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Chapter 3—Scarcity, Trade-Offs and Economic Growth

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Chapter 3—Scarcity, Trade-Offs and Economic Growth

TRUE/FALSE

1. In a market economy, government officials make most production decisions in a centralized manner.

ANS: F PTS: 1

2. Consumer sovereignty means that consumers vote with their dollars in a market economy, which helps determine what is produced.

ANS: T PTS: 1

3. In a market economy, prices help determine the distribution of goods and services but not the allocation of resources.

ANS: F PTS: 1

4. An increase in production of one good will have zero opportunity cost only if the economy initially existed at a point inside the production possibilities curve.

ANS: T PTS: 1

5. Capital-intensive production techniques tend to be utilized most commonly in countries where labor is relatively cheap.

ANS: F PTS: 1

6. High wage countries like the United States tend to use less labor-intensive production methods than low wage countries like Mexico.

ANS: T PTS: 1

7. An economy that has many unemployed workers and idle factories is not operating efficiently.

ANS: T PTS: 1

8. The production possibilities curve marks the boundary between attainable and unattainable combinations of output.

ANS: T PTS: 1

9. Any output combination outside the production possibilities curve is attainable in the current period only if prices decrease.

ANS: F PTS: 1

10. A decrease in the unemployment rate will shift an economy's production possibilities curve outward.

ANS: F PTS: 1

11. An increase in available resources will tend to cause a society's production possibilities curve to shift inward.

ANS: F PTS: 1

12. An improvement in technology will tend to cause a society's production possibilities curve to shift outward.

ANS: T PTS: 1

13. The opportunity cost of a particular good tends to increase with its rate of output because some resources cannot be

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