Introduction to Microeconomics E201
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Perfect Competition--A Model of Markets
Econ Dept, UMR Presents PerfectPerfect CompetitionCompetition----AA ModelModel ofof MarketsMarkets StarringStarring uTheThe PerfectlyPerfectly CompetitiveCompetitive FirmFirm uProfitProfit MaximizingMaximizing DecisionsDecisions \InIn thethe ShortShort RunRun \InIn thethe LongLong RunRun FeaturingFeaturing uAn Overview of Market Structures uThe Assumptions of the Perfectly Competitive Model uThe Marginal Cost = Marginal Revenue Rule uMarginal Cost and Short Run Supply uSocial Surplus PartPart III:III: ProfitProfit MaximizationMaximization inin thethe LongLong RunRun u First, we review profits and losses in the short run u Second, we look at the implications of the freedom of entry and exit assumption u Third, we look at the long run supply curve OutputOutput DecisionsDecisions Question:Question: HowHow cancan wewe useuse whatwhat wewe knowknow aboutabout productionproduction technology,technology, costs,costs, andand competitivecompetitive marketsmarkets toto makemake outputoutput decisionsdecisions inin thethe longlong run?run? Reminders...Reminders... u Firms operate in perfectly competitive output and input markets u In perfectly competitive industries, prices are determined in the market and firms are price takers u The demand curve for the firm’s product is perceived to be perfectly elastic u And, critical for the long run, there is freedom of entry and exit u However, technology is assumed to be fixed The firm maximizes profits, or minimizes losses by producing where MR = MC, or by shutting down Market Firm P P MC S $5 $5 P=MR D -
Nber Working Paper Series Financial Markets and The
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES FINANCIAL MARKETS AND THE REAL ECONOMY John H. Cochrane Working Paper 11193 http://www.nber.org/papers/w11193 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 March 2005 This review will introduce a volume by the same title in the Edward Elgar series “The International Library of Critical Writings in Financial Economics” edited by Richard Roll. I encourage comments. Please write promptly so I can include your comments in the final version. I gratefully acknowledge research support from the NSF in a grant administered by the NBER and from the CRSP. I thank Monika Piazzesi and Motohiro Yogo for comments. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. © 2005 by John H. Cochrane. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Financial Markets and the Real Economy John H. Cochrane NBER Working Paper No. 11193 March 2005, Revised September 2006 JEL No. G1, E3 ABSTRACT I survey work on the intersection between macroeconomics and finance. The challenge is to find the right measure of "bad times," rises in the marginal value of wealth, so that we can understand high average returns or low prices as compensation for assets' tendency to pay off poorly in "bad times." I survey the literature, covering the time-series and cross-sectional facts, the equity premium, consumption-based models, general equilibrium models, and labor income/idiosyncratic risk approaches. -
Syllabus Economics 341 American Economic History Spring 2017
Syllabus Economics 341 American Economic History Spring 2017 – Blow Hall 331 Prof. Will Hausman Economics 341 is a one-semester survey of the development of the U.S. economy from colonial times to the outbreak of World War II. The course uses basic economic concepts to help describe and explain overall economic growth as well as developments in specific sectors or aspects of the economy, such as agriculture, transportation, industry and commerce, money and banking, and public policy. The course focuses on events, trends, and institutions that fostered or hindered the economic development of the nation. At the end of the course, you should have a better understanding of the antecedents of our current economic situation. The course satisfies GER 4-A and the Major Writing Requirement. Blackboard: announcements, assignments, documents, links, data, and power points will be posted on Blackboard. Importantly, emails will be sent to the class through Blackboard. Text and Readings: There is a substantial amount of reading in this course. The recommended text is Gary Walton and Hugh Rockoff, History of the American Economy (any edition 7th through 12th; publication dates, 1996-2015). This is widely available under $10 in on-line used bookstores; I personally use the 8th edition (1998). This will be used mostly for background information. There also will be articles or book chapters assigned every week, as well as original documents. I expect you to read all articles and documents thoroughly and carefully. These will all be available on Blackboard, or can be found directly on JSTOR (via the Database Links on the Swem Library home page), or the journal publisher’s home page via Swem’s online catalog. -
Uncertainty and Hyperinflation: European Inflation Dynamics After World War I
FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF SAN FRANCISCO WORKING PAPER SERIES Uncertainty and Hyperinflation: European Inflation Dynamics after World War I Jose A. Lopez Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Kris James Mitchener Santa Clara University CAGE, CEPR, CES-ifo & NBER June 2018 Working Paper 2018-06 https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/working-papers/2018/06/ Suggested citation: Lopez, Jose A., Kris James Mitchener. 2018. “Uncertainty and Hyperinflation: European Inflation Dynamics after World War I,” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper 2018-06. https://doi.org/10.24148/wp2018-06 The views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Uncertainty and Hyperinflation: European Inflation Dynamics after World War I Jose A. Lopez Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Kris James Mitchener Santa Clara University CAGE, CEPR, CES-ifo & NBER* May 9, 2018 ABSTRACT. Fiscal deficits, elevated debt-to-GDP ratios, and high inflation rates suggest hyperinflation could have potentially emerged in many European countries after World War I. We demonstrate that economic policy uncertainty was instrumental in pushing a subset of European countries into hyperinflation shortly after the end of the war. Germany, Austria, Poland, and Hungary (GAPH) suffered from frequent uncertainty shocks – and correspondingly high levels of uncertainty – caused by protracted political negotiations over reparations payments, the apportionment of the Austro-Hungarian debt, and border disputes. In contrast, other European countries exhibited lower levels of measured uncertainty between 1919 and 1925, allowing them more capacity with which to implement credible commitments to their fiscal and monetary policies. -
Making Sense of Unemployment Data
PAGE ONE Economics® Making Sense of Unemployment Data Scott A. Wolla, Ph.D., Senior Economic Education Specialist GLOSSARY “Unemployment is like a headache or a high temperature—unpleasant and Cyclical unemployment: Unemployment exhausting but not carrying in itself any explanation of its cause.” associated with recessions in the business —William Henry Beveridge, Causes and Cures of Unemployment cycle. Discouraged worker: Someone who is not working and is not looking for work because of a belief that there are no jobs Job growth has been healthy for five years.1 However, many people still available to him or her. express concern over the health of the overall labor market. For example, Employed: People 16 years and older who Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, states that the “official unemployment rate, as have jobs. reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.”2 He Frictional unemployment: Unemployment proposes the Gallup Good Jobs rate as a better indicator of the health of the that results when people are new to the labor market. At the heart of Clifton and others’ concern is what the official job market, including recent graduates, or are transitioning from one job to another. unemployment rate actually measures and whether it is a reliable indicator. Labor force: The total number of workers, including both the employed and the The Labor Force: Are You In or Out? unemployed. To measure the unemployment rate, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Labor force participation rate: The percent- (BLS) surveys 60,000 households—about 110,000 individuals—which age of the working-age population that is in the labor force. -
Ten Tips for Interpreting Economic Data F Jason Furman Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers
Ten Tips for Interpreting Economic Data f Jason Furman Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers July 24, 2015 1. Data is Noisy: Look at Data With Less Volatility and Larger Samples Monthly Employment Growth, 2014-Present Thousands of Jobs 1,000 800 Oct-14: +836/-221 600 400 200 0 -200 Mar-15: Establishment Survey -502/+119 -400 Household Survey (Payroll Concept) -600 Jan-14 Apr-14 Jul-14 Oct-14 Jan-15 Apr-15 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. • Some commentators—and even some economists—tend to focus too closely on individual monthly or weekly data releases. But economic data are notoriously volatile. In many cases, a longer-term average paints a clearer picture, reducing the influence of less informative short-term fluctuations. • The household employment survey samples only 60,000 households, whereas the establishment employment survey samples 588,000 worksites, representing millions of workers. 1 2. Data is Noisy: Look Over Longer Periods Private Sector Payroll Employment, 2008-Present Monthly Job Gain/Loss, Seasonally Adjusted 600,000 400,000 200,000 0 -200,000 12-month -400,000 moving average -600,000 -800,000 -1,000,000 2008 2010 2012 2014 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. • Long-term moving averages can smooth out short-term volatility. Over the past year, our businesses have added 240,000 jobs per month on average, more than the 217,000 per month added over the prior 12 months. The evolving moving average provides a less noisy underlying picture of economic developments. 2 2. Data is Noisy: Look Over Longer Periods Weekly Unemployment Insurance Claims, 2012-2015 Thousands 450 400 Weekly Initial Jobless Claims 350 300 Four-Week Moving Average 7/18 250 2012 2013 2014 2015 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. -
Working Paper No. 39, Neoliberalism As a Variant of Capitalism
Portland State University PDXScholar Working Papers in Economics Economics 12-12-2019 Working Paper No. 39, Neoliberalism as a Variant of Capitalism Justin Pilarski Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/econ_workingpapers Part of the Economic History Commons, and the Economic Theory Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Citation Details Pilarski, Justin "Neoliberalism as a Variant of Capitalism, Working Paper No. 39", Portland State University Economics Working Papers. 39. (12 December 2019) i + 14 pages. This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Working Papers in Economics by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Neoliberalism as a Variant of Capitalism Working Paper No. 39 Authored by: Justin Pilarski A Contribution to the Working Papers of the Department of Economics, Portland State University Submitted for: EC445 “Comparative Economic Systems” 12 December 2019; i + 14 pages Prepared for Professor John Hall Abstract: Economic systems evolve over time in adapting to the needs and deficiency of the system. This inquiry seeks to establish Neoliberalism as—in the language of Barry Clark—a variant of capitalism that evolved out of retaliation of the regulated variant of capitalism. We utilize Barry Clark’s work on the evolution of economic systems in establishing the pattern of adaptation in American capitalism. Then we establish and analyze the neoliberal variant of capitalism in how this evolution retaliated against the existing system rather than adapting the preceding variant. -
Recurrent Hyperinflations and Learning
Recurrent Hyperin‡ations and Learning Albert Marcet Universitat Pompeu Fabra and CEMFI Juan Pablo Nicolini Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and Universitat Pompeu Fabra Working Paper No. 9721 December 1997 We thank Tony Braun, Jim Bullard, George Evans, Seppo Honkapohja, Rodi Manuelli, Ramon Marimon, Tom Sargent, Harald Uhlig, Neil Wallace and Car- los Zarazaga for helpful conversations and Marcelo Delajara and Ignacio Ponce Ocampo for research assistance. All errors are our own. Part of this work was done when both authors were visiting the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Research support from DGICYT, CIRIT and HCM is greatly appreciated. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected]. CEMFI, Casado del Alisal 5, 28014 Madrid, Spain. Tel: 341 4290551, fax: 341 4291056, http://www.cem….es. Abstract This paper uses a model of boundedly rational learning to account for the observations of recurrent hyperin‡ations in the last decade. We study a standard monetary model where the fully rational expectations assumption is replaced by a formal de…nition of quasi-rational learning. The model under learning is able to match remarkably well some crucial stylized facts observed during the recurrent hyperin‡ations experienced by several countries in the 80’s. We argue that, despite being a small departure from rational expec- tations, quasi-rational learning does not preclude falsi…ability of the model and it does not violate reasonable rationality requirements. Keywords: Hyperin‡ations, convertibility, stabilization plans, quasi-rationality. JEL classi…cation: D83, E17, E31. 1 Introduction The goal of this paper is to develop a model that accounts for the main fea- tures of the hyperin°ations of last decade and to study the policy recomen- dations that arise from it. -
A Structural Model of the Unemployment Insurance Take-Up
A Structural Model of the Unemployment Insurance Take-up Sylvie Blasco∗ Fran¸coisFontainey GAINS, University of Aarhus, BETA-CNRS, CREST and IZA LMDG and IZA. January 2012 - IN PROGRESSz Abstract A large fraction of the eligible workers do not claim the unemployment insurance when they are unemployed. This paper provides a structural framework to identify clearly, through the esti- mates, the economic mechanisms behind take-up. It incorporates take-up in a job search model and accounts for the determinants of claiming, especially the level of the unemployment benefits and the practical difficulties to make a claim. It provides a simple way to model selection into participation and sheds new light on the link between the job search and the claiming efforts. We estimate our model using a unique administrative dataset that matches a linked employer - employee data and the records of the national employment agency. Keywords: Unemployment Insurance Take-up, Job Search JEL Classification numbers: J64, J65, C41 ∗Address : Universit´e du Maine, Av. Olivier Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans Cedex 9, France ; Email: [email protected] yUniversity of Nancy 2, Email: [email protected]. zWe thank Jesper Bagger, Sebastian Buhai, Sam Kortum, David Margolis, Dale Mortensen, Fabien Postel-Vinay, Jean-Marc Robin, Chris Taber and participants at the Tinbergen Institute internal seminar, CREST-INSEE, Nancy and Royal Holloway seminars, the ESEM conference, the AFSE, IZA-Labor Market Policy Evalation, LMDG, T2M workshops for comments and discussions. This is a preliminary version of the paper, the readers are invited to check on the authors' websites for newer versions. -
Lecture Notes1 Mathematical Ecnomics
Lecture Notes1 Mathematical Ecnomics Guoqiang TIAN Department of Economics Texas A&M University College Station, Texas 77843 ([email protected]) This version: August, 2020 1The most materials of this lecture notes are drawn from Chiang’s classic textbook Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, which are used for my teaching and con- venience of my students in class. Please not distribute it to any others. Contents 1 The Nature of Mathematical Economics 1 1.1 Economics and Mathematical Economics . 1 1.2 Advantages of Mathematical Approach . 3 2 Economic Models 5 2.1 Ingredients of a Mathematical Model . 5 2.2 The Real-Number System . 5 2.3 The Concept of Sets . 6 2.4 Relations and Functions . 9 2.5 Types of Function . 11 2.6 Functions of Two or More Independent Variables . 12 2.7 Levels of Generality . 13 3 Equilibrium Analysis in Economics 15 3.1 The Meaning of Equilibrium . 15 3.2 Partial Market Equilibrium - A Linear Model . 16 3.3 Partial Market Equilibrium - A Nonlinear Model . 18 3.4 General Market Equilibrium . 19 3.5 Equilibrium in National-Income Analysis . 23 4 Linear Models and Matrix Algebra 25 4.1 Matrix and Vectors . 26 i ii CONTENTS 4.2 Matrix Operations . 29 4.3 Linear Dependance of Vectors . 32 4.4 Commutative, Associative, and Distributive Laws . 33 4.5 Identity Matrices and Null Matrices . 34 4.6 Transposes and Inverses . 36 5 Linear Models and Matrix Algebra (Continued) 41 5.1 Conditions for Nonsingularity of a Matrix . 41 5.2 Test of Nonsingularity by Use of Determinant . -
Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee April 27–28, 2021
_____________________________________________________________________________________________Page 1 Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee April 27–28, 2021 A joint meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee Ann E. Misback, Secretary, Office of the Secretary, and the Board of Governors was held by videoconfer- Board of Governors ence on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, at 9:30 a.m. and con- tinued on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, at 9:00 a.m.1 Matthew J. Eichner,2 Director, Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems, Board of PRESENT: Governors; Michael S. Gibson, Director, Division Jerome H. Powell, Chair of Supervision and Regulation, Board of John C. Williams, Vice Chair Governors; Andreas Lehnert, Director, Division of Thomas I. Barkin Financial Stability, Board of Governors Raphael W. Bostic Michelle W. Bowman Sally Davies, Deputy Director, Division of Lael Brainard International Finance, Board of Governors Richard H. Clarida Mary C. Daly Jon Faust, Senior Special Adviser to the Chair, Division Charles L. Evans of Board Members, Board of Governors Randal K. Quarles Christopher J. Waller Joshua Gallin, Special Adviser to the Chair, Division of Board Members, Board of Governors James Bullard, Esther L. George, Naureen Hassan, Loretta J. Mester, and Eric Rosengren, Alternate William F. Bassett, Antulio N. Bomfim, Wendy E. Members of the Federal Open Market Committee Dunn, Burcu Duygan-Bump, Jane E. Ihrig, Kurt F. Lewis, and Chiara Scotti, Special Advisers to the Patrick Harker, Robert S. Kaplan, and Neel Kashkari, Board, Division of Board Members, Board of Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of Governors Philadelphia, Dallas, and Minneapolis, respectively Carol C. Bertaut, Senior Associate Director, Division James A. -
Perfect Competition
Perfect Competition 1 Outline • Competition – Short run – Implications for firms – Implication for supply curves • Perfect competition – Long run – Implications for firms – Implication for supply curves • Broader implications – Implications for tax policy. – Implication for R&D 2 Competition vs Perfect Competition • Competition – Each firm takes price as given. • As we saw => Price equals marginal cost • PftPerfect competition – Each firm takes price as given. – PfitProfits are zero – As we will see • P=MC=Min(Average Cost) • Production efficiency is maximized • Supply is flat 3 Competitive industries • One way to think about this is market share • Any industry where the largest firm produces less than 1% of output is going to be competitive • Agriculture? – For sure • Services? – Restaurants? • What about local consumers and local suppliers • manufacturing – Most often not so. 4 Competition • Here only assume that each firm takes price as given. – It want to maximize profits • Two decisions. • ()(1) if it produces how much • П(q) =pq‐C(q) => p‐C’(q)=0 • (2) should it produce at all • П(q*)>0 produce, if П(q*)<0 shut down 5 Competitive equilibrium • Given n, firms each with cost C(q) and D(p) it is a pair (p*,q*) such that • 1. D(p *) =n q* • 2. MC(q*) =p * • 3. П(p *,q*)>0 1. Says demand equals suppl y, 2. firm maximize profits, 3. profits are non negative. If we fix the number of firms. This may not exist. 6 Step 1 Max П p Marginal Cost Average Costs Profits Short Run Average Cost Or Average Variable Cost Costs q 7 Step 1 Max П, p Marginal