ECON 208 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Tim Hortons, Exogeny, Equation

• School: McGill University
• Department: Economics
• Course: ECON 208
• Professor: Naureen Fatema

Document Summary

Econ 208: chapter two economic theories, data, and graphs. Normative statements depend on value judgements and opinions they cannot be settled by resource to facts e. g. the government ought to try harder to reduce unemployment. They are statements about what is, was, or will be. e. g. an effective way to reduce unemployment is to reduce unemployment insurance benefits. High rates of income tax encourage people to evade paying taxes. Lowering the price of tobacco leads people to smoke less. The majority of the population would prefer a policy that reduced unemployment to one that reduced inflation. Governments should arrange taxes so that people cannot avoid paying them. The government should raise the tax on tobacco to discourage people from smoking. Unemployment is a more important social problem than inflation. Economists often disagree with each other in public discussions often because of poor communication or failure to acknowledge the full state of their ignorance.