At all historical stages of human development, society faces the same question: what, for whom and in what quantities to produce, taking into account the limited resources. The economic system and types of economic systems are designed to solve this problem. And each of these systems does it in its own way, each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The economic system is the system of all economic processes and industrial relations that has developed in a particular society. This concept is understood as an algorithm, a way of organizing the production life of society, which implies the existence of stable ties between producers, on the one hand, and consumers, on the other.
The main in any economic system are the following processes:
Production in any of the existing economic systems is carried out on the basis of appropriate resources. some elements are different different systems. We are talking about the nature of the mechanisms of management, the motivation of producers, etc.
An important point in the analysis of any phenomenon or concept is its typology.
The characteristic of types of economic systems, in general, is reduced to the analysis of five main parameters for comparison. It:
Based on this, modern economists distinguish four main types of economic systems:
Let us consider in more detail how all these types differ from each other.
This economic system is characterized by gathering, hunting and low-productive farming based on extensive methods, manual labor and primitive technologies. Trade is poorly developed or not developed at all.
Perhaps the only advantage of such an economic system is the weak (almost zero) and minimal anthropogenic pressure on nature.
A planned (or centralized) economy is a historical type of management. Nowadays, it is not found anywhere in its pure form. Previously, it was characteristic of the Soviet Union, as well as some countries of Europe and Asia.
Today, more often they talk about the shortcomings of this economic system, among which it is worth mentioning:
However, this economic system also had its advantages. One of them was the possibility of ensuring social stability for everyone.
The market is a complex and multifaceted economic system that is typical for most countries. modern world. Also known by another name: "capitalism". The fundamental principles of this system are the principle of individualism, free enterprise and healthy market competition based on the balance of supply and demand. Here private property dominates, and the main incentive for production activities there is a desire for profit.
However, such an economy is far from ideal. The market type of economic system also has its drawbacks:
In addition, there is also a fourth - a mixed type of economic system, in which both the state and the private sector have an equal weight. In such systems, the functions of the state in the country's economy are reduced to supporting important (but unprofitable) enterprises, financing science and culture, controlling unemployment, etc.
It remains to consider examples for which this or that economic system is characteristic. For this, a special table is presented below. The types of economic systems are presented in it taking into account the geography of their distribution. It should be noted that this table is very subjective, since for many modern states it can be difficult to unambiguously assess which of the systems they belong to.
What type of economic system is in Russia? In particular, Professor of Moscow State University A. Buzgalin described modern economy Russia as a "mutation of late capitalism". In general, the country's economic system is considered today to be transitional, with an actively developing market.
Each economic system responds differently to the three "what, how and for whom to produce?" Modern economists distinguish four main types: traditional, command-and-plan, market, and mixed systems.
Speaking about Russia, we can say that in this state a specific type of economic system has not yet settled down. The country is in transition between a command economy and a modern market economy.
In this lesson, we will find out what are the main questions in the economy, why it exists and how it tries to answer these main questions. We will also talk about economic efficiency and economic choice. We will try to show how the economy enters the life of every person.
Theme: Economics
Lesson: Key questions in economics
In the last session, we talked about the fact that resources are very limited, and the economy, in fact, is called upon to decide how to use these resources for the maximum benefit for humanity. All participants in economic processes are in one way or another in a state of choice: they choose which of the resources to use now and which to use later, which goods to produce, etc. Accordingly, in the economy there are three main questions to which she must answer: "what to produce?", "how to produce?" and "for whom to produce?". The answer to these three questions is the answer to the main task of economic processes. Let's talk about each of them separately.
Rice. 1. Basic questions of economics ()
So the first question is What goods to produce? It is clear that a person is a being who, living in a social environment, largely serves himself. Primitive people, of course, served themselves on their own. So, a primitive hunter made the items he needed for hunting: a spear, a bow and other things he needed. And in our time, each of us can do some things for ourselves on our own, or we can get these things in a different way. You can be given something, something can be inherited, and something you can buy in the market. Thus, you create your life the way you want it to be. You can become an absolutely satisfied person, all your needs and desires can be realized, but society, alas, cannot live like this because of our limited resources.
That is why all producers (they can be the state, private firms, even individuals) are in a situation of constant choice of which product they need to produce. It depends on what exactly will be in demand in the near future. Over time, the demand for certain goods changes. A century or two ago, some things were absolutely necessary, but now the need for them has disappeared, among other things, they have become archaic. Bast shoes can serve as an example of such a thing.
Being in a situation of choice, producers strive to get not only momentary benefits, but also to lay the foundations for their future production. They seek to increase their profits in the future by anticipating the needs of society that may arise.
Of course, it is very profitable for all manufacturers to produce those services or goods that cannot be refused. After all, a person cannot refuse food or clothing. But the essence of the economy lies in the presence of competition, in the confrontation between different producers, so that the consumer has the opportunity to choose whether to buy cheaper or buy more expensive. By the way, it should be explained why things are generally cheaper or more expensive. This is because the manufacturer always decides how to produce goods.
Rice. 3. The essence of the economy is competition between manufacturers ()
So we come to the second question - How to produce goods and services?. There are always the most different ways and the ability to produce the same product or service. The way it is made depends on what the final product will be, the decisions that manufacturers make during the manufacture of the goods. One way or another, any manufacturer makes sure that his solutions are the most effective. And under economic efficiency understand the product of a given volume of the finished product at the lowest cost limited resources. Having understood this ratio, we can understand why this or that product has such a price. The manufacturer always strives to reduce the cost of its production, but at the same time does not want to reduce its profits in any case. This is the basis of any production, on this balance there is an economics of production.
However, there is also a third question, which we have identified today - “for whom to produce goods and services?”. It is clear that we all have different desires, we have different possibilities. Producing any product, the manufacturer seeks to please the interests of the broad masses of the population. But to do this with the help of any one service or product is simply impossible. That is why each of the manufacturers seeks either to narrowly specialize or to produce a wide range of goods and services for various social strata. It does not matter whether it is a physical product or a service that does not have a physical expression, because it also has a cost and brings profit to the manufacturer.
So, in order to get the right answers to the main questions of the economy, it is necessary to know the possibilities of the economic system, the state of the market, the factors that shape supply and demand.
As we can see, three basic economic issues put human society in a state of choice. One way or another, we have to choose where to produce, how to produce, what to produce, for whom to produce. This question is painful every time, because for some time the production of some things and services can be profitable, but then it ceases to be so. It should be understood that almost every day manufacturers are in limbo, because it is very difficult to determine the exact priorities of a person. There is a possibility that our outlook on life will change and the need for some item or service will disappear. You can give a lot of examples in the history of mankind, when some important and interesting things that a person used eventually came to naught. Such is life, such is the economy.
Consider why the quality of manufactured goods varies. The same thing on the market can have absolutely different cost depending on its quality. Let's take pens as an example. This is a common everyday item, well known to you. But even that can cost quite a bit. You can buy a simple and inexpensive ballpoint pen that you will use every day, or you can buy a very expensive gift pen for special occasions. But, nevertheless, it is still the same pen, writing instrument.
Rice. 4. Simple or gift - the pen is just a writing instrument ()
So where does this price difference come from? It's about human interests and desires. The manufacturer initially focuses on a specific buyer. The tastes of people are diverse: some people have more cravings for luxury and the desire to surround themselves with expensive items, while other people just need to have simple and multifunctional items at hand. From the point of view of the manufacturer, it is the person with a craving for luxury, unusual things, who is a buyer who is willing to pay a large amount for the same product. The most expensive items and services are focused on it. For example, a watch can be simple in design, or it can become a complex luxury item that has a lot of additional functions and indicates the high social status of its owner. The need for them is very conditional, but the owner of such a watch is proud that he has them.
Rice. 5. Expensive watches are more of a luxury than a necessity, but the owner is proud of their possession ()
We all surround ourselves with things and objects that we need. This is how we build our lives. This is how the economy enters the life of every person.
Bibliography
1. Kravchenko A.I. Social science 8. - M.: Russian word.
2. Nikitin A.F. Social science 8. - M .: Bustard.
3. Bogolyubov L.N., Gorodetskaya N.I., Ivanova L.F. / Ed. Bogolyubova L.N., Ivanova L.F. Social science 8. - M.: Enlightenment.
3. Site for professional traders ().
Homework
1. Explain what economic efficiency is.
2. Describe the three main economic issues.
3. * Imagine that you have inherited the right to own a chain of confectionery factories. Answer the main economic questions: what exactly will you produce, how and for whom.
1. Read the text and do the tasks.
The telegraph, as you know, appeared long before the telephone and quickly became a popular means of transmitting information. But few people know that in the XIX century. there was an attempt to make a business of selling telegraph sets, promoting them to the market as devices for personal household use. Such a business did not take place, since each buyer of the device had to learn Morse code and acquire communication skills in this "non-human language". Engineer A. Bell, seeing that society needed means of communication, soon invented the telephone, providing a simple and natural way for people to communicate. With the use of the telephone, the communications business began to expand rapidly.
(According to the materials of the Encyclopedia for Schoolchildren)
How in this particular situation the main issues of the economy were solved:
1) What and how much to produce?
AT in large numbers, what people need and convenient.
2) How to produce?
Economically, for the benefit of themselves and customers.
3) For whom to produce?
For people.
2. Explain the meaning of the concepts.
Economic efficiency is the ratio between the results obtained by the manufacturer and labor costs.
The economic system is a set of organizational methods of coordination economic activity people to solve the main issues of the economy .
3. Name several ways to improve production efficiency.
Optimization of technology, increasing the level of personnel, etc.
4. Fill in the table using the text of the textbook.
5. Analyze situations and determine the type of economic system.
1) In country W, the main wealth is land that is owned by the community. The production process is carried out in accordance with the customs of the ancestors. Everything necessary for the life of the family is produced on their own farms. Commodity-money relations are not developed.
traditional economy.
2) In country N, all natural and economic resources are owned by the state. Planning and pricing issues are dealt with centrally.
command economy.
6. Compare market and command economy. Select and write in the first column of the table the serial numbers of their similarities, and in the second column the serial numbers of the differences market economy from command.
1) domination state form property
2) solving the problem of limited resources
3) production of goods and services
4) competition of commodity producers
7. In the section "The wise say" the statement of the American economist V. Leontiev is given (see p. 160 of the textbook). Analyze the words of the author.
1) How do you understand the meaning of this statement?
A person does it on his own initiative and decides where he will take it. Private initiative is decisive.
2) Write down two or three social science terms that can help explain the meaning of this statement.
Independent choice, demand, supply.
3) Give some examples to illustrate this statement.
The man opened the store and runs it himself.
Home economic task is the choice of the most effective option distribution of factors of production in order to solve the problem of limited resources and limitless human desires. This position is reflected in the formulation of three basic questions of economics.
1. What to produce, i.e. which of the possible goods and services should be produced in a given economic space at a given time;
2. How to produce, i.e. at what combination of resources, and with what technology the goods will be produced;
3. For whom to produce, i.e. who will pay for these goods and services, who will extract useful properties from them, and how society's income will be distributed.
At solving the question "what to produce?" use the production possibilities curve.
Production Possibility Curve (transformation curve) - this is a graphical representation of various combinations of production of goods with the maximum use of available resources and the existing level of technology.
Consider an example:
Having depicted the data on the graph, we get the production possibilities curve (Fig. 1).
Rice. one. Production Possibility Curve
The graph shows a production possibilities curve, each point of which represents the quantity of a good. X produced with the full use of all available resources, instead of goods Y . points A, E and F represent the production possibilities of society in the production of goods X and Y . Dot B shows that production is organized inefficiently and there are unused resources, such as labor. points C and D show a level of production that is unattainable with this technology. Such "super-efficiency" in conditions of limited resources is possible only with the improvement of technology.
This example illustrates the concept of opportunity cost. Opportunity cost a good or service is the value measured in terms of the lost opportunity to engage in the best available alternative activity that requires the same time or the same resources.
Opportunity cost is equivalent to the following concepts: replacement price, opportunity cost, opportunity cost, opportunity cost, lost profit, cost of the most preferred option.
Product opportunity cost X calculated by the formula:
AI X =,
where is the reduction in product output At , a - increase in product output X .
If a Y(X) is the equation of the production possibilities frontier, then the opportunity cost of the product X are equal to the modulus of the value of the derivative of this function. The opportunity cost of a product is defined similarly. At .
The shape of the production possibilities curve is related to the influence economic law Increasing opportunity costs as the production of a good or service increases.
Law of Rising Opportunity Costs states that as the economy produces more of a given product, the opportunity cost of producing an additional unit, expressed in terms of the ability to produce other products, increases.
Solving the question "how to produce?" associated with the choice of a particular technology and the necessary resources. The production process is seen as the transformation of resources into products. The technological dependence between the resource cost structure and the maximum possible output is expressed using the production function.
production function- the relationship between a given volume of production and the costs of production factors.
Depending on resource prices and technologies used, producers choose different combinations of resources. Finding the cheapest way to create a product is important part their activities. This problem is also facing the entire economy, since the efficiency of the national economy largely depends on its solution.
A key consideration in deciding how to produce is allocative efficiency or Pareto efficiency.
Efficiency Pareto- this is a level of organization of the economy at which society extracts the maximum utility from available resources and technologies, and it is no longer possible to increase someone's share in the result without reducing the other . When efficiency is achieved, more of the good can be produced at the cost of losing the ability to produce something else if the factors of production and knowledge are unchanged. However, the efficiency of production can be increased by improving the social division of labor. Its important characteristics are specialization and cooperation, allowing to take into account comparative advantages in the production of goods.
Comparative advantage The ability to produce a good or service at a relatively lower opportunity cost.
The third key question of the economy is the distribution of the produced product among the members of society. It can be seen both in terms of efficiency and in terms of fairness.
Efficiency in distribution- a situation in which it is impossible, by redistributing the existing amount of goods, to satisfy the desire of one person more fully, without thereby damaging the satisfaction of the desires of another person .
Fairness in distribution interpreted differently.
Let's highlight three concepts:
1. Equal distribution;
2. Distribution based on the principle "according to work";
3. Distribution depending on the contribution to production economic resources(for example, in proportion to the labor and capital invested in the business).
The questions of what, how and for whom to produce are basic and common for all types of farms, but different economic systems solve them in their own way.
The basic problem of economics can also be presented as a problem of choice. Indeed, if each factor used to satisfy various needs is limited, then there is always the problem of alternative use of it and the search for the best combination of factors of production, that is, the problem of choice. This problem is reflected in the statement three main questions economy.
The three main economic questions are:
What? – goal setting problem. – Which of the possible goods and services should be produced in a given economic space and at a given time?
How? – production problem.- With what combination of production resources, using what technology, selected from options goods and services?
For whom? – distribution problem.– Who will buy the selected goods and pay, benefiting from them? How should the gross income of society from the production of these goods and services be distributed?
The fourth question, which also inevitably confronts every society, is the question: How? How to get rid of waste generated in the process of life, how, without reducing the level of consumption, to maintain the ecological balance in nature. it recycling problem.
The production possibilities of an economic system are limited by the rarity of the resources used. Moreover, the limited nature of all economic resources remains and even increases as society develops. This is due not only to the depletion of irreplaceable natural resources, but also to the fact that consumption constantly gives impetus to the development of production, that is, new goods and services are created, their quality characteristics, which causes an increase in demand for consumer and investment goods. And every time society is forced to decide which of these goods to produce with available resources and on what scale.
The problem of choice in any economic system (be it a family, a firm, a state) can be illustrated using economic model "Production Possibility Frontier". And also, this model allows you to visually demonstrate such fundamental economic concepts as limited resources, opportunity costs.
To build a model, we will plot the number of commodities (X) along the abscissa, and the number of means of production (Y) along the ordinate (see Fig.).
Means of production (Y)
Consumables (X)
O X B X S
The ABCD curve is called production possibilities frontier, characterizes the maximum possible volumes of production of means of production and consumer goods with the full use of all available resources. Each point on this curve represents a certain combination of these two types of goods (for example, point B represents a combination of X B units of commodities and Y B units of capital goods.
The production possibility frontier graph illustrates the fact that an economy that is fully utilizing productive resources cannot increase the production of any good without sacrificing another good. The functioning of the economy at the frontier of its production possibilities testifies to its efficiency.
Based on this, the choice of a combination corresponding to point F is regarded as unsuccessful for a given society, since it does not allow it to efficiently use production resources. Having chosen such a point, we would have resigned ourselves either to the presence of unused resources (for example, unemployment), or to the low efficiency of their use (for example, with large losses, including working hours). Production on the basis of the choice of point E is generally not feasible, since this point lies beyond the border of the production possibilities of this economic system.
Compare points B and C. By choosing point B, we prefer to produce fewer commodities (X B) and more capital goods (Y B) than choosing point C (X C, Y C). More precisely, when moving from point B to point C, we will receive additional Δ X = OX C - OX B units of consumer goods, sacrificing for this ΔY = OY B - OY C units of means of production. The amount of one good that must be sacrificed to increase the production of another good by one unit is called opportunity cost or cost of missed opportunities.
Curve ABCD is convex. This is due to the fact that one resource can be used more productively in the production of commodities, others - the means of production.
If new technology, new technological processes are introduced simultaneously and evenly in all industries, then the production possibility frontier AD will shift to the position of the dotted line A 1 D 1 , the production possibilities of both means of production and consumer goods with the same resources will increase approximately equally ( see fig.).
If, on the other hand, innovations are carried out mainly in industries that produce means of production, the increase in the area of production possibilities will be skewed to the right (see Fig.).
