内容发布更新时间 : 2024/12/23 8:14:16星期一 下面是文章的全部内容请认真阅读。
the instructor may present data on who lobbies for protection and in which industries. Newspapers and magazines are often useful and timely sources of relevant information.
The models presented in this chapter provide a framework for a preliminary discussion of the political economy of trade. The general support for free trade among economists despite its income distributional effects is justified. One reason for this support is that the benefits of free trade are widely dispersed while its costs are concentrated. Economists may better serve the country as advocates for the general welfare since there is no shortage of advocates for particular groups injured by trade. The issue of the political economy of trade reappears throughout the book. An appendix provides further details on the specific factors model.
ANSWERS TO TEXTBOOK PROBLEMS
1. Texas and Louisiana are states with large oil-producing sectors. The real wage
of oil-producing factors of production in terms of other goods falls when the price of oil falls relative to the price of other goods. This was the source of economic decline in these states in 1986.
2. To analyze the economy's production possibility frontier, consider how the
output mix changes as labor is shifted between the two sectors.
a. The production functions for goods 1 and 2 are standard plots with quantities
on the vertical axis, labor on the horizontal axis, and Q1= Q1(K1,L1) with slope equal to the MPL1, and on another graph, Q2= Q2(K2,L2) with slope equal to the MPL2.
PF2 Q1 slope= -1/2 100 L2 slope= -1 PPF 100 Q1 100 L1 PF1
Figure 3-1
b. To graph the production possibilities frontier, combine the production function
diagrams with the economy's allocation of labor in a four quadrant diagram. The economy's PPF is in the upper right hand corner, as is illustrated in the four quadrant diagram above. The PPF is curved due to declining marginal product of labor in each good.
3. a. To solve this problem, one can graph the demand curve for labor in sector 1,
represented by (w=MPL1=demand for L1) and the demand curve for labor in sector 2, represented by (w=MPL2=demand for L2) . Since the total supply of labor is given by the horizontal axis, the labor allocation between the sectors is approximately L1=27 and L2=73. The wage rate is approximately $0.98.
wp2xMPL2$1.00p1xMPL10L127L2100L
Figure 3-2
b. Use the same type of graph as in problem 2b to show that sectoral output is
Q1=44 and Q2=90. (This involves combining the production function diagrams with the economy's allocation of labor in a four quadrant diagram. The economy's PPF is in the upper right hand corner, as illustrated in the text.)
c. Use a graph of labor demands, as in part a, to show that the intersection of the
demand curves for labor occurs at a wage rate approximately equal to $0.74. The relative decline in the price of good 2 caused labor to be reallocated: labor is drawn out of production of good 2 and enters production of good 1 (L1=62, L2=38). This also leads to an output adjustment, whereby production of good 2 falls to 68 units and production of good 1 rises to 76 units.
d. With the relative price change from p2/p1=2 to p2/p1=1, the price of good 2
has fallen by 50 percent, while the price of good 1 has stayed the same. Wages have fallen, but by less than the fall in p2 (wages fell approximately 25 percent). Thus, the real wage relative to p2 actually rises while to real wage relative to p1 falls. Hence, to determine the welfare consequences for workers, information is needed about their consumption shares of good 1 and good 2.
4. The box diagram presented below is a useful tool for showing the effects of
increasing the supply of the mobile factor of production, labor.
a. For an economy producing two goods, X and Y, with labor demands reflected
by their marginal revenue product curves, there is an initial wage of w1 and an initial labor allocation of Lx=OxA and Ly=OyA. When the supply of labor increases, the right boundary of this diagram is pushed out to Oy'. The demand for labor in sector Y is pulled rightward with the boundary. The new intersection of the labor demand curves shows that labor expands in both sectors, and therefore output of both X and Y also expand. The relative expansion of output is ambiguous. Wages paid to workers fall.
PxMPLx 1 w1 w2 PyMPLy A B Oy Oy’ 2 Ox
Figure 3-3
b. From the shape of the MPL curves, it is clear that labor will continue to exhibit
diminishing returns. Using a four quadrant diagram, you can demonstrate that the new production possibility frontier is more concave and steeper (flatter) at the ends. Using the numerical example, L1 increases to 90 from 62 and L2 increases to 50 from 38. Wages decline from $0.74 to $0.60. This new allocation of labor yields a new output mix of approximately Q1=85 and Q2=77.
FURTHER READING
Avinash Dixit and Victor Norman. Theory of International Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Michael Mussa. \and the Distribution of Income: The Importance of Factor Specificity Substitutability and Intensity in the Short and Long Run.\Journal of Political Economy 82 (1974) pp.1191-1204.
J. Peter Neary. \Capital Specificity and the Pure Theory of International Trade.\Economic Journal 88 (1978) pp.488-510.
Mancur Olson. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965.
David Ricardo. The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Homewood Illinois: Irwin, 1963.