CH 2 ECO Notes by Jashanjot Singh
CH 2 ECO Notes by Jashanjot Singh
CH 2 ECO Notes by Jashanjot Singh
Tenzin Yindok
PPF- PRODUCTION POSSIBILTY FRONTIER
Learning Outcomes
• Upon successful completion of today’s class and related homework, you
should be able to:
4. show that there are gains from specialization and trade, in simplified
settings.
Activities:
Overview
• Differences in opportunity costs between two agents will result in gains from
trade for both, even if one is better at everything
Apples Coffee
Nancy 3 kg per hour 3 kg per hour
Joe 1 kg per hour 0.5 kg per hour productivity
table
feasible- possible
production table
In a day: Apples Coffee
Nancy 15 kg 5 hours 15 kg 5 hours
coffee
apples
axes will have quantities possible combinations nancy can produce with given resources and time
• Efficient: only way to get more of one good is get less of the other
• !!"##$%& : Nancy
• !!'())%% : Nancy
Calculating Opportunity Costs
Productivity Apples Coffee
Nancy 3 kg per hour 3 kg per hour
Joe 1 kg per hour 0.5 per hour
012233
()*+, +.//&& 4156 ;
• !"#$$%&' = = = =1 unit of coffee
)$$%&' 78893: ;
4156
>.&
• !"#$$%&' = 0.5
>.&
• !"=.//&& = 2
Using PPF’s
• What do the intercepts of the PPF represent?
maximum production of each good that means just producing one thing and producing none units of others
• What does the absolute value of the slope of the PPF represent?
| slope | -- is the opportunity cost of one unit of the good on the x-axis( apple - in our case)
Lowest in a group
Joe 0.5C 2A
• !"#$$%&' :
• !"()**&& :
• In one day, Karan can bake 10 cookies or mix 15 glasses of lemonade.
a. Karan
b. Ava
c. Santo
d. Both Karan and Ava
e. No one
Gains from Trade
• Before:
• Joe will be willing to trade if the price of an apple is at least ___ kg of coffee.
1. If Nina and Jaya traded with each other, who will produce (and sell) coffee?
• If both items would be produced and consumed by both without trade, then
both are better off with trade.
• The voluntary trade price range for a good is determined by the range of
opportunity costs.
Increasing Opportunity Cost
• The Principle of Increasing Opportunity Cost: to increase production of
some good, always use the resource with the lowest opportunity cost. Repeat
as needed.
• Suppose Nancy and Joe are the only two workers at a farm. Who should
produce the first units of apples?
Generally when we do more of something the opportunity cost of something will tend to grow up
When we produce something we tend to use the resource with least opportunity cost
The producer with lower opportunity cost should produce more
If we only need a very few of so
as we do something the opportunity cost of something grows
Nancy and Joe as 1 Economy