Standards for Private: To Buy or Not To Buy

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National Standards in Economics

Name: Competition and Market Structure

Standard: 9

  • Students will understand that: Competition among sellers usually lowers costs and prices, and encourages producers to produce what consumers are willing and able to buy. Competition among buyers increases prices and allocates goods and services to those people who are willing and able to pay the most for them.
  • Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Explain how changes in the level of competition in different markets can affect price and output levels.

Name: Incentives

Standard: 4

  • Students will understand that: People usually respond predictably to positive and negative incentives.
  • Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Identify incentives that affect people's behavior and explain how incentives affect their own behavior.

Name: Institutions

Standard: 10

  • Students will understand that: Institutions evolve and are created to help individuals and groups accomplish their goals. Banks, labor unions, markets, corporations, legal systems, and not-for-profit organizations are examples of important institutions. A different kind of institution, clearly defined and enforced property rights, is essential to a market economy.
  • Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Describe the roles of various economic institutions and explain the importance of property rights in a market economy.

Name: Specialization

Standard: 6

  • Students will understand that: When individuals, regions, and nations specialize in what they can produce at the lowest cost and then trade with others, both production and consumption increase.
  • Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Explain how they can benefit themselves and others by developing special skills and strengths.

Name: Trade

Standard: 5

  • Students will understand that: Voluntary exchange occurs only when all participating parties expect to gain. This is true for trade among individuals or organizations within a nation, and among individuals or organizations in different nations.
  • Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Negotiate exchanges and identify the gains to themselves and others. Compare the benefits and costs of policies that alter trade barriers between nations, such as tariffs and quotas.

National Standards in Financial Literacy

Name: Investing

Standard: 4

  • Students will understand that: People can choose to invest some of their money in financial assets to achieve long-term financial goals, such as buying a house, funding future education, or securing retirement income. Investors receive a return on their investment in the form of income and/or growth in value of their investment over time. People can more easily achieve their financial goals by investing steadily over many years, reinvesting dividends, and capital gains to compound their returns. Investors have many choices of investments that differ in expected rates of return and risk. Riskier investments tend to earn higher long-run rates of return than lower-risk investments. Investors select investments that are consistent with their risk tolerance, and they diversify across a number of different investment choices to reduce investment risk.

Name: Spending

Standard: 2

  • Students will understand that: A budget is a plan for allocating a person’s spendable income to necessary and desired goods and services. When there is sufficient money in their budget, people may decide to give money to others, save, or invest to achieve future goals. People can often improve their financial wellbeing by making well-informed spending decisions, which includes critical evaluation of price, quality, product information, and method of payment. Individual spending decisions may be influenced by financial constraints, personal preferences, unique needs, peers, and advertising.

State Standards