Economics Standard One

Students will analyze the potential costs and benefits of personal economic choices in a market economy [Microeconomics].

Individuals, as well as families, communities, and societies as a whole, must make choices in their activities and consumption of goods and services because the resources available to satisfy wants are limited. The availability of these resources in a market economy is dependent on changes in technology, costs, demand, and government intervention. Making effective personal economic choices requires a comparison of the cost of a give resource with the benefits gained by its acquisition.

The complexity of the standard will increase at each succeeding grade cluster:

• K-3:
  • Students will understand that individuals and families with limited resources undertake a wide variety of activities to satisfy their wants.
  • Students will apply the concept that economic choices require the balancing of costs incurred with the benefits received.
• 4-5
  • Students will understand that prices in a market economy are determined by the interaction of supply and demand, with governments intervening to deal with market failures.
  • Students will understand that consumers and producers make economic choices based on supply, demand, access to markets, and the actions of the government.
• 6-8:
  • Students will analyze how changes in technology, costs, and demand interact in competitive markets to determine or change the price of goods and services.
• 9-12:
  • Students will demonstrate how individual economic choices are made within the context of a market economy in which markets influence the production and distribution of goods and services.