Economics Answers

draw a demand and supply curve for British pounds (on the vertical axis plot rand per British pound)

Anya is awake for 100 hours per week. Using one diagram, show Anya’s budget constraints if she earns $12 per hour, $16 per hour, and $20 per hour. Now draw indifference curves such that Anya’s labor-supply curve is upward-sloping when the wage is between $12 and $16 per hour and backward-sloping when the wage is between $16 and $20 per hour.

Wheat is produced under perfectly competitive conditions. Individual wheat farmers have U-shaped, long-run average cost curves that reach a minimum average cost of $3 per bushel when 1,000 bushels are produced.
a) If the market demand curve for wheat is given by QD = 2,600,000 - 200,000P, where Qp is the number of bushels demanded per year and P is the price per bushel, in long-run equilibrium what will be the price of wheat, how much total wheat will be demanded, and how many wheat farms will there be?

What can governments use to achieve a more efficient allocation of resources in the presence of external benefits:
Government subsidies
Pigouvian taxes
Public provision
Coase taxes

What factors are likely to cause an increase in the demand for British pounds (in exchange for South African rands)?

Who would benefit and who would lose if the south African government doubled the tariff on imported frozen chicken leg quarters from Brazil?

A polluting factory is an example of what type of externality? Negative demand-side externality or negative supply-side externality. Explain.

An economically efficient level of smoking:

a. means people would not smoke

b. occurs at the market equilibrium

c. would have to account for all costs but would be greater than zero

d. would have to increase to provide more jobs for farmers and tobacco workers

Under which condition(s) would a strict welfare economist agree that an obese worker joining a workforce imposes externalities through group health insurance?

a. If an obese worker uses more health care than non-obese workers and premiums rise

b. If an obese worker gets sick and misses work more often and the non-obese workers have to pick up the slack working short-handed

c. If the fact of insurance coverage makes all workers, obese and non-obese alike, start eating more and exercising less so that all gain weight and premiums rise

d. If an obese worker joining the workforce makes a single worker less proud of their annual group picture

According to standard economic theory which is true?

a. Choices people make, including the choice to eat French fries or smoke, should be respected as long as these choices do not affect others.

b. Taxes on sugary sodas force consumers to make decisions that are privately confusing.

c. Public intervention is always justified as long as the prevalence of the problem is large

d. Obesity is a public problem, not a private problem, because it is associated with reduced life expectancy.