Class One

1. What is economics?

*Economics is the study of scarcity ( "Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses. " by Lionel Robbins)

*Economics is not about market, but about human behavior. ( not about how to make money, which is a general misunderstanding.)

Case One: an in-class game (throw money to students)

*People response to incentives (we assume that people are rational):

 What if Rizzo do it in every class, and we know that? 

 What if there's just money falling infinitely from the ceiling?

 How would students response to coins of different values.

*Something is free means it’s not necessarily "good"

Case Two: Species Protection

* What's the best way to protect tiger? (Whilst keep respect to different opinions)

TO EAT IT! (Have we heard about we are running out of bull? NO!)

* again: people response to incentives, if the shooting of tigers is legally allowed, people would prevent the extinction of tigers for economic benefits in the long-run, which behavior may possibly result in the systematical feeding of Tigers then a increase in the amount of tigers. ( There's definitely some countries in Africa applying this policy on elephants, which police has already gained some beneficial consequences, both environmentally and economically. )

2. EWOT (Economical Ways Of Thinking, how to think as an economist)

*Discover Things not obvious

*Two much health care (may be useless if we don't understand economics)

*Research    no Theory

*Why like sth.

Economists don’t know really much，but non-economists know even less.