After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
阅读本章后，您应该能够
L01.1 recognise that people face trade-offs when they make decisions, and discuss how the nature of these trade-offs influences their behaviour
L01.1 认识到人们在做决定时会面临取舍，并讨论这些取舍的性质如何影响他们的 行为

L01.2 explain why trade among people or nations can be good for everyone, and discuss why markets are a good, but not perfect, way to allocate resources
L01.2 解释为什么人与人或国与国之间的贸易对每个人都有好处，并讨论为什么市 场是分配资源的好方法，但不是完美的方法
L01.3 identify the factors that drive some significant trends in the overall economy.
L01.3 确定推动总体经济某些重要趋势的因素。

The word economy comes from the Greek word oikonomos, which means ‘one who manages a household’. At first, the connection between households and economies may seem obscure. But, in fact, they have much in common.
经济一词来自希腊语 oikonomos，意思是 "管理家庭的人"。起初，家庭与经济之间的联系可能显得模糊不清。但事实上，它们有很多共同之处。

No matter how you picture a modern household, its members face numerous decisions. Somehow, they must decide which members do which tasks and what each member receives in return: Who cooks dinner? Who gets some extra dessert? Who cleans the bathroom? Who gets to drive the car? Whether a household’s income is high, low or somewhere in between, its resources (time, dessert, petrol) must be allocated among alternative uses.
无论你如何描绘一个现代家庭，其成员都会面临许多决定。他们必须以某种方式决定哪些成员做哪些工作，以及每个成员的回报是什么：谁做晚饭？谁能得到额外的甜点？谁打扫卫生间？谁来开车？无论一个家庭的收入是高是低，还是介于两者之间，其资源（时间、甜点、汽油）都必须分配给不同的用途。

Like a household, a society faces countless decisions. A society must decide what jobs will be done and who will do them. It needs people to grow food, make clothing and design software. Once society has allocated people (as well as land, buildings and machines) to various jobs, it must distribute the goods and services they produce. It must decide who will eat rice and who will eat steak, who will live in a mansion and who live in an apartment.
与家庭一样，社会也面临着无数的决定。社会必须决定做什么工作，由谁来做。社会需要人来种植粮食、制作服装和设计软件。一旦社会将人员（以及土地、建筑和机器）分配到不同的工作岗位，就必须分配他们生产的产品和服务。它必须决定谁吃米饭，谁吃牛排，谁住豪宅，谁住公寓。

These decisions are important because resources are scarce. Scarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore cannot produce all the goods and services people want. Just as members of a household cannot always satisfy their desires, individuals in a society cannot always attain the standard of living to which they aspire.
这些决定之所以重要，是因为资源是稀缺的。稀缺意味着社会资源有限，因此无法生产人们想要的所有商品和服务。正如一个家庭的成员不可能总是满足自己的欲望一样，社会中的个人也不可能总是达到他们所期望的生活水平。

Economics is the study of how society manages its scarce resources. In most societies, resources are allocated through the combined choices of millions of households and businesses. Economists examine how people make these choices - how much they work, what they buy, how much they save, how they invest their savings and so on. Economists also study how people interact with one another. For instance, they examine how buyers and sellers together determine the price at which a good is sold and the quantity that is sold. Finally, economists analyse the forces and trends that affect the overall economy, including the growth in average income, the fraction of the population that cannot find work and the rate at which prices are rising.
经济学是一门研究社会如何管理其稀缺资源的学科。在大多数社会中，资源是通过千家万户和企业的共同选择来分配的。经济学家研究人们如何做出这些选择--他们工作多少、购买什么、储蓄多少、如何投资储蓄等等。经济学家还研究人们如何相互影响。例如，他们研究买卖双方如何共同决定商品的销售价格和销售数量。最后，经济学家分析影响整体经济的力量和趋势，包括平均收入的增长、找不到工作的人口比例以及物价上涨的速度。

Economics covers a wide range of topics and encompasses many approaches, but it is unified by several central ideas. This chapter discusses Ten Principles of Economics. Don’t worry if you don’t understand them all at first or if you aren’t completely convinced that they are sensible or important. These ideas will be explored more fully in later chapters. This introduction to the ten principles will give you a sense of what economics is about. Consider this chapter a ‘preview of coming attractions’.
经济学涵盖广泛的主题，包含多种方法，但有几个中心思想将其统一起来。本章讨论经济学的十大原则。如果你一开始并不完全理解它们，或者并不完全相信它们是合理或重要的，也不必担心。这些观点将在后面的章节中进行更全面的探讨。通过对十大原则的介绍，你将对经济学有一个初步的了解。请将本章视为 "未来景点的预览"。

There is no mystery about what an economy is. Whether it encompasses Sydney, Australia or the entire planet, an economy is just a group of people dealing with one another as they go about their lives. Because the behaviour of an economy reflects the behaviour of the individuals within it, the first four principles concern individual decision making.
经济是什么并不神秘。无论是悉尼、澳大利亚还是整个地球，经济不过是一群人在生活中相互打交道。由于经济的行为反映了经济中个人的行为，因此前四项原则与个人决策有关。

‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch.’ This old saying contains much truth. To get one thing you want, you usually have to give up another thing you want. Making decisions requires trading off one goal against another.
天下没有免费的午餐。这句老话包含了很多道理。为了得到一件你想要的东西，你通常必须放弃另一件你想要的东西。做决定需要用一个目标与另一个目标进行权衡。

Consider Carol, a student deciding how to use her most valuable resource - her time. She can spend all her time studying economics, all her time studying psychology or divide her time between the two. For every hour devoted to one subject, she gives up an hour she could have used studying the other. And for every hour spent studying, she gives up an hour that
卡罗尔是一名学生，她正在决定如何利用自己最宝贵的资源--时间。她可以花全部时间学习经济学，也可以花全部时间学习心理学，或者在这两门学科之间分配时间。每花一小时学习一门学科，她就会放弃一小时本可以用来学习另一门学科的时间。而每花一个小时学习，她就会放弃一个小时可以用来
scarcity  稀缺
the limited nature of society’s resources
社会资源的有限性

the property of  的属性
society getting the  社会得到
most it can from its
从其
scarce resources  稀缺资源

the property of distributing economic prosperity uniformly among the members of society
在社会成员之间均匀分配经济繁荣的属性
opportunity cost  机会成本
whatever must be given up to obtain some item
为获得某种物品而必须放弃的东西
could have been spent sleeping, working out at the gym, watching YouTube clips or working at a job for some extra spending money.
这些时间本可以用来睡觉、去健身房锻炼、看 YouTube 短片或打工赚取额外的花销。

Consider Carol’s parents, who are deciding how to use the family income. They can spend it on food, clothing or a holiday. Or they can save some of their income for retirement or a future family holiday. When they choose to spend an extra dollar on one of these goods, they have one less dollar to spend on some other good.
卡罗尔的父母正在决定如何使用家庭收入。他们可以把钱花在食物、衣服或度假上。或者，他们可以将部分收入存起来，用于退休或未来的家庭度假。当他们选择在其中一种商品上多花一美元时，他们在其他商品上就会少花一美元。

As a society, people also face trade-offs. One classic trade-off is between ‘guns and butter’. The more society spends on the military, the less it can spend on consumer goods. Another trade-off is between a clean environment and the level of income. Laws that require firms to reduce pollution may raise the cost of producing goods and services. Because of these higher costs, the firms are likely to earn smaller profits, pay lower wages or charge higher prices, or some combination of these three. While pollution regulations yield a cleaner environment and the improved health that comes with it, they may reduce the incomes of the regulated firms’ owners, workers and customers.
作为一个社会，人们也面临着取舍。一个典型的权衡就是 "枪支和黄油 "之间的权衡。社会在军事上的支出越多，在消费品上的支出就越少。另一种权衡是清洁环境与收入水平之间的权衡。要求企业减少污染的法律可能会提高商品和服务的生产成本。由于成本增加，企业可能会减少利润、降低工资或提高价格，或三者兼而有之。虽然污染法规能带来更清洁的环境和随之而来的健康改善，但它们可能会减少受监管企业的所有者、工人和客户的收入。

Another societal trade-off is between efficiency and equity. Efficiency means that society is getting the greatest benefits from its scarce resources. Equity means that those benefits are distributed uniformly among society’s members. In other words, efficiency refers to the size of the economic pie, while equity refers to how evenly the pie is divided into individual slices.
另一种社会权衡是效率与公平之间的权衡。效率意味着社会从稀缺资源中获得最大利益。公平则是指这些利益在社会成员之间均匀分配。换句话说，效率指的是经济蛋糕的大小，而公平指的是如何将蛋糕平均分配给每个人。

These two goals can conflict. Consider, for instance, government policies aimed at reducing inequality. Some of these policies, such as the age pension or unemployment benefits, help those members of society who are most in need. Others, such as individual income tax, require the financially successful to contribute more than others to support the government. These policies increase equality but they may reduce efficiency. When the government redistributes income from the rich to the poor, it reduces the reward for working hard for people at all income levels. As a result, people may work less and produce fewer goods and services. In other words, as the government cuts the economic pie into more equitable slices, the pie itself may shrink.
这两个目标可能相互冲突。例如，考虑一下旨在减少不平等的政府政策。其中一些政策，如养老金或失业救济金，帮助那些最需要帮助的社会成员。另一些政策，如个人所得税，则要求经济上成功的人比其他人缴纳更多的税款来支持政府。这些政策增加了平等，但可能会降低效率。当政府将收入从富人那里重新分配给穷人时，就会减少所有收入水平的人努力工作的回报。因此，人们可能会减少工作，生产更少的商品和服务。换句话说，当政府把经济蛋糕切成更公平的小块时，蛋糕本身可能会缩小。

Recognising that people face trade-offs does not tell us what decisions are best. A student should not abandon the study of psychology just because doing so would free up time for studying economics. Society should not live with pollution just because environmental regulations might reduce our material standard of living. The government should not neglect the poor just because helping them would distort work incentives. Nonetheless, people are likely to make better decisions if they understand the options available to them. Our study of economics, therefore, starts by acknowledging life’s trade-offs.
认识到人们面临权衡取舍并不能告诉我们什么样的决策是最好的。学生不应该因为学习心理学可以腾出时间来学习经济学而放弃学习心理学。社会不应该因为环境法规可能会降低我们的物质生活水平而忍受污染。政府不应忽视穷人，因为帮助他们会扭曲工作激励机制。尽管如此，如果人们了解他们可以做出的选择，他们就有可能做出更好的决定。因此，我们的经济学研究首先要承认生活中的权衡取舍。

Because people face trade-offs, they need to compare the costs and benefits of alternative decisions. In many cases, however, the cost are not as obvious as they might first appear.
由于人们需要权衡利弊，因此需要比较其他决策的成本和收益。然而，在很多情况下，成本并不像最初看起来那么明显。

Consider the decision to go to university. The main benefits are intellectual enrichment and a lifetime of better job opportunities. But what is the cost? You might be tempted to add up the money spent on fees, books, rent and food. Yet this total does not truly represent what you give up to spend a year at university.
考虑一下上大学的决定。上大学的主要好处是丰富知识，一生都有更好的工作机会。但代价是什么呢？你可能会把学费、书本费、房租和伙食费加在一起。然而，这个总数并不能真正代表您为上大学所付出的代价。

There are two problems with this calculation. First, it includes some things that are not really costs of university education. Even if you quit university, you would need a place to sleep and food to eat. Rent and food are costs of going to university only to the extent that they exceed the cost of living at home. Second, this calculation ignores the largest cost of going to university - your time. When you attend lectures, read textbooks and write assignments, you can’t spend that time working at a job and earning money. For most students, the potential earnings they forgo to attend university are the largest cost of their education.
这种计算方法有两个问题。首先，它包含了一些并非真正的大学教育成本。即使你从大学退学，你也需要一个睡觉和吃饭的地方。只有当房租和伙食费超过家庭生活费时，才是上大学的成本。其次，这种计算方法忽略了上大学的最大成本--你的时间。当你听课、阅读教科书和写作业时，你不可能把这些时间花在工作和赚钱上。对大多数学生来说，为上大学而放弃的潜在收入是他们接受教育的最大成本。

The opportunity cost of an item is what you give up to get it. When making decisions, it’s smart to take opportunity costs into account, and people often do. Young athletes who
一件物品的机会成本就是你为了得到它而放弃的东西。在做决定时，考虑机会成本是明智之举，而人们也经常这样做。年轻运动员
can earn millions playing professional sports instead of going to university understand that their opportunity cost of university is high. Not surprisingly, they often decide that the benefit of a university education is not worth the cost.
那些不上大学而通过职业体育运动赚取数百万美元的人明白，他们上大学的机会成本很高。毫不奇怪，他们往往认为大学教育的收益不值得付出代价。

Economists often assume that people are rational. Rational people systematically and purposefully do the best they can do to achieve their objectives, given the available opportunities. As you study economics, you will encounter firms that decide how many workers to hire and how much of their product to manufacture and sell to maximise profits. You will also encounter people who decide how much time to spend working and what goods and services to buy with the resulting income to achieve the highest possible level of satisfaction. To be sure, human behavior is complex and sometimes deviates from rationality. But the assumption that people do the best they can is, economists have found, a good starting point to explain the decisions that they make.
经济学家通常认为人是理性的。理性的人在现有的机会下，会有计划、有目的地尽最大努力实现自己的目标。在学习经济学的过程中，你会遇到这样的公司：它们决定雇佣多少工人，生产和销售多少产品，以实现利润最大化。你也会遇到这样的人，他们决定花多少时间工作，用所得收入购买什么商品和服务，以获得尽可能高的满意度。可以肯定的是，人的行为是复杂的，有时会偏离理性。但是，经济学家发现，"人们尽其所能 "这一假设是解释人们所做决定的良好起点。

Rational decision-makers know that many issues in life are not black and white but usually involve shades of grey. At dinnertime, you don’t ask yourself, ‘Should I fast or eat like a pig?’ More likely, the question is, ‘Should I eat that extra spoonful of mashed potatoes?’ When exams roll around, your decision is not between doing absolutely no work and studying 24 hours a day, but whether to spend an extra hour reviewing your notes instead of hanging out with friends. Economists use the term marginal change to describe a small incremental adjustment to an existing plan of action. Keep in mind that margin means ‘edge’, so marginal changes are adjustments around the edges of what you are doing. Rational people often make decisions by comparing marginal benefits and marginal cost.
理性的决策者都知道，生活中的很多问题都不是非黑即白的，通常都有灰色的影子。晚餐时间，你不会问自己：'我应该禁食还是像猪一样吃？'更可能的问题是：'我应该多吃一勺土豆泥吗？当考试来临时，你的决定不是在完全不做作业和一天 24 小时学习之间做选择，而是要不要多花一个小时复习笔记，而不是和朋友出去玩。经济学家使用 "边际变化 "一词来描述对现有行动计划的微小增量调整。请记住，边际的意思是 "边缘"，所以边际变化是指在你正在做的事情的边缘进行的调整。理性的人通常会通过比较边际效益和边际成本来做出决策。

For example, suppose you are deciding whether to watch a movie tonight. You pay $\mathrm{\$}16$$\mathrm{\$}16$$16\$ 16 a month for a streaming service that gives you unlimited access to its films and TV shows, and you typically watch eight movies a month. What cost should you consider when deciding whether to watch another movie? The answer might seem to be $\mathrm{\$}16/8$$\mathrm{\$}16/8$$16//8\$ 16 / 8, or $\mathrm{\$}2$$\mathrm{\$}2$$2\$ 2, the average cost of a movie. More relevant for your decision, however, is the marginal cost - the extra money that you would have to pay if you stream another film. Here, the marginal cost is zero because you pay the same $\mathrm{\$}16$$\mathrm{\$}16$$16\$ 16 for the service regardless of how many movies you watch. In other words, at the margin, streaming a movie is free. The only cost of watching one tonight is the time it takes away from other activities, such as working at a job or (better yet) reading this textbook.
例如，假设您正在决定今晚是否观看一部电影。您每月支付 $\mathrm{\$}16$$\mathrm{\$}16$$16\$ 16 一项流媒体服务的费用，该服务可让您无限制地观看电影和电视节目，您通常每月观看八部电影。在决定是否观看另一部电影时，您应该考虑哪些成本？答案似乎是 $\mathrm{\$}16/8$$\mathrm{\$}16/8$$16//8\$ 16 / 8 或 $\mathrm{\$}2$$\mathrm{\$}2$$2\$ 2 ，即一部电影的平均成本。然而，与您的决定更相关的是边际成本--如果您观看另一部电影，您需要支付的额外费用。在这里，边际成本为零，因为无论您观看多少部电影，您都要支付相同的 $\mathrm{\$}16$$\mathrm{\$}16$$16\$ 16 服务费用。换句话说，在边际上，流媒体观看电影是免费的。今晚观看一部电影的唯一成本是占用其他活动的时间，比如工作或（更好的是）阅读这本教科书。

Thinking at the margin is also useful for business decisions. Consider an airline deciding how much to charge passengers who fly standby. Suppose that flying a 200 -seat plane from Brisbane to Perth costs the airline $\mathrm{\$}100000$$\mathrm{\$}100000$$100000\$ 100000. The average cost of each seat is $500 ( $\mathrm{\$}100000/200$$\mathrm{\$}100000/200$$100000//200\$ 100000 / 200 ). You might think that the airline should never sell a ticket for less than $\mathrm{\$}500$$\mathrm{\$}500$$500\$ 500. But the airline can often increase its profits by thinking at the margin. Imagine that a plane is about to take off with 10 empty seats, and a Sammy Standby is at the gate and will pay $\mathrm{\$}300$$\mathrm{\$}300$$300\$ 300 for a seat. Should the airline sell him the ticket? Yes, it should. If the plane has empty seats, the cost of adding an extra passenger is tiny. The average cost of flying a passenger is $\mathrm{\$}500$$\mathrm{\$}500$$500\$ 500, the marginal cost is merely the cost of the sandwich and coffee that Sammy will consume, and the small bit of jet fuel needed to carry his weight. As long as he pays more than the marginal cost, selling the ticket is profitable. A rational airline can increase profits by thinking at the margin.
边际思维对商业决策也很有用。假设一家航空公司正在决定向候机乘客收取多少费用。假设一架 200 座的飞机从布里斯班飞往珀斯，航空公司的成本为 $\mathrm{\$}100000$$\mathrm{\$}100000$$100000\$ 100000 。每个座位的平均成本为 500 美元 ( $\mathrm{\$}100000/200$$\mathrm{\$}100000/200$$100000//200\$ 100000 / 200 )。您可能会认为，航空公司绝不应该以低于 $\mathrm{\$}500$$\mathrm{\$}500$$500\$ 500 的价格出售机票。但是，航空公司往往可以通过边际思维来增加利润。试想一下，一架即将起飞的飞机上有 10 个空座位，而登机口有一位 Sammy Standby，他愿意支付 $\mathrm{\$}300$$\mathrm{\$}300$$300\$ 300 的价格购买一个座位。航空公司应该把票卖给他吗？是的，应该。如果飞机上有空座位，那么增加一名乘客的成本微乎其微。一位乘客的平均飞行成本是 $\mathrm{\$}500$$\mathrm{\$}500$$500\$ 500 ，边际成本仅仅是萨米将消耗的三明治和咖啡的成本，以及承载他的重量所需的少量喷气燃料。只要他支付的费用高于边际成本，出售机票就有利可图。理性的航空公司可以通过边际成本来增加利润。

Marginal analysis can help explain some otherwise puzzling economic
边际分析有助于解释一些令人费解的经济现象

Many streaming services set the marginal cost of a movie equal to zero.
许多流媒体服务将电影的边际成本设定为零。
rational people people who systematically and purposefully do the best they can to achieve their objectives
理性的人 有计划、有目的地尽力实现目标的人
marginal change a small incremental adjustment to a plan of action
边际变化 对行动计划的微小增量调整

phenomena. For example, why is water so cheap while diamonds are so expensive? You might think it should be the other way around: humans need water to survive, but diamonds merely glitter. Yet people are willing to pay much more for a diamond than for a cup of water. Economists have figured this out. A person’s willingness to pay for a good is based on the marginal benefit that an extra unit of the good would yield. The marginal benefit, in turn, depends on how many units a person already has. Water is essential but plentiful, so the marginal benefit of an extra cup is small. By contrast, no one needs diamonds to survive, but because they are so rare, the marginal benefit of an extra diamond is large.
现象。例如，为什么水如此便宜，而钻石却如此昂贵？你可能会认为情况恰恰相反：人类需要水才能生存，而钻石只是闪闪发光。然而，人们却愿意为钻石支付比一杯水高得多的价格。经济学家已经发现了这一点。一个人是否愿意为一件商品买单，取决于多买一单位该商品所能带来的边际效益。而边际效益又取决于一个人已经拥有多少单位。水是生活必需品，但数量充足，因此多喝一杯水的边际效益很小。相比之下，没有人需要钻石来生存，但由于钻石非常稀少，多一颗钻石的边际效益就很大。

A rational decision maker takes an action if and only if the action’s marginal benefit exceeds its marginal cost. This principle explains why people use streaming services as much as they do, why airlines sell tickets below average cost, and why people pay more for diamonds than for water. It can take a while to get used to the logic of marginal thinking, but the study of economics will give you ample opportunity to practise.
当且仅当一项行动的边际效益超过其边际成本时，理性决策者才会采取该行动。这一原则解释了为什么人们如此频繁地使用流媒体服务，为什么航空公司以低于平均成本的价格出售机票，为什么人们购买钻石的价格高于购买水的价格。要习惯边际思维的逻辑可能需要一段时间，但经济学研究会给你提供大量的实践机会。

An incentive is something that induces a person to act, such as the prospect of a punishment or reward. People respond to incentives if they make decisions by comparing costs and benefits. Incentives play a central role in the study of economics. One economist went so far as to say that the entire field could be summarised simply as, ‘People respond to incentives. The rest is commentary.’
激励机制是一种促使人们采取行动的因素，例如惩罚或奖励的前景。如果人们通过比较成本和收益来做出决策，他们就会对激励做出反应。激励在经济学研究中起着核心作用。一位经济学家甚至说，整个领域可以简单概括为：'人们对激励做出反应。其余的都是评论"。

Incentives are key to analysing how markets work. For example, when the price of apples rises, people decide to eat fewer apples. At the same time, apple orchards decide to hire more workers and harvest more apples. In other words, a higher price provides an incentive for buyers to consume less and for sellers to produce more. As we will see, the influence of prices on the behaviour of consumers and producers is crucial to how the economy allocates scarce resources.
激励机制是分析市场运作的关键。例如，当苹果价格上涨时，人们决定少吃苹果。与此同时，苹果园决定雇佣更多工人，收获更多苹果。换句话说，价格上涨促使买方减少消费，卖方增加生产。我们将看到，价格对消费者和生产者行为的影响对于经济如何分配稀缺资源至关重要。

Public policymakers need to pay attention to incentives: many policies change the costs or benefits that people face and, as a result, alter their behaviour. A tax on petrol, for instance, encourages people to drive more fuel-efficient cars and shift to electric ones. That is one reason many people drive smaller cars in Europe and Australia, where petrol taxes are higher, and why big SUVs are so popular in the United States, where petrol taxes are low. A petrol tax also encourages people to take public transportation, ride bikes and live closer to work.
公共政策制定者需要关注激励机制：许多政策改变了人们面临的成本或收益，并因此改变了他们的行为。例如，征收汽油税会鼓励人们驾驶燃油效率更高的汽车或改用电动汽车。这就是在汽油税较高的欧洲和澳大利亚，许多人驾驶小型汽车的原因之一，也是在汽油税较低的美国，大型越野车大受欢迎的原因之一。征收汽油税还能鼓励人们乘坐公共交通工具、骑自行车和住得离工作地点更近。

When policymakers fail to consider incentives, the policies they enact may have unintended consequences. For example, consider seat belts and car safety. Today, all cars have seat belts, but this was not the case in the 1950s. In the late 1960s, the rising death toll from motor vehicle accidents generated much public concern over car safety. State and federal governments responded with laws requiring new cars to be equipped with seat belts, and requiring drivers and passengers to wear their seat belts.
如果决策者不考虑激励措施，他们制定的政策可能会产生意想不到的后果。例如，考虑一下安全带和汽车安全。如今，所有汽车都系有安全带，但在 20 世纪 50 年代，情况并非如此。20 世纪 60 年代末，机动车事故造成的死亡人数不断上升，引起了公众对汽车安全的极大关注。为此，州政府和联邦政府制定了相关法律，要求新车配备安全带，并要求驾驶员和乘客系好安全带。

How does a seat belt law affect safety? The direct effect is obvious. When a person wears a seat belt, their likelihood of surviving a major accident rises. But that is not the end of the story. The law also affects behaviour by altering incentives. The relevant behaviour here is the speed and care with which drivers operate their cars. Driving slowly and carefully is costly because it uses the driver’s time and energy. When deciding how to drive, rational people compare, perhaps unconsciously, the marginal benefit from safer driving with the marginal cost. They drive more slowly and carefully when the benefit of increased safety is high. For example, when roads are wet or visibility is poor, people drive with greater care and attention than they do when conditions are clear.
安全带法如何影响安全？直接影响显而易见。当一个人系上安全带时，他在重大事故中幸存的可能性就会增加。但这并不是故事的结尾。法律还通过改变动机来影响行为。与此相关的行为是驾驶员驾驶汽车的速度和谨慎程度。小心谨慎地慢速驾驶是要付出代价的，因为这会耗费驾驶者的时间和精力。在决定如何驾驶时，理性的人也许会不自觉地比较更安全驾驶的边际收益和边际成本。当提高安全性的收益较高时，他们就会更加小心谨慎地慢速驾驶。例如，当路面潮湿或能见度较低时，人们会比天气晴朗时更加小心谨慎地驾驶。

Consider how a seat belt law alters a driver’s cost-benefit calculation. Buckling up makes accidents less costly by reducing the risk of injury or death. It is as if road conditions had improved: when conditions are safer, people drive faster and less carefully. That may be fine for motorists, whose risk of injury in an accident is reduced because of seat belts. But if faster, less careful driving leads to more accidents, the seat-belt law adversely affects
考虑一下安全带法如何改变驾驶员的成本效益计算。系好安全带可以减少伤亡风险，从而降低事故成本。这就好比路况改善了：当路况更安全时，人们开车就会更快、更谨慎。这对驾驶者来说可能没什么问题，因为安全带降低了他们在事故中受伤的风险。但如果更快、更不小心的驾驶导致了更多的事故，那么安全带法就会对以下方面产生不利影响

pedestrians, who are more likely to be in an accident but (unlike the drivers) don’t benefit from added protection.
行人更有可能发生事故，但（与司机不同的是）他们并不能从额外的保护中受益。

This discussion of incentives and seat belts isn’t idle speculation. In a classic 1975 study, the economist Sam Peltzman tested the theory and found that car safety laws in the United States have, in fact, had many of these effects. According to Peltzman, these laws give rise not only to fewer deaths per accident but also to more accidents. He concluded that the net result was little change in driver deaths and an increase in pedestrian deaths.
关于激励机制和安全带的讨论并非空穴来风。在 1975 年的一项经典研究中，经济学家山姆-佩尔兹曼（Sam Peltzman）对这一理论进行了检验，发现美国的汽车安全法律实际上产生了许多上述效果。根据佩尔兹曼的研究，这些法律不仅减少了每起事故的死亡人数，还导致了更多事故的发生。他的结论是，最终结果是司机死亡人数几乎没有变化，而行人死亡人数却增加了。

Peltzman’s analysis of car safety is an offbeat and controversial example of the general principle that people respond to incentives. When analysing any policy, it is important to consider not only the direct effects but also the indirect effects that work through incentives. If the policy changes incentives, people may well alter their behaviour.
佩尔兹曼对汽车安全的分析，是人们对激励措施做出反应这一普遍原则的一个非传统和有争议的例子。在分析任何政策时，不仅要考虑直接影响，还要考虑通过激励措施产生的间接影响。如果政策改变了激励机制，人们很可能会改变自己的行为。

In the decade between 2004 and 2014, the Australian Government made a payment to parents for every baby born. These payments were known as the ‘baby bonus’, and ranged in value between $\mathrm{\$}3000$$\mathrm{\$}3000$$3000\$ 3000 and $\mathrm{\$}5437$$\mathrm{\$}5437$$5437\$ 5437 across the lifetime of the scheme. The story of the baby bonus has lessons for how people respond to incentives and why governments (and others) need to anticipate these responses.
在 2004 年至 2014 年的十年间，澳大利亚政府为每个新生儿的父母支付了一笔款项。这些款项被称为 "婴儿奖金"，在该计划的整个有效期内，其价值介于 $\mathrm{\$}3000$$\mathrm{\$}3000$$3000\$ 3000 和 $\mathrm{\$}5437$$\mathrm{\$}5437$$5437\$ 5437 之间。婴儿奖金的故事对于人们如何对激励措施做出反应，以及政府（和其他人）为什么需要预测这些反应，都具有借鉴意义。

In May 2004, the then Treasurer Peter Costello announced a $\mathrm{\$}3000$$\mathrm{\$}3000$$3000\$ 3000 payment (rising to $\mathrm{\$}5000$$\mathrm{\$}5000$$5000\$ 5000 in 2008) for every child born after 1 July 2004. This meant that the parents of someone whose birthday was 30 June 2004 or earlier would receive nothing. But hold off a day or so, and they would get $\mathrm{\$}3000$$\mathrm{\$}3000$$3000\$ 3000. This created an incentive for parents to delay births, if they could. And by agreeing with their doctors to schedule planned caesareans and inductions a little later, births could be moved.
2004 年 5 月，时任财政部长的彼得-科斯特洛宣布为 2004 年 7 月 1 日之后出生的每个孩子支付 $\mathrm{\$}3000$$\mathrm{\$}3000$$3000\$ 3000 款项（2008 年将增至 $\mathrm{\$}5000$$\mathrm{\$}5000$$5000\$ 5000 ）。这意味着，生日为 2004 年 6 月 30 日或更早的孩子的父母将什么也得不到。如果再推迟一天左右，他们就会得到 $\mathrm{\$}3000$$\mathrm{\$}3000$$3000\$ 3000 。这就促使父母在可能的情况下推迟生育。通过与医生达成一致，将计划中的剖腹产和引产时间稍晚一些，就可以推迟分娩。

The graph in Figure 1.1 shows what happened.
图 1.1 中的图表显示了发生的情况。

Notice that there was a dip in births in the last week of June followed by a sharp rise on 1 July 2004. Indeed, that day had the most number of recorded births on a single day in Australian history. And if you think this might just be ‘fiddling the books’, 2 July had the seventh-highest number of births.
请注意，2004 年 6 月最后一周的出生人数有所下降，而 7 月 1 日的出生人数则急剧上升。事实上，7 月 1 日是澳大利亚历史上单日出生人数最多的一天。如果您认为这可能只是 "做手脚"，那么 7 月 2 日的出生人数是澳大利亚历史上出生人数第七多的一天。

In their paper ‘Born on the First of July’, Joshua Gans and Andrew Leigh estimated that 1167 births were shifted from June to July that year, all as a result of the baby
约书亚-甘斯（Joshua Gans）和安德鲁-利（Andrew Leigh）在他们的论文《生于七月一日》（Born on the First of July）中估计，当年有 1167 名新生儿从六月转移到了七月，所有这些都是由于婴儿潮的影响。

FIGURE 1.1 Births in Australia, June-July 2004
图 1.1 2004 年 6-7 月澳大利亚的出生率

Source: Joshua Gans and Andrew Leigh, ‘Born on the First of July’, Journal of Public Economics, vol. 93, nos 1-2, February 2009, pp. 246-63.
资料来源Joshua Gans 和 Andrew Leigh，《生于七月一日》，《公共经济学杂志》，第 93 卷，第 1-2 期，2009 年 2 月，第 246-63 页。

Micro-7  微型-7
bonus. Medical organisations raised concerns about the health consequences of maternity hospital congestion caused by this, while economists argued that the policy should have been ‘phased in’ so there were no big jumps in payments on any given day. Nonetheless, politicians have failed to heed these warnings. On 1 July 2006, the Howard government raised the baby bonus by $\mathrm{\$}834$$\mathrm{\$}834$$834\$ 834. Gans and Leigh again found shifts in birth timing, but of a lower magnitude (around 700 births).
奖金。医疗组织对由此造成的产科医院拥堵所带来的健康后果表示担忧，而经济学家则认为，该政策本应 "分阶段实施"，这样就不会在任何一天出现支付额大幅飙升的情况。然而，政治家们并没有注意到这些警告。2006 年 7 月 1 日，霍华德政府将婴儿奖金提高了 $\mathrm{\$}834$$\mathrm{\$}834$$834\$ 834 。甘斯和利（Gans and Leigh）再次发现了出生时间的变化，但幅度较小（约 700 例）。

Source: Joshua Gans and Andrew Leigh, ‘Born on the First of July’, Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 93, Nos 1-2, February 2009, pp. 246-63.
资料来源Joshua Gans 和 Andrew Leigh，《生于七月一日》，《公共经济学杂志》，第 93 卷，第 1-2 期，2009 年 2 月，第 246-63 页。

1 The federal government ended baby bonus payments in 2014. What incentives are created by the ending of the payments?
1 联邦政府于 2014 年停止发放婴儿奖金。停止发放奖金会产生哪些激励措施？

2 How would you expect people to respond to these incentives?
2 您希望人们如何回应这些激励措施？

Describe an important trade-off you recently faced. Give an example of some action that has both a monetary and non-monetary opportunity cost. Describe an incentive your parents offered you in an effort to influence your behaviour.
描述你最近面临的一次重要权衡。举例说明某些行为既有货币机会成本又有非货币机会成本。描述你父母为了影响你的行为而给你的奖励。

The first four principles discussed how individuals make decisions. As we go about our lives, many of our decisions affect not only ourselves but other people as well. The next three principles present some key ideas about how people interact with one another.
前四项原则讨论了个人如何做出决定。在我们的生活中，我们的许多决定不仅会影响自己，还会影响他人。接下来的三项原则介绍了关于人与人之间如何互动的一些重要观点。

You may have heard on the news that Australia competes with other countries in the world economy. In some ways, this is true - Australian companies compete for customers in the markets for iron ore, grain, financial services, education and many other items.
您可能从新闻中听说过，澳大利亚在世界经济中与其他国家竞争。从某种程度上讲，这是事实--澳大利亚公司在铁矿石、谷物、金融服务、教育和许多其他项目的市场上争夺客户。

Yet it is easy to be misled when thinking about competition among countries. Trade between Australia and another country is not like a sports contest, where one side wins and the other side loses. The opposite is true: trade between two countries can make each country better off. Even when trade in the world economy is competitive, it can lead to a win-win outcome for the countries involved.
然而，在考虑国家间的竞争时很容易被误导。澳大利亚与另一个国家之间的贸易并不像体育比赛那样，一方赢另一方输。事实恰恰相反：两个国家之间的贸易可以让每个国家都过得更好。即使世界经济中的贸易是竞争性的，它也能为相关国家带来双赢的结果。

To see why, consider how trade affects a family. When family members look for jobs, they compete against members of other families who are looking for jobs. Families also compete with one another when they go shopping because each family wants to buy the best goods at the lowest prices. In a sense, each family in the economy is competing with all other families.
要了解其中的原因，请考虑一下贸易是如何影响一个家庭的。家庭成员在找工作时，会与其他正在找工作的家庭成员竞争。家庭在购物时也会相互竞争，因为每个家庭都想以最低的价格买到最好的商品。从某种意义上说，经济中的每个家庭都在与所有其他家庭竞争。

Despite this competition, a family would not be better off isolating itself from other families. If it did, it would need to grow its own food, sew its own clothes and build its own home. Clearly, a family gains much from trading with others. Trade allows everyone to specialise in the activities they do best, whether it is farming, sewing or home building. By trading with others, people can buy a greater variety of goods and services at lower cost.
尽管存在这种竞争，一个家庭与其他家庭隔绝并不会更好。如果这样做，它就需要自己种植食物、缝制衣服和建造房屋。显然，一个家庭从与他人的贸易中获益良多。贸易使每个人都能专注于自己最擅长的活动，无论是耕种、缝纫还是建造房屋。通过与他人贸易，人们可以以较低的成本购买更多种类的商品和服务。

Like families, countries benefit from trading with one another. Trade allows countries to specialise in what they do best and to enjoy a greater variety of goods and services. The Chinese, Brazilians and Indonesians are as much Australia’s partners in the world economy as they are its competitors.
就像家庭一样，各国也从相互贸易中受益。贸易使各国能够专注于自己最擅长的领域，并享受更多种类的商品和服务。中国人、巴西人和印度尼西亚人既是澳大利亚在世界经济中的合作伙伴，也是澳大利亚的竞争对手。

The principle that ‘trade can make everyone better off’ is illustrated by this case of an American software developer who outsourced his own job to China.
一位美国软件开发商将自己的工作外包给了中国，他的案例说明了 "贸易可以让每个人过得更好 "这一原则。

When a routine security check by a USbased company showed someone was repeatedly logging on to their computer system from China, it naturally sent alarm bells ringing. Hackers were suspected and telecoms experts were called in.
一家美国公司的例行安全检查显示，有人多次从中国登录他们的计算机系统，这自然敲响了警钟。人们怀疑是黑客所为，并请来了电信专家。

It was only after a thorough investigation that it was revealed that the culprit was not a hacker, but ‘Bob’ (not his real name), an ‘inoffensive and quiet’ family man and the company’s topperforming programmer, who could be seen toiling at his desk day after day and staring diligently at his monitor.
经过彻底调查，才发现罪魁祸首不是黑客，而是 "鲍勃"（非真名），他是一个 "不善言辞、沉默寡言 "的家庭主妇，也是公司表现最出色的程序员，人们可以看到他日复一日地在办公桌前辛勤工作，盯着显示器。

For Bob had come up with the idea of outsourcing his own job - to China. So, while a Chinese consulting firm got on with the job he was paid to do, on less than one-fifth of his salary, he whiled away his working day surfing Reddit, eBay and Facebook.
因为鲍勃想到了把自己的工作外包给中国。因此，当一家中国咨询公司用不到他五分之一的工资完成他的工作时，他却在 Reddit、eBay 和 Facebook 上消磨着自己的工作日。

The extraordinary story has been revealed by Andrew Valentine, senior investigator at US telecoms firm Verizon Business, on its website, securityblog. verizonbusiness.com.
美国电信公司 Verizon Business 高级调查员安德鲁-瓦伦丁（Andrew Valentine）在其网站 securityblog.

Verizon’s risk team was called by the unnamed critical infrastructure company last year, ‘asking for our help in understanding some anomalous activity that they were witnessing in their VPN logs’, wrote Valentine.
瓦伦丁写道："去年，一家未具名的关键基础设施公司致电 Verizon 风险团队，'请求我们帮助了解他们在 VPN 日志中发现的一些异常活动'。

The company had begun to allow its software developers to occasionally work from home and so had set up ‘a fairly standard VPN [virtual private network] concentrator’ to facilitate remote access.
该公司已开始允许其软件开发人员偶尔在家工作，因此建立了 "一个相当标准的 VPN（虚拟专用网络）集中器"，以方便远程访问。

When its IT security department started actively monitoring logs being generated at the VPN, ‘What they found startled and surprised them: an open and active VPN connection from Shenyang, China! As in this connection was live when they discovered it,’ wrote Valentine.
当公司的 IT 安全部门开始主动监控 VPN 生成的日志时，'他们发现了一个令他们震惊和意外的情况：一个来自中国沈阳的开放和活跃的 VPN 连接！瓦伦丁写道："当他们发现这个连接时，它已经激活了。

What was more, the developer whose credentials were being used was sitting at his desk in the office.
更重要的是，证书被使用的开发人员当时就坐在办公室的办公桌前。
‘Plainly stated, the VPN logs showed him logged in from China, yet the employee is right there, sitting at his desk, staring into his monitor.’
'直截了当地说，VPN 日志显示他是从中国登录的，但这名员工就在那里，坐在办公桌前，盯着显示器。

Verizon’s investigators discovered ‘almost daily connections from Shenyang, and occasionally these connections spanned the entire workday’.
Verizon 的调查人员发现 "几乎每天都有来自沈阳的连接，有时这些连接跨越了整个工作日"。

The employee, whom Valentine calls Bob, was in his mid-40s, a ‘family man, inoffensive and quiet. Someone you wouldn’t look twice at in an elevator.’
瓦伦丁称这名员工为鲍勃，40 多岁，是个'有家室的男人，不爱说话，沉默寡言。在电梯里你不会多看他一眼。

But an examination of his workstation revealed hundreds of pdf invoices from a third party contractor/developer in Shenyang.
但在检查他的工作站时，发现了数百张来自沈阳一家第三方承包商/开发商的 pdf 格式发票。
‘As it turns out, Bob had simply outsourced his own job to a Chinese consulting firm. Bob spent less than onefifth of his six-figure salary for a Chinese firm to do his job for him.’
原来，鲍勃只是把自己的工作外包给了一家中国咨询公司。鲍勃只花了不到五分之一的六位数薪水，就请中国公司代劳了。

He had physically FedExed his security RSA ‘token’, needed to access the VPN, to China so his surrogates could log in as him.
他将访问 VPN 所需的安全 RSA "令牌 "快递到中国，这样他的代理人就能以他的身份登录。

When the company checked his webbrowsing history, a typical ‘work day’ for Bob was: 9am, arrive and surf Reddit for a couple of hours, watch cat videos; 11.30am, take lunch; 1 pm, eBay; 2pm-ish, Facebook updates, LinkedIn; 4.40pm-end of day, update email to management; 5pm, go home.
当公司检查他的网页浏览记录时，发现鲍勃典型的 "工作日 "是：上午 9 点，到达公司，在 Reddit 上浏览几个小时，看猫视频；上午 11 点半，吃午饭；下午 1 点，eBay；下午 2 点左右，Facebook 更新，LinkedIn；下午 4 点 40 分，下班，更新给管理层的电子邮件；下午 5 点，回家。

The evidence, said Valentine, even suggested he had the same scam going across multiple companies in the area.
瓦伦丁说，证据甚至表明，他在该地区的多家公司实施了同样的骗局。
‘All told, it looked like he earned several hundred thousand dollars a year, and only had to pay the Chinese consulting firm about fifty grand annually’.
'总之，看起来他每年赚几十万美元，每年只需支付中国咨询公司大约五万美元'。

Meanwhile, his performance review showed that, for several years in a row, Bob had received excellent remarks for
与此同时，他的绩效考核显示，鲍勃连续几年在以下方面获得了极好的评价

his codes which were ‘clean, well written
他的代码 "干净利落，文笔优美
Bob no longer works for the company. and submitted in a timely fashion’.
鲍勃已不再为公司工作。
‘Quarter after quarter, his performance review noted him as the Source: Caroline Davies (2013), ‘Software developer Bob outsources own job and whiles away shifts on cat videos’, The Guardian News & Media 2022. best developer in the building,’ wrote Valentine.
一个季度又一个季度，他的绩效考核都将他评为'最佳开发人员'：卡罗琳-戴维斯（Caroline Davies）（2013 年），《软件开发人员鲍勃将自己的工作外包，在猫咪视频上消磨时间》，《卫报新闻与媒体》2022 期。

The collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s was one of the twentieth century’s most transformative events. For the most part, countries in the Soviet bloc operated on the premise that government workers were in the best position to allocate the economy’s scarce resources. These workers decided what goods and services were produced, how much was produced, and who produced and consumed them. The theory behind central planning was that the government needed to organise economic activity to ensure the wellbeing of all the countries in the Soviet Union.
20 世纪 80 年代末和 90 年代初，共产主义在苏联和东欧崩溃，这是 20 世纪最具变革性的事件之一。在大多数情况下，苏联集团国家的运作前提是，政府工作人员处于分配经济稀缺资源的最佳位置。这些工人决定生产什么商品和服务，生产多少，由谁生产和消费。中央计划背后的理论是，政府需要组织经济活动，以确保苏联所有国家的福祉。

Most countries that once had centrally planned economies have now shifted towards market economies. In a market economy, the decisions of a central planner are replaced by those of millions of firms and households. Firms decide whom to hire and what to make. Households decide where to work and what to buy with their incomes. These firms and households interact in the marketplace, where prices and self-interest guide their decisions.
曾经实行中央计划经济的大多数国家现在都已转向市场经济。在市场经济中，中央计划人员的决策被数百万企业和家庭的决策所取代。企业决定雇用谁和生产什么。家庭决定在哪里工作，用收入购买什么。这些企业和家庭在市场中互动，价格和自身利益引导着他们的决策。

At first glance, the success of market economies may seem puzzling because no one appears to be looking out for the wellbeing of society as a whole. Competitive markets contain many buyers and sellers of numerous goods and services, all of them interested primarily in their own wellbeing. Yet despite decentralised decision making and selfinterested decision makers, market economies have proven remarkably successful in organising economic activity to promote prosperity.
乍一看，市场经济的成功似乎令人费解，因为似乎没有人关心整个社会的福祉。竞争性市场包含众多商品和服务的买方和卖方，他们都主要关心自己的福祉。然而，尽管决策权分散，决策者也是利己主义者，但市场经济在组织经济活动以促进繁荣方面却取得了巨大成功。

In his 1776 book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith made the most famous observation in all of economics: firms and households in competitive markets act as if they are guided by an ‘invisible hand’ that leads them to desirable outcomes. One of the chief goals of this book is to understand how this invisible hand works its magic.
亚当-斯密在 1776 年出版的《国富论》（An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations）一书中提出了所有经济学中最著名的观点：竞争市场中的企业和家庭的行为仿佛受到了一只 "看不见的手 "的指引，这只 "看不见的手 "引导它们走向理想的结果。本书的主要目的之一就是要了解这只 "看不见的手 "是如何施展其魔力的。

As you study economics, you will learn that prices are the instrument with which the invisible hand directs economic activity. In any competitive market, sellers look at the price when deciding how much to supply, and buyers look at the price when deciding how much to demand. As a result of their decisions, the price reflects both sellers’ costs of production and the value of the good to buyers. Smith’s great insight was that prices adjust to guide market participants to reach outcomes that, in many cases, maximise the wellbeing of society as a whole.
在学习经济学的过程中，你会了解到价格是无形之手指导经济活动的工具。在任何竞争性市场中，卖方在决定供应多少商品时都要看价格，而买方在决定需求多少商品时也要看价格。由于他们的决定，价格既反映了卖方的生产成本，也反映了商品对买方的价值。斯密的伟大洞察力在于，价格调整能够引导市场参与者达成在许多情况下能使整个社会福祉最大化的结果。

Smith’s insight has an important corollary: when a government prevents prices from adjusting in response to supply and demand, it impedes the invisible hand’s ability to coordinate the decisions of the firms and households that make up the economy. This corollary explains the adverse effect of most taxes on the allocation of resources: taxes distort prices and the decisions of firms and households. It also explains the problems caused by policies that dictate prices, such as rent control. And it explains the economic failure of Communist countries, where prices were set not in the marketplace but by central planners. These planners lacked the overwhelming amount of complex and ever-changing information about producers’ costs and consumers’ tastes, which in a market economy is reflected in prices. Central planners failed because they tried to run the economy with one hand tied behind their backs - the invisible hand of the marketplace.
斯密的见解有一个重要的推论：当政府阻止价格根据供求关系进行调整时，就会阻碍 "看不见的手 "协调经济中企业和家庭决策的能力。这一推论解释了大多数税收对资源配置的不利影响：税收扭曲了价格以及企业和家庭的决策。它还解释了租金管制等规定价格的政策所造成的问题。它还解释了共产主义国家经济失败的原因，在这些国家，价格不是由市场而是由中央计划者制定的。这些计划者缺乏关于生产者成本和消费者口味的大量复杂且不断变化的信息，而这些信息在市场经济中会反映在价格中。中央计划者之所以失败，是因为他们试图用一只手--市场这只看不见的手--来管理经济。

Adam Smith is often seen as the founder of modern economics. When his great book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, was published in 1776, England and Europe were going through a period of major social, political and economic upheaval. The Industrial Revolution was changing the economic landscape just as the American and the French revolutions were to change the political and social landscape. Smith’s book reflects a point of view that was gaining importance at the time - that individuals are usually best left to their own devices, without the heavy hand of government directing their actions. This political philosophy provides the intellectual foundation for the market economy, and for a free society more generally.
亚当-斯密通常被视为现代经济学的创始人。当他的巨著《国富论》于 1776 年出版时，英国和欧洲正处于社会、政治和经济大动荡时期。工业革命正在改变经济格局，正如美国和法国革命将改变政治和社会格局一样。斯密的书反映了当时日益重要的一种观点--通常最好让个人自行其是，而不是由政府的大手来指挥他们的行动。这一政治哲学为市场经济和更广泛的自由社会奠定了思想基础。

Why do decentralised market economies work reasonably well? Is it because people can be trusted to treat one another with love, kindness and generosity? Not at all. Here is Adam Smith’s description of how people interact in a market economy:
为什么分散的市场经济运作合理？是因为人们可以相互信任，以爱、善良和慷慨相待吗？并非如此。以下是亚当-斯密对市场经济中人们如何互动的描述：

Man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them … Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of.
人几乎经常需要兄弟们的帮助，如果他只指望兄弟们的仁慈，那是徒劳的。如果他能使他们的自爱对他有利，并向他们表明，为他做他要求他们做的事对他们自己有利，他就更有可能获得成功......把我想要的东西给我，你就会得到你想要的东西，这就是每一个这样的提议的含义；我们正是以这种方式从彼此那里获得了我们所需要的大部分斡旋。

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens …
我们并不是因为屠夫、酿酒师或面包师的仁慈而期待我们的晚餐，而是因为他们对自身利益的重视。我们对他们说的，不是他们的仁慈，而是他们的自爱；我们对他们说的，从来不是自己的需要，而是他们的好处。除了乞丐，没有人会选择主要依靠同胞的仁慈......

Every individual … neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it … He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
每个人......既不打算促进公共利益，也不知道自己促进了多少公共利益......他只打算为自己谋利，在这种情况下，就像在许多其他情况下一样，他被一只无形的手引导着去促进一个目的，而这个目的并不是他的初衷。对社会来说，这也并非总是坏事。通过追求自己的利益，他往往比真正打算促进社会利益时更有效地促进了社会利益。

Smith is saying that participants in the economy are motivated by self-interest and that the ‘invisible hand’ of the marketplace guides this self-interest into promoting general economic wellbeing.
斯密的意思是说，经济参与者的动机是自身利益，而市场这只 "看不见的手 "会引导这种自身利益促进总体经济福祉。

Many of Smith’s insights remain at the centre of modern economics. Our analysis in the coming chapters will allow us to express Smith’s ideas and conclusions more precisely and to analyse fully the strengths and weaknesses of a market-based economy.
斯密的许多见解仍然是现代经济学的核心。在接下来的章节中，我们将通过分析更准确地表达斯密的观点和结论，并全面分析市场经济的优缺点。

If the invisible hand is so great, what is left for a government to do in an economy? One purpose of studying economics is to refine your view about the proper role and scope of government policy.
如果 "看不见的手 "如此强大，那么政府在经济中还能做些什么呢？学习经济学的目的之一是完善您对政府政策的适当作用和范围的看法。

One reason we need government is that the invisible hand can work its magic only if government enforces the rules and maintains the institutions that are key to a market economy. Most importantly, markets work only if property rights are enforced so individuals can own and control scarce resources. Farmers won’t grow food if they expect their crop to be stolen; restaurants won’t serve meals if many customers leave without paying; and film
我们需要政府的一个原因是，只有当政府执行规则并维护市场经济的关键制度时，"看不见的手 "才能发挥其魔力。最重要的是，只有落实产权，个人才能拥有和控制稀缺资源，市场才能发挥作用。如果农民预期自己的庄稼会被偷，他们就不会种植粮食；如果许多顾客不付钱就离开，餐馆就不会提供饭菜；如果电影和电视机被盗，市场就不会运作。
market failure a situation in which a market left on its own fails to allocate resources efficiently
市场失灵 指市场自身无法有效配置资源的情况

the uncompensated impact of one person’s actions on the wellbeing of a bystander. A positive externality makes the bystander better off. A negative externality makes the bystander worse off.
一个人的行为对旁观者福祉的无偿影响。正外部性使旁观者过得更好。负外部性则使旁观者的境况更糟。

the ability of a single economic actor (or small group of actors) to have a substantial influence on market prices
单个经济行为体（或少数行为体）对市场价格产生重大影响的能力
companies won’t produce movies if too many people pirate copies. Market participants rely on government-provided police and courts to enforce their rights, and the invisible hand works well only if the legal system does.
如果盗版者太多，公司就不会制作电影。市场参与者依靠政府提供的警察和法院来行使自己的权利，而只有在法律制度发挥作用的情况下，"看不见的手 "才能很好地发挥作用。

Another reason we need government is that the invisible hand, while powerful, is not omnipotent. There are two broad rationales for a government to intervene in the economy and change the allocation of resources that people would choose on their own: to promote efficiency and to promote equity. That is, policies can aim either to enlarge the economic pie or to change how the pie is divided.
我们需要政府的另一个原因是，看不见的手虽然强大，但并非万能。政府干预经济并改变人们自行选择的资源配置有两大理由：一是提高效率，二是促进公平。也就是说，政策的目的可以是扩大经济蛋糕，也可以是改变蛋糕的分配方式。

Consider the goal of efficiency. The invisible hand usually leads markets to allocate resources to maximise the size of the economic pie, but this is not always the case. Economists use the term market failure to refer to a situation in which the market on its own does not produce an efficient allocation of resources. One possible cause of market failure is an externality, which is the impact of one person’s actions on the wellbeing of a bystander. The classic example of an externality is pollution. When the production of a good pollutes the air and creates health problems for those who live near the factories, the market on its own may fail to take this cost into account. Another possible cause of market failure is market power, which refers to the ability of a single person or firm (or a small group of them) to unduly influence market prices. For example, if everyone in town needs water but there is only one well, the owner of the well does not face the rigorous competition with which the invisible hand normally keeps self-interest in check; the well owner may take advantage of this opportunity by restricting the output of water and charging a higher price. In the presence of externalities or market power, well-designed public policy can enhance efficiency.
考虑效率目标。无形之手通常会引导市场分配资源，使经济蛋糕的规模最大化，但事实并非总是如此。经济学家用 "市场失灵 "一词来指市场本身不能有效配置资源的情况。市场失灵的一个可能原因是外部性，即一个人的行为对旁观者福祉的影响。外部性的典型例子就是污染。当一种商品的生产污染空气，给工厂附近的居民带来健康问题时，市场本身可能没有考虑到这一成本。市场失灵的另一个可能原因是市场支配力，它指的是一个人或一个公司（或其中的一小部分）不适当地影响市场价格的能力。例如，如果镇上每个人都需要用水，但只有一口水井，那么水井的所有者就不会面临无形之手通常用来约束自身利益的激烈竞争；水井所有者可能会利用这一机会，限制水的产量并收取更高的价格。在存在外部性或市场力量的情况下，精心设计的公共政策可以提高效率。

Now consider the goal of equity. Even when the invisible hand is yielding efficient outcomes, it can nonetheless result in large disparities in wellbeing. A market economy rewards people according to their ability to produce things that other people are willing to pay for. The world’s best soccer player earns more than the world’s best chess player simply because people are willing to pay more to see soccer than chess. The invisible hand does not ensure that everyone has enough food, decent clothing and adequate health care. This inequality may call for government intervention. In practice, many public policies, such as income tax and welfare systems, aim to achieve a more equitable distribution of economic wellbeing.
现在来考虑公平的目标。即使 "无形之手 "产生了有效的结果，它也可能导致福祉的巨大差异。市场经济根据人们生产他人愿意支付的物品的能力给予奖励。世界上最好的足球运动员比世界上最好的国际象棋运动员赚得更多，原因很简单，人们愿意花更多的钱看足球而不是国际象棋。看不见的手并不能确保每个人都有足够的食物、体面的衣服和适当的医疗保健。这种不平等可能需要政府的干预。实际上，许多公共政策，如所得税和福利制度，都旨在实现更公平的经济福利分配。

To say that the government can improve on market outcomes at times does not mean that it always will. Public policy is made not by angels but by an imperfect political process. Sometimes policies are designed simply to reward the politically powerful. Sometimes they are made by well-intentioned leaders who are ill-informed. As you study economics, you will become a better judge of when a government policy is justifiable because it promotes efficiency or equity and when it is not.
说政府有时可以改善市场结果，并不意味着它总是可以。公共政策不是由天使制定的，而是由不完美的政治程序制定的。有时，政策的设计只是为了奖励政治强人。有时，制定政策的领导人用心良苦，但却不明就里。在学习经济学的过程中，你会更好地判断政府政策在什么情况下是合理的，因为它促进了效率或公平，在什么情况下是不合理的。

Why is a country better off not isolating itself from all other countries? Why do we have markets and, according to economists, what roles should governments play in them?
为什么一个国家最好不要把自己孤立于所有其他国家之外？为什么我们要有市场？根据经济学家的观点，政府应该在市场中扮演什么角色？

We started by discussing how individuals make decisions and then looked at how people interact. All these decisions and interactions together make up ‘the economy’. The final three principles concern the workings of the economy as a whole.
我们首先讨论了个人如何做出决策，然后研究了人们如何互动。所有这些决策和互动共同构成了 "经济"。最后三项原则涉及整个经济的运作。

The differences in living standards around the world are staggering. In 2020, the average Australian had an income (in US dollars) of about $\mathrm{\$}53000$$\mathrm{\$}53000$$53000\$ 53000. In the same year, the average South Korean earned $\mathrm{\$}45000$$\mathrm{\$}45000$$45000\$ 45000, the average New Zealander earned $\mathrm{\$}45000$$\mathrm{\$}45000$$45000\$ 45000 and the average Indian earned $\mathrm{\$}7000$$\mathrm{\$}7000$$7000\$ 7000. This variation in average income is reflected in various measures of the quality of life. People in high-income countries have more computers, more cars, better nutrition, better health care and longer life expectancy than do those in low-income countries.
世界各地生活水平的差异令人震惊。2020 年，澳大利亚人的平均收入（以美元计）约为 $\mathrm{\$}53000$$\mathrm{\$}53000$$53000\$ 53000 。同年，韩国人的平均收入为 $\mathrm{\$}45000$$\mathrm{\$}45000$$45000\$ 45000 ，新西兰人的平均收入为 $\mathrm{\$}45000$$\mathrm{\$}45000$$45000\$ 45000 ，印度人的平均收入为 $\mathrm{\$}7000$$\mathrm{\$}7000$$7000\$ 7000 。平均收入的这种差异反映在生活质量的各种衡量标准中。与低收入国家的人相比，高收入国家的人拥有更多的电脑、更多的汽车、更好的营养、更好的医疗保健和更长的预期寿命。

Changes in living standards over time are also large. In Australia, incomes have historically grown about 2 per cent per year (after adjusting for changes in the cost of living). At this rate, average real income doubles every 35 years.
生活水平随时间的变化也很大。在澳大利亚，收入历来每年增长约 2%（根据生活费用的变化进行调整后）。按此速度计算，平均实际收入每 35 年翻一番。

What explains these large differences across countries and over time? The answer is simple. Almost all variation in living standards is attributable to differences in countries’ productivity - that is, the amount of goods and services produced by each hour of a worker’s time. In nations where workers can produce a large quantity of goods and services per hour, most people enjoy a high standard of living; in nations where workers are less productive, most people must endure a more meagre existence. Similarly, the growth rate of a nation’s productivity determines the growth rate of its average income.
是什么原因造成了各国之间和不同时期的巨大差异？答案很简单。生活水平的几乎所有差异都可归因于各国生产率的不同，即工人每小时所生产的商品和服务的数量。在工人每小时能够生产出大量商品和服务的国家，大多数人享有较高的生活水平；而在工人生产率较低的国家，大多数人必须忍受更加微薄的生活。同样，一个国家生产率的增长率决定了其平均收入的增长率。

The relationship between productivity and living standards is simple, but its implications are far-reaching. If productivity is the main determinant of living standards, other explanations must be less important. For example, it might be tempting to credit generous employers or vigorous labour unions for the rise in living standards of Australian workers over the past century. Yet the real hero of Australian workers is their rising productivity.
生产率与生活水平之间的关系很简单，但其影响却很深远。如果生产率是生活水平的主要决定因素，那么其他的解释肯定就不那么重要了。例如，过去一个世纪中，澳大利亚工人生活水平的提高可能要归功于慷慨的雇主或充满活力的工会。然而，澳大利亚工人真正的英雄是他们不断提高的生产率。

The relationship between productivity and living standards also has profound implications for public policy. When thinking about how any policy will affect living standards, the key question is how it will affect the economy’s ability to produce goods and services. To boost living standards, policymakers need to raise productivity by ensuring that workers are well educated, have the tools needed to produce goods and services and have access to the best available technology.
生产力与生活水平之间的关系对公共政策也有着深远的影响。在考虑任何政策将如何影响生活水平时，关键问题是它将如何影响经济生产商品和服务的能力。为了提高生活水平，政策制定者需要提高生产率，确保工人受到良好教育，拥有生产商品和服务所需的工具，并能获得现有的最佳技术。

In January 1921, a daily newspaper in Germany cost 0.30 of a mark. Less than two years later, in November 1922, the same newspaper cost 70000000 marks. All other prices in the economy rose by similar amounts. This episode is one of history’s most spectacular examples of inflation, an increase in the overall level of prices in the economy.
1921 年 1 月，德国一份日报的价格为 0.30 马克。不到两年后，即 1922 年 11 月，同一份报纸的价格为 7000 万马克。经济中的所有其他价格都上涨了类似的数额。这一事件是历史上最引人注目的通货膨胀实例之一，即经济中价格总体水平的上升。

Australia and New Zealand have never experienced inflation even close to that in Germany in the 1920s, but inflation has at times been an economic problem. During the 1970s, the overall level of prices more than doubled, and political leaders lived under the catchcry ‘Fight Inflation First!’ In contrast, in the first two decades of the twentyfirst century, inflation has run at about 2.5 per cent per year; at this rate, it would take almost 30 years for prices to double. Because high inflation imposes various costs on society, keeping inflation at a reasonable rate is a goal of economic policymakers around the world.
澳大利亚和新西兰从未经历过与 20 世纪 20 年代德国相近的通货膨胀，但通货膨胀有时也会成为经济问题。20 世纪 70 年代，物价总水平翻了一番多，政治领导人的口号是'首先打击通货膨胀！'。相比之下，在二十一世纪的头二十年，通货膨胀率约为每年 2.5%；按照这个速度，物价翻一番需要近 30 年的时间。由于高通胀会给社会带来各种成本，因此将通胀率控制在一个合理的水平是世界各国经济决策者的目标。

What causes inflation? In almost all cases of large or persistent inflation, the culprit is growth in the quantity of money. When a government creates large quantities of the nation’s money, the value of the money falls. In Germany in the early 1920s, when prices were on average tripling every month, the quantity of money was also tripling every month. Although less dramatic, the economic history of Australia, New Zealand and the United States points to a similar conclusion - the high inflation of the 1970s was associated with rapid growth in the quantity of money, and the return of low inflation in the 1990s was associated with slower growth in the quantity of money.
通货膨胀的原因是什么？几乎在所有大规模或持续性通货膨胀的案例中，罪魁祸首都是货币数量的增长。当政府大量创造本国货币时，货币的价值就会下降。在 20 世纪 20 年代初的德国，当物价平均每月增长三倍时，货币数量也在每月增长三倍。澳大利亚、新西兰和美国的经济史虽然没有那么戏剧化，但也得出了类似的结论--20 世纪 70 年代的高通胀与货币数量的快速增长有关，而 20 世纪 90 年代低通胀的回归与货币数量的增长放缓有关。
productivity the quantity of goods and services produced from each hour of a worker’s time
生产率 指工人每小时生产的产品和服务的数量
inflation an increase in the overall level of prices in the economy
通货膨胀 经济中价格总水平的上升

If this relationship continues to hold, inflation may increase in Australia in the 2020s. During the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Australian Government alleviated hardship with large increases in spending, and the quantity of money in the economy rose significantly. This policy contributed to rising inflation when the pandemic subsided in 2022. As this book was going to press, the key question was whether the inflation surge would be transitory, as many government officials believed, or become embedded in the economy, as occurred in the 1970s. The outcome will depend, at least in part, on future monetary policy.
如果这种关系继续保持下去，澳大利亚的通货膨胀在 2020 年代可能会加剧。在 2020 年 COVID-19 大流行导致的经济衰退期间，澳大利亚政府通过大幅增加支出来缓解困难，经济中的货币量大幅上升。这一政策导致 2022 年疫情平息时通货膨胀率上升。在本书即将付梓之际，关键问题是，通胀飙升是像许多政府官员所认为的那样是短暂的，还是会像 20 世纪 70 年代那样在经济中根深蒂固。结果至少部分取决于未来的货币政策。

While an increase in the quantity of money primarily has the effect of raising prices in the long run, the short-run story is more complex. Most economists describe the short-run effects of money growth as follows:
虽然从长期来看，货币数量的增加主要会导致价格上涨，但短期的情况则更为复杂。大多数经济学家对货币增长的短期效应描述如下：

This line of reasoning leads to one final economy-wide trade-off: a short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment.
这一推理思路导致了整个经济的最终权衡：通胀与失业之间的短期权衡。

Although some economists still question these ideas, most accept that society faces a short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment. This simply means that, over a period of a year or two, many economic policies push inflation and unemployment in opposite directions. Policymakers face this trade-off regardless of whether inflation and unemployment both start out at high levels (as they did in the 1980s), at low levels (as they did in the late 2010s) or somewhere in between. This short-run trade-off plays a key role in the analysis of the business cycle - the irregular and largely unpredictable fluctuations in economic activity, as measured by the production of goods and services or the number of people employed. east
尽管一些经济学家仍在质疑这些观点，但大多数人都认为，社会面临着通货膨胀与失业之间的短期权衡。这仅仅意味着，在一两年的时间里，许多经济政策会将通货膨胀和失业率推向相反的方向。无论通胀率和失业率一开始是处于高水平（如 20 世纪 80 年代）、低水平（如 2010 年代末）还是介于两者之间，决策者都会面临这种权衡。这种短期权衡在商业周期分析中起着关键作用，商业周期是指经济活动的不规则和基本不可预测的波动，以商品和服务的生产或就业人数来衡量。
business cycle  商业周期
fluctuations in economic activity, such as employment and production
就业和生产等经济活动的波动

Policymakers can exploit the short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment using various policy instruments. By changing the amount that the government spends, the amount it taxes or the amount of money it prints, policymakers can influence the overall demand for goods and services. Changes in demand in turn influence the combination of inflation and unemployment that the economy experiences in the short run. Because these instruments of economic policy are so powerful, how policymakers should use them to control the economy is a subject of continuing debate.
政策制定者可以利用各种政策工具在通货膨胀和失业之间进行短期权衡。通过改变政府的支出额、税收额或印钞量，政策制定者可以影响对商品和服务的总体需求。需求的变化反过来又会影响经济在短期内经历的通货膨胀和失业的组合。由于这些经济政策工具如此强大，政策制定者应如何使用它们来控制经济一直是一个争论不休的话题。

What factors determine a country’s standard of living? How does printing more money affect a country’s economy in the long run and in the short run?
决定一个国家生活水平的因素有哪些？印刷更多钞票对一国经济的长期和短期影响如何？

You now have a taste of what economics is all about. In the coming chapters, we will develop many specific insights about people, markets and economies. Mastering them will take some effort, but the task is not overwhelming. The field of economics is based on a few big ideas that can be applied in many situations.
现在，您已经对经济学有了一定的了解。在接下来的章节中，我们将提出许多关于人、市场和经济的具体见解。掌握这些知识需要付出一些努力，但并非难事。经济学的基础是一些可以应用于多种情况的重要思想。

Throughout this book, we will refer to the Ten Principles of Economics introduced in this chapter and summarised in Table 1.1. Keep these building blocks in mind: even the most sophisticated economic analysis is founded on these 10 principles.
在本书中，我们将通篇引用本章介绍并在表 1.1 中总结的经济学十大原则。请牢记这些基石：即使是最复杂的经济分析也是建立在这十项原则的基础之上的。

L01.1 The fundamental lessons about individual decision making are that people face tradeoffs among alternative goals, that the cost of any action is measured in terms of forgone opportunities, that rational people make decisions by comparing marginal costs and marginal benefits, and that people change their behaviour in response to the incentives they face.
L01.1 关于个人决策的基本经验是：人们会在各种备选目标之间做出权衡；任何行动的代价都是以失去的机会来衡量的；理性的人通过比较边际成本和边际收益来做出决策；人们会根据所面临的激励因素来改变自己的行为。
LO1.2 The fundamental lessons about interactions among people are that trade can be mutually beneficial, that markets are usually a good way of coordinating trade among people and that governments can potentially improve market outcomes if there is some market failure or if the market outcome is inequitable.
LO1.2 关于人与人之间互动的基本经验是：贸易可以互惠互利；市场通常是协调人与人之间贸易的好方法；如果市场失灵或市场结果不公平，政府有可能改善市场结果。
L01.3 The fundamental lessons about the economy as a whole are that productivity is the ultimate source of living standards, that money growth is the ultimate source of inflation, and that society faces a short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment.
L01.3 关于整个经济的基本经验是，生产力是生活水平的最终来源，货币增长是通货膨胀的最终来源，社会面临着通货膨胀与失业之间的短期权衡。

business cycle, p. Micro-14
商业周期，第 Micro-14 页
economics, p. Micro-3  《经济学》，第 Micro-3 页
efficiency, p. Micro-4  效率，第 Micro-4 页
equity, p. Micro-4  公平，第 Micro-4 页
externality, p. Micro-12
外部性，第 Micro-12 页
incentive, p. Micro-6  激励，第 Micro-6 页
inflation, p. Micro-13  通货膨胀，第 Micro-13 页
marginal change, p . Micro-5
边际变化，p .微观-5
market economy, p. Micro-10
市场经济，第 Micro-10 页
market failure, p. Micro-12
市场失灵，第 Micro-12 页
market power, p. Micro-12
市场力量，第 Micro-12 页
opportunity cost, p. Micro-4
机会成本，第 Micro-4 页
productivity, p. Micro-13
生产力，第 Micro-13 页
property rights, p. Micro-11
产权，第 Micro-11 页
rational people, p. Micro-5
理性的人，第 Micro-5 页
scarcity, p. Micro-3  稀缺性，第 Micro-3 页

1 Give three examples of important trade-offs that you face in your life.
1 请举出三个你在生活中面临的重要权衡的例子。
2 What alternatives would you include when determining your opportunity cost of a dinner at a fancy restaurant?
2 在确定您在高级餐厅用餐的机会成本时，您会考虑哪些替代方案？
3 Water is necessary for life. Is the marginal benefit of a glass of water large or small?
3 水是生命的必需品。一杯水的边际效益是大还是小？
4 Why should policymakers think about incentives?
4 政策制定者为什么要考虑激励措施？
5 Why isn’t trade among countries like a game with some winners and some losers?
5 为什么国家间的贸易不像一场游戏，有赢家也有输家？
6 What does the ‘invisible hand’ of the marketplace do?
6 市场这只 "看不见的手 "在做什么？
7 What are ‘efficiency’ and ‘equity’, and what do they have to do with government policy?
7 什么是 "效率 "和 "公平"，它们与政府政策有什么关系？
8 Why is productivity important?
8 生产力为何重要？
9 What is inflation, and what causes it?
9 什么是通货膨胀？
10 How are inflation and unemployment related in the short run?
10 通货膨胀和失业率在短期内有何关系？

1 Economics is best defined as the study of
1 经济学的最佳定义是研究
a how society manages its scarce resources.
a 社会如何管理其稀缺资源。
b how to run a business most profitably.
b 如何以最有利的方式经营企业。
c how to predict inflation, unemployment and stock prices.
c 如何预测通货膨胀、失业率和股票价格。
d how the government can stop the harm from unchecked self-interest.
d 政府如何阻止不受约束的自身利益造成的危害。
2 Your opportunity cost of going to a movie is
2 你看电影的机会成本是
a the price of the ticket.
a 票价。
b the price of the ticket plus the cost of any drink and popcorn you buy at the theatre.
b 票价加上在影院购买饮料和爆米花的费用。
c the total cash expenditure needed to go to the movie plus the value of your time.
c 去看电影所需的现金总支出加上您的时间价值。
d zero, as long as you enjoy the movie and consider it a worthwhile use of time and money.
d 零，只要您喜欢这部电影，并认为值得花费时间和金钱。

3 A marginal change is one that
3 边际变化是指
a is not important for public policy.
a 对公共政策并不重要。
b incrementally alters an existing plan.
b 逐步改变现有计划。
c makes an outcome inefficient.
c 使结果缺乏效率。
d does not influence incentives.
d 不影响激励措施。
4 Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ refers to
4 亚当-斯密的 "看不见的手 "指的是
a the subtle and often hidden methods that businesses use to profit at consumers’ expense.
是指企业利用微妙且往往隐蔽的方法，以消费者为代价牟利。
b the ability of free markets to reach desirable outcomes, despite the self-interest of market participants.
b 自由市场有能力达成理想的结果，尽管市场参与者有自身利益。
c the ability of government regulation to benefit consumers, even if the consumers are unaware of the regulations.
c. 政府的法规能够使消费者受益，即使消费者并不知道这些法规。
d the way in which producers or consumers in unregulated markets impose costs.
d 在不受监管的市场中，生产者或消费者施加成本的方式。
5 Governments may intervene in a market economy in order to
5 政府可以干预市场经济，以便
a protect property rights.
a 保护产权。
b correct a market failure due to externalities.
b 纠正外部性导致的市场失灵。
c achieve a more equal distribution of income.
c 实现更平等的收入分配。
d all of the above.
d 以上皆是。
6 If a nation has high and persistent inflation, the most likely explanation is
6 如果一个国家出现持续的高通胀，最有可能的解释是
a the central bank creating excessive amounts of money.
a 中央银行创造过多的货币。
b unions bargaining for excessively high wages.
b 工会为过高的工资讨价还价。
c the government imposing excessive levels of taxation.
c 政府征收过高的税收。
d firms using their monopoly power to enforce excessive price hikes.
d 企业利用其垄断力量过度抬高价格。

1 Describe some of the trade-offs faced by each of the following:
1 描述下列各项所面临的一些权衡：
a a family deciding whether to buy a new car
一个决定是否购买新车的家庭
b a politician deciding how much to increase spending on national parks
b 一位政治家决定增加多少国家公园的开支
c a company director deciding whether to open a new factory
c 决定是否开设新工厂的公司董事
d a professor deciding how much to prepare for a lecture
d 教授决定为讲座做多少准备
e a recent university graduate deciding whether to undertake graduate studies
e 正在决定是否攻读研究生课程的大学应届毕业生
f a single parent with small children deciding whether to take a job.
一个孩子还小的单亲家庭决定是否接受一份工作。
2 You are trying to decide whether to take a holiday. Most of the costs of the holiday (airfare, hotel, forgone wages) are measured in dollars, but the benefits of the holiday are psychological. How can you compare the benefits with the costs?
2 您正在考虑是否度假。假期的大部分成本（机票、酒店、损失的工资）都是以美元计算的，但假期的好处却是心理上的。如何比较收益和成本？
3 You were planning to spend Saturday working at your part-time job, but a friend asks you to go swimming at the beach. What is the true cost of going swimming? Now suppose that you had been planning to spend the day studying at the library. What is the cost of going swimming in this case? Explain.
3 你本打算周六去做兼职，但朋友约你去海边游泳。去游泳的实际成本是多少？现在假设你计划在图书馆学习一天。在这种情况下，去游泳的成本是多少？请解释一下。
4 You win $\mathrm{\$}100$$\mathrm{\$}100$$100\$ 100 in a lottery. You have a choice between spending the money now and putting it away for a year in a bank account that pays 5 per cent interest. What is the opportunity cost of spending the $\mathrm{\$}100$$\mathrm{\$}100$$100\$ 100 now?
4 你中了 $\mathrm{\$}100$$\mathrm{\$}100$$100\$ 100 彩票。您可以在现在花掉这笔钱和将这笔钱存入一个有 5% 利息的银行账户一年之间做出选择。现在花掉 $\mathrm{\$}100$$\mathrm{\$}100$$100\$ 100 的机会成本是多少？
5 The company that you manage has invested $\mathrm{\$}5$$\mathrm{\$}5$$5\$ 5 million in developing a new product, but the development is not quite finished. At a recent meeting, your salespeople report that the introduction of competing products has reduced the expected sales of your new product to $\mathrm{\$}3$$\mathrm{\$}3$$3\$ 3 million. If it would cost $\mathrm{\$}1$$\mathrm{\$}1$$1\$ 1 million to finish development, should you go ahead and do so? What is the most that you should pay to complete development?
5 你管理的公司投资 $\mathrm{\$}5$$\mathrm{\$}5$$5\$ 5 百万美元开发新产品，但开发工作尚未完成。在最近的一次会议上，你的销售人员报告说，由于竞争产品的推出，你的新产品的预期销售额降到了 $\mathrm{\$}3$$\mathrm{\$}3$$3\$ 3 万元。如果完成开发需要花费 $\mathrm{\$}1$$\mathrm{\$}1$$1\$ 1 百万美元，你是否应该继续开发？为完成开发，您最多需要支付多少费用？
6 There has been some discussion about changes to unemployment benefits that will result in payments being withdrawn after two years for those able to work.
6 关于失业救济金将在有工作能力的人工作两年后被取消的变化，已经进行了一些讨论。
a How do these changes in the laws affect the incentives for working?
a 这些法律变化对工作积极性有何影响？
b How might these changes represent a trade-off between equity and efficiency?
b 这些变化如何体现公平与效率之间的权衡？
7 Explain whether each of the following government activities is motivated by a concern about equity or a concern about efficiency. In the case of efficiency, discuss the type of market failure involved.
7 请解释以下每项政府活动的动机是出于对公平的关注还是对效率的关注。就效率而言，请讨论所涉及的市场失灵类型。
a Regulating broadband prices
a 规范宽带价格
b Providing some low-income people with vouchers that can be used to buy food
b 向一些低收入者提供可用于购买食品的代金券
c Prohibiting smoking in public places
c 禁止在公共场所吸烟
d Breaking up Google and Facebook into smaller companies, each focused on a different product (e.g. search, advertising, mobile operating systems)
d 将谷歌和 Facebook 拆分为小公司，各自专注于不同的产品（如搜索、广告、移动操作系统等）
e Imposing higher personal income tax rates on people with higher incomes
e 对高收入者征收更高的个人所得税税率
f Enacting laws against driving while intoxicated
f 制定禁止醉酒驾驶的法律
8 Discuss each of the following statements from the standpoints of equity and efficiency:
8 从公平和效率的角度讨论下列每种说法：
a ‘Everyone in society should be guaranteed the best health care possible.’
a "社会中的每个人都应得到最好的医疗保障。
b ‘The minimum wage should provide each worker with sufficient income to enjoy a comfortable standard of living.’
b "最低工资应为每个工人提供足够的收入，使其能够享受舒适的生活水平。
9 In what ways is your standard of living different from that of your parents or grandparents when they were your age? Why have these changes occurred?
9 您的生活水平在哪些方面与您父母或祖父母在您这个年龄时的生活水平不同？为什么会发生这些变化？
10 Suppose Australians decided to save more of their incomes. If banks lend this money to businesses, which use the money to build new factories, how might higher saving lead to faster growth in productivity? Who do you suppose benefits from higher productivity? Is society getting a free lunch?
10 假设澳大利亚人决定将更多的收入储蓄起来。如果银行将这笔钱贷给企业，而企业用这笔钱建造新工厂，那么储蓄的增加会如何导致生产率的快速增长？您认为谁会从更高的生产率中受益？社会是否得到了免费午餐？
11 Printing money to cover expenditures is sometimes referred to as an ‘inflation tax’. Who do you think is being ‘taxed’ when more money is printed? Why?
11 印钞票来支付开支有时被称为 "通货膨胀税"。您认为印更多的钞票是在向谁 "征税"？为什么？