Economics Wisconsin

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Wisconsin Economic Standard
D.12.12

Allocation Systems / Scarcity

Compare and contrast how values and beliefs, such as economic freedom, economic efficiency, equity, full employment, price stability, security, and growth, influence decisions in different economic situations

Economic Concepts 
Normative economics  ||  Values 

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Links to Content Information

blue check mark HungerWeb - In the Education and Training section of this web site, case studies of actual development projects in Honduras, Bolivia, Kenya, and India are shared.
blue check mark Bureau of  Labor Statistics - Links to current information on employment, unemployment, and the labor force.
blue check mark Civix Database - A compilation of all the agency budget requests submitted to Congress. This database represents a detailed listing of federal budget line items.
blue check mark Growth and Inequality - From the U.S. to China, people worry that a widening gap between the rich and poor may worsen poverty and lead to social unrest. New research shows that high levels of inequality are undesirable for another reason, too. In general, the less equal a country's distribution of assets, the slower its economic growth.
blue check mark The History of Economic Thought - This archive represents an attempt to gather all material for the study of the history of economics at one site. This includes both primary texts, studies of those texts and of their authors.
blue check mark Living Standards Measurement Study from the World Bank
blue check mark Interaction - This series of web pages outlines interesting facts about world hunger and why it is in the interest of wealthy nations to seek ways to solve the problem.
blue check mark United Nations Development Programme: Sustainable Human Development Programme - This UN web site has information and statistics on human development, which relate to the problems of scarcity and allocation of resources. Focus areas include poverty, environment and gender issues.
blue check mark Work and Pay, Incomes and Differentials: Employer, Employee and Community - A concise all-embracing review and analysis of the whole subject of work and pay, in clear and easily understood language. What makes this report so special is that it covers incomes and differentials from the point of view of the owner or employer, from that of the individual and his family and from that of the community, discussing their interests and requirements. 

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Links to Lesson Plans and other Suggested Teaching Strategies

blue arrow Airline Mergers, Software Industry Monopolies: Contestable Markets? - Grades 11-12. Students will determine whether mergers and monopolies within certain industries have negative effects on consumers based on the theory of contestable markets.
blue arrow Andersonville Prison: an Economic Microcosm - High School.  Development of an economic system for a Civil War prison camp; allocation of scarce resources. Learn about scarcity, economic wants, command economic systems, market economic systems, and markets and price. �Nebraska Council on Economic Education
blue arrow Are the Best Things in Life Free? - Grades 11-12. Students use economic reasoning to analyze the costs and consequences of marital choice. 
blue arrow Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?: The Effects of the New Deal on the Great Depression - Lesson plan, student pages and resources for learning about the Depression, the New Deal, and their effect on people's lives.
blue arrow Buying versus Renting - Grades 9-12. Students learn about factors involved in deciding whether to buy or rent a home.
blue arrow A Case Study: The Unemployment Rate - Students will determine the key parts of unemployment announcements and the relevance of unemployment for workers, employers, and the Federal Reserve decision-makers.
blue arrow Conceptual Analysis In Economics - Grades 10-12. This activity involves students in making decisions and pursuing their own interests within a social and economic environment. Students should develop attitudes, intuition, and the kinds of knowledge and understanding that will enhance continuous change and growth. 
blue arrow Do You Always Own Your Own Private Property? - Students will consider the right of  the government to take private property for its own use, and if so, then at what price. 
blue arrow Economic Freedom, Political Freedom: Their Meaning, Their Results - Students will analyze the concepts of and identify ways to measure economic and political freedom.
blue arrow The Economics of Voting - Economists try to explain why some people do not vote, in terms of the costs and benefits associated with it.
blue arrow Market Failures and Government Regulation: Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease? - This lesson looks at economic efficiency, market failures, economic regulation, and social regulation.
blue arrow National Budget Simulation - This simple simulation gives a feel of the trade-offs which citizens and policy makers will need to make to balance the budget. There are three ways to play the game,  offering different levels of detail.  This site also includes links to information about the Federal Budget.
blue arrow Population Growth: Friend or Foe - Grades 9-12. The environment has recently been the focus of much research and discussion.  Because productive resources are limited, it is important that we use resources wisely to ensure that resources will be available for use in future generations.  Of concern to both environmentalists and economists are the trends in the world's population. (Students' version also available from link on page.)
blue arrow A Question of Ethics - Grades 9-12. A unit of instruction that helps students to understand the term ethics, learn what ethical questions are, and develop a self-checking ethics guide.
blue arrow Rationing Transplants: An Ethical Problem - Grades 9-12. Students will explain the consequences of a non-market rationing process, evaluate the consequences of restricting organ transplants to U.S. citizens, and suggest alternative policies to reduce the scarcity of organs for transplant. (Students' version also available from link on page.)
blue arrow The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie - Lesson based on the PBS film Andrew Carnegie. This immigrant went from rags to riches, a self-made man who became a captain of industry, the king of steel. He preached the obligation of the wealthy to return their money to the societies where they made it.
blue arrow Other Web Sites - This page lists web sites offering a wealth of lesson plans for teaching economics, in addition to these lesson plans.

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List of Curricular Materials and Learning Activities

blue push pin Energy, Economics and the Environment: Case Studies and Teaching Activities for High School  by the Indiana Department of Education.  Students examine the economic issues involved in preserving the environment in four units:  Water Pollution, Forest Management, Renewable Energy Resources, and Global Warming.  Available through the Indiana Council for Economic Education .
blue push pin Focus on Economics: Civics and Government, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Unit 3, Lesson 12: Why Isn't Income Distributed More Evenly? - Students discuss reasons for income differentials for selected occupations, examine various Federal programs and policies to redistribute income, and consider how individuals might improve their earning potential. pp. 66-73
blue push pin Focus: High School Economics, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • 2: Broad Social Goals of An Economy - In this lesson, students are introduced to statements reflecting a wide range of viewpoints and dealing with various kinds of public policy actions that they will have to evaluate in terms of their own views and preferences.  pp. 5-12
  • 11: Rich Man, Poor Man - Students participate in an income redistribution simulation and interpret statistics about the distribution of income. pp. 96-106
blue push pin Focus on Economics: United States History, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • 2--Do the Right Thing: Free the Slaves, Avoid the War - Students analyze actions taken by people in 1799 as they attempted to stop a practice which today is illegal and widely condemned, pp.11-22.
  • 5--The Buffalo Are Back - Students examine the demise of the buffalo and the incentives related to conserving them. pp.45-53
  • 13--Why Would Grape Pickers Ask People Not to Buy Grapes? - Students examine the problems of grape pickers and  identify the costs and benefits associated with alternatives they might consider. pp.130-137
blue push pin Economics and the Environment: Eco-Detectives, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • 3: Own It or Lose It - This lesson focuses on the concept that people are more likely to take better care of the things they own and value, pp.22-26.
  • 4: The Environment: Who Loves Ya, Baby? - Students study why workers destroy the beauty that they love and use for recreation by working in open-pit mines.  pp. 27-31
  • 5:  How Clean is Clean Enough? - Students use cost-benefit criteria to evaluate proposals to clean the environment, pp.32-37
  • 6:  How Can We Help the Endangered Species? - Why would people with supposedly good intentions attempt to kill wildlife listed as endangered species?  pp. 38-44
  • 7:  Using Rewards to Protect Endangered Species - Although the buffalo was nearly extinct, they are back. Why?  Will the African elephant go the way of the American buffalo?   pp.84-93 
  • 9--Why Are There So Few Whales and So Many Chickens? - Students explain the difference in whale and chicken populations in terms of benefits and incentives, pp.63-67
  • 12: Why Drive When You Can Ride? - Why do some environmentally aware people refuse to use mass transit? pp.84-93
blue push pin Economics and the Environment, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • Unit 2, Lesson 3:  What Are Spotted Owls, Timber Products, and Magical Stones Really Worth? - By means of several activities, students reveal their own economic valuations and discover how these are observed and measured.  p. 28 
  • Unit 2, Lesson 5:  How Clean is Clean Enough? - Students begin by looking at various social goals before focusing on the goal of allocative efficiency--a weighing of the benefits and costs. p. 52
  • Unit 4, Lesson 10:  Measuring the Value of Environmental Products - Students look at some ways in which values for environmental products can be estimated.  p.115
  • Unit 5, Lesson 14:  Buying Environmental Quality at Discount Prices - Students discover how the use of emission charges and permit markets can encourage pollution control.  p.159
blue push pin World History: Focus on Economics - From Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • 1--The First Economic Revolution - Students learn to use four basic principles of economic reasoning to understand why some nomadic groups may have shifted to a settled agricultural lifestyle. p.1
  • 5--Why Didn't China Discover the New World? - Students discuss why superior Chinese naval technology did not result in significant exploration and trade. p. 27 
  • 8--Adam Smith and the Market Economy - p. 42 
  • 12--The Fall of Communism - Students read accounts written by a U.S. high school teacher about her 1987 trip through the then Soviet Union and discuss what her experiences reveal about incentives in a command economy.  p. 64
blue push pin Economies in Transition: Command to Market, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • 2:  Who Decides? - Members of the class play roles in two different economic systems:  command and market economies.  The compare and evaluate the results on the basis of social goals, such as allocative efficiency and equity.  p. 11
  • 6:  All For One, One For All--Well Maybe: Problems Within a Tightly Controlled Industrial Structure - Students discuss the consequences of monopolistic markets.  They experience the effects of price controls and identify how shortages are eliminated in a market economy.  p. 67
  • 7:  The Money Maze - Students learn about the importance of established financial markets and the lack of those markets in many transition economies.  p. 75
  • 9: Worker Woes: Labor Transition Challenges - While examining unemployment rates, students learn how employment was managed in the former Soviet Union.  They also learn about the sources of unemployment in the U.S.  The difficulties of transition in labor market in newly independent states are presented, and the role of incentives is explained.  p. 95
blue push pin United States History: Eyes on the Economy, Vol. 1: Through the Civil War, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin
blue push pin United States History: Eyes on the Economy, Vol. 2: Through the 20th Century, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.. 
blue push pin Virtual Economics: An Interactive Center for Economic Education, Version 2 - Each exhibit includes teaching tips, background information, a list of lessons, and video and audio clips that give additional information about the topic.  Available from Economics America (search catalogue). 
  • In section Fundamental Economics, see exhibit:  Social Goals
blue push pin Focus: International Economics, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin. Lesson 1:  Why Do People Trade? - After participating in a trading activity, students compare their behavior with trading behavior that occurs in the economy.  p.1

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National Content Standards 1 and 3.

    Scroll down the linked pages to locate the grade 12 benchmarks.

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Email an expert

    Professor Mark Schug - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

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Developed by 
Lynn Kirby, Ph.D., Education and Technology Consultant and
Larry Weiser, Ph.D., Program Director, EconomicsWisconsin
University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point