reason

(W W Norton, 1988), and What Price the Moral High

Ground? (Princeton, 2004), The Economic Naturalist (Basic

Book, 2007), and Falling Behind (The University of

Califor-nia Press, 2007), have been translated into 15 languages The

Winner-Take-All Society (The Free Press, 1995), co-authored

with Philip Cook, received a Critic’s Choice Award, was

named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times,

and was included in BusinessWeek’s list of the 10 best books

of 1995 Luxury Fever (The Free Press, 1999) was named to

the Knight-Ridder Best Books list for 1999.

Professor Frank has been awarded an Andrew

W Mellon Professorship (1987–1990), a Kenan Enterprise

Award (1993), and a Merrill Scholars Program Outstanding

Educator Citation (1991) He is a co-recipient of the 2004

Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic

Thought He was awarded the Johnson School’s Stephen

Russell Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004 and the

School’s Apple Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005 His

introductory microeconomics course has graduated more

than 7,000 enthusiastic economic naturalists over the years

BEN S BERNANKE

Professor Bernanke receivedhis B.A in economics fromHarvard University in 1975and his Ph.D in economicsfrom MIT in 1979 Hetaught at the Stanford Grad-uate School of Business from

1979 to 1985 and moved

to Princeton University in

1985, where he was namedthe Howard Harrison andGabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and PublicAffairs, and where he served as Chairman of the EconomicsDepartment

Professor Bernanke was sworn in on February 1, 2006,

as Chairman and a member of the Board of Governors ofthe Federal Reserve System Professor Bernanke also serves

as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, theSystem’s principal monetary policymaking body He wasappointed as a member of the Board to a full 14-year term,which expires January 31, 2020 and to a four-year term asChairman, which expires January 31, 2010 Before his ap-pointment as Chairman, Dr Bernanke was Chairman of thePresident’s Council of Economic Advisers from June 2005

to January 2006

Professor Bernanke’s intermediate textbook, with

Andrew Abel, Macroeconomics, Sixth Edition

(Addison-Wesley, 2008), is a best seller in its field He has authoredmore than 50 scholarly publications in macroeconomics,macroeconomic history, and finance He has done significantresearch on the causes of the Great Depression, the role of fi-nancial markets and institutions in the business cycle, andmeasuring the effects of monetary policy on the economy.Professor Bernanke has held a Guggenheim Fellowshipand a Sloan Fellowship, and he is a Fellow of the Econo-metric Society and of the American Academy of Arts andSciences He served as the Director of the MonetaryEconomics Program of the National Bureau of EconomicResearch (NBER) and as a member of the NBER’s BusinessCycle Dating Committee In July 2001, he was appointed

Editor of the American Economic Review Professor

Bernanke’s work with civic and professional groups includeshaving served two terms as a member of the MontgomeryTownship (N.J.) Board of Education

A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S

be asking, “How much can my students absorb?”

Our textbook grew out of our conviction that students will learn far more

if we attempt to cover much less Our basic premise is that a small number ofbasic principles do most of the heavy lifting in economics, and that if we focusnarrowly and repeatedly on those principles, students can actually master them

in just a single semester

The enthusiastic reactions of users of our first three editions affirm the lidity of this premise Although recent editions of a few other texts now pay lipservice to the less-is-more approach, ours is by consensus the most carefullythought-out and well-executed text in this mold Avoiding excessive reliance onformal mathematical derivations, we present concepts intuitively through ex-amples drawn from familiar contexts We rely throughout on a well-articulatedlist of seven core principles, which we reinforce repeatedly by illustrating andapplying each principle in numerous contexts We ask students periodically toapply these principles themselves to answer related questions, exercises, andproblems

va-Throughout this process, we encourage students to become “economic uralists,” people who employ basic economic principles to understand and ex-plain what they observe in the world around them An economic naturalistunderstands, for example, that infant safety seats are required in cars but not inairplanes because the marginal cost of space to accommodate these seats is typ-ically zero in cars but often hundreds of dollars in airplanes Scores of such ex-amples are sprinkled throughout the book Each one, we believe, poses aquestion that should make any normal, curious person eager to learn the answer.These examples stimulate interest while teaching students to see each feature oftheir economic landscape as the reflection of one or more of the core principles.Students talk about these examples with their friends and families Learning eco-nomics is like learning a language In each case, there is no substitute for actu-ally speaking By inducing students to speak economics, the economic naturalistexamples serve this purpose

nat-For those who are interested in lerning more about the role of examples

in learning economics, Bob Frank’s lecture on the topic is posted on You Tube’s

“Authors @ Google” series (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v QalNVxeIKEE

or search “Authors @ Google Robert Frank”)

A

■ An emphasis on seven core principles: As noted, a few core principles do most of

the work in economics By focusing almost exclusively on these principles, thetext assures that students leave the course with a deep mastery of them In con-trast, traditional encyclopedic texts so overwhelm students with detail that theyoften leave the course with little useful working knowledge at all

1 The Scarcity Principle: Having more of one good thing usually means

hav-ing less of another

2 The Cost-Benefit Principle: Take no action unless its marginal benefit is at

least as great as its marginal cost

3 The Incentive Principle: Cost-benefit comparisons are relevant not only for

identifying the decisions that rational people should make, but also for dicting the actual decisions they do make

pre-4 The Principle of Comparative Advantage: Everyone does best when each

concentrates on the activity for which he or she is relatively most productive

5 The Principle of Increasing Opportunity Cost: Use the resources with the

low-est opportunity cost before turning to those with higher opportunity costs

6 The Efficiency Principle: Efficiency is an important social goal because when

the economic pie grows larger, everyone can have a larger slice

7 The Equilibrium Principle: A market in equilibrium leaves no unexploited

opportunities for individuals but may not exploit all gains achievablethrough collective action

■ Economic naturalism: Our ultimate goal is to produce economic naturalists—

people who see each human action as the result of an implicit or explicit benefit calculation The economic naturalist sees mundane details of ordinaryexistence in a new light and becomes actively engaged in the attempt to under-stand them Some representative examples:

cost-■ Why are whales and elephants, but not chickens, threatened with extinction?

■ Why do we often see convenience stores located on adjacent street corners?

■ Why do supermarket checkout lines all tend to be roughly the same length?

■ Active learning stressed: The only way to learn to hit an overhead smash in tennis

is through repeated practice The same is true for learning economics Accordingly,

we consistently introduce new ideas in the context of simple examples and thenfollow them with applications showing how they work in familiar settings At fre-quent intervals, we pose exercises that both test and reinforce the understanding

of these ideas The end-of-chapter questions and problems are carefully crafted tohelp students internalize and extend core concepts Experience with our first threeeditions confirms that this approach really does prepare students to apply basiceconomic principles to solve economic puzzles drawn from the real world

■ Modern Microeconomics: Economic surplus, introduced in Chapter 1 and

em-ployed repeatedly thereafter, is more fully developed here than in any othertext This concept underlies the argument for economic efficiency as an importantsocial goal Rather than speak of trade-offs between efficiency and other goals,

we stress that maximizing economic surplus facilitates the achievement of all goals Common decision pitfalls identified by 2002 Nobel Laureate Daniel

Kahneman and others—such as the tendency to ignore implicit costs, the

Efficiency

Equilibrium

tendency not to ignore sunk costs, and the tendency to confuse average andmarginal costs and benefits—are introduced early in Chapter 1 and invokedrepeatedly in subsequent chapters.

There is perhaps no more exciting toolkit for the economic naturalist than

a few principles of elementary game theory In Chapter 10, we show how these

principles enable students to answer a variety of strategic questions that arise

in the marketplace and everyday life We believe that the insights of NobelLaureate Ronald Coase are indispensable for understanding a host of familiarlaws, customs, and social norms In Chapter 11 we show how such devicesfunction to minimize misallocations that result from externalities A few sim-

ple principles from the economics of information form another exciting

addi-tion to the economic naturalist’s toolkit In Chapter 12 we show how theinsights that earned the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics for George Akerlof,Joseph Stiglitz, and Michael Spence can be employed to answer a variety ofquestions from everyday experience

IMPROVEMENTS

Our less-is-more approach is well-suited for a wide spectrum of institutions Yet it mains a formidable challenge for any single book to fit the needs and capabilities ofall students across these diverse institutions Some students arrive with AP credit inadvanced calculus, while others still lack confidence in basic geometry and algebra

re-Guided by extensive reviewer feedback, our main goal in preparing our fourth tion has been to reorganize our presentation to accommodate the broadest possiblerange of student preparation For example, while continuing to emphasize verbal andgraphical approaches in the main text, we offer several appendices that allow formore detailed and challenging algebraic treatments of the same material Among thehundreds of specific refinements we made, the following merit explicit mention

edi-■ More and clearer emphasis on the core principles: If we asked a thousand

econ-omists to provide their own versions of the most important economic principles,we’d get a thousand different lists Yet to dwell on their differences would be tomiss their essential similarities It is less important to have exactly the best shortlist of principles than it is to use some well-thought-out list of this sort

■ Integrated the outsourcing and international trade material from (previously)

Chapter 9 into the discussions within:

■ Chapter 2: Comparative Advantage

■ Chapter 28: International Trade and Capital Flows

■ Chapter learning objectives: Students and professors can be confident that the

organization of each chapter surrounds common themes outlined by five toseven learning objectives listed on the first page of each chapter These objec-tives, along with AACSB and Bloom’s Taxonomy Learning Categories, areconnected to all test Bank questions and end-of-chapter material to offer acomprehensive, thorough teaching and learning experience

■ Assurance of learning ready: Many educational institutions today are focused on

the notion of assurance of learning, an important element of some accreditation

standards Principles of Microeconomics, 4e is designed specifically to support

your assurance of learning initiatives with a simple, yet powerful, solution

You can use our test bank software, EZTest, to easily query for LearningObjectives that directly relate to the objectives for your course You can then

PREFACE ix

use the reporting features of EZTest to aggregate student results in a similarfashion, making the collection and presentation of assurance of learning datasimple and easy.

THE CHALLENGE

The world is a more competitive place now than it was when we started teaching inthe 1970s In arena after arena, business as usual is no longer good enough Base-ball players used to drink beer and go fishing during the off season, but they nowlift weights and ride exercise bicycles Assistant professors used to work on theirhouses on weekends, but the current crop can now be found most weekends at theoffice The competition for student attention has grown similarly more intense.There are many tempting courses in the typical college curriculum and even moretempting diversions outside the classroom Students are freer than ever to pick andchoose Yet many of us seem to operate under the illusion that most freshmen arrivewith a burning desire to become economics majors And many of us do not yetseem to have recognized that students’ cognitive abilities and powers of concentra-tion are scarce resources To hold our ground, we must become not only more se-lective in what we teach, but also more effective as advocates for our discipline Wemust persuade students that we offer something of value

A well-conceived and well-executed introductory course in economics canteach our students more about society and human behavior in a single term thanvirtually any other course in the university This course can and should be an intel-lectual adventure of the first order Not all students who take the kind of course weenvisioned when writing this book will go on to become economics majors, ofcourse But many will, and even those who do not will leave with a sense of admi-ration for the power of economic ideas

A salesperson knows that he or she often gets only one chance to make a goodfirst impression on a potential customer Analogously, the principles course is oftenour only shot at persuading most students to appreciate the value of economics Bytrying to teach them everything we know—rather than teaching them the most im-portant things we know—we too often squander this opportunity

SUPPLEMENTS FOR THE INSTRUCTOR

McGraw-Hill’s Homework Manager Plus™: McGraw-Hill’s Homework

Man-ager Plus is a complete, Web-based solution that includes and expands uponthe actual problem sets found at the end of each chapter It features enhancedtechnology that provides a varied supply of auto-graded assignments andgraphing exercises, tied to the learning objectives in the book McGraw-Hill’sHomework Manager can be used for student practice, graded homeworkassignments, and formal examinations; the results are easily integratedwith your course management system, including WebCT and Blackboard

Instructor’s Manual: Prepared by Louis D Johnston of the College of Saint

Benedict | Saint John’s University, this expanded manual will be extremely ful for all teachers In addition to such general topics as Using the Web Site,Economic Education Resources, and Innovative Ideas, there will be for eachchapter: An Overview, Core Principles, Important Concepts Covered, Teach-ing Objectives, Teaching Tips/Student Stumbling Blocks, More Economic Nat-uralists, In-Class and Web Activities, Annotated Chapter Outline, Answers toTextbook Problems, Sample Homework, and a Sample Reading Quiz

use-x PREFACE

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Test Bank: Prepared by Kate Krause of the University of New Mexico, this

manual contains more than 2,000 questions categorized by chapter ing Objectives, AACSB learning categories, and Bloom’s Taxonomy Objec-tives The test bank is available in the latest EZTest test-generating software,ensuring maximum flexibility in test preparation

Learn-PowerPoints: Prepared by Carol Swartz of the University of North

Carolina-Charlotte, these slides contain a detailed, chapter-by-chapter review of theimportant ideas presented in the textbook, accompanied by animated graphsand slide notes

Customizable Micro Lecture Notes and PowerPoints: One of the biggest

hurdles to an instructor considering changing textbooks is the prospect ofhaving to prepare new lecture notes and slides For the microeconomicschapters, this hurdle no longer exists A full set of lecture notes for princi-ples of microeconomics, prepared by Bob Frank for his award-winningintroductory microeconomics course at Cornell University, is available asMicrosoft Word files that instructors are welcome to customize as they seefit The challenge for any instructor is to reinforce the lessons of the text inlectures without generating student unrest by merely repeating what’s in thebook These lecture notes address that challenge by constructing examplesthat run parallel to those presented in the book, yet are different from them

in interesting contextual ways Also available is a complete set of richlyillustrated PowerPoint files to accompany these lecture notes Instructors arealso welcome to customize these files as they wish

Instructor’s CD-ROM: This remarkable Windows software program

con-tains the complete Instructor’s Manual with solutions to the end-of-chapterproblems, Solman Videos, Computerized Test Bank, PowerPoints, and thecomplete collection of art from the text

Online Learning Center (www.mhhe.com/fb4e): The contents of the IRCD

are available online at the textbook’s Web site for quick download and venient access for professors anytime

con-SUPPLEMENTS FOR THE STUDENT

Study Guide: Revised by Louis D Johnson of the College of Saint Benedict |

Saint John’s University, this book contains for each chapter a pre-test; a “KeyPoint Review” that integrates the learning objectives with the chapter con-tent; a self-test with matching and multiple choice problems; short answerproblems; and an Economic Naturalist case study that helps students applywhat they learned

Online Learning Center (www.mhhe.com/fb4e): For students there are such

useful features as the Glossary from the textbook; Graphing Exercises,PowerPoints, a set of study and practice quizzes

Premium Content: The Online Learning Center now offers students the

op-portunity to purchase premium content Like an electronic study guide, theOLC Premium Content enables students to take self-grading quizzes for eachchapter as well as to download Frank and Bernanke-exclusive iPod contentincluding podcasts by Brad Schiller, narrated lecture slides, and Paul Solmanvideos—all accessible through the student’s MP3 device In the chapter when

PREFACE xi

EN 2

you see an iPod icon, there is a podcast that correlates to that material Thelabel EN stands for Economic Naturalist, and the number represents thechapter number.

A NOTE ON THE WRITING OF THIS EDITION

Ben Bernanke was sworn in on February 1, 2006, as Chairman and a ber of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System From June

mem-2005 until January 2006, he served as chairman of the President’s Council ofEconomic Advisers These positions have allowed him to play an active role

in making U.S economic policy, but the rules of government service have stricted his ability to participate in the preparation of the Fourth Edition.Fortunately, we were able to enlist the aid of Louis D Johnston of theCollege of Saint Benedict | Saint John’s University to take the lead in re-vising the macro portions of the book and to assist Robert Frank in re-vising the micro portions of the book Ben Bernanke and Robert Frankexpress their deep gratitude to Louis for the energy and creativity he hasbrought to his work on the book He has made the book a better tool forstudents and professors

re-ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Our thanks first and foremost go to our publisher, Douglas Reiner, and our ment editor, Angela Cimarolli Douglas encouraged us to think deeply about how toimprove the book and helped us transform our ideas into concrete changes Angieshepherded us through the revision process in person, on the telephone, through themail, and via e-mail with intelligence, sound advice, and good humor We are grate-ful as well to the production team, whose professionalism (and patience) was out-standing: Susanne Riedell, senior project manager; Matthew Baldwin, designer;Debra Sylvester, senior production supervisor; Jeremy Cheshareck, senior photo re-search coordinator; and all of those who worked on the production team to turn ourmanuscript into the book you hold in your hands Finally, we also thank Melissa Lar-mon, senior marketing manager, for getting our message into the wider world.Finally, our sincere thanks to the following teachers and colleagues, whosethorough reviews and thoughtful suggestions led to innumerable substantiveimprovements

develop-xii PREFACE

Adel Abadeer, Calvin College Cynthia Abadie, Southwest Tennessee Community College Hesham Abdel-Rahman, University

of New Orleans Teshome Abebe, Eastern Illinois University

Roger L Adkins, Marshall University Richard Agesa, Marshall University

Frank Albritton, Seminole Community College Rashid Al-Hmoud, Texas Tech University

Farhad Ameen, SUNY - Westchester Community College

Mauro C Amor, Northwood University

Nejat Anbarci, Florida International University

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Giuliana Campanelli Andreopoulos,

William Paterson University Michael Applegate, Oklahoma State University

Becca Arnold, Mesa College

Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee,

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Sudeshna Bandyopadhyay, West Virginia University

Gyanendra Baral, Oklahoma City Community College

James Bartkus, Xavier University

Hamid Bastin, Shippensburg University

John H Beck, Gonzaga University Klaus Becker, Texas Tech University Doris Bennett, Jacksonville State University

Derek Berry, Calhoun Community College

Tom Beveridge, Durham Technical Community College

Okmyung Bin, East Carolina University

Robert G Bise, Orange Coast College John Bishop, East Carolina University John L Brassel, Southwest

Tennessee Community College William J Brennan, Minnesota State University at Mankato

Jozell Brister, Abilene Christian University

Taggert Brooks, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse

Christopher Burkart, University of West Florida

Joseph Calhoun, Florida State University

Colleen Callahan, American University

Denis G Carter, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Shawn Carter, Jacksonville State University

Peter Cashel-Cordo, University of Southern Indiana

Andrew Cassey, University of Minnesota

Rebecca Chakraborty, Northwood University

Joni S Charles, Texas State University–San Marcos Adhip Chaudhuri, Georgetown University

Richard Cherrin, Delaware Technical & Community College Eric P Chiang, Florida Atlantic University

Unk Christiadi, University of the Pacific, Stockton

James Cobbe, Florida State University

Howard Cochran, Belmont University

Jeffrey P Cohen, University of Hartford

Barbara Connolly, Westchester Community College

Jim Couch, University of North Alabama

Elizabeth Crowell, University of Michigan–Dearborn

William Dawes, SUNY at Stony Brook

Matthew Dawson, Charleston Southern University

Marcelin W Diagne, Towson University

Vernon J Dobis, Minnesota State University, Moorhead

Amrik Singh Dua, Mt San Antonio College

PREFACE xiii

Tran Dung, Wright State University Faruk Eray Duzenli, Bowling Green State University

Angela Dzata, Alabama State University

Dennis S Edwards, Coastal Carolina University

Ishita Edwards, Oxnard College Ceyhun Elgin, University of Minnesota

Paul Emberton, Texas State University

Jim Fain, Oklahoma State University Nick Feltovich, University of Houston William J Field, DePauw University Harold Steven Floyd, Manatee Community College

Charles Fraley, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College Johanna Francis, Fordham University Dan Friesner, Gonzaga University Marc Fusaro, East Carolina University

Mary N Gade, Oklahoma State University

S N Gajanan, University of Pittsburgh

Alejandro Gallegos, Winona State University

Subrahmanyam Ganti, University at Buffalo

Suman Ghosh, Florida Atlantic University

George M Greenlee, St Petersburg College

Sandra Grigg, East Carolina University

Sunil Gulati, Columbia University Barnali Gupta, Miami University Richard L Hannah, Middle Tennessee State University

Mehdi Haririan, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Robert Harris, Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis Tina J Harvell, Blinn College Joe Haslag, University of Missouri Philip S Heap, James Madison University

George Heitmann, Muhlenberg College

John Hejkal, University of Iowa Mickey Hepner, University of Central Oklahoma

Michael J Hilmer, San Diego State University

George E Hoffer, Virginia Commonwealth University Carol Hogan, University of Michigan–Dearborn James Holcomb, University of Texas

at El Paso Lora Holcombe, Florida State University

Calvin Hoy, County College of Morris

Yu Hsing, Southeastern Louisiana University

Eric Isenberg, DePauw University David E Kalist, Shippensburg University

Lillian Kamal, Northwestern University

Brad Kamp, University of South Florida

Tim D Kane, University of Texas at Tyler

Janis Y F Kea, West Valley College Brian Kench, University of Tampa Kamau Kinuthia, American River College–Sacramento

Mary Knudson, University of Iowa

xiv PREFACE

Janet Koscianski, Shippensburg University

Stephan Kroll, California State University, Sacramento Patricia Kuzyk, Washington State University

Felix Kwan, Maryville University Katherine Lande, University of Minnesota

Gary F Langer, Roosevelt University Fritz Laux, Northeastern State University, Oklahoma

Sang H Lee, Southeastern Louisiana University

Hui Li, Eastern Illinois University Yan Li, University of Iowa Clifford A Lipscomb, Valdosta State University

Donald Liu, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Teresa Long, Marymount University Alina Luca, Drexel University Brian M Lynch, Lake Land College Karla Lynch, North Central Texas College

Alyson Ma, University of San Diego Rita Madarass, Westminster College

Y Lal Mahajan, Monmouth University

John G Marcis, Coastal Carolina University

Dale Matcheck, Northwood University

Mike McIlhon, Metropolitan State University

Russell McKenzie, Southeastern Louisiana University

Matthew McPherson, Gonzaga University

Kimberly D Mencken, Baylor University

Lewis E Metcalf, Parkland College Arthur W Meyer, Lincoln Land Community College

Douglas Miller, University of Missouri–Columbia

Norman C Miller, Miami University–Oxford

Ed Miseta, Penn State University–Erie David Mitch, University of Maryland Baltimore County Amlan Mitra, Purdue University at Calumet

Robert Moden, Central Virginia Community College

James A Moreno, Blinn College Thaddeaus Mounkurai, Daytona Beach Community College Sudesh Mujumdar, University of Southern Indiana

David C Murphy, Boston College Christopher Mushrush, Illinois State University

Annette Najjar, Lindenwood University

Helen Naughton, University of Oregon

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PREFACE xv

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xvi PREFACE

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PREFACE xix

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Preface vii

PART 1 Introduction

1 Thinking Like an Economist 3

2 Comparative Advantage 35

3 Supply and Demand 61

PART 2 Competition and the Invisible Hand

4 Elasticity 97

5 Demand 125

6 Perfectly Competitive Supply 150

7 Efficiency and Exchange 175

8 The Invisible Hand in Action 203

PART 3 Market Imperfections

9 Monopoly, Oligopoly, and Monopolistic Competition 233

10 Games and Strategic Behavior 269

11 Externalities and Property Rights 297

12 The Economics of Information 325

PART 4 Economics of Public Policy

13 Labor Markets, Poverty, and Income Distribution 349

14 The Environment, Health, and Safety 375

15 Public Goods and Tax Policy 397

Glossary G-1 Index I-1

xxi

B R I E F C O N T E N T S

Preface vii

PART I Introduction

Chapter 1 Thinking Like an Economist 3

Economics: Studying Choice in a World of Scarcity 4

Applying the Cost-Benefit Principle 6

Economic Surplus 6

Opportunity Cost 7

The Role of Economic Models 7

Three Important Decision Pitfalls 8

Pitfall 1: Measuring Costs and Benefits as Proportions Rather Than Absolute Dollar Amounts 9

Pitfall 2: Ignoring Implicit Costs 9

Pitfall 3: Failure to Think at the Margin 11

Normative Economics versus Positive Economics 15

Economics: Micro and Macro 15

The Approach of This Text 16

Economic Naturalism 17 EXAMPLE 1.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do many hardwaremanufacturers include more than $1,000 worth of “free” software with a computer selling for only slightly more than that? 17

EXAMPLE 1.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why don’t auto manufacturers make cars without heaters? 18

EXAMPLE 1.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do the keypad buttons

on drive-up automatic teller machines have Braille dots? 18

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 22

Appendix: Working with Equations, Graphs, and Tables 23

Chapter 2 Comparative Advantage 35

Exchange and Opportunity Cost 36

The Principle of Comparative Advantage 37 EXAMPLE 2.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Where have all the

400 hitters gone? 39

Sources of Comparative Advantage 40 EXAMPLE 2.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Televisions and videocassetterecorders were developed and first produced in the United States, but today the United

C O N T E N T S

xxii

States accounts for only a minuscule share of the total world production of these products Why did the United States fail to retain its lead in these markets? 41

Comparative Advantage and Production Possibilities 41

The Production Possibilities Curve 41

How Individual Productivity Affects the Slope and Position of the PPC 44

The Gains from Specialization and Exchange 46

A Production Possibilities Curve for a Many-Person Economy 47

Factors That Shift the Economy’s Production Possibilities Curve 49

Why Have Some Countries Been Slow to Specialize? 51

Can We Have Too Much Specialization? 52

Comparative Advantage and International Trade 53 EXAMPLE 2.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:If trade between nations

is so beneficial, why are free-trade agreements so controversial? 53

Outsourcing 53 EXAMPLE 2.4 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Is PBS economics reporter Paul Solman’s job a likely candidate for outsourcing? 54

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 58

Chapter 3 Supply and Demand 61

What, How, and for Whom? Central Planning versus the Market 63

Buyers and Sellers in Markets 64

The Demand Curve 65

The Supply Curve 66

Market Equilibrium 68

Rent Controls Reconsidered 71

Pizza Price Controls? 73

Predicting and Explaining Changes in Prices and Quantities 74

Shifts in Demand 75 EXAMPLE 3.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:When the federal governmentimplements a large pay increase for its employees, why do rents for apartments located near Washington Metro stations go up relative to rents for

apartments located far away from Metro stations? 77

Shifts in the Supply Curve 78 EXAMPLE 3.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do major term papers gothrough so many more revisions today than in the 1970s? 80

Four Simple Rules 81 EXAMPLE 3.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do the prices of some goods, like airline tickets to Europe, go up during the months of heaviest consumption, while others, like sweet corn, go down? 84

Efficiency and Equilibrium 84

Cash on the Table 85

Smart for One, Dumb for All 86

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 90

Appendix: The Algebra of Supply and Demand 93

PART 2 Competition and the Invisible Hand

Chapter 4 Elasticity 97

Price Elasticity of Demand 98

Price Elasticity Defined 98

Determinants of Price Elasticity of Demand 100

Some Representative Elasticity Estimates 101

Using Price Elasticity of Demand 102 EXAMPLE 4.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST: Will a higher tax on cigarettes curb teenage smoking? 102

EXAMPLE 4.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why was the luxury tax

on yachts such a disaster? 102

A Graphical Interpretation of Price Elasticity 103

Price Elasticity Changes along a Straight-Line Demand Curve 105

Two Special Cases 106

Elasticity and Total Expenditure 107

Income Elasticity and Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand 111

The Price Elasticity of Supply 112

Determinants of Supply Elasticity 114 EXAMPLE 4.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why are gasoline prices

so much more volatile than car prices? 116

Unique and Essential Inputs: The Ultimate Supply Bottleneck 117

Summary 118

Key Terms 119

Review Questions 119

Problems 119

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 121

Appendix: The Midpoint Formula 123

Chapter 5 Demand 125

The Law of Demand 126

The Origins of Demand 126

Needs versus Wants 127 EXAMPLE 5.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why does California experience chronic water shortages? 128

Translating Wants into Demand 128

Measuring Wants: The Concept of Utility 128

Allocating a Fixed Income between Two Goods 132

The Rational Spending Rule 135

Income and Substitution Effects Revisited 135

Applying the Rational Spending Rule 138

Substitution at Work 138 EXAMPLE 5.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do the wealthy in Manhattan live in smaller houses than the wealthy in Seattle? 138

EXAMPLE 5.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why did people turn to four-cylindercars in the 1970s, only to shift back to six- and eight-cylinder cars in the 1990s? 138 EXAMPLE 5.4 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why are automobile engines smaller

in England than in the United States? 140

The Importance of Income Differences 140

xxiv CONTENTS

EXAMPLE 5.5 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why are waiting lines longer

in poorer neighborhoods? 140

Individual and Market Demand Curves 140

Horizontal Addition 141

Demand and Consumer Surplus 142

Calculating Consumer Surplus 142

Summary 145

Key Terms 145

Review Questions 145

Problems 146

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 147

Chapter 6 Perfectly Competitive Supply 150

Thinking about Supply: The Importance of Opportunity Cost 150

Individual and Market Supply Curves 152

Profit-Maximizing Firms in Perfectly Competitive Markets 153

Profit Maximization 153

The Demand Curve Facing a Perfectly Competitive Firm 154

Production in the Short Run 155

Some Important Cost Concepts 156

Choosing Output to Maximize Profit 157

A Note on the Firm’s Shutdown Condition 159

Average Variable Cost and Average Total Cost 159

A Graphical Approach to Profit Maximization 159

Price  Marginal Cost: The Maximum-Profit Condition 161

The “Law” of Supply 163

Determinants of Supply Revisited 164

Technology 164

Input Prices 164

The Number of Suppliers 165

Expectations 165

Changes in Prices of Other Products 165

Applying the Theory of Supply 165 EXAMPLE 6.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:When recycling is left

to private market forces, why are many more aluminum beverage containers recycled than glass ones? 165

Supply and Producer Surplus 168

Calculating Producer Surplus 168

Summary 169

Key Terms 170

Review Questions 170

Problems 170

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 173

Chapter 7 Efficiency and Exchange 175

Market Equilibrium and Efficiency 176

Efficiency Is Not the Only Goal 179

Why Efficiency Should Be the First Goal 179

The Cost of Preventing Price Adjustments 179

Price Ceilings 180

Price Subsidies 183

First-Come, First-Served Policies 185

CONTENTS xxv

xxvi CONTENTS

EXAMPLE 7.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why does no one complain anylonger about being bumped from an overbooked flight? 185

Marginal Cost Pricing of Public Services 188

Taxes and Efficiency 190

Who Pays a Tax Imposed on Sellers of a Good? 190 EXAMPLE 7.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:How will a tax on cars affect their prices in the long run? 191

How a Tax Collected from a Seller Affects Economic Surplus 192

Taxes, Elasticity, and Efficiency 194

Taxes, External Costs, and Efficiency 195

Summary 196

Key Terms 197

Review Questions 197

Problems 197

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 199

Chapter 8 The Invisible Hand in Action 203

The Central Role of Economic Profit 204

Three Types of Profit 204

The Invisible Hand Theory 207

Two Functions of Price 207

Responses to Profits and Losses 208

The Importance of Free Entry and Exit 214

Economic Rent versus Economic Profit 215

The Invisible Hand in Action 216

The Invisible Hand at the Supermarket and on the Freeway 216 EXAMPLE 8.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do supermarket checkout lines all tend to be roughly the same length? 216

The Invisible Hand and Cost-Saving Innovations 217

The Invisible Hand in Regulated Markets 217 EXAMPLE 8.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do New York City taxicabmedallions sell for more than $300,000? 218

EXAMPLE 8.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why did major commercial airlinesinstall piano bars on the upper decks of Boeing 747s in the 1970s? 219

The Invisible Hand in Antipoverty Programs 220

The Invisible Hand in the Stock Market 220 EXAMPLE 8.4 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why isn’t a stock portfolio consisting

of Canada’s “50 best-managed companies” a particularly good investment? 223

The Distinction between an Equilibrium and a Social Optimum 224

Smart for One, Dumb for All 225 EXAMPLE 8.5 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Are there “too many” smart peopleworking as corporate earnings forecasters? 225

Summary 226

Key Terms 227

Review Questions 227

Problems 227

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 229

PART 3 Market Imperfections

Chapter 9 Monopoly, Oligopoly, and Monopolistic Competition 233

Imperfect Competition 234

CONTENTS xxvii

Different Forms of Imperfect Competition 234

The Essential Difference between Perfectly and Imperfectly Competitive Firms 236

Five Sources of Market Power 237

Exclusive Control over Important Inputs 237

Patents and Copyrights 237

Government Licenses or Franchises 237

Economies of Scale and Natural Monopolies 238Network Economies 238

Economies of Scale and the Importance of Start-Up Costs 239 EXAMPLE 9.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why does Intel sell the overwhelming majority of all microprocessors used in personal computers? 241

Profit Maximization for the Monopolist 242

Marginal Revenue for the Monopolist 242

The Monopolist’s Profit-Maximizing Decision Rule 245

Being a Monopolist Doesn’t Guarantee an Economic Profit 246

Why the Invisible Hand Breaks Down under Monopoly 247

Using Discounts to Expand the Market 249

Price Discrimination Defined 249 EXAMPLE 9.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do many movie theaters offer discount tickets to students? 250

How Price Discrimination Affects Output 250

The Hurdle Method of Price Discrimination 252

Is Price Discrimination a Bad Thing? 255

Examples of Price Discrimination 255 EXAMPLE 9.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why might an appliance retailerinstruct its clerks to hammer dents into the sides of its stoves and refrigerators? 256

Public Policy toward Natural Monopoly 257

State Ownership and Management 257

State Regulation of Private Monopolies 258

Exclusive Contracting for Natural Monopoly 258

Vigorous Enforcement of Antitrust Laws 259

Summary 260

Key Terms 261 Review Questions 261

Problems 261

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 264

Appendix: The Algebra of Monopoly Profit Maximization 267

Chapter 10 Games and Strategic Behavior 269

Using Game Theory to Analyze Strategic Decisions 270

The Three Elements of a Game 270

Nash Equilibrium 272

The Prisoner’s Dilemma 274

The Original Prisoner’s Dilemma 274

The Economics of Cartels 275 EXAMPLE 10.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why are cartel agreementsnotoriously unstable? 275

Tit-for-Tat and the Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma 277 EXAMPLE 10.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:How did Congress unwittingly solvethe television advertising dilemma confronting cigarette producers? 278

xxviii CONTENTS

EXAMPLE 10.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do people shout

at parties? 280

Games in Which Timing Matters 280

Credible Threats and Promises 282

Monopolistic Competition When Location Matters 283 EXAMPLE 10.4 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do we often see convenience stores located on adjacent street corners? 284

Commitment Problems 285

The Strategic Role of Preferences 287

Are People Fundamentally Selfish? 288

Preferences as Solutions to Commitment Problems 288

Summary 289

Key Terms 290

Review Questions 290

Problems 290

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 294

Chapter 11 Externalities and Property Rights 297

External Costs and Benefits 298

How Externalities Affect Resource Allocation 298

How Do Externalities Affect Supply and Demand? 299

The Coase Theorem 301

Legal Remedies for Externalities 305 EXAMPLE 11.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:What is the purpose of free speech laws? 306

EXAMPLE 11.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why does government subsidize private property owners to plant trees on their hillsides? 306

The Optimal Amount of Negative Externalities Is Not Zero 307

Compensatory Taxes and Subsidies 307

Property Rights and the Tragedy of the Commons 309

The Problem of Unpriced Resources 309

The Effect of Private Ownership 311

When Private Ownership Is Impractical 312 EXAMPLE 11.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do blackberries in public parks get picked too soon? 313

EXAMPLE 11.4 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why are shared milkshakesconsumed too quickly? 313

Positional Externalities 314

Payoffs That Depend on Relative Performance 314 EXAMPLE 11.5 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do football players take anabolic steroids? 315

Positional Arms Races and Positional Arms Control Agreements 316

Social Norms as Positional Arms Control Agreements 317

Summary 318

Key Terms 320

Review Questions 320

Problems 320

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 323

Chapter 12 The Economics of Information 325

How the Middleman Adds Value 326

The Optimal Amount of Information 328

CONTENTS xxix

The Cost-Benefit Test 328

The Free-Rider Problem 329 EXAMPLE 12.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why is finding a knowledgeablesalesclerk often difficult? 329

EXAMPLE 12.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why did Rivergate Books,the last bookstore in Lambertville, New Jersey, go out of business? 329

Two Guidelines for Rational Search 330

The Gamble Inherent in Search 331

The Commitment Problem When Search Is Costly 332

Asymmetric Information 333

The Lemons Model 334

The Credibility Problem in Trading 336

The Costly-to-Fake Principle 336 EXAMPLE 12.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do firms insert the phrase “Asadvertised on TV” when they advertise their products in magazines and newspapers? 337 EXAMPLE 12.4 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do many companies care

so much about elite educational credentials? 337

Conspicuous Consumption as a Signal of Ability 337 EXAMPLE 12.5 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do many clients seem to preferlawyers who wear expensive suits? 338

Statistical Discrimination 338 EXAMPLE 12.6 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do males under 25 years

of age pay more than other drivers for auto insurance? 339

Adverse Selection 340

Moral Hazard 340

Disappearing Political Discourse 341 EXAMPLE 12.7 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do opponents of the death penalty often remain silent? 341

EXAMPLE 12.8 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do proponents of legalized drugs remain silent? 342

Summary 342

Key Terms 344

Review Questions 344

Problems 344

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 346

PART 4 Economics of Public Policy

Chapter 13 Labor Markets, Poverty, and Income Distribution 349

The Economic Value of Work 350

The Equilibrium Wage and Employment Levels 352

The Demand Curve for Labor 352

The Supply Curve of Labor 353

Market Shifts 354

Explaining Differences in Earnings 355

Human Capital Theory 355

Labor Unions 355 EXAMPLE 13.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:If unionized firms have

to pay more, how do they manage to survive in the face of competition from theirnonunionized counterparts? 357

Compensating Wage Differentials 357

Recent Trends in Inequality 361

Is Income Inequality a Moral Problem? 362

Methods of Income Redistribution 364

Welfare Payments and In-Kind Transfers 364

Means-Tested Benefit Programs 364

The Negative Income Tax 365

Minimum Wages 366

The Earned-Income Tax Credit 367

Public Employment for the Poor 368

Answers to In-Chapter Exercises 373

Chapter 14 The Environment, Health, and Safety 375

The Economics of Health Care Delivery 376

Applying the Cost-Benefit Criterion 376

Designing a Solution 378

The HMO Revolution 379 EXAMPLE 14.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why is a patient with a sore knee more likely to receive an MRI exam if he has conventional health insurance than if he belongs to a health maintenance organization? 379

Paying for Health Insurance 380 EXAMPLE 14.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:In the richest country on Earth,why do so many people lack basic health insurance? 381

Using Price Incentives in Environmental Regulation 382

Taxing Pollution 382

Auctioning Pollution Permits 384

Workplace Safety Regulation 385 EXAMPLE 14.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why does the government require safety seats for infants who travel in cars but not for infants who travel

in airplanes? 389

Public Health and Security 390 EXAMPLE 14.4 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do many states have lawsrequiring students to be vaccinated against childhood illnesses? 390

EXAMPLE 14.5 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do more Secret Service agents guard the president than the vice president, and why do no Secret Service agents guard college professors? 391

CONTENTS xxxi

Chapter 15 Public Goods and Tax Policy 397

Government Provision of Public Goods 398

Public Goods versus Private Goods 398

Paying for Public Goods 400 EXAMPLE 15.1 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why don’t most married couples contribute equally to joint purchases? 402

The Optimal Quantity of a Public Good 403

The Demand Curve for a Public Good 405

Private Provision of Public Goods 405 EXAMPLE 15.2 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do television networks favor

Jerry Springer over Masterpiece Theater? 406

Additional Functions of Government 408

Externalities and Property Rights 408

Local, State, or Federal? 409

Sources of Inefficiency in the Political Process 410

Pork Barrel Legislation 410 EXAMPLE 15.3 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why does check-splitting make thetotal restaurant bill higher? 410

EXAMPLE 15.4 THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST:Why do legislators often support one another’s pork barrel spending programs? 411

Rent-Seeking 411

Starve the Government? 413

What Should We Tax? 414

CORE PRINCIPLE 1 The Scarcity Principle (also called “The No-Free-Lunch Principle”)

Although we have boundless needs and wants, the resources available to us are limited So having more of one good thing usually means having less of another.

CORE PRINCIPLE 2 The Cost-Benefit Principle

An individual (or a firm or a society) should take an action if, and only if, the extra benefits from taking the action are at least as great as the extra costs.

CORE PRINCIPLE 3 The Incentive Principle

A person (or a firm or a society) is more likely to take an action if the benefit rises and less likely to take it if the cost rises.

CORE PRINCIPLE 4 The Principle of Comparative Advantage

Everyone does best when each person (or each country) concentrates on the activities for which his or her opportunity cost is lowest.

CORE PRINCIPLE 5 The Principle of Increasing Opportunity Cost (also called

“The Low-Hanging-Fruit Principle”)

In expanding the production of any good, first employ those resources with the lowest opportunity cost, and only afterward turn to resources with higher opportunity costs.

CORE PRINCIPLE 6 The Efficiency Principle

Efficiency is an important social goal because when the economic pie grows larger, everyone can have a larger slice.

CORE PRINCIPLE 7 The Equilibrium Principle (also called “The No-Cash-on- the-Table Principle”)

A market in equilibrium leaves no unexploited opportunities for individuals but may not exploit all gains achievable through collective action.

P A R T 1

If economics is not a set of durable facts, then what is it? mentally, it is a way of thinking about the world Over many yearseconomists have developed some simple but widely applicable prin-ciples that are useful for understanding almost any economic situa-tion, from the relatively simple economic decisions that individualsmake every day to the workings of highly complex markets such asinternational financial markets The principal objective of this book,and of this course, is to help you learn these principles and how toapply them to a variety of economic questions and issues

Funda-The three chapters in Part 1 lay out the Core Principles that will

be used throughout the book All seven Core Principles are listed onthe previous page and on the back of the book for easy reference.Chapter 1 introduces and illustrates three Core Principles, the

first of which is the Scarcity Principle—the unavoidable fact that,

al-though our needs and wants are boundless, the resources available

to satisfy them are limited The chapter goes on to show that the

Cost-Benefit Principle, deciding whether to take an action by

compar-ing the cost and benefit of the action, is a useful approach for ing with the inevitable trade-offs that scarcity creates Afterdiscussing several important decision pitfalls, the chapter concludes

deal-by describing the Incentive Principle and introducing the concept of

economic naturalism

Chapter 2 goes beyond individual decision making to considertrade among both individuals and countries An important reason

for trade is the Principle of Comparative Advantage: by specializing in

the production of particular goods and services, people and tries enhance their productivity and raise standards of living Further,

coun-people and countries expand their production of the goods or services by applying the

Principle of Increasing Opportunity Cost—first employing those resources with the lowest

opportunity cost and only afterward turning to resources with higher opportunity costs.Chapter 3 presents an overview of the concepts of supply and demand, perhaps themost basic and familiar tools used by economists These tools are used to show the final

two Core Principles: the Efficiency Principle (efficiency is an important social goal because when the economics pie grows larger, everyone can have a larger slice) and the Equilib- rium Principle (a market in equilibrium leaves no unexploited opportunities for individu-

als but may not exploit all gains achievable through collective action)

2 CHAPTER 1 THINKING LIKE AN ECONOMIST

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1 The Scarcity Principle, which says that having more of any good thing essarily requires having less of something else.

nec-2 The Cost-Benefit Principle, which says that an action should be taken if,but only if, its benefit is at least as great as its cost

3 The Incentive Principle, which says that if you want to predict people’sbehavior, a good place to start is by examining their incentives

4 The pitfall of measuring costs and benefits as proportions rather than asabsolute dollar amounts

5 The pitfall of ignoring implicit costs

6 The pitfall of failing to weigh costs and benefits at the margin

ow many students are in your introductory economics class? Someclasses have just 20 or so; others average 35, 100, or 200 students Atsome schools, introductory economics classes may have as many as2,000 students What size is best?

If cost were no object, the best size for an introductory economics course—

or any other course, for that matter—might be a single student Think about it:the whole course, all term long, with just you and your professor! Everythingcould be custom-tailored to your own background and ability, allowing you tocover the material at just the right pace The tutorial format also would promote

H

4 CHAPTER 1 THINKING LIKE AN ECONOMIST

close communication and personal trust between you and your professor And yourgrade would depend more heavily on what you actually learned than on your luckwhen taking multiple-choice exams We may even suppose, for the sake of discus-sion, that studies by educational psychologists prove definitively that students learnbest in the tutorial format

Why, then, do so many universities continue to schedule introductory classes

with hundreds of students? The simple reason is that costs do matter They matter

not just to the university administrators who must build classrooms and pay

fac-ulty salaries, but also to you The direct cost of providing you with your own

per-sonal introductory economics course—most notably, the professor’s salary and theexpense of providing a classroom in which to meet—might easily top $50,000

Someone has to pay these costs In private universities, a large share of the cost

would be recovered directly from higher tuition payments; in state universities, theburden would be split between higher tuition payments and higher tax pay-ments But, in either case, the course would be unaffordable for many, if not most,students

With a larger class size, of course, the cost per student goes down For ple, in a class of 300 students, the cost of an introductory economics course mightcome to as little as $200 per student But a class that large would surely compro-mise the quality of the learning environment Compared to the custom tutorial for-mat, however, it would be dramatically more affordable

exam-In choosing what size introductory economics course to offer, then, universityadministrators confront a classic economic trade-off In making the class larger,they lower the quality of instruction—a bad thing—but, at the same time, theyreduce costs, and hence the tuition students must pay—a good thing

ECONOMICS: STUDYING CHOICE

IN A WORLD OF SCARCITY

Even in rich societies like the United States, scarcity is a fundamental fact of life.

There is never enough time, money, or energy to do everything we want to do or

have everything we would like to have Economics is the study of how people

make choices under conditions of scarcity and of the results of those choices forsociety

In the class-size example just discussed, a motivated economics student mightdefinitely prefer to be in a class of 20 rather than a class of 100, everything else be-ing equal But other things, of course, are not equal Students can enjoy the benefits

of having smaller classes, but only at the price of having less money for other ities The student’s choice inevitably will come down to the relative importance ofcompeting activities

activ-That such trade-offs are widespread and important is one of the core

princi-ples of economics We call it the scarcity principle because the simple fact of

scarcity makes trade-offs necessary Another name for the scarcity principle is the

no-free-lunch principle (which comes from the observation that even lunches that

are given to you are never really free—somebody, somehow, always has to pay forthem)

The Scarcity Principle (also called the No-Free-Lunch Principle):

Although we have boundless needs and wants, the resources available to us are limited So having more of one good thing usually means having less of another.

Inherent in the idea of a trade-off is the fact that choice involves compromise

between competing interests Economists resolve such trade-offs by using cost-benefit analysis, which is based on the disarmingly simple principle that an action should

Are small classes “better” than

large ones?

Scarcity

economics the study of how

people make choices under

conditions of scarcity and of

the results of those choices for

society

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be taken if, and only if, its benefits exceed its costs We call this statement the

cost-benefit principle, and it, too, is one of the core principles of economics:

The Cost-Benefit Principle: An individual (or a firm or a society) should take an action if, and only if, the extra benefits from taking the action are at least as great as the extra costs.

With the Cost-Benefit Principle in mind, let’s think about our class-size questionagain Imagine that classrooms come in only two sizes—100-seat lecture halls and20-seat classrooms—and that your university currently offers introductory eco-nomics courses to classes of 100 students Question: Should administrators reducethe class size to 20 students? Answer: Reduce if, and only if, the value of theimprovement in instruction outweighs its additional cost

This rule sounds simple, but to apply it we need some way to measure the vant costs and benefits—a task that is often difficult in practice If we make a fewsimplifying assumptions, however, we can see how the analysis might work On thecost side, the primary expense of reducing class size from 100 to 20 is that we willnow need five professors instead of just one We’ll also need five smaller classroomsrather than a single big one, and this too may add slightly to the expense of themove For the sake of discussion, suppose that the cost with a class size of 20 turnsout to be $1,000 per student more than the cost per student when the class size is

rele-100 Should administrators switch to the smaller class size? If they apply the

Cost-Benefit Principle, they will realize that the reduction in class size makes sense only

if the value of attending the smaller class is at least $1,000 per student greater than the value of attending the larger class.

Would you (or your family) be willing to pay an extra $1,000 for a smallereconomics class? If not, and if other students feel the same way, then sticking withthe larger class size makes sense But if you and others would be willing to pay theextra tuition, then reducing the class size to 20 makes good economic sense

Notice that the “best” class size, from an economic point of view, will ally not be the same as the “best” size from the point of view of an educational psychologist The difference arises because the economic definition of “best” takes into account both the benefits and the costs of different class sizes The psycholo-

gener-gist ignores costs and looks only at the learning benefits of different class sizes

In practice, of course, different people will feel differently about the value ofsmaller classes People with high incomes, for example, tend to be willing to paymore for the advantage, which helps to explain why average class size is smaller,and tuition higher, at private schools whose students come predominantly fromhigh-income families

The cost-benefit framework for thinking about the class-size problem also gests a possible reason for the gradual increase in average class size that has been tak-ing place in American colleges and universities During the last 20 years, professors’

sug-salaries have risen sharply, making smaller classes more costly During the same riod, median family income—and hence the willingness to pay for smaller classes—

pe-has remained roughly constant When the cost of offering smaller classes goes up butwillingness to pay for smaller classes does not, universities shift to larger class sizes

Scarcity and the trade-offs that result also apply to resources other than money

Bill Gates is one of the richest men on Earth His wealth was once estimated atover $100 billion—more than the combined wealth of the poorest 40 percent ofAmericans Gates has enough money to buy more houses, cars, vacations, and otherconsumer goods than he could possibly use Yet Gates, like the rest of us, has only

24 hours each day and a limited amount of energy So even he confronts trade-offs, inthat any activity he pursues—whether it be building his business empire or redecorat-ing his mansion—uses up time and energy that he could otherwise spend on otherthings Indeed, someone once calculated that the value of Gates’s time is so great thatpausing to pick up a $100 bill from the sidewalk simply wouldn’t be worth his while

ECONOMICS: STUDYING CHOICE IN A WORLD OF SCARCITY 5

Cost-Benefit

Cost-Benefit

If Bill Gates saw a $100 bill lying

on the sidewalk, would it be worth his time to pick it up?

APPLYING THE COST-BENEFIT PRINCIPLE

In studying choice under scarcity, we’ll usually begin with the premise that people

are rational, which means they have well-defined goals and try to fulfill them as

best they can The cost-benefit principle illustrated in the class-size example is afundamental tool for the study of how rational people make choices

As in the class-size example, often the only real difficulty in applying the benefit rule is to come up with reasonable measures of the relevant benefits andcosts Only in rare instances will exact dollar measures be conveniently available.But the cost-benefit framework can lend structure to your thinking even when norelevant market data are available

cost-To illustrate how we proceed in such cases, the following example asks you

to decide whether to perform an action whose cost is described only in vague,qualitative terms

Should you walk downtown to save $10 on a $25 computer game?

Imagine you are about to buy a $25 computer game at the nearby campus storewhen a friend tells you that the same game is on sale at a downtown store for only

$15 If the downtown store is a 30-minute walk away, where should you buy thegame?

The Cost-Benefit Principle tells us that you should buy it downtown if the efit of doing so exceeds the cost The benefit of taking any action is the dollar value

ben-of everything you gain by taking it Here, the benefit ben-of buying downtown is exactly

$10, since that is the amount you will save on the purchase price of the game Thecost of taking any action is the dollar value of everything you give up by taking it.Here, the cost of buying downtown is the dollar value you assign to the time andtrouble it takes to make the trip But how do we estimate that dollar value?One way is to perform the following hypothetical auction Imagine that astranger has offered to pay you to do an errand that involves the same walk down-town (perhaps to drop off a letter for her at the post office) If she offered you apayment of, say, $1,000, would you accept? If so, we know that your cost of walk-ing downtown and back must be less than $1,000 Now imagine her offer being re-duced in small increments until you finally refuse the last offer For example, if youwould agree to walk downtown and back for $9.00 but not for $8.99, then yourcost of making the trip is $9.00 In this case, you should buy the game downtownbecause the $10 you’ll save (your benefit) is greater than your $9.00 cost of makingthe trip

But suppose, alternatively, that your cost of making the trip had been greaterthan $10 In that case, your best bet would have been to buy the game from thenearby campus store Confronted with this choice, different people may choose dif-ferently, depending on how costly they think it is to make the trip downtown Butalthough there is no uniquely correct choice, most people who are asked what theywould do in this situation say they would buy the game downtown ◆

ECONOMIC SURPLUS

Suppose again that in the preceding example your “cost” of making the trip town was $9 Compared to the alternative of buying the game at the campus store,

down-buying it downtown resulted in an economic surplus of $1, the difference between

the benefit of making the trip and its cost In general, your goal as an economic cision maker is to choose those actions that generate the largest possible economicsurplus This means taking all actions that yield a positive total economic surplus,which is just another way of restating the Cost-Benefit Principle

de-Note that the fact that your best choice was to buy the game downtown doesn’t

imply that you enjoy making the trip, any more than choosing a large class means

6 CHAPTER 1 THINKING LIKE AN ECONOMIST

rational person someone with

well-defined goals who tries to

fulfill those goals as best he or

she can

Cost-Benefit

economic surplus the economic

surplus from taking any action is

the benefit of taking that action

minus its cost

Cost-Benefit

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that you prefer large classes to small ones It simply means that the trip is less pleasant than the prospect of paying $10 extra for the game Once again, you’vefaced a trade-off—in this case, the choice between a cheaper game and the free timegained by avoiding the trip.

un-OPPORTUNITY COST

Of course, your mental auction could have produced a different outcome Suppose,for example, that the time required for the trip is the only time you have left tostudy for a difficult test the next day Or suppose you are watching one of your fa-vorite movies on cable, or that you are tired and would love a short nap In such

cases, we say that the opportunity cost of making the trip—that is, the value of

what you must sacrifice to walk downtown and back—is high and you are morelikely to decide against making the trip

Strictly speaking, your opportunity cost of engaging in an activity is the value

of everything you must sacrifice to engage in it For instance, if seeing a movie quires not only that you buy a $10 ticket but also that you give up a $20 babysit-ting job that you would have been willing to do for free, then the opportunity cost

re-of seeing the film is $30

Under this definition, all costs—both implicit and explicit—are opportunity

costs Unless otherwise stated, we will adhere to this strict definition

We must warn you, however, that some economists use the term opportunity cost to refer only to the implicit value of opportunities forgone Thus, in the exam-

ple just discussed, these economists would not include the $10 ticket price whencalculating the opportunity cost of seeing the film But virtually all economistswould agree that your opportunity cost of not doing the babysitting job is $20

In the previous example, if watching the last hour of the cable TV movie is themost valuable opportunity that conflicts with the trip downtown, the opportunitycost of making the trip is the dollar value you place on pursuing that opportunity—

that is, the largest amount you’d be willing to pay to avoid missing the end of themovie Note that the opportunity cost of making the trip is not the combined value

of all possible activities you could have pursued, but only the value of your best

alternative—the one you would have chosen had you not made the trip

Throughout the text we will pose exercises like the one that follows You’ll findthat pausing to answer them will help you to master key concepts in economics Be-cause doing these exercises isn’t very costly (indeed, many students report that theyare actually fun), the Cost-Benefit Principle indicates that it’s well worth your while

to do them

EXERCISE 1.1

You would again save $10 by buying the game downtown rather than at the campus store, but your cost of making the trip is now $12, not $9 How much economic surplus would you get from buying the game downtown?

Where should you buy it?

THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC MODELS

Economists use the cost-benefit principle as an abstract model of how an idealizedrational individual would choose among competing alternatives (By “abstractmodel” we mean a simplified description that captures the essential elements of asituation and allows us to analyze them in a logical way.) A computer model of

a complex phenomenon like climate change, which must ignore many details andincludes only the major forces at work, is an example of an abstract model

Noneconomists are sometimes harshly critical of the economist’s cost-benefitmodel on the grounds that people in the real world never conduct hypothetical

APPLYING THE COST-BENEFIT PRINCIPLE 7

opportunity cost the tunity cost of an activity is the value of what must be forgone in order to undertake the activity

oppor-Cost-Benefit