tailieunhanh - Essentials of microeconomics

Economics is often defined as something along the lines of “the study of how society manages its scarce resources.” The starting point of most such studies is that individuals allocate their resources such that they themselves will get the highest possible level of utility. An individual has an idea of what the consequences of different actions will be, and she chooses that action she believes will produce the best result for her. She is, in other words, selfish and rational. Note that she is also forward-looking. She acts so that she in the future will get the highest possible level of utility, independently of what she has already done. That she is selfish does not have to mean that she is an egoist. However, it does mean that she will only voluntarily share with others if she believes that she thereby will maximize her own utility. We often call this simplification of human beings Homo Economicus. | Essentials of microeconomics