European Economics Micro + Macr0
Lecture Notes
Important terms (treaties, policies, people)
Important economic terms
Lists of important stuff
Extra notes about something non-substantively
! Things written down like this (cursive) are translations into Dutch. Don’t worry about
that: if you’re not Dutch you won’t miss out on things.
MICRO
Lecture 1: Introduction > Micro Economics
Q1: What is economics?
Definition: Economics is (p. 38 ‘the Economy) ‘the study of how people interact with
each other and with their natural surroundings in producing their livelihoods, and how
this changes over time.’
Selling / change / consumption / distribution
Q2: How do humans interact?
Definition: Graeber (2011): “A wage-labor contract is, ostensibly, a free contract
between equals – but an agreement between equals in which both agree that once
one of them punches the time clock, they won’t be equals any more.”
Three ways to interact:
1. ‘Communism’ (not as a political system but in a way to interact): from each
according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
F.a. When we take care of our family, friends, we do not ask anything in return
or because of pressure but because we can and the other person needs it.
2. Hierarchy: People do something because they are told to do so.
F.a. Army or church, or on the workfloor, education.
3. Exchange: When you do something for someone expecting to get something
back. It is voluntary, no one forces you to. 2 ways: you want something from
them and they want something from you
F.a. The market.
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,These are ideal types, abstractions, generalisations, stereotypes: because in many
human situations these are multidimensional. Often it is mixed.
F.a. in ‘communism’ you will do something for your friend without anything in return,
but maybe if you’ll never get anything in return you stop doing things for that friend.
Second f.a. In labour your boss will tell you what to do but the labour contract is
something you’ve chosen for yourself.
Q3a: What are Markets?
Definition: Institution for exchanging goods & services
Economics foreground markets for exchanging goods and services: however keep in
mind there are also other markets.
Markets are:
● Voluntarily
● Reciprocity (wederkerigheid, ik betaal jij geeft product ervoor terug)
● Anonymous / inclusive: everybody can buy/sell
● Money: meaning of exchange
● Prices: mechanism of supply and demand
● Only people-cum-money participate
● State involvement (in more than one way)
Exchange is an important thing to understand about society.
Q3b: What is the role of the state?
(! The state in the end of the day makes use of the interaction way ‘hierarchy’ the
state is so involved with society and the market that it is hard to say that
state/markets are opposites)
1. Regulation
2. Taxes & subsidies
3. Infrastructure: provides a labour market with providing partly education and
moreover things like railways and highways.)
4. Insurance: companies that are too big to fail, the state will always step in if
they are about to fall down. F.a. Banks.
5. Market making: It is mandatory to be insured for healthcare however the
providers are private companies.
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, 6. Competition policy: making sure monopolies are being observed
7. Enforcing property rights: fining theft (diefstal)
8. Itself a buyer & seller
States create markets and markets require states.
Q4: What is capitalism?
The combination of the coming together of these next three features: And it comes
together in a certain way which makes it capitalism.
1. Firms
Profit-motive
Buys labour on the market and sells goods with the idea of making profit.
2. Markets
Buy/sell consumption goods and production factors (also labour).
3. Private property
Means of production are owned by private owners
! Communism/socialism: Means of production enforced by the state.
! Capitalism consists of markets BUT it is NOT THE SAME THING. Market is not the
same thing as capitalism.
Q5: What is GDP?
Gross Domestic Product = measure of total income & output of the economy in a
given period
> Usually expressed in per-capita terms (per hoeveelheid bevolking)
Total production of goods and services in a certain time period. (annually and in a
country)
Things GDP leaves out which makes it an imperfect measure of well-being:
[i] what is produced exactly
• What kind of goods? Maybe the goods that are being produced don't bring us a lot
of well-being. F.a. smoking.
[ii] how it is produced
• production process: e.g. (child-)labor-conditions, pollution etc.
[iii] what else is produced: things that are produced but aren’t on the market.
• negative externalities: e.g. environmental pollution
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, [iv] pricing (monopolistic / competitive)
If prices go up, GDP seems to increase. However, monopolies and high prices aren't
always positive.
[v] distribution: inequality: how the goods are distributed among its citizens.
Inequality isn’t measured.
GDP from 1800 on moved up: from 1800 onwards more and more products and
services were produced and consumed on average.
“Hockey-stick” curves represent the sustained rapid growth in GDP per capita
experienced by countries worldwide
We can also say that from 1800 onwards capitalism was situated in Europe, USA,
UK and their empires. (With the industrial revolution)
Q6: Did capitalism cause growth?
The Capitalist Revolution
One reason for the growth is that more and more activities were brought into the
market. So in other words: home production like food and clothes were brought into
the market.
So, a lot of things before were already produced but not observed because they
weren’t sold on the market.
Capitalism led to growth in living standards:
• Impact on technology: firms competing in markets had strong incentives to adopt
and develop new technologies. With capitalism firms have a motive to innovate and
that is lacking in other types of societies.
• Specialization: the growth of firms and the expansion of markets linking the entire
world allowed historically unprecedented specialization in tasks and production
Marx & Engels: ‘The bourgeoisie [..] has been the first to show what man’s activity
can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids,
Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in
the shade all former Exoduses of nations and crusades. The bourgeoisie cannot
exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby
the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.
Gains from specialization:
Specialization (often) increases labour-productivity
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