Developing a
Business Mindset
Chapter 2 Business in
Understanding Action 8e
Basic Economics Bovée/Thill
Introduction
• This chapter offers
A brief introduction to economics from a
business professional’s perspective
A high-level look at the study of economics,
types of economic systems, and the
interaction of supply and demand
• Understanding basic economic principles
is essential to successful business
management
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Learning Objectives
1. Define economics, and explain why
scarcity is central to economic decision
making.
2. Differentiate among the major types of
economic systems.
3. Explain the interaction between demand
and supply.
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Learning Objectives (cont.)
4. Identify four macroeconomic issues that
are essential to understanding the
behavior of the economy.
5. Outline the debate over deregulation, and
identify four key roles that governments
play in the economy.
6. Identify the major ways of measuring
economic activity.
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What Is This Thing Called
The Economy?
• Economy
The sum total of all the economic activity
within a given region
• Economics
The study of how a society uses its scarce
resources to produce and distribute goods
and services
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What Is This Thing Called
The Economy? (cont.)
• Microeconomics
The study of how consumers, businesses, and
industries collectively determine the quantity of
goods and services demanded and supplied at
different prices
• Macroeconomics
The study of “big picture” issues in an economy,
including competitive behavior among firms, the
effect of government policies, and overall
resource allocation issues
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Factors of Production
• Natural resources
Land, forests, minerals, water, and other
tangible assets usable in their natural state
• Human resources
All the people who work in an organization or
on its behalf
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Factors of Production (cont.)
• Capital
The funds that finance the operations of a
business as well as the physical, human-
made elements used to produce goods and
services, such as factories and computers
• Entrepreneurship
The combination of innovation, initiative, and
willingness to take the risks required to create
and operate new businesses
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Factors of Production (cont.)
• Knowledge
Expertise gained through experience or
association
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Exhibit 2.1 Factors of Production
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The Economic Impact of Scarcity
• Scarcity
A condition of any productive resource that
has finite supply
• Opportunity cost
The value of the most appealing alternative
not chosen
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Economic Systems
• Economic system
The policies that define a society’s particular
economic structure; the rules by which a
society allocates economic resources
Free-market, planned
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Free Market Systems
• Free-market system
An economic system in which decisions about
what to produce and in what quantities are
decided by the market’s buyers and sellers
• Capitalism
Economic system based on economic
freedom and competition
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Planned Systems
• Planned system
Economic system in which the government
controls most of the factors of production and
regulates their allocation
• Socialism
Economic system characterized by public
ownership and operation of key industries
combined with private ownership and
operation of less-vital industries
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Exhibit 2.2 Economic Systems
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Nationalization and Privatization
• Nationalization • Privatization
A government’s Turning over
takeover of services once
selected companies performed by the
or industries government and
allowing private
businesses to
perform them
instead
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The Forces of Demand and Supply
• Demand
Buyers’ willingness and ability to purchase
products at various price points
• Supply
A specific quantity of a product that the seller
is able and willing to provide at various prices
• Demand curve
A graph of the quantities of a product that
buyers will purchase at various prices
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Exhibit 2.3 Demand Curve
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Understanding Supply
• Supply curve
A graph of the quantities of a product that
sellers will offer for sale, regardless of
demand, at various prices
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Exhibit 2.4 Supply Curve
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Understanding How Demand and
Supply Interact
• Equilibrium point
The point at which quantity supplied equals
quantity demanded
• Because the supply and demand curves are
dynamic, so is the equilibrium point
• As variables affecting supply and demand
change, so will the equilibrium price
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Exhibit 2.5 The Relationship Between
Supply and Demand
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Competition in a
Free-Market System
• Competition
Rivalry among businesses for the same
customers
• Pure competition
A situation in which so many buyers and
sellers exist that no single buyer or seller can
individually influence market prices
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Competition in a
Free-Market System (cont.)
• Monopoly
A situation in which one company dominates
a market to the degree that it can control
prices
• Monopolistic competition
A situation in which many sellers differentiate
their products from those of competitors in at
least some small way
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Competition in a
Free-Market System (cont.)
• Oligopoly
A market situation in which a very small
number of suppliers, sometimes only two,
provide a particular good or service
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Exhibit 2.6 Categories of Competition
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Business Cycles
• Recession
A period during which national income,
employment, and production all fall; defined
as at least six months of decline in the GDP
• Business cycles
Fluctuations in the rate of growth that an
economy experiences over a period of
several years
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Exhibit 2.7
Fluctuations in the
U.S. Economy
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Unemployment
• Unemployment rate
The portion of the labor force (everyone over
16 who has or is looking for a job) currently
without a job
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Exhibit 2.8 Types of Unemployment
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Inflation and Deflation
• Inflation • Deflation
An economic An economic
condition in which condition in which
prices rise steadily prices fall steadily
throughout the throughout the
economy economy
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Government’s Role in a
Free-Market System
• Protecting stakeholders
• Fostering competition
• Encouraging innovation and economic
development
• Stabilizing and stimulating the economy
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Government’s Role in a
Free-Market System (cont.)
• Regulation • Deregulation
Relying more on Removing
laws and policies regulations to allow
than on market the market to
forces to govern prevent excesses
economic activity and correct itself
over time
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Stabilizing and Stimulating
the Economy
• Monetary policy
Government policy and actions taken by the
Federal Reserve Board to regulate the
nation’s money supply
• Fiscal policy
Strategy for the use of government revenue
collection and spending to influence the
business cycle
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Exhibit 2.9
Major Government Agencies and
What They Do
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Exhibit 2.10 Major Types of Taxes
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Economic Measures and Monitors
• Economic indicators
Statistics that measure the performance of
the economy
Leading, lagging
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Price Indexes
• Consumer price index (CPI)
A monthly statistic that measures changes in
the prices of a representative collection of
consumer goods and services
• Producer price index (PPI)
A statistical measure of price trends at the
producer and wholesaler levels
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Composition of the
Exhibit 2.11
Consumer Price Index
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National Economic Output
• Gross domestic product (GDP)
The value of all the final goods and services
produced by businesses located within a
nation’s borders; excludes outputs from
overseas operations of domestic companies
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Applying What You’ve Learned
1. Define economics, and explain why
scarcity is central to economic decision
making.
2. Differentiate among the major types of
economic systems.
3. Explain the interaction between demand
and supply.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. 2-41
Applying What You’ve Learned (cont.)
4. Identify four macroeconomic issues that
are essential to understanding the
behavior of the economy.
5. Outline the debate over deregulation, and
identify four key roles that governments
play in the economy.
6. Identify the major ways of measuring
economic activity.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. 2-42
2-43
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