©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
REM 100 FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE.
Dominant Social Paradigm - Answers✔• Definition: The most widely held set of beliefs, values
and ideals that guide thinking about society, governance, and the role of individuals.
• Organizes the way people perceive and interpret the functioning of the world around them.
Dominant Social Paradigm of Western Societies - Answers✔- democracy, acceptance of
regulated capitalism, individualism, economic growth, the notion of progress, faith in science
and technology, domination towards the environment
• The dominant social paradigm manifests itself in the totality of our institutions.
- Institutions are not defined as organizations per se, but more broadly as a set of rules and norms
that govern the behaviour of individuals and organizations in the system.
Institutions versus Organizations - Answers✔Institution: The accepted rules, norms and
strategies adopted by individuals operating within or across organizational settings (Ostrom,
2008).
Canada's Constitution and political system set up under its term - Federalism - Legislative
process - Rights and responsibilities of citizens
Organization: An organized entity/body of people with a particular purpose
Parliament of Canada People - Senate and House of Commons - Personnel (e.g., senators,
members of parliament, supporting staff, etc.) Purpose - Govern Canada by making laws, setting
taxes and authorizing spending
"We often say that institutions are the rules of the game and organizations are the players in these
institutions"
Purpose / Role Institutions ... - Answers✔• ... are sets of expectations or norms that pattern
human behavior.
• ... structure social order (authority).
, ©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
"Institutions are the rules of the game in a society or, more formally, the humanly devised
constraints that shape human interactions."
Key Characteristics
• Can be formal and/or informal (can be imposed or emerge from society itself)
Example of Written Institutions
Canada's Constitution Act, 1982 Relevance to REM: Federal and provincial governments are
granted different legislative jurisdiction over natural resources and the environment
Institutional and Financial Arrangements for Intern. Environ. Cooperation
• Established in 1972 after the UN Conference on Human Environment (Stockholm Conference)
• Foundation for UNEP, a global environ. authority that has overall responsibility for
environmental programs among United Nations agencies
• Has aided guidelines and treaties on issues such as international trade of potentially harmful
chemicals, transboundary air pollution, and contamination of international waterways.
• Together with the WMO, the UNEP established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC)
• Talks on climate change are overseen by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC)
Examples of Informal/Unwritten Institutions
• Informal rules among a group of resource users (e.g., fishermen)
• Culturally appropriate behaviour
• Informal rules among a group of resource users (e.g., fishermen)
• Culturally appropriate behaviour
Components of Economic System - Answers✔"[W]e often say that institutions are the rules of
the game and organizations are the players in these institutions."
Organizations
- Businesses
- Buyers
, ©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Producers
- Customers
- Sellers
Institutions
- Rules that determine how these players interact
Economics = is the social science that seeks to describe the factors which determine the
production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
Environmental economics - Answers✔is a sub-field of economics that is concerned with
environmental issues.
• Market failures
• Measures of prosperity/development
• Ecosystem services
• Economic approaches to sustainability
Dominant Economic Paradigm: - Answers✔Free-Market Economy
An economic system ...
• where prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are
allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy.
• that typically entails support for private ownership of productive enterprises and highly
competitive markets.
A market is a medium that allows buyers and sellers of a specific good or service to interact in
order to facilitate exchange (e.g., farmers market, housing market, stock exchange).
In a free market, the transactions between buyers (consumers) and sellers (producers) are driven
by the relationship between supply and demand.
Supplier = Given a market price for tomatoes, how many am I willing to produce?
Initial Price > PriceEqu - Answers✔• Surplus • Supplier unhappy • Price goes down • Quantity
demanded increases • Quantity supplied decreases • Reach equilibrium price
, ©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Initial Price < PriceEqu - Answers✔• Shortage • Buyers unhappy • Price is pushed up • Quantity
demanded decreases • Quantity supplied increases • Reach equilibrium price
Some of the requirements for a free market: - Answers✔• Large number of buyers and sellers
• Perfect information about current and future prices, products available, etc.
• All economic agents behave rationally; producers maximize profits and consumers maximize
their satisfaction or "utility"
• Market prices reflect full costs of production and consumption
• Inputs being supplied and goods being produced are individually owned and divisible
Benefit of Free Market - Answers✔"In principle, markets provide us with an extraordinarily
efficient mechanism for allocating society's limited productive capacity - its stock of productive
resources, including labour, capital, technology, and natural resources - to their most highly
valued uses."
Price plays an important role in the free market: - Answers✔• Communicates information about
scarcity of a good
• Incentivizes behavior that tends to make the most productive use of the available scarce
resources.
Invisible hand: Individuals' efforts to pursue their own interest may [magically] result in benefit
for the society better than if you explicitly planned for it.
Ownership of Property 4 To own: - Answers✔To have or hold as one's own; to belong to one, be
the proprietor of, possess.
Several tests:
• Property has value (implies scarcity)
• Property is definable / controllable
• Others can be excluded from its use or enjoyment
Ownership implies following rights: - Answers✔• to use or 'enjoy' the property (access &
withdrawal)
• to control who else may use the property (exclusion)
• to regulate use patterns (management)
• to sell, rent or dispose of the property to another (alienation)
Natural Resources - The Problem - Answers✔• Many natural resources do not meet all the
ownership conditions (e.g., excludability).
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
REM 100 FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE.
Dominant Social Paradigm - Answers✔• Definition: The most widely held set of beliefs, values
and ideals that guide thinking about society, governance, and the role of individuals.
• Organizes the way people perceive and interpret the functioning of the world around them.
Dominant Social Paradigm of Western Societies - Answers✔- democracy, acceptance of
regulated capitalism, individualism, economic growth, the notion of progress, faith in science
and technology, domination towards the environment
• The dominant social paradigm manifests itself in the totality of our institutions.
- Institutions are not defined as organizations per se, but more broadly as a set of rules and norms
that govern the behaviour of individuals and organizations in the system.
Institutions versus Organizations - Answers✔Institution: The accepted rules, norms and
strategies adopted by individuals operating within or across organizational settings (Ostrom,
2008).
Canada's Constitution and political system set up under its term - Federalism - Legislative
process - Rights and responsibilities of citizens
Organization: An organized entity/body of people with a particular purpose
Parliament of Canada People - Senate and House of Commons - Personnel (e.g., senators,
members of parliament, supporting staff, etc.) Purpose - Govern Canada by making laws, setting
taxes and authorizing spending
"We often say that institutions are the rules of the game and organizations are the players in these
institutions"
Purpose / Role Institutions ... - Answers✔• ... are sets of expectations or norms that pattern
human behavior.
• ... structure social order (authority).
, ©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
"Institutions are the rules of the game in a society or, more formally, the humanly devised
constraints that shape human interactions."
Key Characteristics
• Can be formal and/or informal (can be imposed or emerge from society itself)
Example of Written Institutions
Canada's Constitution Act, 1982 Relevance to REM: Federal and provincial governments are
granted different legislative jurisdiction over natural resources and the environment
Institutional and Financial Arrangements for Intern. Environ. Cooperation
• Established in 1972 after the UN Conference on Human Environment (Stockholm Conference)
• Foundation for UNEP, a global environ. authority that has overall responsibility for
environmental programs among United Nations agencies
• Has aided guidelines and treaties on issues such as international trade of potentially harmful
chemicals, transboundary air pollution, and contamination of international waterways.
• Together with the WMO, the UNEP established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC)
• Talks on climate change are overseen by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC)
Examples of Informal/Unwritten Institutions
• Informal rules among a group of resource users (e.g., fishermen)
• Culturally appropriate behaviour
• Informal rules among a group of resource users (e.g., fishermen)
• Culturally appropriate behaviour
Components of Economic System - Answers✔"[W]e often say that institutions are the rules of
the game and organizations are the players in these institutions."
Organizations
- Businesses
- Buyers
, ©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Producers
- Customers
- Sellers
Institutions
- Rules that determine how these players interact
Economics = is the social science that seeks to describe the factors which determine the
production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
Environmental economics - Answers✔is a sub-field of economics that is concerned with
environmental issues.
• Market failures
• Measures of prosperity/development
• Ecosystem services
• Economic approaches to sustainability
Dominant Economic Paradigm: - Answers✔Free-Market Economy
An economic system ...
• where prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are
allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy.
• that typically entails support for private ownership of productive enterprises and highly
competitive markets.
A market is a medium that allows buyers and sellers of a specific good or service to interact in
order to facilitate exchange (e.g., farmers market, housing market, stock exchange).
In a free market, the transactions between buyers (consumers) and sellers (producers) are driven
by the relationship between supply and demand.
Supplier = Given a market price for tomatoes, how many am I willing to produce?
Initial Price > PriceEqu - Answers✔• Surplus • Supplier unhappy • Price goes down • Quantity
demanded increases • Quantity supplied decreases • Reach equilibrium price
, ©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Initial Price < PriceEqu - Answers✔• Shortage • Buyers unhappy • Price is pushed up • Quantity
demanded decreases • Quantity supplied increases • Reach equilibrium price
Some of the requirements for a free market: - Answers✔• Large number of buyers and sellers
• Perfect information about current and future prices, products available, etc.
• All economic agents behave rationally; producers maximize profits and consumers maximize
their satisfaction or "utility"
• Market prices reflect full costs of production and consumption
• Inputs being supplied and goods being produced are individually owned and divisible
Benefit of Free Market - Answers✔"In principle, markets provide us with an extraordinarily
efficient mechanism for allocating society's limited productive capacity - its stock of productive
resources, including labour, capital, technology, and natural resources - to their most highly
valued uses."
Price plays an important role in the free market: - Answers✔• Communicates information about
scarcity of a good
• Incentivizes behavior that tends to make the most productive use of the available scarce
resources.
Invisible hand: Individuals' efforts to pursue their own interest may [magically] result in benefit
for the society better than if you explicitly planned for it.
Ownership of Property 4 To own: - Answers✔To have or hold as one's own; to belong to one, be
the proprietor of, possess.
Several tests:
• Property has value (implies scarcity)
• Property is definable / controllable
• Others can be excluded from its use or enjoyment
Ownership implies following rights: - Answers✔• to use or 'enjoy' the property (access &
withdrawal)
• to control who else may use the property (exclusion)
• to regulate use patterns (management)
• to sell, rent or dispose of the property to another (alienation)
Natural Resources - The Problem - Answers✔• Many natural resources do not meet all the
ownership conditions (e.g., excludability).
