曼昆经济学原理阅读笔记（一）
　　
　　曼昆的经济学定义：Economics is the study of how society manages its scarce resources。
　　曼昆的经济学十原理中第一条：PEOPLE FACE TRADEOFFS。这一原理的的两段经典举例：
　　
　　When people are grouped into societies, they face different kinds of tradeoffs.The classic tradeoff is between “guns and butter.” The more we spend on nationaldefense to protect our shores from foreign aggressors (guns), the less we can spendon consumer goods to raise our standard of living at home (butter). Also importantin modern society is the tradeoff between a clean environment and a high level ofincome. Laws that require firms to reduce pollution raise the cost of producinggoods and services. Because of the higher costs, these firms end up earning smallerprofits, paying lower wages, charging higher prices, or some combination of thesethree. Thus, while pollution regulations give us the benefit of a cleaner environmentand the improved health that comes with it, they have the cost of reducingthe incomes of the firms’ owners, workers, and customers.
　　
　　Another tradeoff society faces is between efficiency and equity. Efficiencymeans that society is getting the most it can from its scarce resources. Equitymeans that the benefits of those resources are distributed fairly among society’smembers. In other words, efficiency refers to the size of the economic pie, andequity refers to how the pie is divided. Often, when government policies are beingdesigned, these two goals conflict.
　　
　　Efficiency 的定义：the property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources。
　　Equity 的定义：the property of distributing economic prosperity fairly among the members of society。
　　
　　对于社会决策者的 ZF 来说，效率和平等是一对很难平衡的矛盾，容易顾此失彼。显而易见，如果一个 ZF 的经济政策造成的局面是既缺少效率，又增大了不平等，那对该 ZF 的评价只能是失败。ZF 是代表社会行使管理稀缺资源的主体，要提高资源利用的效率，就要牺牲平等，要兼顾平等，就会打击勤奋群体的工作效率。但至少，无论经济政策往哪一方倾斜，对于社会整体来说，是在进步。如果这些资源被有特权的特定群体所占据，则不可能出现效率，同时又不能产生平等。既无效率又无平等的社会，其崩溃是必然的。眼前正是这样一个病态的社会，决策者再不悬崖勒马，可以想见其结局。
　　
　　在资源由构成社会的所有家庭和公司的联合作用或集体行为分配的社会中，出现上述矛盾的时候，是相对容易解决的，因为决策总是根据人们的利益倾向于去纠正过当的行为；而在由一个中央决策者来实施分配的时候，比如中国，就是个大大的困难了。
　　
　　第二条：THE COST OF SOMETHING IS WHAT YOU GIVE UP TO GET IT
　　第三条：RATIONAL PEOPLE THINK AT THE MARGIN
　　第四条：PEOPLE RESPOND TO INCENTIVES
　　第五条：TRADE CAN MAKE EVERYONE BETTER OFF
　　第六条：MARKETS ARE USUALLY A GOOD WAY TO ORGANIZE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
　　第七条：GOVERNMENTS CAN SOMETIMES IMPROVE MARKET OUTCOMES
　　第八条：A COUNTRY’S STANDARD OF LIVING DEPENDS ON ITS ABILITY TO PRODUCE GOODS AND SERVICES
　　第九条：PRICES RISE WHEN THE GOVERNMENT PRINTS TOO MUCH MONEY
　　第十条：SOCIETY FACES A SHORT-RUN TRADEOFF BETWEEN INFLATION AND UNEMPLOYMENT