International Trade What determines whether a country imports or exports a good?

Market Efficiency - Market Failures Recall that: Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of the marketplace leads self￾interested buyers and sellers in a market to maximize the total benefit that society can derive from a market

“The best things in life are free. . . ” Free goods provide a special challenge for economic analysis Most goods in our economy are allocated in markets… …for these goods, prices are the signals that guide the decisions of buyers and sellers

The Law of Supply: uFirms are willing to produce and sell a greater quantity of a good when the price of the good is high. uThis results in a supply curve that slopes upward

The Meaning of Competition uA perfectly competitive market has the following characteristics: u There are many buyers and sellers in the market

Monopoly While a competitive firm is a price taker, a monopoly firm is a price maker

Imperfect Competition Imperfect competition refers to those market structures that fall between perfect competition and pure monopoly

Harcourt, Inc. items and derived items copyright © 2001 by Harcourt, Inc. The Four Types of Market Structure Monopoly Oligopoly Monopolistic Competition Perfect Competition

Factors of Production Factors of production are the inputs used to produce goods and services

给出一组离散点,确定一个函数逼近原函数,插值是这样的一种手段在实际中,数据不可避免的会有误差,插值函数会将这些误差也包括在内因此,我们需要一种新的逼近原函数的手段: ①不要求过所有的点(可以消除误差影响) ②尽可能表现数据的趋势,靠近这些点