Microeconomicss Essay, Research Paper

Microeconomicss

Outline Thesis Statement: Microeconomic mechanisms can foretell future engineering impacted economic results. I. What is Economics? A. What do economic sciences state us? B. The scientific discipline of economic sciences 1. specifying microeconomics 2. some footings and definitions II. Using Microeconomic theoretical accounts A. Theory 1. practical application 2. family picks III. Economic Growth A. The cost of economic growing B. Capital accretion C. Technological alteration IV. Individual and Market Demand A. Household Consumption Choices 1. Constraints 2. Preferences 3. Fringy public-service corporation a. an analogy 4. Utility maximization V. Predictions Based on Marginal Utility Theory A. Monetary value additions B. Additions of income VI. In Conclusion This paper will try to analyze microeconomic constructions in relation to technological progresss. The impact of progressively available engineering is a major economic force. Prior to 1975, for illustration, sing a first tally film at place was technically possible but economically impracticable. Merely the affluent chose to see moves at place. VCR & # 8217 ; s became available in 1976, with a typical monetary value ticket of $ 2000.00 Even at such a high monetary value, that innovation slashed the monetary value of place screening. Today a VCR can be purchased for $ 200.00, a fraction of its & # 8217 ; initial cost. Videos can be rented for about a dollar or purchased for around $ 20.00. Home screening has become common in a few short old ages, where once it had been available merely to the really rich. In what other ways has engineering changed the manner of life and can microeconomic mechanisms accurately predict future economic results? What is Economics? The simple reply to the inquiry, & # 8220 ; What is the economic system? & # 8221 ; is to province that the economic system is the agencies by which resources are allocated. A more accurate portraiture of economic procedure is to see it as a machine that produces three clearly different consequences: & # 183 ; First, the economic system determines what goods and services will be produced and in what measures. & # 183 ; Second, it indicates how assorted goods and services will be produced. & # 183 ; Third, it resolves the inquiry of distribution. Markets for goods and services, and markets for production of those goods and services & # 8211 ; bid mechanisms & # 8211 ; straight correlate with the picks made by families, houses and authoritiess. The US economic system relies chiefly on markets but to a grade on bid mechanisms. The US economic system is an unfastened economic system and has become extremely incorporate with the planetary economic system. This is a reasonably recent development, with foreign investing into US concern surpassing US investings in foreign endeavors switching the balance in the mid-1980s. Economists study these fiscal motions in order to find the implicit in rules driving the economic system. This attack utilizes the same asperity and objectiveness of natural scientists. Economic scientific discipline, like natural scientific discipline, is an effort to detect a organic structure of Torahs. All scientific disciplines use the same standards in the fact-finding procedure: careful and systematic observation and measuring, and the development of a organic structure of theory to direct and construe observations. That theory is a general regulation or rule that allows economic experts to understand and foretell the economic picks that people make. Theories are derived from edifice and proving economic theoretical accounts. Economic theoretical accounts are built on four key premises. These basic premises are: & # 183 ; Peoples have penchants & # 183 ; Peoples have a fixed sum of resources and a engineering that can transform resources into goods and services. & # 183 ; Peoples choose how to utilize resources and engineering to increase economic wellbeing. & # 183 ; People & # 8217 ; s picks are coordinated & # 8211 ; purchasers choose what Sellerss offer and frailty versa. The deductions of such theoretical accounts are that the values of assorted monetary values and measures result in & # 8220 ; equilibrium & # 8221 ; . That is, state of affairss in which everyone has made the best possible picks, given their ain penchants, information, resources, and engineerings, and that those picks are coordinated and compatible with the picks of everyone else. Equilibrium is the solution or result of an economic theoretical account. Economic theoretical accounts fall into two classs: Microeconomicss and macroeconomics. Microeconomics is the subdivision of economic sciences that surveies the picks of single families and houses. Because it analyzes the behaviour of economic units, microeconomics is a most of import societal scientific discipline. Microeconomics theory is used to analyse assorted fortunes and results from determination devising. In add-on, microeconomics provides foundations for scientists of other societal subjects. Microeconomics is a extremely utile tool in concern direction, helping in planning, finance, and selling. However, microeconomics is non limited to concern applications. Government disposal, political scientific discipline, history, social- behaviour, and much more can be viewed through the lens of microeconomics. What do microeconomics state us? Careful analysis utilizing microeconomic theoretical accounts answer those inquiries covering with technological alteration, production and ingestion, rewards and net incomes. Economic concerns affecting unemployment, rising prices, and the differences in wealth among states are macroeconomic. A major cog in the microeconomic machinery is the construct of & # 8220 ; scarceness & # 8221 ; . This is easy summed up as the cosmopolitan province in which wants exceed resources. Scarcity fuels & # 8220 ; production & # 8221 ; , the transition of land, labour, and capital into goods and services. Servicess are made up of intangible trade goods such as haircuts, phone calls and cab drives. Goods are touchable & # 8211 ; autos, socks, VCRs, and staff of life. Goods are classified as either capital goods, i.e. , those goods with long term usage such as edifices autos, computing machines, etc. , or ingestion goods. Consumption goods are points that can be used one clip merely, such as pickles and toothpaste. Finite resources and the available engineerings limit what can be produced in footings of goods and services. The boundary between what can and can non be produced is referred to as the production possibility frontier ( PPF ) . Using Microeconomic Models Understanding the PPF as applied to existent life is critically of import. To do that construct easier to hold on a theoretical account economic system can be devised that, while simpler than existent life state of affairss, provides adequate accurate information to pull feasible decisions and do executable anticipations. To construct this theoretical account, features indispensable to understanding the existent economic system must be incorporated, but voluminous inside informations are eliminated. The theoretical account will be simplified by set uping three of import standards: 1. Everything in this theoretical account that is produced is besides consumed, stabilising capital resources so that they neither grow nor shrink. 2. There are merely two goods rice and fabric. 3. There is a individual person involved with this economic system, & # 8220 ; Joe & # 8221 ; . Joe & # 8217 ; s scene is a abandoned island, with no outside contact. Joe uses all the resources available to him to bring forth rice and fabric. It requires Joe to labour 10 hours a twenty-four hours. The sum of fabric and rice produced relies on how many hours are devoted to the activity. bring forthing them. If Joe does no work, nil is produced. To bring forth six lbs of rice in a month, Joe must work two hours a twenty-four hours. Giving more hours to rice additions monthly end product, but the return rate diminishes as Joe has to utilize progressively unsuitable land in that production. Initially, Joe workss in fertile wet land. As the best quality land is put into production, staying available land becomes drier and less productive. Finally, all feasible land is used and clip and attempt must now be devoted to reconditioning other types of land. To bring forth fabric, Joe gathers wool from sheep on the island. As he devotes more hours to garnering wool and weaving fibre, cloth end product additions. If Joe devotes all his clip to raising rice, he can bring forth 20 lbs of maize a month. He can non, nevertheless, produce any fabric. Conversely, if Joe devotes all of his clip to doing fabrics, he can bring forth five paces a month but will hold no clip for the rice harvest. He can vote some of his clip to rice and some to cloth but non more than ten hours entire. Thus he can pass two hours a twenty-four hours bring forthing rice and eight hours bring forthing fabric, or any combination of hours bing 10 hours. This clearly illustrates the production possibility frontier as a boundary identifying what is gettable and what is non. Calculate Joe & # 8217 ; s PPF by utilizing the information in Table 1. These computations are summarized in Figure 1 and graphed as Joe & # 8217 ; s PPF. To understand these computations, foremost analyze the information found in Figure 1. Possibility A shows an full working twenty-four hours devoted entirely to rice production. In this instance 20 lbs of rice per month is the forecasted output, while no fabric is produced. Possibility B demonstrates two hours daily in cloth production and eight hours bring forthing rice, giving a sum of 18 lbs of rice and one pace of cloth monthly. The form continues onto F, demoing an full working twenty-four hours devoted to cloth production. The work twenty-four hours is defined as two hr blocks of clip in Table 1, nevertheless, any executable allotment of a twenty-four hours hr work twenty-four hours will ________________________________________________________________________demonstrate the possible assorted combinations of rice and fabric along the line fall ining points A, B, C, D, E, and F. in Figure 1. This indicates the Production Possibility Frontier. Production can be maintained at any point on or within the come-at-able frontier & # 8211 ; the country discerned as xanthous inside Figure 1. Points outside that frontier are unachievable. To bring forth at points beyond the frontier, there would hold to be more clip allotted to the on the job twenty-four hours. A 10 hr work twenty-four hours allows for assorted combinations of rice and cloth production at the PPF. A work twenty-four hours less than 10 hours will let for production merely at a point inside the frontier. Table 1 Production Possibilities Hours Worked Rice Grown Cloth Produced ( per twenty-four hours ) ( lbs. per month ) ( paces per month ) 0 either 0 or 0 2 either 6 or 1 4 either 11 or 2 6 either 15 or 3 8 either 18 or 4 10 either 20 or 5 ______________________________________________________________________________________________ If Joe performs no labour no rice or fabric are produced. If Joe labours for 2 hours daily and devotes all that clip on maize production he will bring forth 6 lbs of rice per month. If that same clip is used for cloth production, 1 pace of fabric is produced but no rice. The last four rows of the tabular array indicate the sum of rice or fabric that can be produced per month as more hours are devoted to those activities. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________ Production Possibility Frontier Figure 1 Rice 20 A in pound. 18 B per month 16 C Unachievable 14 12 Z D 10 8 6 E Attainable 4 Production possibility 2 frontier F 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Cloth in paces per month Rice Cloth in in pound. paces per per Possibility month month A 20 and 0 B 18 and 1 C 15 and 2 D 11 and 3 E 6 and 4 F 0 and 5 The graph lists six points on Joe & # 8217 ; s production possibility Frontier. Row E tells us that if Joe produces 6 lbs of rice, the maximal cloth production that & # 8217 ; s possible is 4 paces. These same points are graphed as A, B, C, D, E, and F in the figure. The line go throughing through these points is the production possibility frontier, which separates the come-at-able from the unachievable. The come-at-able country contains all the possible production points. Joe can bring forth anyplace inside the country or on the production possibility frontier. Points outside the frontier are unachievable. Models such as these provide a construction for understanding how production works and AIDSs in determination devising by showing what chances exist and what is required to take advantage of those chances. But holding more of one means holding less of another. This is referred to as chance cost. Opportunity cost is measured by measuring the PPF. How much fabric has to be given up to acquire more rice and frailty versa are the inquiries necessitating replies utilizing the rice and cloth theoretical account. If all allotted monthly working hours are used to turn rice, there are 20 lbs of rice but no fabric. How much rice is given up to bring forth one pace of fabric? Figure 1 shows that a individual pace of fabric will be two lbs of rice to bring forth. If an extra pace of fabric is produced, the patterned advance from point B to indicate C indicates that it will be three lbs of rice to bring forth the 2nd pace of fabric. The following pace of fabric costs six lbs of maize. It has been learned from the theoretical account that the chance cost of fabric additions as more fabric is produced. This is besides true in contrary. The first six lbs of rice costs one pace of fabric to bring forth. The following five lbs of rice costs an extra pace of fabric, and so on. The chance cost of rice besides increases. Lending to this phenomenon is the factor of inequality ; non all scarce resources are every bit utile in all activities. For illustration, while some of the land on Joe & # 8217 ; s conjectural island is highly suited for high output rice harvests, the staying landscape may be bouldery and waste. The sheep on the island, nevertheless, prefer bouldery and bare land. Obviously, the optimal usage of this island resource is to utilize the most fertile, wet land to turn rice and the most bouldery and bare land to raise sheep. Merely if a larger rice output is desired will it be necessary to try to cultivate the less desirable land. If all allocated clip is devoted to cultivating rice so it becomes necessary to utilize unsuitable low giving up land. Giving some of the clip to doing fabrics and cut downing some of the clip spent turning rice produces a little bead in harvest output but a big addition in the end product of fabric. Conversely, if all allocated clip is used to do Seal Straugh fabric, a little decrease in dreaming leads to a big addition in rice production. What has been learned from the theoretical account provides cardinal lessons in existent universe economic system. The universe has a fixed figure of people endowed with a given sum of limited clip and human capital. These limited resources can be utilized, utilizing the available but limited engineering to bring forth goods and services. But there is a bound to the goods and services that can be produced, a boundary between what & # 8217 ; s come-at-able and unachievable. For illustration, the political campaigner who offers better instruction and human services must at the same time be prepared to increase revenue enhancements or cut down services in another sector such as route care or fire protection. On a much smaller but every bit of import graduated table, each clip an single rents a picture, that same person must find where to use staying hard currency resource, be it po

pcorn, soft-drinks or something else wholly. The cost of one more picture is one less of something else. It is impossible to get away from scarceness and chance costs. Give the limited resources available to any person, the more of one thing ever means less than another and the more of anyone service or merchandise, the higher its chance cost. Economic Growth The PPF defines a clear boundary between what is and is non come-at-able. However, that boundary is non inactive. It is invariably altering. At times the PPF moves inward, cut downing production possibility. Other times, it moves outward. Using the “Joe’s Island” analogy for illustration, first-class turning and harvesting conditions would hold the consequence of forcing the production possibility frontier outward. Expansion of production possibilities is termed economic growing. Over the last 100 old ages, the PPF has expanded exponentially. The inquiry at manus for the new millenary appears to be how far can the economic envelope be pushed? The cost incurred in economic growing involves two cardinal factors: capital accretion, the growing of capital resources ; and technological advancement, new and better methods of bring forthing goods and services. As a consequence of these factors in the nation’s current economic profile, there are an tremendous measure of trains, planes, and cars, bring forthing far more available transit than was experienced when lone Equus caballuss and roadsters were available as conveyance. Satellites make transcontinental communications possible on a graduated table much larger than what could hold been predicted utilizing overseas telegram engineering. However, roll uping capital and developing new engineering are dearly-won. Economic growing wears a cloak of tradeoff. If all resources are devoted to the production of nutrient, vesture, houses, amusement, and other consumer goods, and none to research, development, and roll uping capital, there will be no more capital and no better engineerings in the hereafter than exist at present. Production possibilities in the hereafter will be precisely as they are today. Future economic enlargement requires that fewer goods are produced for future ingestion. Resources that are freed up today allow for the accretion of capital. In bend, better engineerings for the production of ingestion goods can be developed in the hereafter. The cut in end product of consumer goods today is the chance cost of economic growing. Household Consumer Choices Individuals find what goods and services they will devour. The entire measure of those desired goods and services is called market demand. The relationship between the measure of a good or service by a individual person and its monetary value is called single demand. Market demand is the amount of all single demands. These demands are better understood by analyzing the mechanism used by families in doing consumer picks. Consumption picks made by families are determined by two factors: restraints and penchants. Consumer picks made by any family are limited by that household’s income and the monetary value of the coveted goods or services purchased. Fringy public-service corporation theory assumes that a family has a given income to pass and that it has no influence on the monetary values of goods or services it purchases. A representation of this theory follows: House A has a monthly income of $ 100.00 and is constrained by that bound. House A spends its dollar resources on merely two points – books and drinks. Books cost $ 6.00 each. Beverages cost.50 each or $ 3.00 a six battalion. House Angstrom can buy every bit many as 10 six battalions a month or five books a month. There are many other purchase combinations imaginable. Consumption possibilities can be visualized similar to the PPF, and the construction of Figure 1 is an first-class representation of such a ingestion possibilities theoretical account. House A must make up one’s mind how to split the monthly income between books and drinks. The likes and disfavors of the members of that family drive those buying determination. This is referred to as penchant. Fringy public-service corporation theory uses the extremely abstract construct of public-service corporation to depict those penchants. The construct of public-service corporation can outdo be explained with an analogy. Take, for illustration, the construct of temperature. It’s easy to understand the difference between experiencing hot and cold, but hot and cold are non something discernible. Water turns into steam when hot plenty or frost when cold plenty and those are discernible phenomena. In order to foretell when such alterations will happen an instrument can be constructed. Such an instrument is called a thermometer. The graduated table on the thermometer is the kernel of temperature. The units used to mensurate that temperature are arbitrary. That is, the weight and value assigned to those units are capable to the judgement of the interior decorator of the graduated table. An accurate anticipation of H2O turning to frost can be made when a thermometer utilizing a Celsius graduated table reaches 0° . But the units of step themselves are meaningless because this same events takes topographic point when a Fahrenheit thermometer shows a temperature of 32° . The construct of public-service corporation allows for anticipations about ingestion picks in much the same manner. It must be pointed out, nevertheless, that fringy public-service corporation theory is non every bit accurate as the theory that allows us to foretell when H2O will turn to frost. Entire public-service corporation refers to the entire benefit, or pay out, derived from the ingestion of goods or services. The degree of ingestion determines the measure of entire public-service corporation. This construct can be illustrated by utilizing the ingestion possibilities of House A. Table 2 shows House A’s entire public-service corporation from devouring different measures of books and drinks. If no books are purchased in a month, there is no public-service corporation from books. If one book is purchased monthly 50 units of public-service corporation are assigned. Entire Utility from Books and Beverages Table 2 Books Beverages___ Monthly Quantity Total Utility Monthly Quantity Total Utility 0 0 0 0 1 50 1 75 2 88 2 117 3 121 3 153 4 150 4 181 5 175 5 206 6 196 6 225 7 214 7 243 8 229 8 260 9 241 9 276 10 250 10 291 As the figure of book purchases addition, entire public-service corporation additions. If 10 books are purchased 250 units of public-service corporation are awarded. The other portion of the tabular array shows the entire public-service corporation of drink ingestion. As drinks are consumed entire public-service corporation rises. Fringy public-service corporation is that alteration in entire public-service corporation ensuing from a one-unit addition in the measure of consumed goods or services. When ingestion of books moves from four to five monthly, entire public-service corporation from books additions from 150 to 175 units. Therefore, for House A fringy public-service corporation of securing a 5th book each month is 25 units. Marginal public-service corporation appears halfway between the measures consumed. The alteration in ingestion from four to five is what produces the fringy public-service corporation of 25 units. The more books House A purchases a month the more entire public-service corporation it gets. However the fringy public-service corporation lessenings, with each purchase. For illustration, fringy public-service corporation from the first book is 50 units. The 2nd book has a fringy public-service corporation of 38 units and the 3rd, 33 units. This lessening in fringy public-service corporation as the ingestion of a good additions is the rule of decreasing fringy public-service corporation. Fringy public-service corporation is positive but diminishes as ingestion additions. These two characteristics come about in this manner: The members of House A enjoy reading so benefit from the purchase of books. That casts fringy public-service corporation in a positive visible radiation. Fringy public-service corporation diminishes as more books are purchased due in portion to chance cost and in portion to decreasing benefit. Those readers still bask a good book but the 30th is non rather every bit satisfying as the first. Utility maximization is the attainment of the greatest possible public-service corporation. A household’s income and the monetary values that it faces limit the public-service corporation that it can obtain. The theoretical account in Table 3 is used to analyze the allotment of disbursement to set up the maximal entire public-service corporation. Assume that Household A has $ 30.00 per month book and drink budget. When House A consumes two books and six drinks a month it receives 313 units of entire public-service corporation. This is the best that can be done within the Any other combination of books and beverages generates less than 313 units of entire public-service corporation. In maximising entire public-service corporation, that is, apportioning income to accomplish the most entire public-service corporation units, consumer equilibrium is created. Books and Beverages Utility-Maximization Combinations Table 3 ________________________________________________________________________ Books Total Utility from Beverages Quantity Total Utility Books & Beverages Total Utility Beverages 0 0 291 291 10 1 50 310 260 8 2 88 313 225 6 3 121 302 181 4 4 150 267 117 2 5 175 175 0 0 _____________________________________________________________________________________ Predictions Based on Marginal Utility Theory This information allows for economic anticipation. This is relevant because income and monetary values are non dead. What happens to House A’s ingestion of books and drinks when their monetary values and House A’s income alterations? Determining the consequence of a alteration in monetary value on ingestion involves three stairss: 1 Determine the combinations that can be purchased at new monetary values. 2 Calculate the new fringy public-service corporations per dollar spent. 3 Determine the maximal public-service corporation ensuing in consumer equilibrium. This procedure demonstrates that if, for illustration, the monetary value of books falls but drinks remain changeless in pricing, House A will most likely addition ingestion of books and indulge in fewer drinks. If house Angstrom does non set it’s consumer wonts it losingss consumer equilibrium. A rise in income, nevertheless, brings about an addition in consumer goods. Should House A addition it’s books and drinks budget to $ 42.00 consumer equilibrium is reached when seven books and seven drinks are purchased monthly. Fringy public-service corporation theory is used by economic experts to reply a broad scope of inquiries. An illustration of this can be found in it’s application in finding the fluctuations in popularity between wooden and aluminium baseball chiropterans. Another illustration is the ability of the theory to reply inquiries about forms of consumer disbursement. But every bit good as explicating ingestion picks, it can be used to explicate all family picks. The allotment of clip every bit good as capital can be decided utilizing fringy public-service corporation theory. And it’s frequently been stated that clip equates to money. In Conclusion What does all this mean to the modern consumer? There becomes a point for consumers when all resources, intangible capital such as clip every bit good as touchable dollars, goods and services, has to be factored into the cost/benefit analysis of ingestion and production. Making intelligent consumer picks requires a clear apprehension of the chance cost and an applied scheme for maximising entire public-service corporation. When that takes topographic point a window for technological promotion is opened. New engineerings enable manufacturers to extinguish some of those factors that drive up production costs and hence monetary values. For illustration, the development of new engineering for the industry of tape by companies such as 3M has lowered the cost of bring forthing tapes and increased the available supply. Technology progresss in the country of gluey merchandises is now available and low-cost to the multitudes. However, that engineering has besides made obsolete other goods and services. Tape gross revenues may be up due to market demand created by new tape engineering, but the market for library paste is drying up. Makers of library paste may or may non be able to keep adequate market portion to go on production. But until it is no longer economically executable to bring forth library paste, consumers have picks beyond tape when sing gluey merchandises. Basically, consumers are faced with more picks than at any clip of all time earlier. In a coiling consequence, these consumer picks have created the chance for increasing engineering. And that engineering has changed every facet of twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours life and all human minutess. We live in a manner that old coevalss could non hold imagined. Goods such as place picture and micro-cook popcorn now appear on the mean shopping list. Progresss in medical specialty have cured antecedently fatal diseases. Homes are more broad, people eat better, grow taller, and are even born larger than in past coevalss. Economic growing and technological alteration have made the current coevals richer than the coevalss of our parents and grandparents. But we have non created Utopia. As a society we experience chance cost with each new technological promotion. The extent of that cost can be measured with the tools of microeconomics that have been examined in this paper. Possible production frontier graphs can be employed in the planning and determination devising phase anterior to production. Determining how an point is priced, and hence its’ profitableness, is a map of fringy public-service corporation theory. All of this helps industry to make up one’s mind if and how to travel about presenting new merchandises and engineering. That’s critically of import merely because merely because we can, it doesn’t ever mean we should. Seal Straugh Notes

Bibliography

C. Menenger, Principles of Economics, ( Grove City PA, Libertarian Press ) 1994, 12 Michael Parkin, Microeconomics, 2nd Edition, ( New York, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company ) 1993, 12 Parkin, 18 Menenger, 33-36 Xiphaias, manufacturer, Economics Alive! CD-ROM 1994 IBM William Baumol, and Alan Blinder, Economics Principles and Policy, 4th Edition, ( New York University and Princeton University, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers ) 1988, 122 Baumol and Binder, 74 Danila Israel, & # 8220 ; Review of Microeconomic Models and Valuation Methods Applied in the Natural Resources and Environmental Sector & # 8221 ; Eastern Economic Journal, May, 1998 vol. 2, ( Boston, Mass. , Asset Publication ) 144-157 Parkin, 53 Menenger, 112 Economicss Alive! CD-ROM Parkin, 222 Israel, 123 Parkin, 359 Israel, 166 Economicss Alive! CD-RO Parkin, 260 Israel, 166 Israel, 169 Eric N. Berg, & # 8220 ; Wood Makes Baseball Comeback, & # 8221 ; New York Times, July 7, 1986 Bibliography Primary Sources Books Baumol, William & A ; Blinder, Alan, Economics Principles and Policy, 4th Edition, New York University & A ; Princeton University: Harcourt Brace-Javonovich, Publishers, 1988 Meneger, C. , Principles of Economics, Grove City PA: Libertarian Press, 1994 Parkin, Michael, Microeconomics, 2nd Edition, New York: Addison-Wesely Publication, 1993 Collected Documents Berg, Eric N. , & # 8220 ; Wood Makes Baseball Comeback & # 8221 ; , New York Times, July 7, 1991 Israel, Danila, & # 8220 ; Review of Microeconomic Models and Valuation Methods in the Natural Resources and Environment Sector & # 8221 ; & # 8217 ; Eastern Economic Journal, May, Vol. 2, Boston: Asset Publication, 1998 Electronic References Xiphaias, Economics Alive! CD-ROM 1994 IBM