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Economics is the study of allocation of scarce resources among wants that exceed those resources
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A good is scarce if the amount demanded exceeds the amount supplied at a zero price.
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Resources are inputs used to produce goods and services.
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Human rational self-interest is assumed.
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Economics is a science, and employs the scientific method.
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Theory is a set of testable hypotheses that explain observed facts.
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The ceteris paribus condition is violated if background causes change when a hypothesis is being tested.
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The fallacy of composition occurs when what holds for an individual acting independently is inferred to the aggregate, or vice versa
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Positive statements are statements of fact with no value judgments.
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Normative statements have value judgments.
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Causation can be inferred from correlation, but more than one causal hypothesis may be consistent with the facts.
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Resources are of four kinds:� land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship.
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Skilled labor is also known as human capital.
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Scarcity implies opportunity cost.
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Opportunity cost is the highest-valued alternative given up when an allocating decision is made.
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Marginal benefits and marginal costs refer to decisions made one step at a time.
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The rule of rational choice is that an action should be taken if its marginal benefit exceeds its marginal cost.
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An optimum exists only when marginal benefit equals marginal cost for all possible actions.
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An optimum will change when incentives (marginal benefits or costs) are changed.
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To have comparative advantage is to be able to produce something at a lower opportunity cost than someone else.
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In a two-good world, if one producer has a comparative advantage in one good, the other producer has a comparative advantage in the other.
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Specialization is the concentration of productive effort in goods in which the