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Basic Economic Concepts

Basic Economic Concepts. OBJECTIVE: The student will become familiar with the following items:. Economic Fundamentals Scarcity Choices Basis of Benefits Estimates Types of Costs Equivalence of Money Values Evaluation Tools. SCARCITY:. Limited Resources + Unlimited Wants and Needs =

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Basic Economic Concepts

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  1. Basic Economic Concepts

  2. OBJECTIVE: The student will become familiar with the following items: • Economic Fundamentals • Scarcity • Choices • Basis of Benefits Estimates • Types of Costs • Equivalence of Money Values • Evaluation Tools

  3. SCARCITY: Limited Resources + Unlimited Wants and Needs = The Fundamental Economic Problem

  4. SCARCITY: • Virtually no resource is available in limitless supply • Tendency to view everything as an “indispensable necessity” • We can’t do everything

  5. Choices: • Limited resources with unlimited wants and needs forces decisions • Choosing one thing means giving up another (opportunity cost) • Economics examines the logic of choices among available possibilities

  6. Choices: • Optimal decisions select the most desirable option among the possibilities that the resources permit • Choices have costs • They cost us the opportunity to do something else.

  7. Basis of Benefits:

  8. Demand PRICE QUANTITY

  9. Demand PRICE P1 P2 Q1 Q2 QUANTITY

  10. Demand PRICE Area Under Demand Curve is Total Willingness to Pay (TWTP) QUANTITY

  11. Area Under Demand Curve PRICE P Q QUANTITY

  12. Area Under Demand Curve PRICE P Amount Paid for Q Quantity Q QUANTITY

  13. Area Under Demand Curve PRICE Area You Did Not Have to Pay P1 P Amount Paid for Q Quantity Q1 Q QUANTITY

  14. Consumer Surplus PRICE Consumer Surplus P Amount Paid for Q Quantity Q QUANTITY

  15. Example of Consumer Surplus Benefits: PRICE A plan reduces the price from P1 to P2: Initial Consumer Surplus (CS) at Price P1 is Yellow Area P1 P2 Q1 Q2 QUANTITY

  16. Example of Consumer Surplus: PRICE A plan reduces the price from P1 to P2: Consumer Surplus gain from Yellow Area to net gain in Blue Area. Consumer Surplus Gain P1 P2 Q1 Q2 QUANTITY

  17. Summary: Estimating Benefits • These concepts guide our thinking. • We rarely have demand or supply curves. • Use your basic economic models to think about situations. • We devise clever ways to approximate these areas.

  18. Willingness To Pay Benefit Estimation - Approaches • Actual or simulated market price • Change in net income • Cost of the most likely alternative • Administratively established values

  19. Costs:

  20. Opportunity Cost: • The cost of forgoing certain opportunities or alternatives in favor of pursuing others.

  21. Opportunity Cost: Job Search • You currently earn $50,000 • You start a business and earn $40,000 profit • How are costs defined?

  22. Opportunity Cost: • $40,000 accounting profit • $10,000 economic loss • The cost of opening the business is the forgone opportunity to make $50,000

  23. Opportunity Cost: • Explicit Cost • Out-of-pocket cost • Implicit Costs • Non-cash costs • Opportunity Costs = Explicit + Implicit

  24. Other Costs: • Incremental Costs • Costs that change due to a decision • Only relevant costs of the decision • Sunk Costs • Do not vary across alternatives (including without project) • Do not influence optimal choice

  25. Associated Costs: • The costs of measures needed over and above project measures to achieve the benefits claimed during the period of analysis. • For example: irrigation water supply laterals, electric transmission lines • Should be included in the net benefits and benefit to cost ratio

  26. Economic vs. Financial Costs • Economic = Opportunity Costs • Explicit and Implicit Costs • Financial or Accounting Costs • Explicit or Actual Cost

  27. IDC: Interest During Construction • Conceptually, is compounding pre-base year costs forward to account for time value of money • Only an economic cost • Sample calculations in your notebook

  28. Equivalence of Money:

  29. Equivalence of Money: Sums of money that occur at different points in time cannot be directly compared to one another.

  30. Equivalence of Money: Price Level Time Value

  31. Price Level: • The same price levels should be used at each point in time • Select a common point in time as reference (base year) • Resulting in: • Constant relative prices • Real prices

  32. Price Level:One ton of Reinforcing Steel • Selected price level does not matter • Consistency matters • Such values can be found industry sources (ENR, Dodge, USACE CCWCI)

  33. Price Level: • Costs occur at different times • Construction costs are pre-base year and base year • O&M costs are post-base year • Benefits can occur throughout the analysis

  34. Time Equivalence: $ $ $ Time Base Year

  35. Time Equivalence: • Pre-base year values are brought forward in time by compounding. • Post-base year values are brought back in time by discounting.

  36. Time Equivalence: Example

  37. Time Equivalence: 1997 Compounding $100 x (1.1)5 = $100 x 1.61 = $161 $100 spent in 1997 grows to $161 by 2002 Calculations with 10% interest rate

  38. Time Equivalence: 2007 Discounting $100 x (1.1) -5 = $100 x 0.62 = $62 $100 expected expenditures in 2007 shrinks to $62 by 2002 Calculations with 10% interest rate

  39. Time Equivalence: Project Costs 2002 Prices 1997 + 2002 + 2007 = Total Costs 161 + 100 + 62 = $ 323

  40. Time Equivalence: • Changes in purchasing power are irrelevant to Corps planning. • Discounting done to account for time value, not for inflation.

  41. Average Annual Costs (AAC) • All costs (and benefits) over time are put in same price level and time and summed (total present worth) • Corps of Engineers evaluate on an average annual basis (AAC) • Done by applying factor based on appropriate Federal interest rate

  42. Decision Criteria

  43. Benefit to Cost Ratio (BCR) • Computed by dividing the Average Annual Benefits by Average Annual Costs • Reflects the efficiency of a project • Not the Federal selection criteria

  44. Net National Economic Development (NED) Benefits • The total NED average annual benefits minus the NED average annual costs Net NED Benefits = AAB – AAC • Used as the selection criteria, the project with highest net NED benefits

  45. Review:

  46. Review:Basics of Economics • Fundamental economic problem? Scarcity • Basis of economic benefits? Consumer Surplus

  47. Review: • Costs • Costs are important • Different types of costs are used at different points in the process • Economists care about opportunity and incremental costs

  48. Review: • Time Equivalence of Money • Price Levels • Values expressed in any common point in time • Time Value • Discount and escalate values to bring to the base year

  49. Review: • Benefit to Cost Ratio (BCR) = ratio of AAB/AAC • Net NED Benefits = AAB – AAC

  50. Discussion

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