 Fundamental Economic ConceptsPhillip Crowson Chapter 2 in Economics for Managers, 1985, pp 16-36 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract There are almost as many definitions of economics as there are economists. One of the most useful, given by Professor Samuelson in his world famous textbook, is Economics is the study of how men and society choose, with or without the use of money, to employ scarce productive resources, which could have alternative uses, to produce various commodities over time and to distribute them for consumption, now and in the future, among various people and groups in society. (P. A. Samuelson, Economics. An Introductory Analysis, 5th edition 1961, McGraw-Hill.) If all resources were abundant there would be no difficulty in making a choice either between alternative uses or between the present and future. Moreover, the distribution of the fruits of these resources would be relatively simple. In practice man’s basic needs are few, but his wants are unlimited and tend to rise over time. Resources, however, are, in the last analysis, finite, and of varying quality and accessibility. The main economic resources are land, labour, and capital, which is essentially stored-up labour. Keywords: Marginal Cost; Cash Flow; Opportunity Cost; Incremental Cost; Variable Cost (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-17812-4_2 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-17812-4_2 Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan |
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