What are economic resources

Question

What are economic resources? What are the major functions of the entrepreneur?

Answer 1

Economic resources are of four main types:  labor, land (natural resources), real capital (machines, factories, buildings, etc.,) and entrepreneurs.  Economic resources are also called factors of production or inputs in the productive process. Economic resources are essential to create the outputs desired by society as these names imply.  Since certain outputs are desired, they command a price and so, therefore, do economic resources. This can lead to some things being economic resources in some circumstances but not in others.  Water in the middle of a lake, for example, is not an economic resource:  Anyone can have it free.  But the same water piped to a factory site is no longer free:  Its movement must be paid for by taxes or by a specific charge.  It is now an economic resource because the factory owner would not pay for its delivery unless the water was to be used in the factory’s production.