Microeconomics: The Production Possibilities Curve

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1. Given the information I would suspect, even without evidence, that the economy might not be able to produce all the schools and beds it wants because there are inevitable constraints on any nation’s economy despite how big or small it is. On an economy’s production cycle, there are four main constraints (DukeEconomics, 2012). These are land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. Land resources include natural resources like arable land, animals, water, etc (Jain and Ohri, 2010, p. 159). Capital encompasses man-made items like buildings and equipment; and these items are integral to present and future productivity in an economy. Under the labour category, this resource includes both the physical and mental capacity of any worker in the economy. Labour is directly related to education, training and wage. Lastly, entrepreneurship couples various resources together and it relays the provision of a good or a service (Hubbard, Garnett, Lewis, and O'Brien, 2011). These four constraints intermingle with one another and their limits in turn determine the limits of an economy.
The production possibilities curve (PPC) is an economic model designed to convey economic theory in a real world scenario. The PPC is used to grasp the trade-offs faced by a society in terms of its production possibilities. The PPC for an economy is drawn as a curve and not as a straight line in order to clearly portray increasing opportunity cost. If the PPC were drawn as a straight line, then each additional technical hospital (one more of each ‘unit) would necessarily require the forgoing of (or, reduction of) a constant amount of hospital beds. This forgoing, or the opportunity cost, is not constant and a straight line would indicate as much. The economy canno...

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