MICROECONOMICS

Roselle M. Bullon Prof. Mylene Daralhawa EM2A

1.Different Theories And Created. (Who/Explain)

TITLE: Cesare Beccaria (Italian criminologist) SECTION: Work in economics. Although nothing Beccaria achieved in later life approaches the importance of the treatise, his subsequent career was fruitful and constructive. In 1768 he accepted the chair in public economy and commerce at the Palatine School in Milan, where he lectured for two years. His reputation as a pioneer in economic analysis is based primarily on these lectures, published posthumously in 1804 under... TITLE: Antonio Genovesi (Italian philosopher and economist)

...chair of commerce and mechanics (i.e., political economy) in 1754 and directed that Genovesi be its first occupant. There he wrote and lectured. Genovesis mercantilist view of economics is distinguished by a brilliant analysis of demand, by his high valuation of labour, and by his efforts to reconcile free competition with protectionist policies. In political philosophy he... TITLE: John Maynard Keynes (British economist) English economist, journalist, and financier, best known for his economic theories (Keynesian economics) on the causes of prolonged unemployment. His most important work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (193536), advocated a remedy for economic recession based on a government-sponsored policy of full employment. TITLE: Thomas Robert Malthus (English economist and demographer) SECTION: Malthusian theory Malthus was an economic pessimist, viewing poverty as mans inescapable lot. The argument in the first edition of his work on population is essentially abstract and analytic. After further reading and travels in Europe, Malthus produced a subsequent edition (1803), expanding the long pamphlet of 1798 into a longer book and adding much factual material and illustration to his thesis. At no...

TITLE: Das Kapital (work by Marx)

one of the major works of the 19th-century economist and philosopher Karl Marx (1818 83), in which he expounded his theory of the capitalist system, its dynamism, and its tendencies toward self-destruction. He described his purpose as to lay bare the economic law of motion of modern society. The second and third volumes were published posthumously, edited by his collaborator... TITLE: social structure SECTION: Structure and social organization Karl Marx used construction as a metaphor when he spoke of the economic structure [Struktur] of society, the real basis on which is erected a legal and political superstructure [ berbau] and to which definite forms of social consciousness correspond. Thus, according to Marx, the basic structure of... TITLE: David Ricardo (British economist) English economist who gave systematized, classical form to the rising science of economics in the 19th century. His laissez-faire doctrines were typified in his Iron Law of Wages, which stated that all attempts to improve the real income of workers were futile and that wages perforce remained near the subsistence level. TITLE: Nassau William Senior (British economist) ...University of Oxford, from which he graduated in 1812. He qualified as a lawyer in 1819. It was as an economist, however, that Senior made his greatest contributions. He became one of the leading economic theorists of the first half of the 19th century and was the first Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford (182530, 184752). TITLE: Thorstein Veblen (American economist and sociologist) American economist and social scientist who sought to apply an evolutionary, dynamic approach to the study of economic institutions. With The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) he won fame in literary circles, and, in describing the life of the wealthy, he coined phrases conspicuous consumption and pecuniary emulationthat are... TITLE: economics social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. In the 19th century economics was the hobby of gentlemen of leisure and the vocation of a few academics; economists wrote about economic policy but were rarely consulted by legislators before decisions were made. Today there is hardly a government, international agency, or large commercial... schools of economicsclassical economics

TITLE: classical economics

English school of economic thought that originated during the late 18th century with Adam Smith and that reached maturity in the works of David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. The theories of the classical school, which dominated economic thinking in Great Britain until about 1870, focused on economic growth and economic freedom, stressing laissez-faire ideas and free competition. TITLE: utilitarianism (philosophy) SECTION: Effects of utilitarianism in other fields Classical economics received some of its most important statements from utilitarian writers, especially David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. Ironically, its theory of economic value was framed primarily in terms of the cost of labour in production rather than in terms of the use value, or utility, of commodities. Later developments more clearly reflected the utilitarian philosophy. William... TITLE: population (biology and anthropology) SECTION: Mercantilism and the idea of progress The wholesale mortality caused by the Black Death during the 14th century contributed in fundamental ways to the development of mercantilism, the school of thought that dominated Europe from the 16th through the 18th century. Mercantilists and the absolute rulers who dominated many states of Europe saw each nations population as a form of national wealth: the larger the population, the richer... TITLE: accounting (finance) SECTION: Asset value...total value, and it can be computed in a number of ways. One approach determines asset value by calculating what those assets are worth to their owners. According to this measurement principle, the economic value of an asset is the maximum price that the company would be willing to pay for it. This amount depends on what the company expects to be able to do with the asset. For business assets,... TITLE: conservation (ecology) ...cause of the loss of biodiversity is increasing human activity, conservation must inevitably involve human interactions. Many of the techniques to prevent the loss of biodiversity involve issues of economics, law, social sciences, and religionall of which are covered by the journals and textbooks cited above. TITLE: business organization SECTION: Modern trends The causes of such vast corporate growth have found varying explanations. One school of thought, most prominently represented by American economist John Kenneth Galbraith, sees growth as stemming from the imperatives of modern technology. Only a large firm can employ the range of talent needed for research and development in areas such as aerospace and nuclear energy. And only companies of this... TITLE: interest (economics)

Various theories have been developed to account for and justify interest. Among the better known are the timepreference theory of the Austrian, or Marginalist, school of economists, according to which interest is the inducement to engage in time-consuming but more productive activities, and the liquidity-preference theory developed by J.M. Keynes, according to which interest is the inducement... TITLE: labour economics ...of psychology, social structures, cultures, and the activities of government. Indeed, these forces often play a more conspicuous part in the field of labour than do the market forces with which economic theory is mainly concerned. The most important reason for this arises from the peculiar nature of labour as a commodity. The act of hiring of labour, unlike that of hiring a machine, is... TITLE: philosophy of law SECTION: Economic interpretationsCertain residues of the Marxist economic interpretation of history have won a central place in sociological jurisprudence, as indeed in most branches of social science. One such persistent trend of thought is the close interrelatedness of legal, ethical, economic, and psychological inquiries; another is the pre-eminence... TITLE: supply and demand (economics) in economics, relationship between the quantity that producers wish to sell at various prices and the quantity of a commodity that consumers wish to buy. TITLE: utility and value (economics) in economics, the determination of the prices of goods and services.

POSITIVE AND NORMAL STATEMENTS IN THE THEORITICAL APPROACH

Economists make a distinction between positive and normative that closely parallels Popper's line of demarcation, but which is far older. David Hume explained it well in 1739, and Machiavelli used it two centuries earlier, in 1515. A positive statement is a statement about what is and that contains no indication of approval or disapproval. Notice that a positive statement can be wrong. "The moon is made of green cheese" is incorrect, but it is a positive statement because it is a statement about what exists. A normative statement expresses a judgment about whether a situation is desirable or undesirable. "The world would be a better place if the moon were made of green cheese" is a normative statement because it expresses a judgment about what ought to be. Notice that there is no way of disproving this statement. If you disagree with it, you have no sure way of convincing someone who believes the statement that he is wrong. Economists have found the positive-normative distinction useful because it helps people with very different views about what is desirable to communicate with each other. Libertarians and socialists, Christians and atheists may have very different ideas about what is desirable. When they disagree, they can try to learn whether their disagreement stems from different normative views or from different positive views. If their disagreement is on normative grounds, they know that their disagreement lies outside the realm of economics, so economic theory and evidence will not bring them together. However, if their disagreement is on positive grounds, then further discussion, study, and testing may bring them closer together. Economists can confine themselves to positive statements, but few are willing to do so because such confinement limits what they can say about issues of government policy. Both positive and normative statements must be combined to make a policy statement. One must make a judgment about what goals are desirable (the normative part), and decide on a way of attaining those goals (the positive part). Economists often see cases in which people propose courses of action that will never get them to their intended results. If economists limit themselves to evaluating whether or not proposed actions will achieve intended results, they confine themselves to positive analysis. (You should realize that although economists can speak with special authority on positive issues, even the best can be wrong.) However, virtually all economists prefer a wider role in policy analysis, and include normative judgments as well. On normative issues economists cannot speak with special expertise. Put somewhat differently, addressing most normative issues ultimately depends on how one answers the following question: "What is the meaning of life?" One does not study economics to answer this question. Most statements are not easily categorized as purely positive or purely normative. Rather, they are like tips of an iceberg, with many invisible assumptions hiding below the surface. Suppose, for example, someone says, "The minimum wage is a bad law." Behind that simple statement are assumptions about how to judge whether a law is good or bad (or normative statements) and also beliefs about what the actual effects of the minimum wage law are (or positive statements).