Ôn thi nói tiếng anh chuyên ngành kinh tế speaking english

INTRODUCTION:
Economics: the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between
unlimited wants and limited resources which have alternative uses
The role of economics is to help people to make good choices
Question: What, How & For whom … The way we distribute limited resources
SCARITY : Demand > Supply
Scarity happens when demand is bigger than supply
Wants are unlimited and wants are unsatisfied. Unlimited wants always exceed(=are
bigger than) the available resources.
Three big questions:
1. What things will be produced?

The producers produce goods the customers’ need and they can bring them the
relevant expect returns .The most important goal of the company is profits- the
difference between total sales and totals costs.
2. How things are produced?
Producers maximize profits by keeping the minimum costs by using the most
efficient methods of production at competitive price.
3. For whom things are produced?
This depends on supply and demand in the markets for factors of production.
UNIT 1: THE RESPONSES GUIDED BY PRICES EFFECT THREE ECONOMIC
ISSUES
I -Example of oil shock:
Price of oil increases make a decrease in demand and an increase in supply. It means
when the price increases, the suppliers want to sell more to get higher profit and the
buyer will decrease the volume/quantity of the goods and try to find the
substitute/alternative goods.
The increase in oil price affects three economic issues:
1. The effect of oil price shocks on how the economy produces:

Higher oil price make the economy produce in a way that uses less oil and find

another substitutes.


2. The effect on what is produces:

There is a shift away from expensive oil-using products towards less oil- intensive
substitutes.
3. The effect on for whom question:
Society allocates scare resources between competing uses.
A scare resource is one for which the demand at a zero price would exceed the available
supply.
II- The role of government
1.Income of government:
+ Tax:
+ Borrowing: IMF, WB
2. Outcome of government:
+ Public goods: public transportion, school…
+ Transfer payment: pensions, retirement, unemployment benefits…
+ Debt interest
3.Effects of the government on 3 questions:
- What: Governments directly affect “ what is produced” via spending their revenue on
goods and services such as school, public safety.
- For whom: Government affects for whom output is produced through tax and transfer
payment: taxing the rich and making the transfers to the poor
- How: Government affects via the regulations (about safety, environment…)

UNIT 2: OPTIMAL OUTPUT COMBINATION
1. The law of diminishing (Quy luật lợi suất giảm dần): Each additional worker adds

less to total industry output than the previous additional worker added.

2. The Production Possibility Frontier (PPF - Đường giới hạn khả năng sản xuất):

this shows the maximum combinations of output that the economy can produce


using all available resources. The frontier presents a trade – off (sự đánh đổi);
more of one commodity implies less of the other.
+ All points that lie in PPF means the society is producing efficiently
+ All points that lie outside PPF are said to be unattainable (không đạt được) with
given resources.
+ All points that lie inside PPF are said to be inefficient because society is wasting
resources..
3. No free lunch: You can not get something for nothing. There is always a trade-off

when doing something (referring to PPF and opportunity cost)
UNIT 3: MARKETS
1. The role of markets:

+ Markets bring together buyers and sellers of goods and services.
+ A market is a shorthand expression for the process by which households’
decisions about consumption of alternative goods, firms’ decisions about what
& how to produce, & workers’ decisions about how much and for whom to
work are all reconciled (trung hòa) by adjustment of prices
2. How markets solve the basic economic problems:

In US: markets where buyers and sellers set quantities and prices for
commodities solve the problems of how, what & for whom.
UNIT 4: MICROECONOMICS AND MACROECONOMICS
1. Microeconomics (Kinh tế học vi mô)
- Microeconomics analysis offers a detailed treatment of individual decisions

about particular commodities.
- Microeconomists (các nhà kinh tế học vi mô) ten to offer detailed treatment of
one aspect of economic behavior but ignore ( bỏ qua) interactions ( tương tác)
with the rest of the economy in order to preserve the simplicity of the analysis
2. Macroeconomics ( Kinh tế học vĩ mô)
- Macroeconomics emphasizes the interactions in the economy as a whole. It

deliberately simplifies the individual building blocks ( các bộ phận cấu thành
riêng lẻ) of the analysis in order to retain a manageable analysis of the
complete interaction of the economy.
3. Partial Equilibrium analysis & General Equilibrium analysis


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Partial Equilibrium analysis (Phân tích cân bằng cá thể/ từng phần): a study of
equilibrium prices and outputs in the many specific markets which are the
component parts of the market system.

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General Equilibrium analysis (Phân tích cân bằng tổng quát): an overall ( tổng
quát, tổng thể), big-picture view of the interrelationships ( mối quan hệ qua lại)
among all the various markets and prices (parts) which make up ( tạo lên ) the
maket system.

4. Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Models:
- Microeconomics is the branch of economics that studies the decisions of

individual households and firms

-

Macroeconomic also study the way that individual markets work and the
detailed way that regulation and taxes affect the allocation ( sự phân bổ) of
labour and of goods and services. In short, Macroeconomic studies the
economic as a whole.

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The major distinction between Microeconomics and Macroeconomics:
Microeconomics analyze the behavior of individual components (industries,
firms, households) & Macroeconomics study the functioning of the economy
as a whole.

5. Seven big questions:
1. Production ( Sản xuất ) and consumption (tiêu dùng) of goods &

services
Wages & Earnings (Lương & thu nhập)
Unemployment (Thất nghiệp)
Inflation (Lạm phát)
Government spending, taxation & regulation (Quy định, thuế & chi
tiêu chính phủ)
6. International Trade
7. Distribution of wealth and poverty
2.
3.
4.
5.

6. The economy (Nền kinh tế):
- The economy is a mechanism ( cơ chế) that allocates scare resources among

competing uses, determining what, how and for whom the various goods and
services will be produced


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2 Types of coordination mechanisms ( cơ chế điều phối) : the command
mechanism ( = central planning mechanism: cơ chế mệnh lệnh) & market
mechanism.

UNIT 5: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
1. Externalities (tác động ngoại lai, ngoại biên)
- An externality effect occurs when the economic agent’s behavior (in

consumption or in production) has an effect on another’s well-being, but that
effect is not reflected in dollar or market transactions: Tác động ngoại biên
xuất hiện khi hành vi ứng xử của một chủ thể (trong việc tiêu thụ hay sản xuất
hàng hóa dịch vụ) có tác động lên một chủ thể khác nhưng tác động đó không
được phản ánh bằng tiền hay bằng các giao dịch thị trường.
-

Externalities may be positive or negative:
+ In Production:
• Positive: training of workforce (đào tạo nguồn nhân lực),
development of a commercial area…
• Negative: Pollution (ô nhiễm)
+ In consumption:

•
•

Positive: House renovation
Negative: Smoking, loud music

UNIT 12: NATIONAL INCOME ACCOUNTING
1. Measuring GDP
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP = Tổng sản phẩm quốc nội) measures the

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output produced by factors of production located in the domestic economy
regarless of who owns these factors.
Gross National Product (Tổng sản phẩm quốc nội). GNP is the total value of
all final goods and services produced within a nation in a particular year,
plus income earned by its citizens (including income of those located abroad),
minus income of non-residents located in that country. Basically, GNP
measures the value of goods and services that the country's citizens produced
regardless of their location
When an economy has no transactions with the rest of the world we say that it
is a closed economy


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Value added ( giá trị gia tăng) is the increase in the value of goods as a result
of the production process

+ Value added is calculated by deducting from the value of firm’s output cost
the cost of the input goods that were used up in the act of producing that
output: Giá trị gia tăng là phần giá trị chênh lệch giữa giá trị hàng hóa và giá trị
của những thứ dùng để làm ra hàng hóa đó

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Final goods: are goods purchased by the ultimate user ( người tiêu dùng cuối
cùng)

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Intermediate goods: are partly finished goods which form inputs to another
firm’s production process and are used up in that process.

2. Objectives and Instruments in Macroeconomics
a- Objectives (mục tiêu):
- Output: high level + rapid growth rate
- Employment: high level of employment + low involuntary unemployment
- Price-level stability with free markets
- Foreign balance: export & import equilibrium + Exchange-rate stability
b- Instruments ( Công cụ)
- Fiscal policy ( chính sách tài khóa): Government expenditure + Taxation
- Monetary policy: Control of money supply affecting interest rates
- Foreign economies: Trade policies + Exchange-rate intervention
- Incomes policies: From voluntary wage-price guidelines to mandatory controls

( kiểm soát bắt buộc)
3- The overall picture
-

-

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Microeconomics places the emphasis on a detailed understanding of particular
markets
Macroeconomics is concerned with broad aggregates (tập hợp) such as the total
demand for goods by households or the total spending on machinery and
buildings by firms.
The inflation rate ( tỷ lệ lạm phát): is the percentage increase per annum in the
average price of goods and services
The unemployment rate ( tỷ lệ thất nghiệp): is the percentage of the labor force
that is unemployed. Labor force ( lực lượng lao động): is the number of people
working or looking for work
Economic growth ( tăng trưởng kinh tế): is the increase in real GNP ( Gross
National Product = Tổng sản phẩm quốc dân)


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The government has a variety of policy measures through which it can try to
affect the performance of the economy as a whole.

UNIT 13: MONEY AND BANKING
1. Money & its functions
- The crucial feature ( đặc điểm chính/ nổi bật) of money is its acceptance as the

means of payment or medium of exchange
-

Barter economy (nền kinh tế hàng đổi hàng) has no medium of exchange.
Goods are traded directly or swapped for other goods.
+ Disadvantages of barter economy: trading is very expensive because people
must spend a lot of time and effort finding others with whom they can make
mutually satisfactory swaps.

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3 other functions beside medium of exchange function of money:
+ Unit of account ( đơn vị tính toán): is the unit in which prices are quoted
and accounts are kept.
+ Store of value ( phương tiện cất giữ): because money can be used to make
purchases in the future.
+ Standard of deferred payment (thước đo cho việc thanh toán trả chậm):

2. Different kinds of money:
- Commodity money (tiền hàng hóa): goods acts as money to exchange for other
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goods
Token money (tiền danh nghĩa, tiền tượng trưng): a token money is a means of
payment whose value or purchasing power as money greatly exceeds its cost of
production or value in uses other than as money
Legal tender: ( đồng tiền pháp định): Society enforces the use of token money
by making it legal tender. The law says it must be accepted as means of

payment.
IOU money (=I Owe yoU= tiền nợ): is a medium of exchange based on the
debt of a private firm or individual. Example: bank deposit ( tiền gửi ngân
hàng)

3. Modern banking
- Financial intermediary ( trung gian tài chính): is an institution that specializes

in bringing lenders and borrowers together.


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-

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Commercial banks are financial intermediaries with a government license to
make loans and issue deposits, including deposits against which checks can be
written.
A clearing system ( hệ thống thanh toán bù trừ): is a set of arrangement in
which debts between banks are settled by adding up all the transactions in a
given period and paying only the net amounts needed to balance inter-bank
accounts.
The central bank (ngân hàng trung ương/ ngân hàng nhà nước): is the banker
to the commercial banks
Liquidity ( tính thanh khoản): refers to the speed and the certainty with which
an asset can be converted back into money, whenever the asset-holders desire.
Money itself is thus the most liquid asset of all.

UNIT 15: INTERNATIONAL TRADE
1. The pattern of world trade
- How to calculate international trade?

To calculate international trade, we can count the total value of exports by all
countries or the total value of imports and they must be the same.
- International trade has been playing an increasingly important part in national
economies
- The Great Depression (Cuộc Đại suy thoái) in 1930s & the Second World War
( Đại chiến thế giới lần 2) virtually (hầu như) destroyed international trade.
2. World trade Pattern (Mô hình mậu dịch thế giới)

4 major groups of countries:
+ Industrial or developed countries with the largest share of world trade and
world income: Western Europe, North America, Japan
+ Oil-producing countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
+ Soviet bloc: comprises (bao gồm) Russia & countries in Eastern Europe
+ Non-oil LDCs ( không biết đây có phải là viết tắt của từ: Low – Developed
Countries = các nước kém phát triển ???) : the remaining countries
3. The commodity composition (cơ cấu hàng hóa) of World trade
- Primary commodities (hàng sơ chế/ nguyên liệu): agricultural commodities,
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minerals, fuels
Manufactured or processed commodities ( hàng thành phẩm/ hàng chế biến):
chemicals, steel,…

4. Good and bad arguments for tariffs

a. The First – best argument: is a case where a tariff is the best way to achieve
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a given objective.
The optimal tariff (thuế quan tối ưu) : The First – best argument for tariff:
when a country wants to restrict imports until the benefit of the last import
equal to its cost to country as a whole, it will set the optimal tariff.
+ The optimal tariff is a straightforward application (ứng dụng minh bạch) of
the principles of efficient resource allocation
b. Second-best arguments are cases where the policy would indeed be

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beneficial but where there is another policy that would be even better if
only it could be implemented.
The principle of targeting says that the most efficient way to attain a given
objectives is to use a policy that influences that activity directly. Policies that
attain the objective but also influence other activities are second-best because
they distort these other activities.
c. Way of life: A tariff helps domestic producers but also hurts domestic

consumers through higher prices
d. Luxuries ( hàng xa xỉ): A tariff on imports of luxuries will reduce their

consumption but, by raising the domestic price, may also provide an
incentive for domestic producers to use scare resources to produce them.
e. Defence (phòng thủ): a production subsidy (trợ cấp/ hỗ trợ sản xuất) rather

than an import tariff is the most efficient way to preserve domestic
industries in case there is a war.

f.

Infant Industries ( công nghiệp non trẻ): A tariff is needed to provide
protection to new or infant industries until they have mastered the business
and can compete ( cạnh tranh) on equal terms with more experienced
foreign suppliers.

g. Revenue: Tariffs and taxes (income taxes & expenditure taxes) contribute

the greatest part to government revenue.
5. Imposing a tariff has 3 effects:
- 1st: It encourages inefficient domestic production
- 2nd: It encourages consumers to reduce their purchases of the tariffed good
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below efficient levels
3rd: It raises revenues for the government


1st & 2nd necessarily impose efficiency costs on the economy