ECON 2X03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: W. M. Keck Observatory, Pennsylvania Route 24, Taipei Metro
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1. Howard needs to buy a laptop computer to start online university courses. The price at the local computer store is $650. The identical computer is available at one online site for $605 and another site, for $622. All prices include the appropriate sales tax. The accompanying table indicates the typical shipping and handling charges for the computer ordered online.
Shipping method |
Delivery time |
Charge |
Standard shipping |
3 - 7 days |
$13.99 |
Second-day air |
2 business days |
$18.98 |
Next day air |
1 business day |
$23.98 |
a. Define opportunity cost in economic terms.
b. In this situation, what are the opportunity costs of Howard choosing to buy online instead of at the local computer store? Note that if you buy the computer online, you must wait to get it.
c. Show all of the relevant choices for Howard.
d. What determines which of these choices Howard will choose?
2. During the improving economic conditions of 2015 and early 2016 much additional construction of homes and condos throughout much of the U.S. took place. This provided a significant increase in the income of workers in the construction trades. Many of the construction workers were immigrants and have family and relatives in other countries. Often these workers would send part of their income to their less fortunate relatives in their old country, especially in Mexico and some of the South American countries.
a. Which of the economic principles best describes this situation?
b. Using the principle you have selected, describe the chain of events that best explains how increased spending for U.S. home and condo construction is likely to affect the performance of the economies of these South American countries.
3. From June 2008 oil was at a high of $144.78 per barrel. During the period from April 2011 until July of 2014, the price of oil hovered between about $115.32 per barrel and about $105.22 a barrel. Then, starting in August 2014 oil began a precipitous fall in price from the $105.22 to $33.62 a barrel in January 2016. Although the U.S. has great amounts of oil that can be brought out of the ground by fracking, by the beginning of 2016 many of the workers in the U.S. oil exploration and drilling industry were out of work and tremendous amounts of oil exploration equipment was sitting in the equivalent of used car lots to be sold.
a. Which of the economic principles best describes this situation?
b. Using the principle you have selected, describe the chain of links that best explains how the falling international oil prices caused U. S. workers to be laid off and available U.S. oil to be left in the ground.
1. Which of the following is likely to happen if the Fed buys Treasury securities from banks?
interest rate rises; investment falls |
interest rate rises; investment rises |
interest rate falls; investment rises |
interest rate falls; investment falls |
2. The main goal of monetary policy is to shift
AD. |
SRAS. |
LRAS. |
both AD and SRAS. |
both AD and LRAS. |
3. Which of the following is true regarding the effects of an expansionary monetary policy?
Printing more money will affect real GDP only in the short run because all prices do not adjust fully in the short run. |
Printing more money will affect real GDP both in the short and long run because inflation is a natural occurrence of expansionary monetary policy. |
Printing more money will not lower the value of money in the short run because prices are fully flexible in the short run. |
Printing more money will ultimately raise the value of money in the long run because prices are fully flexible in the long run. |
4. In which of the following cases are you likely to be adversely affected by unexpected inflation?
You, the owner of a local restaurant, charge the price of lamb lasagna as per the daily market rate of lamb. |
You purchase Mountain Dew every day from the dormitory vending machine, which keeps its prices fixed for the entire school year. |
You, the owner of an airline company, sign a two-year contract for airline fuel. |
You deposit $10,000 in a bank account for 5 years for a fixed interest rate of 1%. |
5. The Phillips curve depicts the relation between
real GDP and price level. |
price level and inflation rate. |
unemployment rate and inflation rate. |
unemployment rate and real GDP. |
6. Which of the following statements is true regarding the shapes of short-run and long-run Phillips curves?
The short-run Phillips curve is vertical and the long-run Phillips curve is downward sloping. |
The short-run Phillips curve is downward sloping and the long-run Phillips curve is vertical. |
Both the short-run and long-run Phillips curves are downward sloping. |
Both the short-run and long-run Phillips curves are vertical. |
7. Suppose the table below lists the actual annual inflation rates for 2010 to 2015. What would be the most likely predictions people make about the inflation rate for 2016 based on adaptive and rational expectations theories, respectively?
Year | Actual Inflation rate |
2010 | 0% |
2011 | 0% |
2012 | 3% |
2013 | 3% |
2014 | 6% |
2015 | 6% |
6% and 3% |
6% and 9% |
6% and 12% |
9% and 6% |
3% and 6% |
8. Which of the following can change relatively quickly in the short-run?
the price of a latte in a coffee shop |
the salary of a finance professor |
the rent paid for a store |