Economic reviews
Economics 201.
One of the “out of class
options” for students taking economics 201 is to write three short economics
reviews. They are called “reviews”
because they involve reviewing an article found in some current news source either
printed or online source. Important to
the completion of this assignment is the identification of a theme for each
review. For a theme students will choose
one or more of the “core concepts in economics” listed
below. If
the information from a particular article can be linked
to more than one guidepost, that is the kind of thing that we likely result in
your receiving extra credit for the assignment.
I want students to choose a different principle theme for each review.
For example if you found an article that described difficult budget
choices facing a community you could use “resources
are scarce giving rise to opportunity costs” as a principle theme. For the two other reviews you would need to
select another theme such as “incentives
matter”, or “secondary
effects”. However, any time you can
tie the information in the article to more than one core concept that would be
great.
A key to the understanding of
economics are eight “core concepts in
economics”. In brief these eight concepts are:
1)
The wants and
needs that people have for goods and services are virtually unlimited, while the resources they have are limited. As a result, difficult economic choices must be made.
The making of these choices gives rise to what economists refer to as “opportunity costs”.
2)
Economizing
behavior involves making economic choices that provide the greatest benefit at the least cost.
3)
The wants and
needs that people have are subjective
giving rise to the fact that people see the potential benefits or costs of an
economic choice differently.
4)
Marginal thinking
is used to determine the potential benefits and costs of an economic
choice. In other words, when an economic
choice is made people consider the additional
(marginal) benefits that they will gain as a result of that choice and
compare that to the additional
(marginal) costs of that choice. Economizing behavior takes place when the marginal benefits of a particular economic
choice are greater than the marginal
costs of that choice.
5)
Economic incentives can change the marginal benefits or marginal costs of an economic
choice.
6)
Secondary effects must be considered as we weigh the marginal benefits or costs of a
particular economic choice.
7)
Information is scarce and costly to acquire. In
other words, there are opportunity costs involved with the gathering of
information about the marginal benefits and costs of any economic choice.
8)
The test of a theory is its ability to predict. We
use scientific thinking in economics, as we develop theories from the core
principles listed above, and check them against events in the real world.
Please follow carefully the following format for each
economic review:
1)
Develop a title
for your paper that includes the core
concept you have chosen for the theme of your review.
2)
In the first
paragraph of your paper, introduce the core
concept that you are using as a theme and spend some time in that paragraph
explaining that core concept and its
importance to economics. Information to
help you do that will be found in chapter one of the text where the core concepts or (guideposts to
economic thinking) are found.
3)
In the next
paragraph(s) describe the information from the article that is related to the core concept that you are exploring.
4)
In the final
paragraph offer a few concluding sentences that explain how the information you
have learned illustrates the meaning of the core concept in economics.
5)
Please attach a
copy of the article you are reviewing to your paper.
Economic reviews will be due
on the following schedule:
Review #1: one week after test # 1.
Review #2: one week after test # 2.
Review #3: one week after test # 3.