ECON 4140 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Economic Surplus, Chemotherapy, Arbitrage

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burgundyporcupine418

23 Apr 2018

School

Ohio State University

Department

Economics

Course

ECON 4140

Professor

Molly Cooper

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Document Summary

1. (2 points) explain the difference between economic growth and economic development. Economic growth is the sustained increase in the output of goods and services of a society. Economic development is the economic growth accompanied by changes in the technical and institutional arrangements by which output is produced. Extensive growth is increases in outputs due to increases in inputs (labor force grows; land stock increases). Intensive growth: increase in outputs per unit of inputs, in case of labor we call that productivity. Indicators: average annual rate of in ation, which is an indicator of stability of the economy and measure of con dence in the govt. Countries with high in ation often have dictator printing money for their own purpose or at war: life expectancy at birth, which is an unambiguous measure of well being. Longer lifespans mean better medical care, better nutrition, less stress, better environment.

Related Questions

Hello, could you please assist with this discussion question for the Economics course? Thank you.

5) Go to the internet and find an article that discusses the problems of income inequality in the U.S. economy, summarize key points, and post in the Discussions area.

http://neweconomics.org/2014/12/why-inequality-is-an-economic-problem/

Why Inequality Is An Economic Problem

Rising economic inequality was a major driver of the financial crisis. With the OECD recently debunking âtrickle-downâ economics, our new report sets out the links between inequality, the growth in scale and influence of the financial sector, and the dangers for financial stability.

A fragile recovery

A return to growth in economies such as the UK and USA has been welcomed as a sign of recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. But as GDP picks up, so too has the widening gap between rich and poor.

The crisis may be over for the wealthy but the aftermath for ordinary workers depressed wages and growing debt is only getting worse.

Most nations have mustered only negligible growth and this has failed to benefit the vast majority of those nation's populations.

In the seven years following the crash, the UK has suffered the longest sustained decline in real wages since records began.

This decline hasn't has been shared equally across the income spectrum latest annual data up to the end of 2013 shows real earnings for the top 10% increasing by 3.9% and a 2.4% fall for the remaining 90%.

Households are once again piling on risky personal debt at a rate of almost $1billion a year.

Globally, wealth grew by 8.3% last year to $263 trillion, even as living standards stagnate for the majority. Income inequality has seen a sharp return the top 1% of earners have reaped 95% of the USA's economic gains since the crash.

Inequality increases as economies are financialised

Over the past four decades, financial sectors have been extensively deregulated and have expanded enormously as a result, particularly in the UK and USA.

This deregulation produced two systemic outcomes: finance has been freed to become the motor of the economy while the pursuit of greater equality of citizens, as was the focus after the second world war, has been abandoned.

Instead, the notion that unrestrained pursuit of wealth would trickle-down from rich to the poor has been embraced in the mainstream political and economic arenas.

Financial markets, products, and firms now play a much larger role in many areas; from pensions and social insurance to homes and public infrastructure.

Privatization and the doctrine of maximizing value for shareholders have increased the amount of economic activity focused on extracting the largest possible short-term profit. These trends are referred to collectively as âfinancialisationâ.

Until now the connections between this increasing prevalence of financial activities and the steady increase in economic inequality have not been clear. But when these two trends reached a boiling point in the mid-2000s they fuelled a global collapse of financial systems.

The polarization of wealth and incomes fed asset bubbles, risky financial activity,, and necessitated vast levels of household debt â resulting in the 2008 financial crash. With little done since to address these interconnected drivers, the threat of another crisis is very real.

This diagram lays out the seven indicators of economic instability, each fuelled by rising inequality and increasing financial sector activity:

Our report describes how these indicators laid the path for the 2008 crash, and threaten to do the same again:

Increasing inequality depresses demand since consumption levels depend more on the wages of those at the lower end of the income scale than the profits of the wealthy

In the face of stagnating wages, households rely increasingly on debt to maintain their lifestyles with rising asset prices, especially in residential housing, worsening this.

Financial liberalization allows money to flood into countries with trade deficits, such as the USA and the UK, providing the funds for debt-led consumption.

Snowballing wealth at the top increases risky financial speculation.

Inequality doesn't bring growth, it brings economic instability

In recent years there has been a marked slowing of growth across the world's wealthiest economies, with none returning to the growth trends experienced before the crisis. Many have begun to speculate that this stagnation could, in fact, be a permanent development meaning that wealthy economies are fundamentally unable to create enough demand to keep growing.

The mainstream political consensus has for decades now suggested that inequality is a price worth paying for economic growth.

But new research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows definitively that this inequality/growth trade-off is false adding to a growing body of research showing that inequality actually prevents economies from growing. This points to a fundamental structural flaw in the economy: if the proceeds of growth are not shared, the pie stops growing.

The pursuit of higher returns for the already wealthy within this dwindling pie cannot persist forever. With wealth refusing year on year to trickle down, debt has been used to plug the wage-consumption gap for the rest.

The signals are showing quite plainly that this pursuit of growth, via inequality, is ineffective and unsustainable.

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2. Which one of the following statements does not indicate an important difference between traditional economics and ecological economics?

Ecological economics places greater emphasis on the importance of energy resources

Ecological economics places greater emphasis on the carrying capacity of the environment

Ecological economics places greater emphasis on the scale of economic activity

Ecological economics places greater emphasis on the importance of natural laws

Ecological economics places greater emphasis on the flow of goods between households and firms

3. The ability of the environment to absorb and render harmless the by-products of human activity is called ...

Carrying capacity

The sink function

Depletion

Throughput

The source function

4. Which of the following is an example of the source function of the environment?

Trees absorb some of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity

Wetlands reduce the pollution levels in water

Winds carry air pollution away from a city

Humans harvest fish from the oceans

Bacteria break down discarded wastes

5. Which one of the following relationships is not included in the standard circular flow model?

The flow of goods and services from firms to households

The flow of labor from households to firms

The flow of pollution from firms to households

The flow of money from households to firms

The flow of wages from firms to households

6. What statement below best describes how the environment is incorporated into the standard circular flow model?

The long-term availability of natural resources is considered

The pollution generated by firms and households is considered

The input of solar energy is considered

Natural resources are considered as inputs into the production process

The build-up of waste heat is considered

7. What is the primary external input into the broader ecological circular flow model?

Pollution

Solar energy

Fossil fuels

Geophysical cycles

Factors of production

8. What is the only net output of the broader ecological circular flow model?

Goods and services

Solar energy

Factors of production

Geophysical cycles

Waste heat

9. What is the standard economic technique used to compare present and future benefits and

costs?

Property rights

Microeconomics

Externalities

Macroeconomics

Discounting

10. Human activity is producing changes in which cycle that may lead to significant changes in the global climate?

Carbon cycle

Nitrogen cycle

Water cycle

Phosphorus cycle

Organic cycle

11. The Malthusian hypothesis ...

Has proven to be remarkably accurate

Is irrelevant for studying modern environmental problems

Has continuing implications for the debate on current environmental issues

Applies only to developing countries

Applies only to developed countries

12. What is the key to escaping the Malthusian trap?

Increasing productivity per capita

Increasing population

Increasing natural capital

Increasing population density

Definition of property rights

13. Real GNP per capita is defined as ...

GNP divided by population

GNP adjusted for inflation

GNP adjusted for capital depletion divided by population

GNP adjusted for inflation divided by population

GNP adjusted for depreciation divided by population

14. What two factors do standard economics consider as the most important in explaining productivity increases?

Increasing energy supplies and technological progress

Increasing capital stock and technological progress

Increasing energy supplies and increasing natural resources

Increasing capital stock and increasing energy supplies

Increasing capital stock and increasing natural resources

15. Which one of the following statements about sustainable development is false?

Sustainable development requires all energy to be derived from solar energy

Sustainable development considers the scale of the macro-economy

Sustainable development requires a population level below carrying capacity

Sustainable development combines modern and traditional agricultural techniques

Sustainable development requires some type of population policy

16. Which one of the following statements about sustainable development is false?

Some people have complained that sustainable development is a term devoid of specific content

Some people consider sustainable development just a slightly modified form of traditional economic growth

Sustainable development should provide for human needs without undermining the global ecosystem

Sustainable development would redefine economic goals

Sustainable development will require increased resource consumption

17. Which one of the following is an example of demand-side management?

Building a new nuclear power plant

Increasing oil exploration in the Arctic

Building a new solar energy plant

Replacing incandescent with compact fluorescent light bulbs

Increasing reliance on domestic oil sources rather than imports

18. The standard economic approach to pollution control

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