Economics, 3rd Edition

y = f(x)

or simply f(

x).

This means that the value of 

y is dependent on the value of the terms in the bracket – in our example above 

there is only one value, 

x, so the value of y is dependent on the value of x.

In the example above, the value of 

y is dependent on the value of a single variable x. However, it is quite 

possible that the value of 

y could be dependent on a range of different variables. This can also be represented 

in the form of a function which would look like:

y = f(

 

x

1

… … …

 

x

n

)

where 

x

1

… … ….x

n

 represents a range of variables.

30  PART 1  INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS

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CHAPTER 2  THINKING LIKE AN ECONOMIST  31