EC238 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Free Rider Problem, Smog, Soot

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19 Sep 2018

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Economic efficiency there should be a balance between the marginal benefits and marginal costs of production. Social efficiency requires that all market and non-market values be incorporated into the marginal benefits and marginal costs of production. If this is the case, social efficiency is obtained when marginal benefits equal marginal costs of production. Pareto optimal equilibrium an equilibrium for which a stronger statement about the well- being of individuals can be made, impossible to make any person better off without making someone worse off. When the environmental values are concerned, there are like to be very substantial differences between market values and social values. Market failures cause the divergence and can prevent a decentralized competitive market from reaching the socially efficient equilibrium. Private costs price firms have to pay to produce goods like labour, materials, machinery, energy. Social costs = private costs + external (environmental) costs.

Related Questions

In an article in the agriculture magazine Choices, Oregon State University economist JunJie Wu made the following observation about the conversion of farmland to urban development:

Land use provides many economic and social benefits but often comes at a substantial cost to the environment. Although most economic costs are figured into land-use decisions, most environmental externalities are not. These environmental 'externalities" cause a divergence between private and social costs for some land uses, leading to an inefficient land allocation. For example, developers may not bear all the environmental and infrastructural costs generated by their projects. Such market failures provide a justification for private conservation efforts and public land use planning and regulation.

Source: JunJie Wu, "Land Use Changes: Economic, Social, and Environmental Impacts," Choices, Vol. 23, No. 4, Fourth Quarter 2008, pp. 6-10.

By market failure, the author means:

(i) benefiting from a good without paying for it.

(ii) a situation that occurs when one person's consumption of a unit of a good means no one else can consume it.

(iii) a situation in which the market fails to produce an efficient level of output.

(iv) a situation in which a benefit is present that affects someone who is not directly involved in the consumption of a good or service.

(v) the tendency for a common resource to be underused.

cyanhound711

1. The marginal product of labor is:

A. equal to the demand for labor.

B. the payment made to workers for their contribution to the output they produce.

C. the change in a firm's revenue as a result of hiring one more worker.

D. the additional output a firm produces as a result of hiring one more worker.

2. What does the phrase "internalizing an external cost" mean?

A. limiting the extent to which domestic firms can outsource production

B. prohibiting economic activities that create externalities

C. finding a way to address cross-border pollution

D. forcing producers to factor into their production costs the cost of the externalities created in the production of their output

3. The highest-valued alternative that must be given up to engage in an activity is the definition of

A. implicit cost

B. opportunity cost.

C. utility.

D. economic sacrifice.

4. What is market failure?

A. It refers to the inability of the market to allocate resources efficiently up to the point where marginal social benefit equals marginal private cost.

B. It refers to a situation where an entire sector of the economy (for example, the airline industry) collapses because of some unforeseen event.

C. It refers to a breakdown in a market economy because of widespread corruption in government.

D. It refers to the inability of the market to allocate resources efficiently up to the point where marginal social benefit equals marginal social cost.

5. Suppose a competitive firm is paying a wage of $12 an hour and sells its product at $3 per unit. Assume that labor is the only input. If the last worker hired increases output by three units per hour, then to maximize profits the firm should

A. lay off some of its workers.

B. does not change the number of workers it currently hires.

C. hire additional workers.

D. There is not enough information to answer the question.

6. When the price of summer tank tops falls and you buy more of them because they are relatively less expensive, this is called

A. the deadweight loss effect.

B. the income effect.

C. the substitution effect.

D. the elasticity effect.

7. An externality is

A. a benefit realized by the purchaser of a good or service.

B. a benefit or cost experienced by someone who is not a producer or consumer of a good or service.

C. a cost paid for by the producer of a good or service.

D. anything that is external or not relevant to the production of a good or service.

8. Firms pay famous individuals to endorse their products because

A. apparently demand is affected not just by the number of people who use a product but also by the type of person that uses the product. '

B. famous people only consume high-quality products.

C. famous people obviously know what are the best goods and services.

D. the firms are irrational and are wasting advertising expenditures.

9. If a consumer receives 20 units of utility from consuming two candy bars, and 25 units of utility from consuming three candy bars, the marginal utility of the second candy bar is

A. 25 utility units.

B. 20 utility units.

C. 5 utility units.

D. unknown as more information is needed to determine the answer.

10. When there is a negative externality, the private cost of production ________ the social cost of production.

A. is less than

B. is greater than

C. eliminates

D. is equal to

pinkmink286

QUESTION 1

Assume there are two basic goods produced in a nation, consumer goods and capital goods. The production possibilities graph for these two goods is bowed out from the origin. This reason for this shape of the graph is because of:

	A.	the other-things-equal assumption.
	B.	the law of increasing opportunity costs.
	C.	diminishing marginal utility.
	D.	present choices and future possibilities.

1 points

QUESTION 2

From an economic perspective, when a student decides to attend another year of college, the student has concluded that the:

	A.	marginal costs of attending college are reduced by the availability of grants and subsidies.
	B.	marginal benefits of attending college have increased because the future is brighter.
	C.	marginal benefits of attending college are greater than the marginal costs.
	D.	marginal costs of attending college have decreased to make college affordable.

1 points

QUESTION 3

A person observes that as consumer prices fall, economic growth increases. The person concludes that fall consumer prices leads to economic growth. This conclusion would be an example of:

	A.	confusing correlation with causation.
	B.	the fallacy of composition.
	C.	trade-offs among economic goals.
	D.	the other-things-equal assumption.

1 points

QUESTION 4

The problem of unlimited wants and limited income is known as

	A.	the scientific method.
	B.	unequal wealth distribution.
	C.	normative economics.
	D.	the economizing problem.

1 points

QUESTION 5

A point outside the production possibilities curve is:

	A.	unattainable without economic growth.
	B.	attainable and the economy is efficient.
	C.	unattainable without inflation.
	D.	attainable, but the economy is inefficient.

1 points

QUESTION 6

Which one of the following would be an example of loaded terminology?

	A.	market forces
	B.	tentative hypothesis
	C.	entrepreneurial functions
	D.	creeping socialism

1 points

QUESTION 7

Suppose there are two economies, Alpha and Beta, both of which have the same production possibilities curves. If Beta devotes more resources to produce investment goods than consumer goods as compared to Alpha, then in the future:

	A.	Alpha will not be able to achieve full employment.
	B.	Beta will not be able to achieve full employment.
	C.	Alpha will experience greater economic growth than Beta.
	D.	Beta will experience greater economic growth than Alpha.

1 points

QUESTION 8

Macroeconomics, as opposed to microeconomics, is concerned with

	A.	individual businesses.
	B.	new computer technology.
	C.	the stock market.
	D.	the economy as a whole.

1 points

QUESTION 9

Which one of the following is an example of a positive economic statement?

	A.	The size of the Federal government should be reduced.
	B.	Midwest states affected by drought should be given more federal disaster aid.
	C.	Education and income are highly correlated.
	D.	The minimum wage for workers should be raised to help low-income workers.

1 points

QUESTION 10

Economics is primarily concerned with

	A.	interactions between the government and market participants.
	B.	how scarce resources are used.
	C.	the production and distribution of capital goods.
	D.	how income is divided among individuals.

1 points

QUESTION 11

The production possibilities table below shows the hypothetical relationship between the production of guns (national defense) and butter (social goods) in an economy.

A B C D E

Guns 0 4 7 9 10

Butter 4 3 2 1 0

If the economy is producing at alternative C, what is the opportunity cost of producing another unit of butter?

	A.	3 units of guns.
	B.	1 units of guns.
	C.	2 units of guns.
	D.	4 units of guns.

1 points

QUESTION 12

Assume that a consumer can buy only two goods X and Y, and has an income of $120. The price of X is $10 and the price of Y is $20. If the consumer spends all of her money on X and Y, which of the following would be a possible combination:

	A.	4X and 2Y
	B.	5X and 3Y
	C.	6X and 3Y
	D.	8X and 1Y

1 points

QUESTION 13

In the production possibilities model of an economy, when there is full employment of resources

		a nation will be operating at an interior point within its production possibilities curve.
		a nation will be operating on the production possibilities curve.
		the production possibilities curve will shift outward to the right.
		the production possibilies curve will shift inward to the left.

1 points

QUESTION 14

In economics the concept that there is "no free lunch" means

	A.	scarce resources were used to produce these "free" goods so there is an opportunity cost to producing them.
	B.	consumers are irrational when they ask for a free lunch unless they can make the case that the free lunch benefits business.
	C.	the marginal cost of the "lunch" is greater than the marginal benefit.
	D.	businesses could not make a profit if they gave away free goods to consumers.

1 points

QUESTION 15

Assume that a consumer can only purchase two goods with her income. A straight-line budget constraint indicates that the opportunity cost of obtaining an additional unit of one good is:

	A.	negative.
	B.	constant.
	C.	increasing.
	D.	decreasing.

carmineferret43

EC238 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Free Rider Problem, Smog, Soot

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