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  3. The Law of Supply and Demand If trade is to take place, at least two economic units must be involved (business, households,

The Law of Supply and Demand If trade is to take place, at least two economic units must be involved (business, households,

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问题                                  The Law of Supply and Demand
    If trade is to take place, at least two economic units must be involved (business, households, tradesmen, etc. ): One must have something to sell and the other must desire the product of the seller. These two economic units meet or communicate through what is called a "market".  Markets can be physical places such as the farmers’ market in large cities, the commodity markets in Chicago, or the stock exchanges of New York City. They can also be nothing more than a "happening" where buyer and seller never meet but may communicate halfway around the world by telephone, radio, etc. We will view a market as being some combination of buyers (demanders) and sellers (suppliers), which deals with a definable commodity.  Notice, we have already split the concept of market into two subgroups -- demanders and suppliers. To see how markets operate, we will first develop tile demand and supply ideas separately; then we will combine them.
Price of the Demanded Goods
    Every one of you is familiar with the concept of demand, although you may not be aware of the fact. To analyze demand, we merely look at all the things that affect people’s desires for goods and services. What are some of these things? If we talking about economic goods it is implied that to get a piece of goods, something else (such as money or some other goods) must be given up. The amount that must be given up per unit of the desired goods is the price of the desired goods -- $ 8.00 per book or I shirt per book. Thus it can be said that the quantity demanded of some goods depends partly on the price of that goods.
Prices of Substitute and Complementary Goods
    Many goods are consumed or used either instead of or along with some other goods. In other words, there may be substitutes for or complements to some god&. Examples of substitutes include butter and margarine(人造黄油). automobile transportation and airline transportation, university training and technical school training. Notice, a substitute docs not have to be the same goods, and in fact, substitute implies that it may nit have to be the same goods. Nickels and dimes, in the proper portions, are perfect substitutes in most cases, but they are very imperfect if one has only nickels, the coffce machine takes only dimes, and nobody’s around to make change. Complements are found in such items as tires and automobile, sails and sailboats, etc. As you may have guessed, the prices of these related goods will undoubtedly affect the quantity demanded of the desired goods in question. Much as I dislike margarine (and I can tell the difference), if the price of butter goes much higher (relative to margarine), I can assure you, margarine will be much more acceptable to me. Notice, as the price of a given goods becomes higher in relation to its substitute ( or the price of substitute becomes lower), the quantity demanded of the given goods will decrease. The converse is true for complementary goods. If the price of automobiles increases substantially my demand for automobile tires will decrease, since I will be buying fewer automobiles on which to use the tires. While the example may not be very important for me as individual buyer of automobiles, it is very important if one looks at the total market including all buyers of automobiles and automobile tires.
The Income of Potential Buyers
    A third item that can affect the quantity demanded of goods is the income of the buyer or buyers. At first thought, one would think that people with high incomes would demand more goods than those with low incomes. For some goods (economists call them "normal or superior" goods), this is true for example, the quantity demanded of Rolls Royce automobiles. But for other goods ("inferior" goods) such as pork and beans, the opposite is true. For the latter category, increasing incomes give people the choice of selecting more expensive foods, such as fresh vegetables and butter, thus actually reducing the quantity demanded of margarine.
Transaction Costs -- ICP Costs
    The fourth category of variables being held in constant is sometimes called transaction cost. I hope you’re beginning to see that markets and their operation provide a flow of services to the economy. The goods and services that flow through markets yield services, thus the markets themselves are economic goods ,in that they are distributing other goods throughout the economy.  Notice, I said markets are economic goods. This means they are costing something. It takes resources to provide the allocation functions performed by the markets. It would be simple to put all these costs together, but it is useful to separate the so-called transaction costs into their component parts. This will be particularly useful when we begin discussing negative goods. The component parts will be labeld:
     Information costs
     Contractual costs
     Policing costs
     ICP costs, for short
    Although these terms are fairly self-explanatory, a few words are needed to clarify, the exact meaning we will be attaching to them.
    Market operations are made up of the choices between alternatives made by both buyers and sellers. If these choices are to result in improved benefit for the participants, there must be information available to potential customers and suppliers. The buyer must know not only the price of the product involved but also the prices of alternative purchases. He must also have at least some information as to the services that can reasonably be expected by having the goods. As the cost of obtaining this information increases, the quantities demanded at given prices will decrease. The seller, too, must have information about the market in which he wished to sell. He also requires knowledge of the alternative to which he might apply the resources under his control: Again, costs will be incurred in obtaining this information, and to the extent that information expense increases, the seller will be less willing to supply products at a given price.
    Demanders’ contractual costs are obvious enough in some major purchases, but they exist to some extent in virtually all purchase transactions. It may be something as the time you spend in a checkout line at the local supermarket or as complex as legal "test case" when you are purchasing Something for which legal rights are poorly defined.
    Most of you have probably never considered policing costs something that would affect your demand for some particular goods.  Nevertheless, the enforcement of rights, whatever these rights may be, is crucial if any efficiency is to be attained in any economic system. The revolutionaries of today understand this full well. If the goal is to destroy a particular system, its guts must be attacked. For an economic system, these "guts" are the system of property rights that have been built to make allocation of goods possible. Here again, we’re not talking necessarily about the property rights of a "capitalist" system. These rights are generally well defined in all operating economic systems of the world today. If one wishes to destroy any of these systems, breaking down property rights is a very good beginning.
The most important element for an economic system is ______.
选项
答案the system of property rights
解析 参见文章最后一段第五句话。
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