Past Year Question (October 2008)

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PAST YEAR QUESTION (OCTOBER 2008) PART B QUESTION 1 a) Briefly explain the basic economic problems. i- P: What to produce. E: The economy of every nation has to take a fundamental decision of what to produce because of the limited economic resources. Every society must choose the type and the quantity of goods and services that it will produce. X: How many cars should be produced? Should more clinics be built than schools? ii- P: How to produce. E: This refers to the cheapest method of production. There are alternative techniques of producing goods and services. X: Should cars be produced by automatic machines or assembly line workers? iii- P: For whom to produce. E: This refers to distribution. Distribution of economic benefits depends on the distribution of income. X: How is the national income distributed? b) Using appropriate diagrams, explain why it is important for a supplier to know whether the demand for his/her product is elastic or inelastic. DIAGRAM EXPLANATION P d Q - Elastic demand. - Small percentage change in price will lead to a larger percentage change in quantity supplied. P d Q - Inelastic demand. - Large percentage change in price will only affect a small percentage of the quantity supplied. P d Q - Perfectly inelastic demand. - A percentage change in price has no effect on the percentage change in quantity supplied. P d Q - Perfectly elastic demand. - An almost zero percentage change in price brings a very large percentage change in the quantity supplied. c) Using

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