From the book
Concepts
Short, friendly explanations of the ideas in Econ by Frank, in the order the book covers them.
- Concept 1The Factors of Production
Land, labor, capital, technology and entrepreneurship: the inputs every business needs, and why they come from households, not businesses.Read - Concept 2The Production Function
How a business mixes land, labor and capital to get the most output from what it has, written as Q = f(L, K).Read - Concept 3Scarcity and Opportunity Costs
No one has unlimited resources, so every choice gives something up. What does sitting in a lecture really cost you?Read - Concept 4Circular Flow of the Economy
Businesses and households are allies and adversaries at once. A simple model of how products, factors and money move between them.Read - Concept 5The Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The key measure of an economy’s output: what it counts, what it leaves out, and how it differs from the GNP.Read