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Andy and April are throwing a Halloween party at their house and start listing off all the things they need to throw a great party. The output is a great party and the inputs are a variety of different items.
See more: complements, inputs, outputs, preferences, production function, utility
Ann runs into Donna at a single’s event but is quickly sent away because she represents competition in “the jungle.” Dating markets work best whenever they are “thick,” but if there aren’t many available mates then it can be hard to match up.
See more: behavioral, common resources, competition, coordiantion problem, dating markets, game theory, zero-sum game
The pollution from the local factory creates a beautiful sunset, but it also gives people asthma. Ben and Leslie debate whether the beauty of the sunset is worth the tradeoff. Reducing pollution to zero would be extremely expensive, so it’s important to find some optimal level of pollution.
See more: externalities, negative externalities, positive externalities, private benefits, private costs, social benefits, social costs, social incentives, tradeoffs
Ron finds a typewriter out by the dumpster, but the noise of the machine bothers everyone in the office. While it makes him happy, he’s not taking into consideration the costs he is imposing on everyone else.
See more: externalities, private benefits, private costs, social benefits, social costs
Now that the Parks Department is temporarily shut down, Tom starts packing up his office items. With the pending layoff, Tom has the option of seeking out a temporary job or becoming an entrepreneur.
See more: entrepreneurship, government shutdown, job search, layoffs, temp jobs, tradeoffs, unemployment
Ben and Chris come into town from Indianapolis to help cut the town’s budget because of their pending financial situation. Ben suggests firing Leslie to relieve some of the spending associated with the inflated budget, but Ron describes how valuable Leslie is to the department and how she’s worth her salary. He basically argues that her marginal productivity vastly exceeds her salary despite making the second largest salary in the department.
See more: derived demand, government shutdown, government spending, marginal product, marginal revenue product, total wage bill, types of income, value
Pawnee is going through a bit of a budget crises and they have decided to cut the Parks Department budget so that no parks will be open over the summer break. This also means that a previously-planned concert needed to be canceled as well. The citizens of Pawnee want to know what services the government will provide if they are shut down. Ron relishes in the fact that the services aren’t provided.
See more: common resources, government shutdown, government spending, public resources, role of government, types of goods
Pawnee is going through a budget crisis so Leslie and Ron propose a list of budget cuts that they believe will help keep the Parks Department operation. Chris and Ben break the news that the city’s budget is worse than imagined and the government will need to shut down despite their efforts to keep it operating.
See more: bargaining, government shutdown, government spending, tradeoffs
Pawnee, Indiana is going through a budget crises and the city has decided to postpone all planning and spending decisions until the state auditors come by to review their budgets. While this terrifies Leslie, Ron is happy that state auditors are coming to slash the Pawnee budget because he feels government spending has gotten out of hand.
See more: government shutdown, government spending, role of government, social programs
Leslie needs programming for a local telethon and decides to flip a quarter on air. Leslie takes the distribution of the flips as being exciting since it’s unclear “who will win.” Luckily for statisticians, the results stay close to 50-50 throughout the broadcast.
See more: econometrics, probabilities, statistics
Economics of Parks & Recreation 