经济学导论
本章我们将探索这些问题的答案: 经济学研究什么问题? 人们如何做出决策? 人们如何相互交易? 整体经济如何运行? 2
讨论 问题:一家银行专门借出小额贷款给农村穷人,甚至身无分文的乞丐,竟然在没有政府资助、没有国际机构捐款下自给自足,每年还有盈利,有无可能?
1983年,被誉为“穷人银行家”的是孟加拉乡村银行创始人穆罕默德·尤努斯教授创立了格莱珉银行,一间乡村银行,专注于向最穷苦的孟加拉人提供小额贷款。 目标是:帮助穷人实现个体创业,从而使他们永远地摆脱贫困生活。 获得诺贝尔和平奖。
2009年格莱珉信托和壹基金、阿里巴巴共同在四川成立了松潘格莱珉公司,但却没能复制格莱珉在孟加拉的成功。为什么格莱珉银行的模式在中国走不通呢?
如果你是一位省长,在目前的技术水平下,如何以最低的成本治理环境污染?
经济学提供的思路: 污染税 进一步的问题,应该如何征税,征多少税? 可交易的排污许可证,解决了什么问题?
为什么在淘宝上买东西? 淘宝的价格为什么低?节约了哪些成本? 你能设计一个交易方式进一步降低成本吗?
为什么非裔美国人在很多方面(比如考试成绩、工资水平等)的表现都不及白人?究竟是他们努力不够,还是环境所限,抑或是天生资质不及?
Roland Fryer: 从毒品贩子到哈佛教授
利用包含八千余样本的全国代表性幼儿调查数据,考察了不同种族的儿童在智力上存在的差异。他们发现在控制了社会经济变量之后,8到12月大的非裔美国人和白人在智力方面并未表现出显著的差别。然而,随着年龄增长,智力差异逐渐地显现出来:两岁大的非裔美国人已经远远地被白人甩在了后面。
那么,怎么才能尽可能消除不利环境对非裔美国人的消极作用呢? Fryer教授对各种可能的手段逐一进行了评估。发现对学生的经济激励用处不大,相比之下,如果给老师提供一笔奖励,并告知他们一旦学生表现未达到预期奖励将被取消的话,学生的表现将会有显著的提升。此外,频繁的教学反馈、更多的一对一辅导和对学生更高的期待也被证实是有效的方法。
在黑人群体中,那些学习刻苦、成绩优异的个体往往会被认为是在“模仿白人” (acting white), 并因此遭到群体内其它成员的刻意排挤,甚至最终被剔除在群体之外。 为什么这种现象主要只存在于黑人群体,而在美籍华人、犹太人的群体中,我们看到的是“模仿白人”的个体反而受到了支持与赞扬?
假设模型中共有三类主体,即个体、企业以及族群。企业希望看到个体更多地投资教育,并将为其提供高工资作为回报。族群出于稳定的考虑,不希望个体的教育水平过多地偏离族群整体的平均水平,如果偏离过大,则将会“排挤”该个体作为惩罚。
在这样的机制下,族群中的个体实际上是在通过一种选择(教育投资)试图取悦两个不同的对象(族群与企业)。假如族群与企业的品位相同(都偏好更高的教育),个体自然会选择投资更高的教育,于是皆大欢喜。但假如族群与企业的品位相反(族群偏好低教育、企业偏好高教育),那么个体实际就陷入了一种类似于“众口难调”的两难境地。
对模型进行求解,发现了有趣的结论: 其中高能力的个体会选择高水平的教育,低能力的个体会选择低水平的教育,而处在中间位置的那些个体,则会依据族群整体的教育水准进行选择。如果族群整体教育水平高,他们就会也选择高水平的教育,反则反之。
经济学研究什么问题 稀缺性: 社会资源的有限性 经济学: 研究社会如何管理自己的稀缺资源, 比如: 经济学研究什么问题 稀缺性: 社会资源的有限性 经济学: 研究社会如何管理自己的稀缺资源, 比如: 人们决定购买什么, 工作多长时间,储蓄多少, 消费多少 企业决定生产多少,雇佣多少工人 社会决定如何在国防,消费物品,环境保护和其他需求之间分配资源 You might want to elaborate a bit on some of the points made here. Some examples: “How do people decide how much to work?” Time is scarce resource – there’s just not enough time to do everything we’d like to do. How do we decide how much of our time to spend working? There’s a tradeoff: the more time we spend working, the higher our income, and therefore the more stuff we can buy. But, the more time we spend working, the less time we have for leisure – hanging out with friends, going hiking, watching movies, etc. (You might want to ask your students how THEY decide how much time to spend working. Some will say it depends on how many classes they are taking, or the time requirements of the available jobs. But probably at least a few will say the wage – the higher the wage, the more worthwhile to work.) “How do firms decide what kind of labor to hire?” Firms can hire unskilled or skilled workers. The skilled workers are more productive, but cost more than the unskilled workers. “How do firms decide how much to produce?” Ask your students, and see if any of them say “it depends on the price of the product they sell.” (Probably some will say “it depends on whether there’s a lot of demand for the product”. To which you might respond “and if there’s a lot of demand for the product, what does that mean for the price that firms can get for the product?”) 17
人们如何做出决策 Decision-making is at the heart of economics. The individual must decide how much to save for retirement, how much to spend on different goods and services, how many hours a week to work. The firm must decide how much to produce, what kind of labor to hire. Society as a whole must decide how much to spend on national defense (“guns”) versus how much to spend on consumer goods (“butter”). 19
人们如何做出决策 所有决策都面临着权衡取舍。比如: 原理一: 人们面临权衡取舍 参加期中考试前一天晚上的聚会意味着更少的时间学习 原理一: 人们面临权衡取舍 所有决策都面临着权衡取舍。比如: 参加期中考试前一天晚上的聚会意味着更少的时间学习 想要更多的收入需要工作更长时间,这就使得休息时间减少 保护环境意味着生产消费物品的资源减少
人们如何做出决策 原理一: 人们面临权衡取舍 社会面临一种重要的权衡取舍: 效率 vs. 平等 效率: 社会能从其稀缺资源中得到的最大利益 原理一: 人们面临权衡取舍 社会面临一种重要的权衡取舍: 效率 vs. 平等 效率: 社会能从其稀缺资源中得到的最大利益 平等: 经济成果在社会成员中平均分配 权衡取舍:为使社会更加平等, 需要在富人与穷人之间重新分配收入。但这会减少工作与生产的激励,并缩小经济“蛋糕”的规模 HEADS UP. The 5th edition uses “equality.” The fourth and earlier editions used “equity” here. You may want to elaborate verbally on the last bullet to insure that the point is clear. “Redistribute income from wealthy to poor” is accomplished through the progressive tax system, as well as social programs like food stamps and unemployment insurance that try to provide a safety net for people at the low end of the income distribution. “But this reduces the incentive to work” – the reward for working hard is a high income. Taxes reduce this reward, and therefore reduce the incentive to work hard. 21
原理二: 某种东西的成本是为了得到它所放弃的东西 人们如何做出决策 原理二: 某种东西的成本是为了得到它所放弃的东西 人们做出决策时需要比较可供选择行动方案的成本与利益 任何一种东西的机会成本是为了得到这种东西所放弃的东西 这是人们做决策的相关成本
原理二:某种东西的成本是为了得到它所放弃的东西 人们如何做出决策 原理二:某种东西的成本是为了得到它所放弃的东西 例如: 上一年大学的机会成本不仅仅是学费,书籍,住房和伙食的钱全部加起来,还包括由于没有工作而损失的工资 看一场电影的机会成本不仅是票价,还包括你呆在剧院的时间的价值 Here’s a fun tangent if you have the class time and are so inclined: Ask your students about the saying “The best things in life are free.” Ask them to name some of these things that supposedly are free. Ask them what “free” means in this context. The idea here is to get them to see that even things without an explicit monetary cost are not truly “free” because they have an opportunity cost. For example, when you ask them to name the “best things” that are “free,” they will respond with answers like love, sitting at the top of a mountain you just climbed and enjoying an awesome view, or maybe witnessing the joy of a child who has just been given a new toy. In each case, there is no explicit monetary cost, but there’s an opportunity cost. For example, a day spent climbing a mountain represents a day of foregone wages. And the fact that the mountain offers the incredible view probably means that land has been set aside for a national park that might otherwise have been used to produce industrial chemicals, or for a subdivision of million-dollar homes. With love, it’s less obvious, but if prodded enough, your students will be able to think of non-monetary costs associated with love. For example, you might not want to see the latest Ashton Kutcher film, you might think he’s the world’s worst actor. But your boyfriend/girlfriend/teenage daughter or other loved one is DYING to see it, they are BEGGING you to take them. So you take them. That’s true love, don’t you think? And it’s certainly not free. 23
人们如何做出决策 原理三: 理性人考虑边际量 理性人: 系统而有目的地尽最大努力实现其目标的人 通过比较成本与利益的边际变动来做出决策 边际变动 – 对现有行动计划的微小增量调整
人们如何做出决策 原理三: 理性人考虑边际量 例如: 原理三: 理性人考虑边际量 例如: 当一个大学生考虑是否要多上一年学时,他会比较学费加上损失的工资和多上一年学所增加的额外收入 当一个经理在考虑是否要增加产出时, 她会在增加的劳动力与原材料的成本和额外的收益之间进行比较 See the textbook for two classic examples: 1. The diamond-water paradox: water is essential for life but virtually free; diamonds are inessential but expensive. 2. The near-zero marginal cost of an airline taking an extra passenger when the flight isn’t full. 25
人们如何做出决策 原理四: 人们会对激励做出反应 激励:引起一个人做出某种行为的某种东西,诸如惩罚或奖励的预期 理性人会对激励做出反应 原理四: 人们会对激励做出反应 激励:引起一个人做出某种行为的某种东西,诸如惩罚或奖励的预期 理性人会对激励做出反应 例如: 当汽油价格上涨时, 消费者会更多的购买混合动力汽车,更少购买耗油的越野车 当烟草税上升时,青少年吸烟人数会下降
人们如何相互交易 Whether we’re talking about the U.S. economy, or the local economy, the term “economy” simply means a group of people interacting with each other. These interactions play a critical role in the allocation of society’s scarce resources. For example, the interaction of buyers and sellers determines the prices of goods and the amounts produced and sold. These interactions are an important part of what economists study. 27
人们如何相互交易 原理 5 :贸易可以使每个人的状况都变得更好 人们可以专门生产一种物品或劳务并用来交换其他物品或劳务,而不必自给自足 国家之间也能从贸易与专业化中受益 将他们生产的物品出口而得到一个更好的价格 从国外进口更便宜的物品而不用在国内自己生产 If each person had to grow his own food, make his own clothes, cut his own hair, we would have a world full of skinny, unfashionable poor people having bad hair days every day of the week. It’s far more efficient for each person to specialize in producing a good or service, and then exchanging it with other people for the things they produce. The statement “trade can make everyone better off” should not be hard to understand, if you think about it for a moment: Each of two parties would not voluntarily enter into an exchange if it made either of them worse off, now would they? The same principles apply at the national and international level: International trade allows countries to sell their exports abroad and get a higher price, and to buy things from abroad more cheaply than they could produce at home. In addition, trade gives a country’s consumers access to a greater variety of goods – including goods they might not be able to get at all. For example, U.S. consumers enjoy a variety of fresh produce year-round. This would not be possible without international trade. 28
原理 6 :市场通常是组织经济活动的一种好方法 人们如何相互交易 原理 6 :市场通常是组织经济活动的一种好方法 市场: 大量的买者与卖者 (不必要在同一个地点) 组织经济活动意味着需要决定 生产什么 怎么生产 生产多少 谁将得到它们 A market economy is “decentralized,” meaning that there is no government committee that makes the decisions about what goods to produce and so forth. Instead, many households and firms make their own decisions: * Each of many households decides who to work for and what goods to buy. * Each of many firms decides whom to hire and what goods to produce. 29
原理 6 :市场通常是组织经济活动的一种好方法 人们如何相互交易 原理 6 :市场通常是组织经济活动的一种好方法 市场经济:许多企业和家庭在物品和劳务市场上相互交易,通过他们的分散决策来配置资源的经济 亚当.斯密在《国富论》(1776)中的著名观察结果: 家庭和企业仿佛被一只“看不见的手”所指引,在市场上相互交易,并增进整体经济的福利 In all versions of this textbook except Brief Principles of Macroeconomics, market efficiency and the invisible hand are covered more thoroughly in Chapter 7. 30
原理 6 :市场通常是组织经济活动的一种好方法 人们如何相互交易 原理 6 :市场通常是组织经济活动的一种好方法 “看不见的手”通过价格体系来发挥作用: 买者与卖者之间的相互作用决定市场价格 每个价格即反映了物品对于买者的价值,也反映了生产物品的成本 在许多情况下,价格引导自利的家庭与企业做出使社会经济福利最大化的决策
人们如何相互交易 原理 7 :政府有时可以改善市场结果 政府的重要作用: 保护产权 (通过警察,法庭) 政府的重要作用: 保护产权 (通过警察,法庭) 如果人们的财产存在很大的被侵犯的风险,那么他们便不愿意工作,生产,投资或者购买物品 [“Govt” is an abbreviation for government. Throughout all of the Premium PowerPoint chapters, I try to use abbreviations the way a thoughtful instructor would use them if writing on a chalkboard. If you prefer to spell the word out, just use your mouse to highlight “govt” and then type out the full word.] Two examples of the idea in the second bullet point: A restaurant won’t serve meals if customers do not pay before they leave. A music company won’t produce CDs if too many people avoid paying by making illegal copies. Many fledging market economies are struggling through the transition from central planning because they have not developed institutions that protect and enforce property rights. The British news magazine The Economist has lots of current examples of this. An older but still interesting example comes from a column that Mankiw wrote in the June 12, 2000 issue of Fortune magazine entitled “Ukraine: How Not To Run An Economy.” 32
人们如何相互交易 原理 7 :政府有时可以改善市场结果 市场失灵:市场本身不能有效配置资源的情况 原因: 在这些情况下,公共政策能增进效率 外部性:生产或消费一个物品影响到旁观者的福利(比如:污染) 市场势力:单个买者或卖者有能显著影响市场价格的能力(比如,垄断) 在这些情况下,公共政策能增进效率
人们如何相互交易 原理 7 :政府有时可以改善市场结果 政府可以改变市场结果以促进公平 如果经济福利的市场分配结果不是合意的,税收或福利政策能改变经济“蛋糕”的分配方式
整体经济如何运行
原理 8 :一国的生活水平取决于它生产物品与劳务的能力 整体经济如何运行 原理 8 :一国的生活水平取决于它生产物品与劳务的能力 各国不同时期生活水平的巨大差异: 发达国家的平均收入是发展中国家平均收入的十倍以上 今天中国的生活水平比100年以前大约增长了数倍 “Rich countries” refers to countries like the U.S., Japan, and Germany. “Poor countries” refers to countries like India, Indonesia, and Nigeria. 36
原理 8 :一国的生活水平取决于它生产物品与劳务的能力 整体经济如何运行 原理 8 :一国的生活水平取决于它生产物品与劳务的能力 决定生活水平的最重要因素:生产率,即每一单位劳动投入所生产的物品与劳务数量 生产率取决于设备,劳动者的技能以及可用的技术 其它因素(比如,工会组织,国外的竞争)对于生活水平的影响远远小于生产率
整体经济如何运行 原理 9 :当政府发行了过多货币时,物价上升 通货膨胀:物价总水平的上升 长期而言,通货膨胀总是由于货币数量的过度增长而导致货币价值的下降所引起 政府创造货币的速度越快,通胀率越高
原理 10 :社会面临通货膨胀与失业之间的短期权衡取舍 整体经济如何运行 原理 10 :社会面临通货膨胀与失业之间的短期权衡取舍 短期内(1-2年),许多经济政策朝相反的方向推动通货膨胀与失业 其它因素使这种权衡取舍不那么明显,但这种权衡取舍一直都存在 While the long-run effect of increasing the quantity of money is inflation, the short-run effects are more complicated - and controversial. However, most mainstream economists believe the following: An increase in the quantity of money causes spending to rise, which causes prices to rise, which induces firms to produce more goods and services, which requires that they hire more workers. Hence, in the short-run, increasing the quantity of money causes inflation to rise, but unemployment to fall. Of course, REDUCING the quantity of money would have the opposite effects (inflation would fall, while unemployment would rise) in the short run. Keep in mind, though, the lesson from Principle #9: In the long run, changing the quantity of money only affects inflation. We will learn in a later chapter what determines the rate of unemployment in the long run, and we will see that it has nothing to do with the quantity of money. The second bullet addresses the following point: In some decades, due to factors outside of the control of policymakers, inflation and unemployment are both high (e.g. 1970s) – or low (e.g. 1990s). Yet, given these other factors, policymakers can always reduce unemployment temporarily by creating more inflation, or vice versa. 40
内容提要 关于个人做出决策的基本结论是: 人们面临不同目标之间的权衡取舍 任何一种行为的成本可以用其所放弃的机会来衡量 理性人通过比较边际成本与边际利益做出决策 人们根据他们所面临的激励改变自己的行为 Each Premium PowerPoint chapter ends with a summary similar to the textbook’s chapter summaries. Many instructors do not cover these chapter summaries in class. 41
内容提要 关于人们之间相互交易的基本结论是: 贸易可以是互利的 市场通常是协调人们之间经济活动的一种好方法 通过纠正市场失灵或提高经济中的平等程度,政府可以潜在地改善市场结果 42
内容提要 关于整体经济的基本结论: 生产率是生活水平的最终根源 货币量的增长是通货膨胀的最终根源 社会面临着通货膨胀与失业之间的短期权衡取舍 43
经济学思想的影响力
经济学的基本原理
1994年诺贝尔经济学奖获得者 获奖缘由:在非合作博弈的均衡分析理论方面做出了开创 性的贡献,对博弈论和经济学产生了重大影响。 约翰·海萨尼 (John C. Harsanyi) 美国 1920-2000 莱因哈德·泽尔腾 (Reinhard Selten) 德国 1930- 约翰·福布斯·纳什(John Forbes Nash ) 美国 1928- 获奖缘由:在非合作博弈的均衡分析理论方面做出了开创 性的贡献,对博弈论和经济学产生了重大影响。
普林斯顿大学的 “幽灵” 约翰·福布斯·纳什 (John Forbes Nash ) 美国 1928- 48
A Beautiful Mind 美丽心灵
It takes a strong mind to survive on this planet。 but,坚持自己的理想,做自己的事。
思考题 面包店的窗户被小混混用砖头打破了。围观的人感叹说:真可惜。 但在有人就说:现在面包店要花钱修窗户。修理工因此挣了一笔钱,他会将这笔钱花掉,这又让另外一个人挣了钱,以此类推。你知道怎么计算这样的连锁反应,最初的支出通过乘数效应不断放大,产生了更多的收入和就业。如果被打坏的窗户面积够大,说不定能导致经济繁荣!
思考题 讨论:破窗理论的逻辑对吗?
课后阅读 铅笔的故事
谢谢!