ECN 104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Absolute Advantage, Opportunity Cost, Comparative Advantage

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sapphiremouse631

21 Feb 2013

School

Ryerson University

Department

Economics

Course

ECN 104

Professor

Tsogbadral Galaabaatar

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Interdependence: every day you rely on many people from around the world, most of whom you"ve never met, to provide you with the goods and services you enjoy. Absolute advantage: the comparison among producers of a good according to their productivity or the ability to produce a good using fewer inputs than another producer. Opportunity cost: whatever must be given up to obtain some item. Comparative advantage: comparison among producers of a good according to their opportunity cost or the ability to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another producer. Imports: goods and services produced abroad and sold domestically. Exports: goods and services produces domestically and sold abroad. We will look at how much of both goods each country produces and consumes if the country chooses to be self-sufficient if it trades with the other country. Canada has 50,000 hours of labour available for production, per month. Producing one computer requires 100 hours of labour.

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PART B â Questions 10 â 27 Use the following assumptions to answer all questions: â¢ There are three countries â Argentina, Britain and Canada. â¢ Each country produces and consumes two kinds of goods â crude oil and beef. â¢ All countries make their goods from a single type of input â labor â and each country has 700 hours of labor available to produce crude oil and beef. â¢ Each country demands 5 (five) barrels of crude oil. This assumption simply means that a country must have exactly 5 barrels of crude oil â it may produce them domestically, it may import them from abroad, or it makes some domestically and imports the rest. â¢ Countries produce goods using the technology described in the table below Technology Hours of labor needed to produce one unit of good Using the above assumptions, answer the following questions: â¢ Calculate the quantities of crude oil and beef produced in each country in autarky (when they do not trade and each country produces its own crude oil and beef) â¢ Order the countries according to their absolute advantage in production of crude oil â¢ Order the countries according to their absolute advantage in production of beef â¢ Consider the case where countries are free to specialize and trade. In the table below calculate each countryâs opportunity cost of producing one unit of each good. â¢ Calculate the quantities of crude oil and beef produced in each country, consistent with the countryâs comparative advantage. Based on the above calculations, answer questions 10 through 27: Consider autarky, when countries do not trade and each country produces its own crude oil and beef. 10. In autarky, Argentina produces _____ barrels of oil. a. 0 b. 5 c. 10 d. 15 11. In autarky, Britain produces _____ barrels of oil. a. 0 b. 5 c. 10 d. 15 12. In autarky, Canada produces _____ barrels of oil. a. 0 b. 5 c. 10 d. 15 13. In autarky, Argentina produces _____ pounds of beef. a. 0 b. 70 c. 150 d. 400 14. In autarky, Britain produces _____ pounds of beef. a. 0 b. 70 c. 150 d. 400 15. In autarky, Canada produces _____ pounds of beef. a. 0 b. 70 c. 150 d. 400 16. Country of _____ has absolute advantage in production of crude oil. a. Argentina b. Britain c. Canada d. No country 17. Country of _____ has absolute advantage in production of beef. a. Argentina b. Britain c. Canada d. No country Consider effects of specialization, when countries are allowed to trade. 18. When countries specialize, Argentina produces _____ barrels of oil. a. 0 b. 5 c. 10 d. 15 19. When countries specialize, Britain produces _____ barrels of oil. a. 0 b. 5 c. 10 d. 15 20. When countries specialize, Canada produces _____ barrels of oil. a. 0 b. 5 c. 10 d. 15 21. When countries specialize, Argentina produces _____ pounds of beef. a. 0 b. 700 c. 150 d. 400 22. When countries specialize, Britain produces _____ pounds of beef. a. 0 b. 700 c. 150 d. 400 23. When countries specialize, Canada produces ____ pounds of beef. a. 0 b. 700 c. 150 d. 400 24. Country of __C___ has comparative advantage in production of crude oil. a. Argentina b. Britain c. Canada d. No country 25. Country of ___A__ has comparative advantage in production of beef. a. Argentina b. Britain c. Canada d. No country 26. Countries gain from trade because specialization increases ____. a. Trade deficit b. Unemployment c. Efficiency d. Inflation 27. Countries should trade with trading partners that _____. a. Are equally technologically advanced b. Use superior technology in every industry c. Use less advanced technology in every industry d. Use different technologies, because trade benefits all

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1. Which of the following cannot be determined using a production possibility table?

What combination of outputs can be produced.
How much less of one output can be produced if more of another output is produced.
What combination of outputs is best.
How much output can be produced from a given level of inputs.

2. Internal government debt is:

debt owed by citizens to their government.
debt owed by one government to another government.
government debt owed to citizens.
government debt owed to foreigners.

3. In general, budget deficits should:

never be run since they slow economic growth over the long run.
never be run since they crowd out investment in the short run.
be run on a temporary basis whenever the economy is below potential output.
be run on a permanent basis since they can always be financed over and over again.

4. If taxes and government outlays were constant and did not vary with income, then:

passive deficits would increase.
passive deficits would not exist.
structural deficits would increase.
structural deficits would not exist.

5. If the debt of the federal government increases by $10 billion in one year, then the budget:

deficit in that year must be $10 billion.
surplus in that year must be $10 billion.
deficit in that year decreased by $10 billion.
surplus in that year increased by $10 billion.

6. Which of the following would make the impending Social Security problem worse?

Raising income taxes when the baby boomers begin to retire.
Reducing the age at which one is eligible to receive payments.
Reducing Social Security retirement benefits.
Introducing means testing.

7. The price mechanism is: (Points : 5)

not affected by social and political forces.
affected by social but not political forces.
affected by political but not social forces.
affected by both political and social forces.

8. Social forces:

affect the price mechanism through cultural norms.
affect the price mechanism, but not the legal system.
affect the price mechanism through scarcity.
do not affect the price mechanism.

9. Opportunity cost is the same as marginal cost.

True
False

10. Which of the following is a characteristic of a market economy?

Private property.
Government ownership of the means of production.
Distribution according to need.
Tradition determines the what, how, and for whom decisions.

11. Mexico has a comparative advantage in producing corn:

if its opportunity cost of producing corn is higher than the opportunity cost in other countries.
if its opportunity cost of producing corn is the same as the opportunity cost in other countries.
if its opportunity cost of producing corn is lower than the opportunity cost in other countries.
regardless of the opportunity cost in other countries.

12. The opportunity cost for a student of attending college for a year is best measured by the:

benefit received by the student.
tuition paid for the year.
value of the next-best activity forgone by attending college.
total money outlays associated with attending college.

13. A passive deficit is the portion of the deficit that exists when:

the economy is at potential income.
the economy is beneath potential income.
inflation is not fully anticipated.
inflation is fully anticipated.

14. An important international lending institution is the:

IMF.
The Group of Eight.
EU.
WTO.

15. Private property rights:

are essential elements of a market economies.
do not need to be enforced in market economies.
must be established before a socialist economy can function properly.
ensure an equitable distribution of income in market economies.

16. If a country has a comparative advantage in the production of a good, then its resources are better suited to the production of that good than the resources of other countries.

True
False

17. As the interest rate rises, debt service:

decreases.
does not change, but debt increases.
increases.
does not change and neither does the debt.

18. Your opportunity cost of taking this course is:

the tuition you paid for the course.
the benefit of the activity you would have chosen if you had not taken the course.
the benefit you get from taking this course.
the cost of the activity you would have chosen if you had not taken the course.

19. One advantage of a corporation over a sole proprietorship is:

greater accountability.
avoidance of double taxation.
ease of formation.
greater ability to obtain funds.

20. Maintaining objectivity is easiest in:

positive economics.
the art of economics.
normative economics.
it is just as easy in all of the above

byzantiumimpala567

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

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ECN 104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Absolute Advantage, Opportunity Cost, Comparative Advantage

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