Economics for the Citizen, Part 1

During fall semesters, I typically teach our first-year Ph.D. microeconomics-theory course. Out of a love for teaching, I’ve decided to not completely take off but deliver a few lectures on basic economic principles to my readership. We’ll name the series “Economics for the Citizen.”

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Scarcity produces several economic problems: What’s to be produced, who’s going to get it, how’s it to be produced, and when is it to be produced? For example, many Americans, and foreigners too, would love to have a home or vacation home along the thousand miles of California, Oregon, and Washington coastline. Shipping companies would like to use some of it as ports. The U.S. Defense Department would like to use it for military installations. There’s simply not enough coastline to meet all the competing wants and uses. That means there’s conflict over coastline ownership and its uses.

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