Table of Content
| Category | CBSE Class 12 Notes |
| Subject | Economics |
| Topic | Introduction to Economics Class 12 |
WHAT IS THE ECONOMY AND THE VITAL PROCESSES OF AN ECONOMY
The economy is a system, which provides means to work and earn a living for the people. An economy generally consists of all sources of production in agriculture, industry, transport, and communication.
The vital process of an Economy:-
To provide a living to the people, it is necessary that every economy should undertake three economic activities:-
- Production of goods and services ;
- Consumption of goods and services;
- Investment or capital formation.
Reason for studying Economics:-
Human wants are more than the resources available to satisfy such Human wants. In view of this, it is necessary to allocate the scarce resources available to satisfy such Human wants, in a manner so that the maximum demand of human beings can be satisfied. The main reason for studying Economics, to study the problem of scarcity.
Scarcity:-
Scarcity refers to the limitation of the supply of a commodity in relation to the demand for such a commodity. In such a situation, where the wants exceed the available resources, the society does not have enough resources to satisfy all the wants of its people. Scarcity is universally applicable and every individual, organization or economy faces scarcity of resources.
The problem of scarcity requires optimum use of the available resources, to meet the wants of human beings.
Scarce Resources have alternate use – Economics Class 12 Notes: –
In addition to being scarce, the resources also have alternate uses, i.e, a resource can be put to more than one use, For example, We all know, diesel is both scarce in relation to its demand, as well as it can be used for vehicles, railway engines, airplanes, generators, etc.
This gives rise to the problem of choice, as whenever, a commodity is chosen for one use, the other uses have to be rejected.
Basic Economic Problem:-
Basic Economic Problem faced by every economy, is a problem of choice, which involves satisfaction of unlimited wants of human beings, for which limited resources which can satisfy these wants are available and such limited resources have alternative uses.
Human wants are unlimited and are never-ending. As the means or resources to satisfy such wants are limited, all such human wants cannot be fulfilled. Due to this, human beings want to maximize satisfaction achieved by the utilization of such resources. For achieving maximum satisfaction, every consumer exercises choices, one, relating to which the goods should be consumed, and second, in what quantity should each of these goods be consumed.
The economic problem is a problem of choice.
Reasons for Basic Economic Problem:-
The main reasons for the existence of economic problems are as under:-
(i) Scarcity of resources: –
Resources like land, labor, capital, etc are limited (scarce) in relation to their demand. Due to such limited availability, an economy is unable to produce enough to meet all the wants of people. If there were no scarcity, there would not have been any problem of resources and all the demands could have been met.
(ii) Unlimited Human wants:-
Human wants are never-ending, unlimited, and can never be fully satisfied. Once a particular want is satisfied, another new want emerges.
Different Human wants also differ between themselves in terms of importance. While some wants are more important and need to be satisfied before other wants, some wants can be deferred. This requires the people to allocate their resources in order of preference, to satisfy some of their wants. Had all the human wants been of equal importance, it would have been impossible to make choices.
(iii) Alternate Uses:-
In addition to being scarce, the resources also have alternate uses, i.e, a resource can be put to more than one use, For example, We all know, diesel is both scarce in relation to its demand, as well as it can be used for vehicles, railway engines, airplanes, generators, etc. As a result, the economy has to make choice between the alternative uses of the given resources.
Features of Resources and Human Wants
Key Features of resources are as under:-
(i) The resources are scarce in terms of availability, i.e. the supply of resources is limited in relation to the demand of resources.
(ii) The resources have alternative uses.
Features of Human Wants:-
Key Features of Human Wants are as under:-
(i) Human Wants are unlimited and can never be fully satisfied.
(ii) Human Wants to differ in priorities.
Meaning of Economics:-
Economics is a social science
which studies
the way society chooses to use its limited resources, which have alternate uses,
to produce goods and services and
distribute them among different groups of people.
The subject matter of economics has two broad branches: –
- Microeconomics
- Macroeconomics
An economy as a whole comprises various individuals, companies various commodities, etc., like individual income, the output of a particular commodity by a company, etc. When each of such units is combined, we get the aggregate of such attributes for the entire economy. In this light, let us understand the meaning of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.
Microeconomics:-
The term ‘micro’ has been derived from the Greek word ‘mikros’ which means “small”.
Microeconomics is that part of economic theory, which studies the behavior of individual units of an economy. For example, Individual income, individual output, price of a commodity, etc. The main tools of Microeconomics are Demand and supply.
Macroeconomics:-
The term ‘macro’ has been derived from the Greek word ‘macros’ which means ‘large’.
Macroeconomics deals with the overall performance of the economy and is concerned with the study of problems of the economy like inflation, unemployment, poverty, etc. Macroeconomics is that part of economic theory which studies the behavior of aggregates of the economy as a whole.
For example: – National income, aggregate output, aggregate consumption, etc. Its main tools are Aggregate Demand and Aggregate supply.
Micro Vs Macro
Microeconomics and microeconomics are not independent of each other and there is a lot of common ground between them.
Microeconomics depends on Macroeconomics
- The Law of demand came into existence from the analysis of the behavior of a group (aggregate) of people.
- The Law of a commodity is influenced by the general price level prevailing in the economy.
Macroeconomics depends on Microeconomics
- The national income of a country is nothing but the sum total of incomes of individual units of the country.
- Aggregate demand depends on the demand of individual households of the economy.