Hill An Introduction to Economics for Students of Agriculture

Introduction to Economics for Students of Agriculture
1. Auflage 1980
ISBN: 978-1-4832-7973-2
Verlag: Elsevier Reference Monographs
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 357 Seiten

The Introduction to Economics for Students of Agriculture describes the universal economic principles, illustrated primarily by examples drawn from farming and the food industry.
This book is composed of nine chapters, and begins with what an overview of the concepts of economics, its objective, with a particular emphasis on the mechanism of allocating scarce resources. The succeeding chapters deal with the behavior of individual through the theory of consumer choice, the concept of demand and supply, market competitions, and production economics. These topics are followed by discussions on the mobility of the factors of production and unemployment, and some problems of using the market as a resource allocator.
This book will prove useful to economists, agriculturists, and students.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hill, Berkeley

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Front Cover;1
2;An Introduction to Economics for Students of Agriculture;4
3;Copyright Page;5
4;Table of Contents;6
5;Introduction;8
6;Acknowledgements;10
7;CHAPTER 1. What is Economics?;12
7.1;Opportunity Cost;13
7.2;Scarcity;14
7.3;What is an Economic Problem;14
7.4;Objectives of Choice;15
7.5;The Mechanism of Allocating Scarce Resources;16
7.6;The Scientific Approach to Economics;18
7.7;Problems Faced by Scientific Economists;20
7.8;Cause and Effect Relationships;22
7.9;If a Theory is Shown to be Valid, will it Always be Valid?;22
7.10;Conclusion;23
7.11;Exercise on Material in Chapter 1;23
8;CHAPTER 2. Explaining the behaviour of individuals (Theory of Consumer Choice);26
8.1;The Concept of Utility;26
8.2;The Margin;29
8.3;Free Goods;31
8.4;Theories of Consumer Choice;31
8.5;Income Effect;39
8.6;Price Effect;40
8.7;A Note on "Lumpy" Commodities;41
8.8;The Stable and the Unstable Equilibrium;42
8.9;Appendix;42
8.10;Exercise on Material in Chapter 2;43
9;CHAPTER 3. Demand and Supply—the price mechanism in a market economy;50
9.1;Introduction to Demand and Supply;50
9.2;Demand and Supply Curves;52
9.3;A. The Theory of Demand;53
9.4;B. The Theory of Supply;73
9.5;Exercise on Material in Chapter 3;85
10;CHAPTER 4. Markets and competition;92
10.1;Functions of the Price System;94
10.2;Imperfections in the Market;96
10.3;The Individual Producer in Perfect Competition;98
10.4;The Perfectly Competitive Industry;101
10.5;A Firm Operating under Imperfect Competition;103
10.6;Arguments Against Monopoly;106
10.7;Arguments For Monopoly;108
10.8;Use of Monopoly Power in Agriculture;111
10.9;Discriminating Monopoly;111
10.10;A Monopsonist — The Single Buyer;113
10.11;Price Movements in Agriculture;115
10.12;Damping Out Cycles;121
10.13;The Price System in Centrally-planned Socialist Economies;124
10.14;Exercise on Material in Chapter 4;125
11;CHAPTER 5. Production Economics (Theory of the Firm);131
11.1;The Scope of Production Economics;131
11.2;Time and Scale of Production;162
11.3;Exercise on Material in Chapter 5;174
12;CHAPTER 6. Factors of Production and their rewards (Theory of Distribution);183
12.1;The Purpose of Production;183
12.2;The Nature of Production;183
12.3;Mobility of the Factors of Production and Unemployment;203
12.4;The Allocation of the Factors of Production and Their Rewards;210
12.5;Appendix to Chapter 6;219
12.6;Exercise on Material in Chapter 6;220
13;CHAPTER 7. Some problems of using the market as a resource allocator;225
13.1;Adam Smith and the "Invisible Hand";226
13.2;The Value Judgements of Society;227
13.3;Imperfect Competition;228
13.4;Externalities Associated with Production and Consumption;231
13.5;Public Goods;237
13.6;Imperfect Knowledge by Consumers;239
13.7;Other Imperfections in the Market System;240
14;CHAPTER 8. Macro-economics—the workings of the whole economy;242
14.1;The Circular Flow of Income;243
14.2;Inflation;258
14.3;Economic Growth;264
14.4;The Costs of Economic Growth;270
14.5;Exercise on Material in Chapter 8;273
15;CHAPTER 9. International Trade;280
15.1;Balance of Payments;298
15.2;Exercise on Material in Chapter 9;306
16;Suggested further reading;311
17;Essay questions;313
18;Appendix: Suggested answers and explanations for the exercises following each chapter;317
19;Index;352