1. When the job market is weak the demand for higher education (at both
undergraduate and graduate levels) tends to increase. What is a
possible economic explanation for this phenomenon?
2. Who do you think should pay for the higher cost of security at airports,
the Federal government, the state and local governments, or the
airliners?
Some online references:
Answer the following five questions.
Question 1
a) Explain how a production possibility curve
is constructed for a hypothetical economy.
b) Describe the economic information contained
in a production possibility curve.
c) Describe how a production possibility curve
might change (shift).
d) Using your hypothetical production possibility
curve, demonstrate the concept of opportunity cost.
Question 2
The recent (poor) performance of the stock
market has affected the consumers’ demand for many big-ticket consumer
items such as cars, home appliances, etc. Using the supply and demand model,
try to show how the markets for these goods might have been affected and
how the changes in these markets might have caused changes in the position
of the economy relative to its production possibilities curve.
Question 3
By lowering its admission price from $10 to
$8, the town (only) movie theater can increase its weekly total revenue
from $5000 to $5200.
a) What is the price elasticity of demand
for movies in this town?
b) Is the demand for movies within the above
price range elastic or inelastic? Explain.
c) Assume the price elasticity of demand between
$8 and $7 is the same as between $10 and $8. Should the owner of the theater
consider lowering its price further? Explain.
Question 4
Your friend plans to open up a small bagel
shop. She has her eyes on a shop in a shopping strip near the college.
The shop can be rented for $800 per month. She has estimated that the fixed
part of her monthly utility bill would be $200. In addition, she expects
to pay another $200 each month for insurance and maintenance costs. Each
dozen of bagels takes $1.75 worth of ingredients and $.10 worth of electricity
to produce. Each dozen of bagels also needs $.15 worth of bags or other
packaging materials. She can lease all the equipment that she needs for
$400 per month. She also needs $10,000 for up-fitting the shop and a small
amount of inventory. Her bank has agreed to give her a loan in that amount
and let her pay only the interest, $100 per month, for five years. At the
end of the five years she would have the option of renewing the loan or
paying it off. (Hint: Her cost of up-fitting and inventory is in fact her
monthly payment to the bank, not the whole $10,000.) Your friend plans
to quit her present job and, with the help of a full-time employee, run
her bagel shop herself. Her monthly salary form her present job is $1,500.
She expects to pay her full-time employee $1000 per month.
a) Identify all the fixed and variable costs
of the operation.
b) Assuming the market price of bagel is $5
per dozen, how many dozens of bagels would she have to sell (per month)
to break even?
c) How many dozens would she have to sell to
have $1,000 profit each month?
Suppose in the second year of her operation,
the monthly lease for the shop is expected to go up to $1,200. Assuming
no other changes, how will that affect her break-even quantity and the
profitability of her business?
Question 5
Use diagrams to explain why we say that compared
to perfectly competitive markets, a monopolistically achieved equilibrium
is not economically efficient. Be as specific as you can in your explanation.
Production/Cost Exercises
1. The following is a short-run production table for a firm with labor
as its only variable input.
Wage = $100
Capital = 45
Capital Price= $15
Product Price= $10
Labor---------Output
0----------------0
1---------------40
2---------------90
3--------------140
4--------------180
5.................210
6.................230
7.................240
8.................245
9.................240
10...............235
a. Determine the following measures at all levels of output:
MPPL, APL, TFC, TVC, TC, TR, MRPL ,
AVC, ATC, AFC, MC, PROFIT
b. At what level of output is the output the profit maximized?
c. What kind of observations can you make about MC, the product price,
MRPL , and wage?
1. The following is the market demand scheduled
for music CDs in the New York City area.
| Pric | Quantity |
| 18 | 0 |
| 16 | 40 |
| 14 | 80 |
| 12 | 120 |
| 10 | 160 |
| 8 | 200 |
| 6 | 240 |
| 4 | 280 |
| 2 | 320 |
a. Draw (plot) the demand curve.
b. Calculate the arc elasticity of this demand
curve for each of the following price ranges:
14 and 16,
12 and 14, 10 and 12, 8 and 10, 6 and 8 , 4 and
6
c. Can you calculate the point price elasticities at the prices $14 and $6?
d. Suppose the above schedule was constructed
when the average monthly income of New York's consumers was $3000. At this
income level music
stores were charging $10 for each CD. Now
suppose that consumers' income has increased to $3300. If the income elasticity
of demand for CD is .5,
how many CDs will be sold at this higher income
level?
e. Can you show the effect of the above
income increase on the demand curve?
(Show it on your
diagram.)
f. Can you calculate the price elasticity for the new demand curve at the price rage between 8 and 10? ( or the point price elasticity at the price 10?)
g. Did the change in income affect the price elasticity? Explain.
h. Again assuming the price music stores
are charging for CDs is $10 and consumers' income is $3,300, suppose the
average price of a movie ticket
in the New York City area has increased from
$10 to $12. If the cross price elasticity of demand for CDs with respect
to the price of movie tickets is
.625, what is the effect of this price increase
on demand for CDs?
i. Now with the higher income levels
and higher movie ticket prices, if the music stores wish to increase their
sales (revenues), should they lower or
raise their CD prices? Explain. ( Assume presently
they are charging $10 for each CD.)
2. The following is the utility table of a
student with a $38-dollar weekly food budget. There are only three food
items in the student's food basket: meat, potatoes, and ice cream. The
price of one pound of meat is $5.00, potatoes are sold at $2.00 per pound,
and ice cream is $4.00 a pound.
a. Determine the utility maximizing mix of
these items for this student. Show your work.
b. What is the total (maximum) utility the
student can derive from the consumption of the three goods?
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The talk of an American military action against
Iraq for the purpose of removing Saddam Hohssein from power has lead to
speculations about the impact of a new war
in the Middle East on the price of oil and its ensuing effects on the economy.
What do
you think?
Note: Try to use as much as what you learned about supply and demand in your arguments.
Some refernces:
Best
and Worst (CNN)
War
and Jobs (CNN)
An elasticity exercise:
The following are prices and quantities of daily demand for gasoline
for two service stations. For each station, plot the information on a two-dimensional
space with price measured vertically and quantity measured horizontally.
(Use the same space for both stations.)
Price
QuntitiyDemanded
QunatuityDemanded
Stattion A
Station B
Gallons
Gallons
$1.00
1400
2000
$1.20
1200
1800
$1.40
1000
1600
$1.60
800
1400
$1.80
600
1200
$2.00
400
1000
$2.20
200
800
a. What kind of observations can you make about these two service stations?
b. Calculate the price elasticity for each station's demand between
prices $1.40 and $1.60.
c. Calculate the price elasticity for each station's demand between
prices $ 2.00 and $2.20.
d. What can you conclude about the price elasticity of demand for each
station.
Using the "production possibilities curve" model, discuss the economic implications of the president's proposed military/security budget on the economy. How do yo think you personally might be economically affected.
Give a general description of the concept of elasticity.
2. Define the price elasticity of demand.
3. How is the price elasticity of demand calculated?
4. How is arc elasticity calculated?
5. Draw a hypothetical linear demand curve (say, for hair cuts or hair
styling). Calculate the arc elasticity of this demand curve at two different
price levels. Explain why elasticity changes along a linear demand curve.
6. Use your demand curve in the previous exercise to explain how total
revenue (or total expenditure) changes as a result of a price change.
7. What are the factors that affect or determine price elasticity?
8. True of false: The elasticity of an inferior good with respect to
income is negative. Explain.
9. True or false: The price elasticity of an inferior good is positive.
Explain.
10. True of false: The price elasticity of an upward-sloping supply
curve is positive. Explain.
11. How would you rank the following goods according to their price
elasticities?
Milk, Snow mobiles, Tires, Gasoline
12. Why do we expect the price elasticity to change over time?
13. What is a production function?
14. Why do we expect the marginal physical product of an input to increase
first and then at some point start to decline.
15. What do we mean by a short-run production function?
16. Examine and explain the relationship between the average physical
product of an input and its marginal physical product.
17. What is marginal revenue product?
18. What is the effect of an increase in the price of a product on
the marginal revenue product.
19. Carefully draw and compare total product, average physical product
and marginal product.
20. What is the effect of an increase in the productivity of labor
on marginal revenue product?
21. What do we mean by “the optimal” level of an input?
22. Explain the components of production costs in the short run.
23. What does a straight-line total cost function indicate?
24. What is (short-run) marginal cost?
25. Does an increase in wage affect the short-run marginal cost (assuming
labor is our variable input)? Explain.
26. Does an increase in wage affect the short-run average total cost
(assuming labor is our variable input)? Explain.
27. What is the optimization rule for a multiple-input production function?
28. With reference to the input optimization rule, explain the reaction
of a profit-maximizing firm to changes in input prices.
29. How do we determine a firm’s revenue?
30. Can a firm always increase its by charging higher prices? Explain.
31. What do we mean by economic profit?
32. Should a profit maximizing firm shut down if its economic profit
is 0? Explain.
33. Draw total cost and total revenue functions in a diagram and demonstrate
how a firms profit is determined. (Do this exercise using both horizontal
and downward-sloping demand curves)
34. Draw a diagram showing short-run marginal cost, average variable
cost, and total cost. Use a hypothetical price to demonstrate the short-run
equilibrium output. Also, show how the firm determines its profit on your
diagram.
35. What is the short-run profit maximizing rule for a profit maximizing
firm?
36. True or False: If a firm produces at a level where its marginal
cost is greater than its marginal revenue the firm will show an economic
loss. Explain.
37. True or False: If a firm produces at a level where its marginal
cost is less than its marginal revenue the firm will show an economic loss.
Explain.
38. True or False: When a firms profit is maximized (in the short-run)
its marginal cost is equal to its marginal revenue and at the same time
its marginal revenue product is greater then the price of its variable
input. Explain.
39. Use a diagram to show how the long-run average total cost of a
firm is derived.
40. True or False: An increase in the price of the fixed input does
not effect a firms profit in the short-run. Explain.
41. What are the characteristics of a perfectly competitive market?
42. Explain why it is said that the long-run equilibrium profit of
a competitive firm is 0.
43. What is the effect of an increase in demand on the profit of a
firm under competitive conditions in the short run?
44. What do we mean by a short-run shutdown price?
45. What is the effect of new entries into a competitive market on
individual firm’s profits?
46. True or False: An individual firm’s short-run supply curve is always
upward sloping. Explain.
47. True or False: The short-run industry’s supply curve is always
horizontal. Explain.
48. Explain the impact of an increase in long-run average cost
on the shape of an industry’s long run supply curve.
49. Explain the conditions under which an industry’s long run supply
curve would be horizontal.
50. Is it possible for the industry’s long run supply curve to be negatively
sloped? Explain.
51. What is an isocost?
52. What is the optimizing rule that a profit maximizing firm must
follow in the long run?
53. What does the slope of an isocost measure (reflect)?
54. What is the effect of an increase in an input price on the isocost?
55. True or False: In the long run, to maximize its profit, a firm
must produce at the output level where its long-run average cost is minimized.
56. True or False: In the long run, to maximize its profit, a firm
must produce at the output level where its total revenue is maximized.
57. True or False: In the long run, to maximize its profit, a firm
must produce at the output level where its marginal revenue is equal to
zero.