5 Basic Principles of Economics

Thinking Like an Economist

Tag: Opportunity Cost

  • Retail Sales in Canada: Benchmarks

    —

    by

    PA
    in

    Statistics Canada recently announced that Canadians spent about $66,000,000,000 at retail stores in July. What does that mean? One of the challenges with studying economics is that people quote numbers even if the audience has trouble with the context. This lack of context is especially evident in media reports which shift between related-but-different measures (e.g.,…

  • Swiftonomics: Economic Ideas and Taylor Swift

    —

    by

    PA
    in

    Taylor Swift is accused of causing inflation. She also represents an innovative organization worth more than US$1,000,000,000. Beyond this high-level perspective on her impact, many teachers are using her career to demonstrate old economic ideas more memorably. Some instructors offer entire courses in university [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and at the high school level.…

  • The Opportunity Cost Principle

    —

    by

    PA
    in

    All important decisions or choices involve a trade off. Thus, any explanation of why somebody chooses one thing must consider the alternative(s) that could have been chosen but were not. Often, opportunity cost in a market economy can often be summarized accurately by using relative prices: if the price of an apple is $2 and…