A Level AS阶段经济学高分备考笔记：Basic Economic Ideas and Resource Allocation知识点整理|A Level备考资料免费下载

在A Level考试中，AS和A2的占比相同，但是难度却大相径庭。在AS考试中拿一个相对较高的分数（90+/100）非常非常重要！这样的话A2就会轻松很多。复习过程中，对知识点的梳理非常重要，我AS拿高分的秘籍就是一遍又一遍的整理笔记（mind map/纸上勾勾画画/认真梳理 etc.各种整理方法）。 [caption id="attachment_27966" align="aligncenter" width="900"]

上图是我学习AS的时候部分笔记一览～[/caption] 为了方便大家备考，我根据自己曾经的笔记+syllabus+课本+revision book，稍加改动又整理出来了一份电子版notes～分为以下五个topic：

1.Basic Economic Ideas and Resource Allocation-基本经济观点与资源分配 2.Price System and the Microeconomiy-价值体系与微观经济 3.Government Microeconomic Intervention-政府微观经济干预 4.The Macroeconomy-宏观经济 5.Government Macroeconomic Intervention-政府宏观经济干预

本篇文章是TOPIC 1的内容,包含：

1.Scarcity, Choice and Opportunity Cost 2.Positive Statements and Normative Statements 3.Factors of Production and their Rewards 4.Resource Allocation in Different Economic Systems and Issues of Transition 5.Production Possibility Curves

money&classification of goods这两个小话题会放在Price system里面，因为money和price更相关，classification of goods和elasticity更相关。

Scarcity, Choice and Opportunity Cost

一个最基础的经济学概念：稀缺性

Scarcity

因为人们有无限的愿望，但是资源确是有限的。 A situation that arises because people have unlimited wants in the face of limited resources People always have to make choices and prioritize the consumption of commodities. 因此，人们总是需要做决定(make decisions)，并把所有事情按心中价值排序(prioritization)。比如说，你在超市里但只有五元钱，只能买一块巧克力，一盒牛奶或者一带薯片。因为你的钱稀缺，你必须在这三个物品中作出一个选择。你排序这三件商品，觉得薯片>巧克力>牛奶，因此购买了薯片。产生这一系列过程的原因就是（你对钱的）稀缺性。从而引出了机会成本这个概念：

Opportunity Costs

The opportunity cost of a choice is the value of the next best alternative forgone. 在上面那个例子中，你放弃了巧克力和牛奶两件商品，但是你的opportunity cost是巧克力对你的价值，而并非牛奶或巧克力和牛奶的价值。因为OC指的是放弃了的第二优选择的价值(the value of next best alternative forgone)。机会成本也是经济学里一个非常重要的概念。无论是个人、企业还是政府做选择都会考虑到机会成本，因为资源是有限的。

Ceteris Paribus

经济学还有一个专业的名词（拉丁语）：Ceteris Paribus，意味着其他变量保持不变。 It is a key assumption made in economics. It means all other things are held constant or are equal.

Positive Statements and Normative Statements

学会分辨 “fact and fiction”很重要。

Positive Statements

Positive Statements是指客观的观点。 They are objective statements based on factual evidence. They can be tested and can consequently be rejected or accepted. 客观观点里经常出现“will”“is”这样的单词，比如：The price will fall as the demand decreases.

Normative Statements

Normative Statements是指主观的观点，是基于个人观点得出判断的。 They are subjective statements based on value judgments. It cannot be tested by factual evidence. 主观观点里经常出现“should”“better””best”这样的单词，比如：Government should put inflation control as top priority.这些Normative Statements可能会影响经济政策，不同的经济学家用同样的数据可能会进行不一样的衡量和假设。因此，Normative和Positive Statements都很重要。

Factors of Production and their Rewards

Economic Resources are the factors of production. These include:

land

land是指自然资源，并非只有土地！！ Natural resources such as oil, coal, wheat, water. It can also be physical space for fixed capital. Reward: Rent

labor

人力成本，同时也是the workforce of the economy. Reward: wages

enterprise

需要的是管理能力。 Entrepreneur is someone who take risks, innovates, and uses the FOP. Resources are drawn together into the production process. Reward: Profit

capital

capital是指实体的投入，比如机器。 Reward:interest from the investment; dividends.

Specialization and division of labor

亚当史密斯提出来的Specialization。 It occurs when each worker completes a specific task in a production process. Through division of labor, productivity can increase. Firms can then take advantage of increased efficiency and lower average costs of production. 通过分工（专业人做专业事/流水线生产）1. 生产率可以提高 2. 平均成本降低。Specialization可以存在于个人、企业、地区、国家中。 优点： 1.更高的产率+更高的质量。 Higher output and potentially higher quality, since production focuses on what people and businesses are best at. 2.可以增大商品和服务的覆盖范围。 There could be a greater variety of goods and services produced. 3.economies of scale的机会增多，市场规模增大。 There are more opportunities for economies of scale, so the size of the market increases. 4.刺激竞争，firms可能会选择降低价格，可以保证价格稍微低一点。 There is more competition and this gives an incentive for firms to lower their costs, which helps to keep prices down. 缺点： 1.员工积极性可能会降低，因为工作非常的重复性，从而导致一系列问题。 Work becomes repetitive, which could lower the motivation of workers, potentially affecting quality and productivity. Workers could become dissatisfied. 2.对于顾客来说，商品内容可能甚至减少。 By producing a lot of one type of good through specialization, variety could in fact decrease for consumers. 3.员工很容易疲劳或者不满意，造成经常离职。 There could be higher worker turnover for firms, which means employees become dissatisfied with their jobs and leave regularly.

Short run, long run, and very long run

In the short run, at least one factor of production is fixed. This means there is a limit to the extent it can respond to price changes. In the long run, all factors of production are variable. This means firms can increase their capacity by increasing their factors of production. In the very long run, the firm’s factors of production are variable, as are the inputs beyond their control. This means land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship are variable, as are government rules and technology.

Resource Allocation in Different Economic Systems

有三种市场：

Free market economy

在自由市场中，没有政府干预，供给和需求决定分配资源。 Government leaves markets to their own devices, so the market force of supply and demand allocate scarce resources. 但是在现实生活中，政府会通过立法等办法干涉市场。 Three questions to be answered: 1.What to produce ：determined by what consumer prefers. 2.How to produce it? : producers seek profits. 3.For whom to produce it? : whoever has the greatest purchasing power in the economy, and is therefore able to buy the good. 好处： 1.Firms are likely to be efficient因为他们需要提供顾客需要的服务和商品。他们需要降低自己的平均成本，更好的利用有限资源。 2.The bureaucracy from government intervention is avoided. 3.Freedom gained from having a free economy leads to more personal freedom. 坏处： 1.可能会造成不公平的发生。如果有政府控制的话，可以设定最低价格和最高价格。但是在自由市场里面，一切都是需求和供给决定的。 The free market ignores inequality, and tends to benefit those who hold most of the wealth. There are no social security payments for those on low incomes. 2.可能会形成垄断。但是如果有政府控制的话，会颁布反垄断法等之类的规定。 There could be monopolies, which could exploit the market by charging higher prices. 3.demerit good的过度消费和merit good的供给不足。 There could be the over-consumption of demerit goods, which have large negative externalities, such as tobacco. Merit goods, such as education, are under-provided. 4.没有public good。 Public goods are not provided in a free market, such as national defense.

Planned economy

和自由市场相反，计划市场是完全由政府操控的。 This is where the government allocates all of the scarce resources in an economy to where they think there is a greater need. It is also referred to as central planning. 优点: 1.分配资源更有效更简单。 It might be easier to coordinate resources in times of crises, such as wars. 2.有可能可以保证每个人都得到最起码的供给。 The government can compensate for market failure, by reallocating resources. They might ensure everyone can access basic necessities. 3.可以减少社会不公平。 Inequality in society could be reduced, and society might maximise welfare rather than profit. 4.不会出现垄断现象。 The abuse of monopoly power could be prevented. 缺点: 1.政府可能没法生产顾客喜欢的东西。 They may not necessarily meet consumer preferences. 2.It limits democracy and personal freedom. Three questions to be answered： What to produce: determined by what the government prefers. How to produce it: governments and their employees. For whom to produce it: who the government prefers.

Mixed economy

混合性经济体是现实生活中最常见的；具有上面两种市场的特征。政府会提供public good （比如路灯，道路，警察）and merit good（比如教育，health care system）。 This has features of both planned and free economies and is the most common economic system today. There are different balances between planned and free economies in reality. Three questions to be answered:

What to produce: determined by both consumer and government preferences. How to produce it: determined by producers making profits and the government. For whom to produce it: both who the government prefers and the purchasing power of private individuals.

Production Possibility Curves

生产可能性边界上表示一个经济体最大的生产可能。 Production possibility curves (PPC) depict the maximum productive potential of an economy, using a combination of two goods or services, when resources are fully and efficiently employed.

A和B是最efficient的点。E不可能被达到，CD是inefficient。 PPC也可以展示economic growth或者economic decline：通过economic growth （outward shift of PPC），可以达到E点。因为只有PPC线上和PPC内部的点是可达到的(attainable)。但是只有PPC线上的点是efficiently used，内部的点全部都是inefficient，因为没有合理运用resources。如果没有经济增长的话，能达到PPC线外的点的唯一途径就是trade---和另外一个经济体合理交易。（通过comparative advantage以及terms of trade） 两种特殊的PPC形状：

直线（理想模型）

If the PPC is a straight line, the marginal* opportunity cost is constant. This is because the amount of one good given up to produce the other does not change. This is not realistic because resources are not fully adjustable to produce both good A and good B. Define margin:margin的意思是边际，这个概念在以后会有很多用处（比如边际成本，边际效益）有句话说：理性人思考边际（rational people think of margin.）考虑到margin意味着考虑下一步行动。 Economic theory suggests that each extra unit of a good or service consumed gives the consumer less utility. This is the law of diminishing marginal returns. margin意味着 consume one more unit所多出来的东西，比如marginal utility：the extra utility gain from consuming one more unit of good.

concave shape

The concave shape of the PPF shows increasing opportunity cost. This is more realistic than the straight line. Producing more of good B decreases the relative output of B and leads to a relatively higher loss of the output of A.

以上就是Top 1 Basic Economic Ideas and Resource Allocation的知识点梳理！希望能为大家的备考带来帮助！ 建议大家也根据自己所学知识，按照syllabus的大纲内容，用自己的逻辑整理一下笔记或者思维导图！可以夯实AS的基础，把AS考高是A Level取胜的必不可少因素！大家加油~