Michael Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the role of formal rules and informal rules in sports. Many sports restrain violence and retaliation through formal rules while in others, protective equipment is used to reduce…
A brief historical explanation as to how war and the nationalization of oil supplies dramatically affect gas prices.
Prices are like a genie that knows everything in the world and tells you exactly what goods and services humanity needs most; if you want to do the most good, listen to the genie.
While many people attempt to blame rising gas prices on greedy oil companies and bad legislation, the real explanation is simply supply and demand.
When a water supply becomes contaminated, it is wrong to let the price of bottled water naturally rise with increased demand? Jeff Jacoby of The Boston Globe explains why price “gouging” can be the better option when demand for a…
Philosophy professor Matt Zwolinski argues that far from being immoral, price gouging may be the best way to allocate scarce resources in an emergency.
Professor Davies explains how firms decide what their optimal output is by discussing marginal revenues, marginal costs, and what happens to those numbers as the price of a product changes.
A walk-through of the choices firms make during production of a product to maximize profits.
Professor Davies takes a deeper look into production costs and how understanding these can help us decide what level of output is best for a firm and for society.
How much stuff can a firm produce from various amounts of labor and materials? It depends. This video outlines the different stages of production and how specialization and congestion can affect a firm’s output.
By understanding producers and the way they work, we will be better at predicting the outcome of various events in the economy.
A brief look at marginal utility and how economists can predict the choices a consumer will make based on the utility they perceive from a product.
The better we can understand why people behave the way they behave, the better we are at predicting what will happen to the economy.
A deeper look at what demand actually means, how the demand for one product can influence the demand for another product, and how the number of consumers can also affect a product’s demand.
Outlines what causes consumers to want to buy a product after price is not considered. Demand, supply, and what happens after these variables are changed is discussed, along with the questions we must ask in order to predict what will…
How do businesses balance the amount of a product they offer with the price people are willing to pay for the product? Professor Antony Davies explains how supply and demand act against each other to create equilibrium price.
What is to blame for the rising cost of gasoline? It’s all a simple matter of supply and demand.
How the market process generate improvements in the human condition. In particular, how profit & loss serve to help people channel their activities in creative and socially useful directions.
Why are prices so important? This video explains the role prices play in generating, aggregating, and transmitting knowledge throughout the economic world and how a market can adjust prices as conditions change.
