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Economics 201
Catalina H.S.
Assignment for Market Workshop ? March 30, 2005
In this workshop we will discuss how the voluntary interactions of people within the market result in the production of the goods and services that society wants and needs. Attendance at the workshop is optional and those who choose not to attend can still earn up to
Economics 200
Homework 9
Assigned April 5, 2005
Due April 12, 2005
Read the attached article, entitled More Aid? Sounds Great; But Wait, by Judy Shelton form the February 15, 2002edition of the Wall Street Journal, page A-16 (ISSN: 00999660) and answer the questions below. NOTE: copies of the article are available on-line at:
Wall Street Journal Online (subscription required)
Tucson Pima
Economics 200
Homework 10
Assigned April 12, 2005
Due April 19, 2005
1 (10 points) Assume there are two people in the class who are excellent students and have received 'A's' in every class they have taken. Everyone in the class, except the instructor, knows that these two students are intelligent and put a lot of effort into study. Both of these straight 'A' students are carrying a full
Economics 200
Homework 11
April 19, 2005
1. (6 points) Explain what the game "Prisoner's Dilemma" is and what it explains about prisoner's decision making when in the game situation.
2. (6 points) Explain what will happen if firms in a monopolistic competitive industry are earning positive profits.
3. (5 points) Discuss the important provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.
Economics 200
Homework 12
April 26, 2005
1. (8.5 points) What would make the demand for labor more elastic?
2. (8.5 points) A local cable company, the sole provider of cable television service, is regulated by the municipal government. The owner of the company claims that she is normally opposed to regulation by government, but asserts that regulation is necessary because local residents
Economics 200
Homework 13
May 3, 2005
1. (8.5 points) How can discrimination cause differences in earnings? Can discrimination also influence the productivity of a worker? Explain.
2. (8.5 points) Explain how the optimal quantity of air pollution is determined.
Economics 200
Summer 2005
Assignment 6
Read the article Imports? Never! and answer the following questions.
1 (10 Points) According to the author, which of the two scenerios ? cheap foreign imports or expensive foreign imports (with "cheap" and "expensive" being relative to domestic American prices for these products) are bad for the U.S. economy? Why?
2 (10 Points) What does the author
Economics 200
Summer 2005
Assignment 5
Click here or contact instructor for Reducing Poverty by Reducing Government article.
1 (10 Points) According to the author, how would the poor benefit if the minimum wage laws were repealed?
2 (10 Points) What "pro union" legislation does the author call for to be repealed? Describe the legislation and how its repeal would help the poor.
3 (10
Economics 200
Test 4
Summer 2005
Multiple Choice (5 points each):
1. A profit maximizing cartel should produce where:
(a) price equals average cost.
(b) marginal cost equals average cost.
(c) price equals marginal cost.
(d) marginal revenue equals demand.
(e) marginal cost equals marginal revenue.
2. A
Economics 200
Summer 2005
Assignment 4
1 (1 Point Each) Clearly define each of the following terms:
- FIXED INPUT
- VARIABLE INPUT
- LONG RUN
- SHORT RUN
2 (7 Points) What is accounting profit and how does it differ from economic profit?
3 (7 Points) What is economic profit and how does it act to get producers to produce the type and amount of products that consumers desire?
4 (7
Economics 200
Summer 2005
Assignment 3
1 (5 points) Supply side economic theory is discussed in Chapters 11 and 14. Explain what Supply Side Theory is all about.
2 (5 points) Explain how fractional reserve banking enables a bank to create money.
Read the article below entitled Ronald Regan and the Spirit of Free Enterprise
3 (10 points) According to the article why does the lowering of tax
Economics 200
Summer 2005
Exam 2
Multiple Choice 5 points each.
1. The view that unemployment will become increasingly severe as machinery is substituted for labor is most closely associated with:
a. Say.
b. Keynes.
c. Mill.
d. Marx.
e. Smith.
2. The use of government spending and taxes for stabilization purposes is known as:
a. unemployment compensation.
b. fiscal policy.
c. budget
Economics 200
Summer 2005
Assignment 2
Each question below is worth 10 points. A bonus of 20 points is built into the assignment (i.e., the assignment is worth a total of 50 points but answering all the questions correctly will result in a score of 70 points.)
Click here for the article entitled Lord Keynes and Say's Law
1 What is Say's Law?
2 Mises says that Keynes did not offer a major new
Economics 200
Test 1
Summer 2005
MULTIPLE CHOICE - 4 POINTS EACH
1. Use the graph above in answering this question. Suppose that 4 million tractors wear out each year. If society chooses point A as this year's output combination , than this year's food output will be 8 million tons, and at the end of the year:
a. there will be 4 million more tractors than at the beginning of the year.
Economics 200
Summer 2005
Assignment 1
Read the article entitled "The True Spirit of Enterprise" by Don Mathews and then answer the following questions: (NOTE: copy of article can be obtained from instructor)
Each question below worth 10 points:
1. Explain what the author means when he says that the statement "The spirit of enterprise is nothing more than the spirit of greed." is wrong. Why,
ECN 200 Telecourse Syllabus
Course Information:
Course Prefix/Number: ECN 200 Course Title: Basic Principles of Economics
Semester: 200530 Summer 2005 CRN (Section Code): 31249 Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: None Estimated Study Time: 120 hours/semester
Course Web Pages:
http://nugent-economics.blogspot.com/ (Blog for Course)
Periodically I include a question on an assignment or test that asks the student to state an opinion on some economic issue and back it up with facts. I don't care which side of the issue they take so long as they defend their position with facts.
For one of my classes last semester I followed a question about the Factory Acts passed by the British Parliament in the mid-19th century with this
Memorial Day 2005
Nestled among the rolling hills of Western New York State lie a series of shimmering lakes known as the Finger Lakes, so named because they look like the five fingers of a had laying on the landscape.
Of the five, Canandaigua, a long, slender lake with rolling hills rising from either side, is the one nearest to my heart. My great-aunt Helen and her husband, my great-uncle Walt had a summer cottage along the eastern shore of the lake and I have many fond memories of the Saturdays we spent visiting my Aunt Helen and Uncle Walt during the summers of my childhood.
The city of Canandaigua lies about 35 miles southeast of Rochester. Today the trip between Canandaigua can be made in thirty minutes or less. However, when I was a child, the trip took considerably longer due to the lack of freeways.
The return trip on Saturday evening also had a treat for us. Although fatigued from a day of swimming, climbing the apple tree behind the cottage and hiking up the narrow dirt road, lined with wild blackberry and raspberry bushes, that led up the hill above the lake, we always managed to stay awake as the car made its way back home. When we reached the residential part of Canandaigua's Main St. we eagerly looked out the windows on the right side of the car seeking a glimpse of the house with the candle in the window.
The story of the house with the candle in the window was well known throughout the area in those days. My parents and Aunt and Uncle told us the story but it was also written up in the paper periodically as it made a great human interest piece.
Decades earlier, among the thousands of young men from our part of the Empire state who set out for France shouting the slogan Lafayette here we come!, was the young man who had grown up in that house. Along with prayers for his safe return, his parents lit candle and placed it in their front window each evening ? a symbolic beacon to help him find his way home even in the dark of night. Nearly a half a century later, as we drove home from our Saturday outings, the candle still glowed brightly in the window of that home as that young man's aging parents continued the vigil that began with their son's departure.
By then the candle had ceased to be a beacon lighting the way for the son's return and had instead become a symbol of a parents' love for a son who had given his life for his country.
Of all the monuments and memorials that I have seen, this is the one that has left the biggest impression. With that single candle glowing in the window, night after night, year after year, decade after decade, the family kept alive the memory of their beloved son. Over the years thousands passed that solitary candle glowing in the window and, if only for a moment, shared with the family the human cost of keeping our nation free.
Click Here for Poem "In Flanders Fields"
You may have noticed that gasoline prices have been falling noticeably in recent days. The reason for this drop is due to the change in seasons. During the warm summer months people tend to drive and travel more than during the winter. Also, during the warm summer months there is very little demand for heating oil. Thus, at this time of year, oil refineries reduce production of heating oil and increase the production of gasoline. This increase in the supply of gasoline, ceteris paribus, leads to a drop in its price.
Oil, like any other raw material that is extracted from the ground, is of no use to consumers. Only after the crude oil has been transformed (through the refining process) does it become a good that consumers can use. Oil refineries can convert crude oil into a number of different petroleum products but, for our purposes here, we will discuss just two ? gasoline and heating oil. These are the two products that consumers directly consume most frequently.
During the winter months the demand for heating oil increases sharply as consumers in cold northern climates use it to heat their homes. At the same time, the cold, ice and snow make driving more difficult so people tend to travel less which leads to a reduction in the demand for gasoline. Therefore, during the winter oil refineries devote more capacity to the production of heating oil and less to gasoline. This can be illustrated by the production possibilities curve depicted below.
An oil refinery is limited by its size, number of workers, etc. as to how much crude oil it can refine per day/week/month. Given that the refinery is physically capable of refining only so much crude oil in a given period the owners of the refinery are forced to choose between producing gasoline or heating oil. They can produce both but to increase the production of heating oil in the period they must reduce the amount of gasoline produced and vice versa. This illustrates the concept behind the production possibilities curve perfectly.
How do owners of refineries decide how much of each product to produce? The answer is simple ? their customers, the consumers tell them. As winter approaches people drive less ? the roads are not as good due to winter conditions and, with children in school, people with children tend to reduce their leisure travel. The result is a reduction in the demand for gasoline which, ceteris paribus, leads to a fall in price. At the same time, the cold weather forces people to turn up the heat in their homes which results in an increase in demand for heating oil and a corresponding increase in the price of heating oil. Owners and managers of oil refineries respond by producing less of the lower priced gasoline and more of the higher priced heating oil.
by dc guy
Since heating oil is virtually identical to diesel fuel, why do the government and the oil companies keep telling us that if we buy more diesel cars in order to improve our fuel economy, the refineries won't be able to keep up with demand? We use heating oil--which is not taxed like motor fuel--and they have to dye it red to keep us from quietly siphoning it into our old Mercedes. Now you tell me that the refineries can switch back and forth from the one to the other as needed?
PimaCommunityCollege
Community Campus
ECN 200 Telecourse Syllabus
Course Information:
Course Prefix/Number: ECN 200 Course Title: Basic Principles of Economics
Semester: 200610 Fall 2005 CRN (Section Code): 10072 Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: None Estimated Study Time: 120 hours/semester
Course Web Pages:
http://nugent-economics.blogspot.com/ (Blog for Course)
http://www.nofreelunch.bravehost.com (Instructor's Web Site)
http://pub23.bravenet.com/calendar/show.php?usernum=1971912999 (Calendar)
Instructor Information:
Name: Chuck Nugent
US Mail: Pima Community College
Community Campus
401 N. Bonita Ave.
Tucson AZ 85709
Voice Mail: (520) 206-6419
E-mail: nugentwork@yahoo.com
Availability: By Appointment
Instructional Materials:
Required Text: Mansfield and Behravesh: Economics U$A (6th Edition), W.W. Norton & Co., (ISBN 0-393-97621-1)
OPTIONAL Text: Sondgeroth, Telecourse Study Guide of Economics USA, W.W. Norton & Co (ISBN 0-393-97650-5)
Note: Textbooks are available at the West Campus Bookstore (2202 W. Anklam Rd.) in the telecourse section and other academic bookstores in town. The PCC Bookstore can be accessed and books ordered via the Internet at www.Pima.bkstr.com. (See Instructor's Home Page or Blog for other on-line sources for purchasing the text).
Videotapes are available for viewing at any of the PCC campus libraries but may be checked out ONLY at the Community Campus Support Services Center. Bring your PCC picture ID.
First Broadcast: Week of August 24, 2005 (Semester Starts August 24, 2005)
Broadcast Schedule: Broadcast dates and times depend on your cable supplier and whether your TV is cable ready or uses a conversion box. See PCC TV broadcast schedule for specific information
On Campus Sessions: Attendance at these sessions is strongly encouraged but not mandatory!
Introductory Session: Wednesday, September 7th, 5:30-6:30pm, Community Campus
Review for Midterm Exam: Wednesday, October 26thth, 5:30-6:30 pm, Community Campus
Review for Final Exam: Wednesday, November 30th, 5:30-6:30pm, Community Campus
Please check lobby marquee for room assignment
Course Description: This course is designed to provide the student with an introduction to the ?ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING?. The course will provide an overview of economic systems, microeconomics, macroeconomics and the international economy. Students will be exposed to how economics is used to analyze and predict the behavior of businesses, consumers and governments with regard to the allocation and use of society?s scarce resources. The ?old? industrial economy will be compared and contrasted with the ?new? information based economy that is emerging today. Finally, students will be made aware of how economic factors influence their lives as consumers, producers, employees, employers, taxpayers and citizens.
Course Objectives: Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
1.Define scarcity, microeconomics and macroeconomics, economic theory and economic policy, factors of production, production possibilities model, and opportunity cost.
2.Explain a market and the Invisible Hand Doctrine. Understand Mises Concept of ?Human Action?; Compare and contrast market economy with government-planned economy.
3.State and illustrate the law of demand, law of supply; equilibrium price and quantity, shift variables for demand and supply; price elasticity of demand and supply: circular flow model.
4.Discuss sources and uses of household income, legal forms of business ownership, and how maximizing economic well-being is similar and different for households and businesses.
5.Explain two approaches for determining profit maximization, accounting and economic profit, and positive and negative externalities.
6.Give examples of production functions, short and long run as applied to economics, fixed and variable costs, average and marginal costs, and economies and diseconomies of scale.
7.Compare and contrast four basic market structures (competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly): basic characteristics, long run profitability, efficiency, impact on the consumer, and determination of the profit-maximizing level of output.
8.Discuss the goals and problems of the macroeconomy, including measurement and types of unemployment, measurement of Gross Domestic Product, and the measurement and winners and losers from inflation.
9.Describe the business cycle, total spending and economic equilibrium, effects of leakages and injections into the spending stream, and the multiplier effect.
10.Identify the largest categories of government expenditures and receipts, fiscal policy tools, automatic stabilizers, federal budgets, and the size and effects of the national debt.
11.Describe the functions of money, the components of money supply, the functions of the Federal Reserve, and the role of financial depository institutions.
12.Explain the process by which financial institutions expand (or contract) the nation?s money supply, monetary policy tools, the money multiplier, and the relationship between the economy?s money supply and the level of economic activity.
Course Outline:
Part I: Introduction to Economics
Part II: National Income and Output
Part III: Money Banking and Stabilization Policy
Part IV: Economic Decision Making ? The Firm, The Consumer, Society
Part V: The Distribution of Income
Part VI: Growth, Government and International Economics.
Course Requirements: To complete the course successfully, students must do the following:
1. Complete and submit six assignments found on course web page
2. Complete and submit three unit take-home exams found on course web page
3. Take midterm exam at Test Center
4. Take final exam at Test Center
Important Phone Numbers
For questions concerning subject matter: 206-6419
For questions involving schedules, testing, etc.: 206-6454
For questions concerning TV broadcast errors: 206-6410
ECN 200 Telecourse Policies
Attendance: Since this is a distance delivery class, you are required to come to campus only to take scheduled exams. Students are strongly encouraged to attend the live introductory class session and review sessions scheduled before each exam.
Academic Integrity: Students are expected to abide by the Student Code of Conduct and the Scholastic Code of Conduct found in the Pima Community College Student Handbook. Copies are available at PCC campus libraries and at http://www.pima.edu/~coadmissions/studresp.htm
ADA Compliance: Pima County Community College District strives to comply with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Students with disabilities requiring special accommodations must notify the instructor of this need or directly contact the Disabled Student Resources Office on your campus at the beginning of the semester.
Course Feedback: In order to increase interaction between instructor and students, students are encouraged (but not required) to submit written work via e-mail. Assignments may be submitted as part of body of e-mail text itself or as an ASCII or Ms-Word email attachment. Using e-mail for this purpose will increase the speed at which your instructor can return assignments with grades and comments. Students are also encouraged to contact instructor with questions concerning the course. To encourage dialog, instructor may share answers with the rest of the class by posting them to the web blog (http://nugent-economics.blogspot.com/) and/or a course listserve (inclusion on the listserve is optional and all student email addresses are kept confidential by being sent from the listserve as "Bcc" or blind copies).
Exams: Students must come to the Community Campus Support Service Center (401 N. Bonita Ave.) to take midterm and final exams. Please bring your PCC picture ID. This is the only ID that will be accepted. The Testing Center has specific rules, a copy of which is included in the packet you received at the beginning of the semester. Seating capacity is limited and on a first-come, first served basis.
Review Sessions: Immediately before each scheduled exam, you will have an opportunity to attend a live review session during which you may ask any questions that you have regarding the course material. See class schedule (page 1) for specific times and locations.
Problems: If you have problems with the course, make arrangements to see me or call me through voicemail. Do not wait to ask for help.
Submissions: Please clearly mark all assignments with the following: NUGENT:ECN200. Include full name on both e-mail and regular submissions. Submissions other than via e-mail are to be typed.
Withdrawals: Students may withdraw from class any time during the first 2/3 of the semester (through November 7, 2005) without instructor permission and without incurring any grade penalty. Students not active after this date will receive an "F" grade at the end of the semester. Please be sure to withdraw yourself by November 7, 2005, if you do not expect to complete the course.
Grade Reviews: Students may request a review of their course grade. The request for review must be made within 90 days from the end of the course session; no requests will be considered after 90 days.
Final Grades: Students will NOT receive a semester grade report from the college. Students who wish to check grades may call MAX 2000 at 206-4880 or access BannerOnline via thePima College web site. For privacy and security reasons, insturctors may not post grades and are advised not to give grades over the telephone.
Note: To help your instructor to improve this course, a variety of classroom assessment technigues may be used to determine if this course is meeting its stated objectives. Such techniques may include but are not limited to, short answers regarding comprehension of the material presented, pre- and post tests, student interviews, self-evalutations, portfolio, journal and/or capstone experience.
Because this course fufills a general education requirement, you will also be assessed on whether student skills have improved in any of the following areas: oral and written communication, critical inquiry, cultural diversity and global awareness.
ECN 200 Telecourse Grading Policies
Students? grades will be based upon scores received on exams and assignments. Exams and assignments together total 1,000 points. The student?s final grade for the course will be based upon the total points earned and curved as follows:
920 to 1000 points A
820 to 919 points B
740 to 819 points C
650 to 739 points D
Below 650 points F
Point values for assignments and exams:
Assignment 1 50 points
Unit 1 Exam (Chapters 1 & 2) 125 points
Assignment 2 50 points
Unit 2 Exam (Chapters 3 ? 7) 125 points
Assignment 3 50 points
Mid-term Exam (Chapters 8 - 14) 150 points
Assignment 4 50 points
Unit 4 Exam (Chapters 15 ? 21) 125 points
Assignment 5 50 points
Assignment 6 50 points
Final Exam (Chapters 22 - 28) 150 points
?On time? Completion Credit 25 points
_________
Total 1,000 points
Note: Students who complete all exams and assignments by Friday, December 9, 2005, will receive the 25 completion points. Students who, for any reason, fail to complete all tests and assignments on time will not receive the 25 completions points. Students taking an ?I? (incomplete) grade will NOT receive the 25 completion points.
Incomplete (I) grade:
If you find that you cannot complete the course during the regular semester, you must request an ?I? (incomplete grade) in writing. This must be done before the final review session. You must state your reasons for the request. In order to be considered for an ?I? grade, you must have successfully completed three-quarters of the course. YOU MUST THEN COMPLETE THE MISSING WORK WITHIN THE TIME AGREED UPON WITH THE INSTRUCTOR. AT THE END OF THE AGREED UPON TIME, THE INSTRUCTOR WILL CHANGE THE ?I? GRADE TO THE LETTER GRADE EARNED FOR THE COURSE AT THAT POINT WHETHER YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE WORK OR NOT.
Special Withdrawal (Y) grade:
Students desiring to withdraw from the class must do so prior to November 7, 2005, which is the last day allowed for withdrawals. THE INSTRUCTOR WILL NOT ISSUE ?Y? GRADES.
Midterm and Final Exams
You must come to the Community Campus Testing Center to take these exams. Information on the Testing Center is included in your packet. Notice that generally you will need to make an appointment to take your exam.
Students in Nogales and Sells may arrange with the instructor to take these exams at Pima College sites in these cities.
You may NOT use books, notes or other material as an aid.
Each exam covers specific material: Midterm Exam: Chapters 8 through Chapter 14 of text
Final Exam: Chapters 22 through Chapter 28 of text
Other Assignments and Exams:
All assignments and exams other than the mid-term and final will be done by the students at their homes. Books, notes and videos may be used as aids to complete these exams and assignments which are available on the course web page located at http://www.nofreelunch.bravehost.com
Pima Community College
Community Campus
Mountain View High School
Economics 200 Syllabus
Course Information:
Course Prefix/Number: ECN 200 Course Title: Basic Principles of Economics
Semester: 200520 Fall 2005 CRN (Section Code): 14689
Credit Hours: 3 Location: Mountain View High School
Dates: Sept 6 ? Dec 13, 2005 Day & Time: Tuesdays 6:00 ? 9:00 p.m.
Prerequisites: None Estimated Study Time: 120 hours/semester
Course Web Pages:
http://nugent-economics.blogspot.com/ (Blog for Course)
http://www.nofreelunch.bravehost.com (Instructor's Web Site)
http://pub23.bravenet.com/calendar/show.php?usernum=1971912999 (Calendar)
Instructor Information:
Name: Chuck Nugent
U.S. Mail: Pima Community College
Community Campus
401 N. Bonita Ave
Tucson, AZ 85709-5500
Phone/Voice Mail: (520) 544-4870
E-mail: nugentwork@yahoo.com
Availability: T 6:00 ? 9:00 p.m. or by appointment
Instructional Materials:
Required Text: Roger LeRoy Miller, Economics Today, (13h Edition), Pearson/Addison Wesley
ISBN Number for Text is: 0-321-27883-6
Note: Textbook is available at the West Campus Bookstore. You may also find the book at
other academic bookstores in town or on the Internet. The PCC Bookstore can be accessed and books ordered via the Internet at www.Pima.bkstr.com.
Course Description: This course is designed to provide the student with an introduction to the ?ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING?. The course will provide an overview of economic systems, microeconomics, macroeconomics and the international economy. Students will be exposed to how economics is used to analyze and predict the behavior of businesses, consumers and governments with regard to the allocation and use of society?s resources. The ?old? industrial economy will be compared and contrasted with the ?new? information based economy that is emerging today. Finally, students will be made aware of how economic factors influence their lives as consumers, producers, employees, employers, taxpayers, etc.
Course Objectives: Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
1 Define scarcity, microeconomics and macroeconomics, economic theory and economic policy, factors of production, production possibilities model, and opportunity cost.
2 Explain a market and the Invisible Hand Doctrine. Understand Mises Concept of ?Human Action?; Compare and contrast market economy with government-planned economy.
3 State and illustrate the law of demand, law of supply; equilibrium price and quantity, shift variables for demand and supply; price elasticity of demand and supply: circular flow model.
4 Discuss sources and uses of household income, legal forms of business ownership, and how maximizing economic well-being is similar and different for households and businesses.
5 Explain two approaches for determining profit maximization, accounting and economic profit, and positive and negative externalities.
6 Give examples of production functions, short and long run as applied to economics, fixed and variable costs, average and marginal costs, and economies and diseconomies of scale.
7 Compare and contrast four basic market structures (competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly): basic characteristics, long run profitability, efficiency, impact on the consumer, and determination of the profit-maximizing level of output.
8 Discuss the goals and problems of the macro-economy, including measurement and types of unemployment, measurement of Gross Domestic Product, and the measurement and winners and losers from inflation.
9 Describe the business cycle, total spending and economic equilibrium, effects of leakages and injections into the spending stream, and the multiplier effect.
10 Identify the largest categories of government expenditures and receipts, fiscal policy tools, automatic stabilizers, federal budgets, and the size and effects of the national debt.
11 Describe the functions of money, the components of money supply, the functions of the Federal Reserve, and the role of financial depository institutions.
12 Explain the process by which financial institutions expand (or contract) the nation?s money supply, monetary policy tools, the money multiplier, and the relationship between the economy?s money supply and the level of economic activity.
Course Outline:
Part I: Introduction to Economics
Part II: Introduction to Macro Economics and Economic Growth
Part III: National Income Determination & Fiscal Policy
Part IV: Money, Stabilization and Growth
Part V: Dimensions of Microeconomics
Part VI: Market Structure, Resource Allocation & Regulation
Part VII Labor Resources and the Environment
Part VIII Global Economics
Course Requirements: To complete the course successfully, students must do the following:
1. Pass the 5 unit tests
2. Pass class quizzes
3. Complete and submit written homework assignments
ECN 200 Policies:
Attendance: Since you are adults who have chosen to take this course, it is up to you to decide whether or not you will attend classes. Attendance will not be taken. However, missed class quizzes CANNOT be made up and missed unit exams can only be made up with consent of the instructor (all make up exams will be give at the Community Campus Test Center located at 401 N. Bonita Avenue in Tucson.)
Academic Integrity: Students are expected to abide by the Student Code of Conduct and the Scholastic Code of Conduct found in the Pima Community College Student Handbook. Copies are available at PCC campus libraries and at http://www.pima.edu/~coadmissions/studresp.htm.
ADA Compliance: Pima County Community College District strives to comply with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Students with disabilities requiring special accommodations must notify the instructor of this need or directly contact the Disabled Student Resources Office on your campus at the beginning of the semester.
Exams: Students must take exams in class or make arrangements to take a make-us exam at the Community Campus Support Service Center (401 N. Bonita Ave.). Exams will cover material in text, assigned readings and material covered in class. Make-us exams given only with instructor permission. Please bring your PCC picture ID. This is the only ID that will be accepted.
Problems: If you have problems with the course, make arrangements to see me or call me through voicemail. Do not wait to ask for help.
Withdrawals: Students may withdraw from class any time during the first 2/3 of the semester (through Nov 7, 2005) without instructor permission and without incurring any grade penalty. Students not active after this date will receive an "F" grade at the end of the semester. Please be sure to withdraw yourself by Nov 7, 2005 if you do not expect to complete the course.
Caveat:
Your instructor will make every attempt to follow the above procedures and schedules, but they may be changed in the event of extenuating circumstances.
ECN 200 Grading Policies
Students? grades will be based upon scores received on exams and assignments. Exams and assignments together total 1,000 points. The student?s final grade for the course will be based upon the total points earned and curved as follows:
920 to 1000 points A
820 to 919 points B
740 to 819 points C
650 to 739 points D
Below 650 points F
Point values for assignments and exams:
Unit Exams (5 at 125 points each) 625
Class quizzes (14 @ 10 pts each) 140
Homework (14 @ 17 pts each) 238
TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS 1,003
Incomplete (I) grade:
If you find that you cannot complete the course during the regular semester, you must request an ?I? (incomplete grade) in writing. This must be done before the final class session. You must state your reasons for the request. In order to be considered for an ?I? grade, you must have successfully completed three-quarters of the course. YOU MUST THEN COMPLETE THE MISSING WORK WITHIN THE TIME AGREED UPON WITH THE INSTRUCTOR . AT THE END OF THE AGREED UPON TIME, THE INSTRUCTOR WILL CHANGE THE ?I? GRADE TO THE LETTER GRADE EARNED FOR THE COURSE AT THAT POINT WHETHER YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE WORK OR NOT.
Special Withdrawal (Y) grade:
Students desiring to withdraw from the class must do so prior to Nov 7, 2005, which is the last day allowed for withdrawals. THE INSTRUCTOR WILL NOT ISSUE ?Y? GRADES.
Final Grades:
Students will NOT receive a semester grade report from the college. Students who wish to check grades may call MAX 2000 at 206-4880 or by accessing Banner Online via the Pima web page. For privacy and security reasons, instructors may not post grades and are advised not to give grades over the telephone.
Grade Reviews: Students may request a review of their course grade. The request for review must be made within 90 days from the end of the course session; no requests will be considered after 90 days.
Note: To help your instructor to improve this course, a variety of classroom assessment techniques may be used to determine if this course is meeting its stated objectives. Such techniques may include but are not limited to, short answers regarding comprehension of the material presented, pre- and post-tests, student interviews, self-evaluations, portfolio, journal and/or capstone experience. Because this course fulfills a general education requirement, you will also be assessed on whether student skills have improved in any of the following areas: oral and written communication, critical inquiry, cultural diversity, and global awareness.
Pima Community College
Northeast Learning Center
Economics 201 Syllabus
Course Information:
Course Prefix/Number: ECN 201 Course Title: Microeconomic Principles
Semester: 200610 (Fall 2005) CRN (Section Code): 13340
Prerequisites: MAT 092 Estimated Study Time: 120 hours/semester
Day/Time: M 6:00-8:40 p.m Location: NELC
Teaching Format: Self Pace All Work & Tests due by: Mon Dec 5, 2005
Course Web Pages:
http://nugent-economics.blogspot.com/ (Blog for Course)
http://www.nofreelunch.bravehost.com (Instructor's Web Site)
http://pub23.bravenet.com/calendar/show.php?usernum=1971912999 (Calendar)
Instructor Information:
Name: Chuck Nugent
U.S. Mail: Pima Community College
Northeast Community Learning Center
Catalina Village Shopping Center
7816 E. Wrightstown Rd.
Tucson, AZ 85709-5800
Phone/Voice Mail: (520) 544-4870
E-mail: nugentwork@yahoo.com
Availability: M 5:30 ? 8:30 p.m. or by appointment
Instructional Materials:
Required Text: Arnold, Roger A., Microeconomics (6th Edition)
ISBN: 0-324-16356-8
Assignment Packet: Available from Instructor at first Class.
Note: Textbooks are available at the East Campus Bookstore (ask for Northeast Learning Center books) and other academic bookstores in town. The PCC Bookstore can be accessed and books ordered via the Internet at www.Pima.bkstr.com.
Course Description: Economic theory as applied to individual decision-making units. Includes economic decision making, economic systems, consumer demand, producer supply, price determination, elasticity, cost-benefit analysis and utility and profit maximization. Also includes production functions and costs, competition and market structures, government in the market economy, labor markets, and income distribution.
Course Objectives: Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Define scarcity, microeconomics and macroeconomics, economic theory and economic policy, factors of production, production possibilities model, and opportunity cost.
2. Explain a market and the Invisible Hand Doctrine, society's basic economic decisions, the market economy as compared and contrasted with the planned economy.
3. State and illustrate the law of demand, law of supply, equilibrium price and quantity, shift variables for demand and supply, price elasticity of demand and supply and circular flow model.
4. Discuss the economic objectives of households and businesses and maximization of utility and profit.
5. Describe two approaches for determining profit maximization, explicit and implicit costs, as well as accounting and economic profit.
6. Explain cost-benefit analysis as it applies to households and to businesses, and to society including its relationship to externalities.
7. Give examples of production functions, short and long run as applied to economics, fixed and variable costs, average and marginal costs, and economies and diseconomies of scale.
8. Compare and contrast the four basic market structures (competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly): basic characteristics, long run profitability, efficiency, impact on the consumer, and determination of profit-maximizing level of output.
9. Explain why and how government intervenes in the market economy with particular reference to antitrust law and governmental regulatory agencies.
10. Discuss wage rate changes, income distribution, and poverty as defined and addressed by the government.
Course Outline:
I Introduction
A. What is Economics about
B. Economic Activities: Producing and Trading
C. Supply and Demand: Theory
D. Supply and Demand: Practice
II Microeconmic Fundamentals
A. Elasticity
B Consumer Choice: Maximizing Utility and Behavioral Economics
C The Firm
D Production and Costs
III Product Markets and Policies
A. Perfect Competition
B. Monopoly
C Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, and Game Theory
D Government and Product Markets: Antitrust and Regulation
IV Factor Markets and Related Issues
A. Factor Markets with emphasis on the Labor Market
B Wages, Unions, and Labor
C The Distribution of Income and Poverty
D. Interest, Rent and Profit
V Market Failure and Public Choice
A. Market Failure: Externalities, Public Goods, and Asymmetric Information
B. Public Choice: Economic Theory Applied to Politics
VI International Economic: Theory and Policy
A International Trade
B International Finance
Course Requirements: To complete the course successfully, students must do the following:
1. Complete and submit the five (6) assignments (one for each unit)
2. Complete and submit take home tests for units 1, 2, 4 and 5
3. Take midterm exam at Test Center (closed book)
4. Take final exam at Test Center (closed book)
Attendance: This course is self paced and students are only required to attend the first class. The instructor will be available during scheduled class times for assistance and to collect written assignments from students.
Academic Integrity: All work done for this class must be your own. While you may discuss assignments with other class members, all work MUST be your own. You may use work from books and other materials if it is properly cited. Copying from a book or other print or electronic media without proper reference will result in a zero (0) score for the assignment. Submitting work done by another person/entity (published or unpublished) as your own will result in an F for the course. Students are expected to abide by the Student Code of Conduct and the Scholastic Code of Conduct found in the Pima Community College Student Handbook. Copies are available at PCC campus libraries and at http://www.pima.edu/~coadmissions/studresp.htm.
ADA Compliance: Pima County Community College District strives to comply with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Students with disabilities requiring special accommodations must notify the instructor of this need or directly contact the Disabled Student Resources Office on your campus at the beginning of the semester.
Course Feedback: In order to increase interaction between instructor and students, students are encouraged (but not required) to submit written work via e-mail. Assignments may be submitted as part of body of e-mail text itself or as an ASCII or Ms-Word (version 2000 or lower) email attachment. Using e-mail for this purpose will increase the speed at which your instructor can return assignments with grades and comments. Students are also encouraged to submit questions about course content via e-mail and the instructor will reply to questions via e-mail to all students on e-mail list (presence on this list is optional). Students may also submit assignments via the U.S. Postal Service (see address on first page) or deliver it to NELC in person.
Exams: One exam will be given for each of the six units (see outline above or the "Brief Contents" on page iii of your book). The exams for units 1, 2, 4 and 5 will be open book take home exams. The exams for units 3 and 6 will be closed book, proctored exams taken at the college.
Problems: If you have problems with the course, make arrangements to see me or call me through voicemail. Do not wait to ask for help.
Submissions: Please clearly mark all assignments with the following: NUGENT:ECN201. Include full name on both e-mail and regular submissions. Submissions other than via e-mail are to be typed.
Withdrawals: Students may withdraw from class any time during the first 2/3 of the semester (through Nov 7, 2005) without instructor permission and without incurring any grade penalty. Students not active after this date will receive an "F" grade at the end of the semester. Please be sure to withdraw yourself by Nov 7, 2005, if you do not expect to complete the course.
Caveats:
Your instructor will make every attempt to follow the above procedures and schedules, but they may be changed in the event of extenuating circumstances.
Students submitting assignments through the mail are advised to make copies for their own protection.
Because so much of our contact with you is through the U.S. Postal Service, it is vital that we have your correct address. If you change your address during the semester, fill out a change of address form at any campus registration office and call our office at 206-6454 to keep our staff up to date.
ECN 201 Grading Policies
Students? grades will be based upon scores received on exams and assignments. Exams and assignments together total 1,050 points. The student?s final grade for the course will be based upon the total points earned divided by 1,000 and curved as follows:
920 to 1000 points A
820 to 919 points B
740 to 819 points C
650 to 739 points D
Below 650 points F
Point values for assignments and exams:
Unit 1 Assignment 50 points
Unit 1 Take Home Exam (Chaps 1 ? 4) 125 points
Unit 2 Assignment 50 points
Unit 2 Take Home Exam (Chaps 5 - 8) 125 points
Unit 3 Assignment 50 points
Unit 3 Proctored Exam (Chaps 9 - 12) 125 points
Unit 4 Assignment 50 points
Unit 4 Take Home Exam (Chaps 13 - 16) 125 points
Unit 5 Assignment 50 points
Unit 5 Take Home Exam (Chaps 17 ? 18) 125 points
Unit 6 Assignment 50 points
Unit 6 Proctored Exam (Chaps 19? 20) 125 points
Incomplete (I) grade:
If you find that you cannot complete the course during the regular semester, you must request an ?I? (incomplete grade) in writing. This must be done before the final review session. You must state your reasons for the request. In order to be considered for an ?I? grade, you must have successfully completed three-quarters of the course. YOU MUST THEN COMPLETE THE MISSING WORK WITHIN THE TIME AGREED UPON WITH THE INSTRUCTOR . AT THE END OF THE AGREED UPON TIME, THE INSTRUCTOR WILL CHANGE THE ?I? GRADE TO THE LETTER GRADE EARNED FOR THE COURSE AT THAT POINT WHETHER YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE WORK OR NOT.
Special Withdrawal (Y) grade:
Students desiring to withdraw from the class must do so prior to Nov 7, 2005, which is the last day allowed for withdrawals. THE INSTRUCTOR WILL NOT ISSUE ?Y? GRADES.
Midterm and Final Exams the "Unit 3 Proctored Exam" and "Unit 6 Proctored Exam" (see Point Values for Assignments and Exams above) will constitute the Midterm and Final exams for this course.
Other Assignments and Exams:
All assignments and exams other than the mid-term and final will be done by the students at their homes. Books and may be used as aids to complete these exams and assignments which are available from the NELC or from the course web page located at: http://www.nofreelunch.bravehost.com
Final Grades:
Students will receive a semester grade report from the college when all grades have been recorded. For privacy and security reasons, instructors may not post grades and are advised NOT to give grades over the telephone. Students who wish to check grades may call MAX 2000 at 206-4880.
Note: To help your instructor to improve this course, a variety of classroom assessment techniques may be used to determine if this course is meeting its stated objectives. Such techniques may include but are not limited to, short answers regarding comprehension of the material presented, pre- and post-tests, student interviews, self-evaluations, portfolio, journal and/or capstone experience. Because this course fulfills a general education requirement, you will also be assessed on whether student skills have improved in any of the following areas: oral and written communication, critical inquiry, cultural diversity, and global awareness.
Pima Community College
Northeast Learning Center
Economics 202 Syllabus
Course Information:
Course Prefix/Number: ECN 202 Course Title: Macroeconomic Principles
Semester: 200610 (Fall 2005) CRN (Section Code): 13343
Prerequisites: MAT 092 Estimated Study Time: 120 hours/semester
Day/Time: M 6:00-8:40 p.m. Location: NELC
Teaching Format: Self Pace All Work & Tests due by: Mon Dec 5, 2005
Course Web Pages:
http://nugent-economics.blogspot.com/ (Blog for Course)
http://www.nofreelunch.bravehost.com (Instructor's Web Site)
http://pub23.bravenet.com/calendar/show.php?usernum=1971912999 (Calendar)
Instructor Information:
Name: Chuck Nugent
U.S. Mail: Pima Community College
Northeast Community Learning Center
Catalina Village Shopping Center
7816 E. Wrightstown Rd.
Tucson, AZ 85709-5800
Phone/Voice Mail: (520) 544-4870
E-mail: nugentwork@yahoo.com
Availability: M 6:00 ? 8:40 p.m. or by appointment
Instructional Materials:
Required Text: Arnold, Roger: Macroeconomics (6th Edition)
ISBN: 0-324-16358-1
Assignment Packet: Available from NELC and from the Blog on the Web.
Note: Textbooks are available at the East Campus Bookstore (ask for Northeast Learning Center books) and other academic bookstores in town. The PCC Bookstore can be accessed and books ordered via the Internet at www.Pima.bkstr.com.
Course Description: Economic theory as applied to individual decision-making units. Includes economic decision making, economic systems, consumer demand, producer supply, price determination, elasticity, cost-benefit analysis and utility and profit maximization. Also includes production functions and costs, competition and market structures, government in the market economy, labor markets, and income distribution.
Course Objectives: Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
1 Define scarcity, microeconomics and macroeconomics, economic theory and economic policy, factors of production, production possibilities model, and opportunity cost.
2 Explain a market and the Invisible Hand Doctrine, society's basic economic decisions, the market economy as compared and contrasted with the planned economy, and the circular flow model.
3 State and illustrate the law of demand, law of supply, equilibrium price and quantity, and shift in variables for demand and supply.
4 Discuss the goals and problems of the macro-economy, including measurement and types of unemployment, measurement of Gross Domestic Product, and the measurement and winners and losers from inflation.
5 Describe the business cycle, total spending (consumption, investment, government spending and net export spending), economic equilibrium, effects of leakages from and injections into the spending stream, and the multiplier effect.
6 Identify the largest categories of government expenditures and receipts, fiscal policy tools, automatic stabilizers, federal budgets, surpluses and deficits, and the size and effects of the national debt.
7 Describe the functions of money, the components of money supply, the functions of the Federal Reserve, and the role of financial depository institutions.
8 Explain the process by which financial institutions expand (or contract) the nation's money supply, monetary policy tools, the money multiplier, and the relationship between the economy's money supply and the level of economic activity.
9 Summarize the factors affecting economic growth, macro-economic trade-offs, and various macro-economic viewpoints such as classical, Keynesian, monetarist, rational expectations, and supply-side.
10 Describe the main exports, imports and trading partners of the United States, and give the arguments for free trade and for protectionism.
Course Outline:
I Economics: The Science of Scarcity
A. What is Economics about?
B. Economic Activities: Producing and Trading
C. Supply and Demand: Theory
D. Supply and Demand: Practice
II Macroeconomic Fundamentals
A. Macroeconomic Measurements: Prices and Unemployment
B Macroeconomic Measurements: GDP and Real GDP
III Marcreconomic Stability, Instability, and Fiscal policy
A. Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
B. The Self-Regulating Economy
C Economic Instability: A Critique of the Self-Regulating Economy
D Fiscal Policy
E More on Government Spending and Taxes: Beyond Fiscal Policy
IV Money, the Economy, and Monetary Policy
A. Money and Banking
B The Federal Reserve System
C Money and the Economy
D. Monetary Policy
V Expectations and Growth
A. Expectations Theory and the Economy
B. Economic Growth: Resources, Technology, and Ideas
VI International Economics: Theory and Policy
A International Trade
B International Finance
Course Requirements: To complete the course successfully, students must do the following:
1. Complete and submit the six (6) assignments (one for each unit)
2. Complete and submit take home tests for units 1, 2, 4 and 5
3. Take midterm exam at Test Center (closed book)
4. Take final exam at Test Center (closed book)
Attendance: This course is self paced and students are only required to attend the first class. The instructor will be available during scheduled class times for assistance and to collect written assignments from students.
Academic Integrity: All work done for this class must be your own. While you may discuss assignments with other class members, all work MUST be your own. You may use work from books and other materials if it is properly cited. Copying from a book or other print or electronic media without proper reference will result in a zero (0) score for the assignment. Submitting work done by another person/entity (published or unpublished) as your own will result in an F for the course. Students are expected to abide by the Student Code of Conduct and the Scholastic Code of Conduct found in the Pima Community College Student Handbook. Copies are available at PCC campus libraries and at http://www.pima.edu/~coadmissions/studresp.htm.
ADA Compliance: Pima County Community College District strives to comply with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Students with disabilities requiring special accommodations must notify the instructor of this need or directly contact the Disabled Student Resources Office on your campus at the beginning of the semester.
Course Feedback: In order to increase interaction between instructor and students, students are encouraged (but not required) to submit written work via e-mail. Assignments may be submitted as part of body of e-mail text itself or as an ASCII or Ms-Word (version 2000 or lower) email attachment. Using e-mail for this purpose will increase the speed at which your instructor can return assignments with grades and comments. Students are also encouraged to submit questions about course content via e-mail and the instructor will reply to questions via e-mail to all students on e-mail list (presence on this list is optional). Students may also submit assignments via the U.S. Postal Service (see address on first page) or deliver it to NELC in person.
Exams: One exam will be given for each of the six units (see outline above or the "Contents in Brief" on page vii of your book). The exams for units 1, 2, 4 and 5 will be open book take home exams. The exams for units 3 and 6 will be closed book, proctored exams taken at the college.
Problems: If you have problems with the course, make arrangements to see me or call me through voicemail. Do not wait to ask for help.
Submissions: Please clearly mark all assignments with the following: NUGENT:ECN202. Include full name on both e-mail and regular submissions. Submissions other than via e-mail are to be typed.
Withdrawals: Students may withdraw from class any time during the first 2/3 of the semester (through Nov 7, 2005) without instructor permission and without incurring any grade penalty. Students not active after this date will receive an "F" grade at the end of the semester. Please be sure to withdraw yourself by Nov 7, 2005, if you do not expect to complete the course.
Caveats:
Your instructor will make every attempt to follow the above procedures and schedules, but they may be changed in the event of extenuating circumstances.
Students submitting assignments through the mail are advised to make copies for their own protection.
Because so much of our contact with you is through the U.S. Postal Service, it is vital that we have your correct address. If you change your address during the semester, fill out a change of address form at any campus registration office and call our office at 206-6454 to keep our staff up to date.
ECN 202 Grading Policies
Students? grades will be based upon scores received on exams and assignments. Exams and assignments together total 1,050 points. The student?s final grade for the course will be based upon the total points earned divided by 1,000 and curved as follows:
920 to 1000 points A
820 to 919 points B
740 to 819 points C
650 to 739 points D
Below 650 points F
Point values for assignments and exams:
Unit 1 Assignment 50 points
Unit 1 Take Home Exam (Chaps 1 ? 4) 125 points
Unit 2 Assignment 50 points
Unit 2 Take Home Exam (Chaps 5 - 6) 125 points
Unit 3 Assignment 50 points
Unit 3 Proctored Exam (Chaps 7 - 11) 125 points
Unit 4 Assignment 50 points
Unit 4 Take Home Exam (Chaps 12 - 15) 125 points
Unit 5 Assignment 50 points
Unit 5 Take Home Exam (Chaps 16 ? 17) 125 points
Unit 6 Assignment 50 points
Unit 6 Proctored Exam (Chaps 18 ? 19) 125 points
Incomplete (I) grade:
If you find that you cannot complete the course during the regular semester, you must request an ?I? (incomplete grade) in writing. This must be done before the end of the semester. You must state your reasons for the request. In order to be considered for an ?I? grade, you must have successfully completed three-quarters of the course. YOU MUST THEN COMPLETE THE MISSING WORK WITHIN THE TIME AGREED UPON WITH THE INSTRUCTOR . AT THE END OF THE AGREED UPON TIME, THE INSTRUCTOR WILL CHANGE THE ?I? GRADE TO THE LETTER GRADE EARNED FOR THE COURSE AT THAT POINT WHETHER YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE WORK OR NOT.
Special Withdrawal (Y) grade:
Students desiring to withdraw from the class must do so prior to Nov 7, 2005, which is the last day allowed for withdrawals. THE INSTRUCTOR WILL NOT ISSUE ?Y? GRADES.
Midterm and Final Exams the "Unit 3 Proctored Exam" and "Unit 6 Proctored Exam" (see Point Values for Assignments and Exams above) will constitute the Midterm and Final exams for this course.
Other Assignments and Exams:
All assignments and exams other than the mid-term and final will be done by the students at their homes. Books and may be used as aids to complete these exams and assignments which are available from the NELC or from the course web page located at: http://www.nofreelunch.bravehost.com
Final Grades:
Students will receive a semester grade report from the college when all grades have been recorded. For privacy and security reasons, instructors may not post grades and are advised NOT to give grades over the telephone. Students who wish to check grades may call MAX 2000 at 206-4880.
Note: To help your instructor to improve this course, a variety of classroom assessment techniques may be used to determine if this course is meeting its stated objectives. Such techniques may include but are not limited to, short answers regarding comprehension of the material presented, pre- and post-tests, student interviews, self-evaluations, portfolio, journal and/or capstone experience. Because this course fulfills a general education requirement, you will also be assessed on whether student skills have improved in any of the following areas: oral and written communication, critical inquiry, cultural diversity, and global awareness.
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Assignment 6
Read the article entitled The Myth of Exporting Jobs by William Anderson and answer the following questions:
1 (10 points) According to the author, why are U.S. businesses investing overseas (or, in the case of oursourcing contracting with firms in foreign lands to do many jobs previously done in the U.S.) rather than in the U.S.?
2 (10 points) Anderson cites his hometown of Cumberland, Maryland as an example of economic change where firms chose to relocate elsewhere rather than continue to operate and invest in Cumberland or the state of Maryland. While implied, but not stated explicitly, many of these firms moved their operations to other cities and states in the U.S. Is the U.S. harmed economically when a firm closes in Maryland and moves their plant to Arizona? Why or why not?
3 A number of U.S. firms have built manufacturing plants in Nogales, Sonora (Mexico) and have employed lower paid Mexican workers for the production line. However, the factory managers and supervisors are paid American wages and commute to Nogales, Sonora daily from Southern Arizona (including Tucson).
a. (2.5 points) Does the fact that factory jobs in these American plants in Mexico are held by Mexicans mean that these jobs have been "exported" to Mexico? Explain.
b. (2.5 points) Does the fact that these firms employ managers living in the U.S. and commuting to Mexico each day mean that these "Mexican" jobs have been exported to the U.S.? Explain.
c. (2.5 points) Some of the managers of these firms are Mexican citizens who have elected to purchase homes and live a few miles "up the road" (but north of the U.S. - Mexican border) from their work. Are these people Mexican workers who have taken a job that has been "exported" from Mexico (job lost in Mexico) to the U.S. and then grabbed it away from an American worker and "re-exported" the job back to Mexico? Does it make any difference?
d. (2.5 points) My former assistant at the Center for Business Solutions at Pima Community College chose to live in Casa Grande to be near her family and commuted to Tucson to work. Could we consider her position to have been "exported" to Casa Grande and thus denied to a Tucson resident?
4 (10 points) List five things (laws, regulations, etc.) that Anderson states are responsible for the business choosing to invest outside the U.S. and explain how they hurt business operating in the U.S.
5 (10 points) As a consumer when making a decision to buy are you more concerned about where the product was made or its price and quality? When you have money to save or invest are you more concerned about which country the company(ies) you are investing in reside or in the rate of return and safety of your money?
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Assignment 5
Each of the five questions below is worth 10 points.
1 (10 points) Review the section on labor unions in Chapter 22 of your book and explain the three methods unions raise the wages of their members.
2 (10 points) Consols (a contraction of consolidated annuities) are bonds issued by the British government at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. At that time Britain had a large national debt and took care of it by issuing a new set of bonds (called consols) which replaced all existing British government bonds. The unique features of the consols were that they had no expiration date (i.e., the government never has to buy them back from the bondholders) and they have a fixed interest rate forever. Because they never mature and the interest payments (at a fixed rate) are guaranteed forever it is relatively easy to calculate the value of these bonds at any time as market interest rates change (for this example assume all these bonds come in $1,000 denominations as we do not want to complicate the example by using pound sterling or euros as the currency unit). Assume the interest rate on consols is 2% (i.e., each one pays the holder $20 per year. How much would you pay for a $1,000 consol at the following market interest rates:
1%
10%
8%
15%
3%
Read the article entitled Pensions ? What is Happening in the U.S. Steel Industry and review the sections in your book and videos on Social Insurance (Chap 24). Then answer questions 3 and 4 below.
3 (10 points) Your book states that "Other observers retort that without a mandatory system (of Social Security), some workers would make inadequate provision for their old age and might become public charges." But the article states that, in the case of the pensions for retirees of U.S. Steel, the company is pushing to cut the pension benefits of present retirees because it cannot afford to pay the current pensions and stay in business. U.S. Steel built up a large fund to pay the pensions (but the increasing life spans of its retirees and recent drops in the stock market are reducing that fund while competition is making it difficult to add more money to the pension fund for existing retirees) but the U.S. Social Security System has always operated on the basis of using contributions of current workers to pay the pensions of retirees. In your opinion is it possible that the U.S. will be forced to reduce the monthly Social Security payments to retirees in the future? Which group would Congress favor in a crises over Social Security ? workers paying the Social Security tax or retirees dependent upon their Social Security income?1
4 (10 points) Given some critics' contention that Social Security is financially unsound (it is a tax that transfers income from working people to retired people it is NOT an insurance or investment fund) and given the current problems that the steel and other industries are now experiencing with their pension funds does it make sense for workers to rely on Social Security or a company/union pension fund for their retirement or should they take responsibility for their retirement themselves? What alternatives does a 79 year old retiree living on Social Security and a company pension have if one or both are cut by 50% or more? In your opinion, would workers under age 40 be better off being allowed to invest the money now going into Social Security and company pension funds themselves rather than relying on the government and their employer/union for their retirement?2
5 (10 points) Review the material on discrimination in your text and videos. Also review Case Study 1.3 in Chapter 1 dealing with Adam Smith and his "invisible hand" metaphor. Given that the "invisible hand" described by Smith leads producers to allocate resources efficiently and, given that the main goal in a free market is to maximize profits, explain how the market, left to itself, could or could not eliminate discrimination by answering the following questions:
Since discrimination results in two labor markets, one with higher pay for workers who don't face discrimination and one with lower pay for the group(s) being discriminated against, what is there to prevent businesses from trying to increase profits by hiring in the lower paying market?
Is social pressure (i.e., being shunned by business associates and other acquaintances) alone sufficient to prevent ALL employers from hiring lower cost minorities or is physical force necessary to enforce discrimination?
Does the cost (in terms of wages) to employers of discrimination increase when the economy is growing and expanding? Explain why the cost, in terms of wages does or does not increase?
Does economic growth help to increase or decrease discrimination in employment?
Whichever way you make the argument be sure to include economic facts and reasoning to support your argument.
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Take Home Test 4
Part 1: Multiple Choice Questions 5 points each:
1 The standard assumption in economic analysis is that firms attempt to maximize
A. sales.
B. profits.
C. costs.
D. reliability.
E. production.
2 Opportunity cost is
A. the variable cost a firm incurs by increasing output one unit.
B. the value of the best alternative use of a firm's resources.
C. the output opportunities a firm gains when average fixed costs decline.
D. another name for explicit costs.
E. the difference between fixed cost and variable cost.
3 For a monopolist the Golden Rule of Output Determination is to set the output rate at the point where marginal revenue equals
A. price.
B. marginal cost.
C. profits.
D. output.
E. zero.
4 Experience with public regulation of monopolies indicates that
A. on the average, regulated prices are clearly lower than unregulated prices of the same item.
B. regulation provides a stronger set of incentives than competitive markets for firms to increase efficiency.
C. a decision to base a fair rate of return on either historical cost or replacement cost yields the same pricing result.
D. most public utility regulation should be in the hands of federal rather than state commissions.
E. if a firm is guaranteed a fixed amount of profit, it will be less efficient than if its profits depend on how efficiently it operates.
5 An advantage of proprietorship is that the owner is faced with
A. complete control.
B. easy-to-obtain financing.
C. unlimited liability.
D. limited liability.
E. lower tax rates than those applicable to a partnership.
6 A market consisting of many firms producing a homogeneous product, having complete knowledge of relevant information, no power over the product's market price, and low barriers to entry is characteristic of
A. perfect competition.
B. monopoly.
C. monopolistic competition.
D. oligopoly.
E. none of the above.
7 A consumer buying food and clothing is in equilibrium when the marginal
A. utilities of food and clothing equal the total utilities of food and clothing.
B. utility of the last dollar spent on food equals the marginal utility of the last dollar spent on clothing.
C. utilities of both goods are the same.
D. utilities of both goods are the greatest.
E. utility of food equals the price of food and the marginal utility of clothing equals the price of clothing.
8 In a given year in the production function of a typical college or university, a tenured faculty member would be an example of
A. a fixed input.
B. a variable input.
C. an expendable input.
D. an average input.
E. a marginal input.
9 One of the major long-term effects of rent controls in New York City has been
A. an increase in the average size of an apartment.
B. the creation of above-average profits for landlords.
C. the creation of surpluses of affordable housing units.
D. a rapid increase in the rate of New York's population growth.
E. the abandonment of buildings, reducing the number of rental units available to consumers.
10 The Golden Rule of Output Determination for a perfectly competitive firm is to
A. choose the output rate at which price is greatest.
B. choose the output rate at which price equals marginal cost.
C. produce to the point of diminishing marginal returns.
D. produce until total revenue exceeds total cost.
E. choose the output rate at which total cost is the lowest.
11 A notable movement in the direction of deregulation of industry in the United States occurred during
A. the 1930s.
B. World War II.
C. the late 1940s and early 1950s.
D. the early 1960s.
E. the late 1970s and early 1980s.
12 A market consisting of many firms, low barriers to entry, some control over price, but considerable nonprice competition is characteristic of
A. perfect competition.
B. monopoly.
C. monopolistic competition.
D. oligopoly.
E. none of the above.
13 The important determinants of the price elasticity of demand are the
A. number and closeness of available substitutes, importance in consumers' budgets, and length of the time period.
B. number of markets, size of buyers' incomes, and empirical validity.
C. number of firms, number of variables that must be held constant, and degree to which markets are separable.
D. scope and method of measurement and calculation, and transitivity of preferences.
E. state of technology, size of the firm's plants, and size of the absolute change in input prices and quantity.
14 A firm given exclusive rights by the government to do business in a particular area is
A. a patent monopoly.
B. an output monopoly.
C. a natural monopoly.
D. a franchise monopoly.
E. an input monopoly.
15 A market consisting of a few firms producing similar products with significant barriers to entry is characteristic of
A. perfect competition.
B. monopoly.
C. monopolistic competition.
D. oligopoly.
E. none of the above.
16 A business firm that is regarded as a fictitious legal person is called a
A. front.
B. corporation.
C. silent partnership.
D. limited proprietorship.
E. special interest.
17 An oligopolistic market is one with
A. firms having no power over price.
B. few sellers.
C. few buyers.
D. several monopolists operating simultaneously.
E. product groups.
18 A market demand curve shows
A. what price will prevail in the marketplace.
B. how much of a commodity will be purchased in a given period of time at various prices.
C. the rate at which consumption of a commodity will increase as income goes up.
D. the minimum price consumers will have to pay to get a certain quantity.
E. that as price goes up consumers will spend more money on a commodity.
19 The possible outcomes of a two-firm nonrepeated promotional campaign are summarized as follows
According to the information given,
A. firm A's dominant strategy is local radio spots.
B. firm A's dominant strategy is mailbox flyers.
C. firm B's dominant strategy is local radio spots.
D. firm B's dominant strategy is mailbox flyers.
E. neither firm has a dominant strategy.
20 When Pester U. with an annual enrollment of 3,600 students raised its tuition from $18,000 to $19,500, its enrollment fell by 200 students. What is the school's arc elasticity of demand?
A. 0.13.
B. 0.67.
C. 0.71.
D. 1.4.
E. 1.5.
21 In a market economy, firms decide what and how much to produce on the basis of their
A. income, tastes, and market supplies.
B. marginal and average utilities.
C. humanitarian ideals.
D. costs and what they can charge for their products.
E. orders from a central government planning bureau.
Part 2: Short Answer questions:
1 (6 points) Read Case Study 16.2 (Oil price Increases and Drilling Activity) on apge 380 of your text, then explain how rising oil prices during the OPEC oil embargo resulted in an increase in the supply of domestic oil production.
2 (6 points) What is the "law of diminishing marginal returns"? What is the logic behind this l law?
3 (6 points) Define "marginal cost" and "marginal revenue" then explain why a firm will maximize its profits (or minimize its losses) by producing to the point where the marginal revenue from sales equals the marginal cost of producing the product.
4. (7 points) Must economic growth necessarily result in increased pollution? Should the rate of technological change be slowed in order to reduce pollution? Explain
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Assignment 4
Read Case Study 20.3 (page 484) in your textbook dealing with Airline deregulation. Then read my comments and the article below entitled Airport Privatization and answer the questions here.
1 (10 points) What has been the effect on jobs (i.e., have the increased or decreased and by how much) in the Airline Industry and on airline ticket prices (i.e., increased or decreased and by how much) as a result of deregulation?
2 (10 points) Is airline travel safer or more dangerous as a result of airline deregulation? Explain your reasoning.
3 (10 points) List reasons for privatization of airports and the air traffic control system. Also, what are some reasons for NOT privatizing airports and the air traffic control system.
4 (10 points) In your opinion would privatizing airports make travel better (in terms of customer service, safety, efficiency, etc.) or worse than they are now.
5 (10 points) What are the economic advantages of privatizing airports and the air traffic control system?
6 BONUS (10 points) Is privatization of highways feasible and/or economically desirable? Why or why not? (give Economic reasons as to why or why not)
Instructor's Comments
Your book and the videos discuss deregulation which was well underway in the U.S. at the time the "Economics U$A" program was being produced and broadcast. Deregulation involves the repeal of regulations that both restrict what the regulated industry can do as well as protecting the regulated industry from competition.
Mainly overlooked was the concept of privatization which involves the sale of government run operations. While governments at all levels in the U.S. provide goods and services (schools, roads, airports, water authorities, etc.) that could be provided by private business these are not as extensive as in other nations where a large percent (as in pre-Thatcher Britain, or places like Sweden today) or all (as in the former Soviet Union) of the productive capacity is owned by the government. But pressure for privatization appears to be increasing in the U.S. as governments at all levels find themselves strapped for cash due to taxpayer revolts and hardpressed to provide the variety that consumers desire (compare the wide range of specialized private schools with the "one size fits all" offering of public schools in the U.S.)
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Assignment 3
Read the attached article entitled "Ronald Reagan and the Spirit of Free Enterprise" by George Gilder and answer the following questions.
Each question is worth 10 points for a total of 50 points.
1. According to the article why does the lowering of tax rates cause government revenues to increase?
2. What does the author mean by the statement "That is why high tax rates do not redistribute incomes. They redistribute taxpayers out of taxable activities and onto golf courses, into barter exchanges and among foreign regimes with lower rates"?
3. What is Supply Side economic theory and what does it say about the relationship between taxes and government revenues?
4. The author, George Gilder, like Ronald Reagan, is a political conservative who prefers to see the government reduced in size. Yet, Gilder praises Reagan for the supply side economic policy that resulted in increased government revenues which resulted in an increase rather than a decrease in the size of the Federal Government (despite the claims of his political opponents, the size of the Federal Government increased rather than decreased during the presidency of Ronald Reagan). How does Gilder rationalize his support of an economic policy that increases government size with his political philosophy that seeks a smaller Federal government?
5. According to Gilder, under the heading of "Moral Foundations of the Free Market" in his article, the market does a better job of helping the poor than the government's policies of redistributing income from rich to poor. Explain how the market, according to Gilder, improves the lot of the poor better than government redistribution policies.
Ronald Reagan and the Spirit of Free Enterprise
by
George Gilder
Chairman, Gilder Publishing LLC/Author, Wealth and Poverty
George Gilder is chairman of Gilder Publishing LLC and a senior fellow at the Discovery
Institute. He attended Exeter Academy and Harvard University, where he co-founded
Advance. Later a fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Politics and editor of the Ripon Forum,
he served as a speechwriter for Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, Richard Nixon and
others. He is the author of the Gilder Technology Report and twelve books, including Men
and Marriage, Wealth and Poverty, The Spirit of Enterprise and Telecosm. A pioneer in
the formulation of supply-side economics, he is a contributor to Forbes magazine and has
written for The Economist, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal and
several other publications. In 1986, President Reagan presented him the White House
Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence.
The following is adapted from a speech delivered on May 24, 2004, at a Hillsdale College
National Leadership Seminar in Seattle, Washington.
Since Ronald Reagan's death, many inspiring speeches have been delivered and adulatory articles written about his presidency. But few of the tributes have recognized Reagan's greatest achievement, which was indispensable to the U.S. triumph in the Cold War and is crucial for the current war on terrorism. Reagan tapped the creativity of America's entrepreneurs to bring about a global, not just a national, economic revolution.
Poets describe creativity as "Promethean," referring to the mythical hero who brought fire to the earth. A Promethean era in world history, the Reagan presidency lit the fires of American creativity - and they have been roaring ever since. Reagan's ideas transformed American finance, global economics and world politics. They reverberated through Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China with the power of Joshua's trumpets. They made South Korea a more economically important and promising country than France or Germany.
To the defenders of the old order - Third World despots, legal monopolies, land trusts, gold funds, oil cartels, bureaucracies and tyrannies of all kinds - the Promethean roar was an insufferable racket. They mustered all their powers to prevent the transformation from occuring. The facts reveal their failure - and Reagan's success: Since 1980, U.S. marginal tax rates fell some 40 percent on income and 75 percent on capital gains and dividends, and the American economy added close to 36 million jobs. During the same time period, Europe and Japan created scarcely any net new employment outside of government. American companies now constitute 57 percent of global market capitalization, and the U.S. commands close to one half of the world's economic assets.
America, responsible for one fifth of global GDP in 1980, produced one third of global GDP in 2003. That is Ronald Reagan's legacy.
The Lasting Impact of Supply-Side Economics
The key to this awesome and unprecedented triumph was Reagan's dismantling of the confiscatory tax codes imposed on the capitalist world during World War II. Supporting Reagan's tax rate reductions was a movement of economists and journalists called supply-siders. We were so unpopular that Bob Dole used to crack a "good news/bad news" joke about a Greyhound bus going over a cliff. The good news was that it was "full of supply-side economists."
A central component of supply-side economics is the Laffer Curve - named for its inventor, the economist Arthur Laffer - which shows that low tax rates produce more revenue than high ones. Ronald Reagan understood and embraced the Laffer Curve. He would regale White House visitors with a story about actors and producers in Hollywood who simply stopped working when their marginal tax rates rose over 50 percent. A rate high on the Laffer Curve, as Reagan knew, means that more work for more income is less profitable than maneuvering to avoid taxes on existing income. According to my research, the correct curve shows that tax rates should be kept very low - well below 20 percent - and that higher rates tend to reduce long run government income and massively reduce private sector wealth.
In the media and the academy, however, the Laffer Curve is widely discredited. Even many Republicans speak of "paying" for tax cuts with spending cuts and claim that the real burden of government on the economy is what it spends rather than how it taxes. But to say that tax cuts cost money is to imply that current tax rates do not obstruct economic activity, and therefore that reductions are unnecessary. If you concede that tax cuts reduce government revenue, it becomes quite difficult to defend tax cuts effectively in a democracy where at least one third of the voters are directly dependent on government spending for their livelihoods, and where most of the rest cherish some kind of government program.
Reagan's genius was to show us a way out of this dilemma: The real undeniable test of tax policy is not short-term shifts in revenue but long-term shifts in spending that are most clearly manifested by increases in the federal budget. Between 1981 and 2004, current government spending in terms of dollars increased fivefold while the total hovered a little above 20 percent of GDP.
In the mid-1980s, World Bank economist Keith Marsden showed how this is possible: Low tax countries increase their spending three times faster than comparable high tax countries. This is because the low tax economies grow six times faster. For most of the period since World War II, the fastest growing economy in the world, with the fastest growth in government spending, was Hong Kong, with a top rate of 16 percent. A study by Jude Wanniski at Polyconomics extended the analysis through the Reagan era, with the same results. In recent years, Ireland, New Zealand and Russia massively increased spending after drastically reducing tax rates. Russia has increased outlays by some 60 percent after enacting a 13 percent flat tax.
Why do I stress government spending, after a long career of attacking it? The reason is simple: What is crucial is not the absolute level of government but the size of government compared to the size of the private sector. In every country that enacted tax rate reductions, the absolute growth of the private sector enormously outpaced the growth of government.
The growth of the private sector is measured not merely by output but also by assets. In the 25 years since Reagan assumed office, U.S. household assets have more than tripled, to a current record of $52 trillion. Driven by a surging stock market, America's increase in private wealth dwarfs the increases in debt that cause such agony for one-handed economists in Washington, who dutifully gauge the swell of liabilities but seem blinded to the mountainous growth of assets.
By cutting tax rates, Reagan was able to fund a 50 percent increase in defense spending. This expansion of the military was crucial to winning the Cold War. Social spending also grew by some 25 percent - although I should hasten to add that Reagan sharply reduced the nation's debt by negotiating a Social Security Commission regime that extended the age of retirement and cut back the implicit liabilities in the Social Security program by some six trillion dollars. These reforms radically improved the fiscal position of the government compared to the 1970s, when real Social Security liabilities doubled.
The 1970s ended with a budget (minus Social Security) that was nearly balanced and a balance of payments surplus. When Reagan assumed office in 1981, the government was apparently in the black. But most of the private sector was in the red, with bankrupt Savings and Loans and interest rates over 15 percent. Reagan knew that all government spending ultimately depends on the output and assets of the private sector. While the federal budget deficit (exclusive of Social Security) swelled under Reagan in absolute terms as he confronted the Soviet Union in the Cold War, the federal debt shrunk sharply as a share of national assets. Far from losing ground in high technology, the U.S. began a 20-year surge of innovation in computers and communications that has made the U.S. the world's dominant source of technical advance and new wealth. Personal computers and networks became central to world economic growth.
Meanwhile, with the top tax rate dropping from 50 to 28 percent under Reagan, tax contributions by the top five percent of earners rose from nine to 18 percent of the total, while contributions from the bottom 20 percent dropped from six to two percent. The top 50 percent of taxpayers paid 94.5 percent of the federal income taxes. Lower tax rates resulted in much larger tax payments by the rich.
Reagan's economic policies proved to be so popular that they were extended, for the most part, under President Clinton and a Republican Congress. Whatever Clinton's intentions were, he could not reverse the Reagan momentum. While Clinton hiked the top rate to 39 percent (compared to 50 percent when Reagan took office), Congress enacted and Clinton signed a drop in the capital gains tax to 20 percent and the U.S. became a nation of stockholders as Reagan had prophesied repeatedly.
Leading the Global Economy
The key Reagan accomplishment is rarely recognized at all: We are now in a global economy. While economists constantly parse statistics about the U.S., as if our economy were isolated from the world, the real impact of economic policy today can only be gauged by global data. Overall, the Reagan program led to a shift in the global economic balance of power as dramatic as the victory in the Cold War - and vital to it.
Far from falling behind Japan and Europe, as the experts had predicted throughout the 1980s, the U.S. surged into global economic dominance. To repeat: Beginning in 1980 with a GDP at one fifth of the global total, the U.S. had attained a national output of $11 trillion by 2003, fully one third of a global GDP of $33 trillion. This is an awesome and unprecedented change. In the entire history of the peacetime world economy, nothing like it has ever happened. Coming after President Carter's "malaise" in the 1970s, the American ascent is directly attributable to the program of low marginal tax rates, deregulation of energy prices, collapse of inflation, expansion of trade, and active globalization launched by Ronald Reagan.
Why then do critics still speak of "voodoo economics"? Why is it that even some supply-siders insistently deny that lower tax rates pay for themselves with higher revenues, when Reagan's tax cutting regime brought about a fivefold rise in federal spending without increasing the government share of GDP? Why does the current administration still speak of $1.6 trillion tax cuts and $300 billion stimulus packages as if it cost money to reduce perverse and counterproductive government burdens?
One key reason is the stultifying grip of the demand-side model on the entire economics community. University and media economists still find themselves far behind Reagan in grasping the dynamics of an international economy. The economics profession functions like an establishment of flat earth physicists still patiently waiting for the ships of supply-siders to fall off the edge of the world.
While the economics profession remained lost in a maze of equilibrium models, Ronald Reagan knew the facts of entrepreneurial disequilibrium and creativity. To a supply-sider, government is a kind of business. It competes with other governments around the world. It competes to attract entrepreneurs and capital to its jurisdiction and to foster expansion of existing enterprises. By lowering marginal tax rates - the rates on additional activity - governments can induce people to produce and invest within their borders. By raising tax rates, they drive entrepreneurs to other jurisdictions and to non-taxable activities. That is why high tax rates do not redistribute incomes. They redistribute taxpayers out of taxable activities and onto golf courses, into barter exchanges and among foreign regimes with lower rates.
Moral Foundations of the Free Market
The reason for tax cuts is not to allow the rich to keep their money. It is to enable entrepreneurs to invest money by making their investments profitable. Through the investment process, entrepreneurs give money to others, in their own or other businesses. By earning the money, they learned how to identify the people best able to increase its worth. They learned how to use the money in ways that respond to the needs of their customers. They mastered the magic of lowering prices in order to increase revenues. And they reached out to the largest untapped markets of the world economy, which are always the domains of billions of currently poor people struggling to gain wealth.
As Reagan understood, high tax rates do not stop someone from being rich: Those who are already rich can move their money to protected havens. High tax rates stop poor people from getting rich. They stop entrepreneurs from supplying new goods and services that generate more wealth and jobs and value and tax revenue. In truth, defending tax cuts as a way to keep more of one's money is the opposite of the case. Tax cuts are good because they allow us to give our money to others in an ever-expanding spiral of economic opportunity. In the end, the rich can keep only what they give away - that is, what they entrust to others in the ever-spreading process of investment and growth.
These rules of giving and trust are no less important today, as the U.S. becomes an information economy. American entrepreneurs are, as we all are, not without sin. But their every decision has met an empirical test beyond appeal - a marketplace crucible beyond their control. Thus they are the world's true realists and most proven pragmatists. All of them know deeply that to reach the top, they first have to get to the bottom of things. To lead, they first have to listen. To save themselves, they must serve others and solve others' problems.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and "Give and you will be given unto" are the central rules of the life of enterprise. Because you cannot give what you do not own, enterprise requires the rights of property. Because successful entrepreneurs often defy the conventional wisdom, the life of enterprise requires personal freedom. Because entrepreneurs have to serve and collaborate with others, they must be men and women of character and faith. Character enables an entrepreneur to commit his work and wealth over a period of years to bring into the world a new good that the world may well reject. Character is essential to the act of putting one's fate into the hands of unknown others in a market of voluntary choice.
Bullheaded, defiant, tenacious and creative, America's entrepreneurs continue to vindicate the faith of Ronald Reagan and the teaching of Hillsdale College. They continue to solve the problems of the world faster than the world can create them. Confronting the perennial perils of human life and the often overwhelming odds against human triumph, the entrepreneur finds strength in a deep faith and demonstrates that genuine charity is not to be found in government largesse. The entrepreneur's success is a triumph of the American character.
Today is a heyday for entrepreneurs. As Reagan's policies have taken hold, the proportion of new jobs created through self-employment and proprietorships has risen from five percent in the 1980s to nine percent in the 1990s, and to 31 percent today. President Bush's low tax rates on capital gains and dividends have unleashed a new surge of entrepreneurship.
The ultimate source of American entrepreneurial character is our educational system. Today, more than ever, that educational system is in disarray. Too many schools are losing contact with the sources of the American character in family, faith, freedom and limited government. Too many universities are pandering to their students rather than teaching them.
In a contrarian spirit, Hillsdale boldly countervails this tide of mush and mediocrity, contining the entrepreneurial struggle and earning the faith of American entrepreneurs. And in its fealty to the cultivation of American character, it has become an American treasure.
Copyright ? 2004
"Reprinted by permission from IMPRIMIS,
the monthly journal of Hillsdale College
(www.hillsdale.edu)."
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Take Home Test 2
Part 1: Multiple Choice Questions 5 points each:
1. Gross domestic product
A. equals the total wages paid in a year.
B. is a measure of government output.
C. equals the total value of final goods and services produced in a year.
D. is the sum of all goods, both final and intermediate.
E. is an obsolete economic indicator of inflation.
2. Over the last 50 years, federal, state, and local governments have
A. increased their expenditures faster than the growth in total output.
B. gradually but steadily declined in importance in economic matters.
C. demonstrated a movement toward significant public ownership of the means of production.
D. moved increasingly toward nationalization of the defense industry.
E. appreciably expanded public ownership in the electric power industry.
3. Say's law
A. states that the total amount paid out for resources must equal the value of the goods produced.
B. states that all income spent must have been earned.
C. is the intellectual basis for the Keynesian model of income and employment.
D. is an integral part of the Marxian analysis of capitalism.
E. requires the assumption of wage and price rigidity.
4. The three generally recognized types of unemployment are
A. voluntary, potential, and residual.
B. cyclical, frictional, and structural.
C. involuntary, temporary, and disciplinary.
D. teenage, female, and nonwhite.
E. classical, Keynesian, and post-Keynesian.
5. Which of the following was the most important force in bringing an end to the Great Depression?
A. The natural resilience of the economy
B. Roosevelt's New Deal policies
C. U.S. involvement in World War II
D. Delayed impact from increased business investment in the early 1930s
E. Falling wages and prices
6. A basic objection to increased public works spending when serious unemployment appears likely to develop is that
A. such spending would lead to a budget deficit.
B. such spending would lead to a decline in GDP.
C. all public works projects are wasteful.
D. there is a long lag between authorizing a program and actually spending the money.
E. stabilization policy is more important than the long-run desirability of public works.
7. The fundamental idea of fiscal policy is that
A. the government should spend more than it collects in taxes.
B. decision making should be left to the Council of Economic Advisers.
C. the government can change the equilibrium GDP by promoting a change in public and/or private spending.
D. the government should always balance its budget.
E. unemployment is a less serious concern than inflation.
8. Currently, the largest share of the annual federal budget goes for
A. interest on the national debt.
B. energy programs.
C. education and health.
D. national defense and other items connected with international relations and national security.
E. Social Security programs, welfare and other income security programs, health, and education.
9. The phase of the business cycle in which output is lowest relative to its potential level is the
A. peak.
B. trough.
C. recession.
D. expansion.
E. trend.
10. According to economist Richard Gill, the source of our economy's real income is
A. profits.
B. the goods we produce.
C. the resourcefulness and skill of our people.
D. impossible to identify.
E. the amount of money in circulation.
11. Using the spending and taxing powers of government to stabilize the economy is called fiscal
A. fitness.
B. policy.
C. federalism.
D. finance.
E. reserve.
12. The consumption function expresses the relationship between consumption spending and
A. investment spending.
B. aggregate supply.
C. disposable income.
D. savings.
E. the 45-degree line.
13. High rates of inflation often characterize
A. depressions.
B. times of great unemployment.
C. wartime.
D. periods of falling aggregate demand.
E. rural areas.
14. Why was economist John Kenneth Galbraith opposed to the tax cut advocated by Walter Heller in 1964?
A. He did not believe the tax cut would have the desired impact.
B. He felt the tax cut would have the long-term effect of reducing the government's income.
C. He did not believe the tax cut would get support in Congress.
D. He feared that tax cuts would gain popularity at the expense of important programs to assist the needy.
E. He wanted to be chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers and was angry at being made ambassador to India.
15. The marginal propensity to consume is the
A. fraction of an extra dollar of GDP that becomes disposable income.
B. share of GDP spent by households and businesses.
C. proportion of an extra dollar of disposable income that is spent on consumption.
D. reciprocal of the average propensity to consume.
E. fraction of disposable income that is consumed.
16. COMPUTER ERROR ? NO QUESTION (FREE 5 POINTS)
17. Social Security payments by the government are not included in GDP because
A. Social Security was not yet in place when procedures for calculating GDP were devised.
B. Social Security is counted as an economic cost and subtracted from output in determining GDP.
C. income received through Social Security is not directly related to contributions to production.
D. income received through Social Security is too small to affect GDP.
E. these payments are in current dollars and GDP is measured in constant dollars.
18 The primary reason President Johnson opposed raising taxes during his administration was that
A. until rather late in his administration, he feared that falling price levels would reduce government income.
B. he believed a tax increase to fund an unpopular war would be politically unwise.
C. his Council of Economic Advisers warned him that such a move would harm more than help the economy.
D. his attention was largely consumed with putting a man on the moon.
E. he felt the Federal Reserve System could control inflation by issuing more money.
19. In general, a business cycle goes through its phases in the following sequence
A. trough, peak, expansion, recession.
B. recession, trough, expansion, peak.
C. trough, recession, expansion, peak.
D. trough, expansion, recession, peak.
E. expansion, recession, trough, peak.
20. Inflation occurs whenever
A. aggregate demand rises.
B. the price of any given commodity rises.
C. the money supply increases more rapidly than output.
D. the tax rate is lower than the government spending rate.
E. the money supply falls.
Part 2: Short Answer questions:
1 (5 points) What is Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? How is it calculated and what does it tell us about the economy of a nation?
2 (10 points) What is the Multiplier? How is it calculated? Explain how is it can be used to calculate the effect on GDP of a tax cut?
3. (10 points) On the first page of Chapter 1 in your book it states that "economics is concerned with the way resources are allocated among alternative uses to SATISFY HUMAN WANTS (emphasis mine)". In the video, then Senator, Harry Truman is quoted as saying "War is hell but peace could be worse" in reference to the possibility of a return of the Great Depression after World War II. Both the textbook and video credit the U.S. entry into World War II as causing the Great Depression to finally end. World War II did result in the full employment of all of our labor, land and capital resources and we even increased output capacity beyond what existed before the Great Depression. Setting aside for the moment the plight of our troops fighting at the front and the moral necessity of having to defeat the evil of fascism, were American households better off as a result of the full employment environment created by the war than they were during the Depression? Did the economy do a better job of producing goods to satisfy human (consumer) wants during the war than it did during the Depression? Explain your answer.
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Assignment 2
Read chapters 3 ? 7 of your book and view the corresponding videos. Then read the three articles entitled Poverty, Footwear and Cold Water, America Has the World's Richest Poor People (contact instructor for this article)and Working for a Pittance along with my comments below then answer the following questions.
Instructor Comments
The three articles present three different ways of looking at basically the same set of facts. In the first one Yazad Jal (the CEO of a foundation in India) presents a radical free market view of wealth and poverty. The second article is an Op Ed piece from the NY Times which tends to take a middle of the road position (i.e., the Welfare State) on economic issues which is similar to your book and videos. The last piece is from the Wall Street Journal editorial page which is noted for its support of free markets.
When reading these articles keep these facts in mind:
1 Relative vs Absolute Poverty ? absolute poverty is destitution and represents a condition where people lack the basic necessities of life. Sickness and death from starvation, rapant disease and lack of shelter are common. Life is short and brutal. Relative poverty, on the other hand, means that one person has less material goods than another. Certis paribus (other things being equal) if you and I both have good homes, sufficient food, clothing shelter and medical care but your income is such that you can afford two late model cars but I can only afford one then I am poor relative to you. But my inability to afford a second late model car is not a reason to refer me to the government or local charities for assistance.
2 Income statistics are just a snapshot of conditions at a particular time. Such statistics are a snapshot of incomes at that point in time. My employer pays me 1/26th of my 2005 income every two weeks. Statistically speaking, I am financially comfortable. But, if my employer had elected to give me entire pay for 2005 on December 31st of 2004 I would receive no income and 2005 and, despite the fact that I have my full 2005 income in the bank, I would be considered to be in severe poverty based upon my lack of income paid in the year 2005. Much of the wealth that Rector cites as belonging to the poor is the wealth of people who are a bad year income wise but are maintaining their life style thanks to past savings and credit lines (which will be repaid when their income goes back up). Similarly, the hardships cited by Herbert are not necessarily endured by all of the people falling into the low income brackets he describes.
3 The success of an economy is not by how high it incomes are but by the quantity of goods and services it produces for the people. People in Weimer Germany (the period right after WW I) had very high incomes (because of high inflation) but very few affordable goods and services (it cost 1 million DM for a stamp to mail a letter to the U.S.). Herbert cites low wage incomes but excludes the value of government assistance many receive (food stamps, free/low cost medical care, day care, subsidized housing, etc.). Also overlooked by many is the effect of falling prices on the living standards of the poor. It makes no difference if incomes rise by 10% and prices remain the same or if income remains the same and prices fall by 10%, the average person is now able to purchase 10% more goods and services.
4 Finally, we have to look at household income and not just individual wages. A 20+ year old college student working part time at minimum wage is poor in terms of wage income. But if that student is living at home (or living at college with room, board and tuition paid for by Mom and Dad) it is difficult to consider that student as living in poverty.
This is not to say that real poverty and hardship do not exist. Nor am I implying that everything is just fine for all of us ? I, like most other people, would like more pay so that I could do more things for my family, but this does not mean that my family is suffering hardship. Similarly, Bill Gates and Ted Turner would probably like to do more to help the poor of the world (both are extremly wealthy and very generous in helping the less fortunate) and both would probably jump at the chance to make a few billion more a year so they could increase their giving. But just because they want to make more money it doesn't mean that they are poor.
Answer the Questions Below
1 (10 ponts) Explain the difference between absolute and relative poverty and explain why it is difficult and impractical for governments or societies to attempt to abolish relative poverty.
2 (10 points) Explain how someone whose income places them below the official poverty line be able to afford a $150,000 home? (NOTE: there are many possible answers here and the greater the detail the higher the credit for your answer. HOWEVER, WELFARE FRAUD is NOT and acceptable answer for this question).
3 (10 points) Can the mere doubling of incomes in India explain the rising affluance of the poor in India as described by Jal in his article? What other factor comes into play here (Note: you might want to review the Tucker article from Assignment 1 for a clue).
4 (10 points) What are the "dysfunctional" and "self-destructive" behaviors attributed by Rector to the War on Poverty? What is Rector's explanation as to how the War on Poverty caused these behaviors and why are they especially harmful to the poor? Do you agree or disagree with Rector's analysis here? (Explain you reasons).
5 Read all three articles carefully and critically.
a. (5 points) For each article identify the central problem described in each and the author's implied or stated reason for the existance of the problem.
b. (5 points) Based upon the three articles, your book and videos what is the state of poverty in the U.S./world and what should be done about it?
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Take Home Test 1
Part 1: Multiple Choice Questions 5 points each:
1. Important determinants of rapid economic growth and improved living standards include all of the following except the
A. enforcement of property rights.
B. need to realize higher levels of educational attainment.
C. need to erect tariff barriers to protect firms from foreign competition.
D. need to pursue stable macroeconomic policies.
E. unencumbered access to global capital markets.
2. There would be no economic problems in a world in which all resources were
A. free.
B. natural.
C. bought and sold for a price.
D. owned by the government.
E. scarce.
3. One of the four basic tasks any economic system must perform is
A. measuring the size of its production possibilities curve.
B. conducting a population census.
C. eliminating free resources.
D. classifying economic resources.
E. determining the kinds of goods to be produced and the amount of each.
4. According to economic analysis, shortages of a good mean
A. supply is too low.
B. demand is too high.
C. actual price is too low.
D. production is too low.
E. equilibrium price is too low.
5. A country's standard of living is closely correlated with its
A. physical size.
B. population density.
C. mineral resources
D. cultural diversity.
E. labor force productivity.
6. The expression "there's no such thing as a 'free lunch'" is
A. generally untrue.
B. irrelevant to the subject of economics.
C. a recognition that our capacity to produce goods is limited.
D. an example of normative economics.
E. applicable solely to the inefficient use of resources.
7. According to the video, insufficient housing was a problem after World because
A. the United States experienced excessive numbers of people immigrating from Europe and Japan whose housing had been destroyed by the war.
B. the depression and mobilization of resources to fight World War II resulted in little housing construction for over 15 years.
C. the supply of housing exceeded the demand for housing, pushing prices up.
D. unionization of construction workers shifted the supply curve of housing to the left, resulting in higher prices.
E. the availability of land in and around major U.S. cities was severely limited because of past development.
8. Which of the following is the best example of capital?
A. Mineral deposits
B. Human effort
C. Buildings and equipment that contribute to production
D. Accounts receivable
E. Goods and services purchased by households for their enjoyment
9. During the summer months, it is not unusual for both the price and the quantity consumed of gasoline to rise. These conditions reflect
A. a violation of the law of demand.
B. a shift to the left of the supply curve.
C. an increase in demand.
D. a condition of deficient demand.
E. a surplus.
10. In free markets, the price system encourages producers to meet consumers' wants because
A. it signals producers as to which goods are profitable.
B. producers have the public interest in mind.
C. it allows the government to direct firms to the best production technique.
D. it rewards consumers for the resources they bring to the marketplace.
E. consumers are generally willing to pay more than the actual price.
11. Werner H., an engineer very experienced in bridge design, is looking for a position with a firm that specializes in bridge building. In presenting his qualifications, he takes care to point out his experience in handling difficult terrain. Werner is currently doing business in a
A. consumers' market
B. business market.
C. product market.
D. resource market.
E. closed market.
12. According to Richard Gill in the Economics U$A video, the opportunity costs for preserving the Alaskan wilderness are measured by the loss of
A. worker health benefits in textile manufacturing.
B. minerals rendered unavailable for development.
C. wilderness areas in the lower 48 states.
D. tax revenues to the federal government.
E. foreign oil because of the cutback in OPEC oil production.
13. The idea that the pursuit of private self-interest by consumers and firms also promotes the public interest is called
A. roundabout production.
B. the circular flow.
C. opportunity cost.
D. the invisible hand.
E. innovation.
14. An improvement in technology or an increase in the amount of capital goods will
A. result in movement along a fixed production possibilities curve.
B. diminish the society's production potential.
C. increase the opportunity costs of all goods.
D. cause the production possibilities curve to become vertical.
E. shift the production possibilities curve outward.
15. Economics is best defined as the study of how
A. to classify resources used to produce final goods and services.
B. resources are apportioned to satisfy human wants.
C. modern businesses have grown and prospered.
D. technology can be used to change scarce resources into free resources.
E. pure capitalism has become the best system for satisfying basic human wants.
16. New residents moving into a growing community increase the
A. size of housing.
B. elegance of housing.
C. housing surplus.
D. quantity demanded of housing.
E. demand for housing.
17. In a free market, actual price will
A. remain unchanged as equilibrium price changes.
B. move toward equilibrium price.
C. cause the demand and supply curves to shift direction.
D. always exceed equilibrium price.
E. be very difficult to calculate.
18. In a free market, producers' desires to maximize profit
A. inevitably lead to rising market prices.
B. are inconsistent with incentives to introduce new technology.
C. guarantee that firms never take losses.
D. cause firms to use the most efficient techniques.
E. mean that government must control prices to prevent producers from overcharging consumers.
19. When Adam Smith described the invisible hand, he was talking about
A. the price system.
B. central planning.
C. opportunity cost.
D. the division of labor.
E. disguised unemployment.
20. In general, supply curves slope upward to the right because
A. increases in the price of a commodity lead to rightward shifts of the supply curve.
B. rising prices motivate producers to offer more units for sale.
C. technology progresses over time, increasing the ability of firms to produce more at existing prices.
D. of increases in input prices as production is increased.
E. empirical studies almost always show that this is the case.
Part 2: Short Answer Questions.
Review the discussion about Brown Lung disease and the textile industry in your book and video and read my instructor comments entitled "Brown Lung Disease - A Free Market Solution" then answer the questions below.
1 (5 points) Name and explain at least three reasons why an individual would seek and remain in a job where they know that their health and lives are at risk from something like Brown Lung Disease.
2 (5 points) In my comments on the Brown Lung Disease incident I mention that the OSHA regulations caused about 300,000 workers to lose their jobs as well as a number of stockholders in textile companies to lose all or part of their investment. Both of these groups suffered as a result of the regulation. But did any group(s) BENEFIT from the regulations? Explain who benefited and how they benefited.
3 (5 points) Reviewing this issue it is clear that the good intentions of well off outsiders (union leaders, OSHA bureaucrats and Supreme Court Justices) with secure jobs resulted in massive unemployment for textile workers. Could this also be true of the efforts of affluent college students, politicians and other assorted activists in the U.S. and Western Europe who seek to help third world workers by closing down so called "sweatshops" operated by Nike and other first world corporations? (i.e., do the good intentions of these western groups help or hurt the individual workers in the third world?). Explain your answer.
4 (5 points) In my comments I mention that the free market operates in a manner such that there is no involuntary unemployment, meaning that each worker can choose to be employed or unemployed. Explain why workers would choose to work yet be unhappy and dissatisified with their job.
5 (5 points) Explain how education can increase an individual's range of job choices and how, having a larger number of job opportunities can increase the chances of a given individual being happier with his/her job as compared to the job satisfaction of a low skilled worker.
Brown Lung Disease ? A Free Market Solution
Chuck Nugent's Instructor Comments
August 2003
Byssinosis, also called Brown Lung Disease, is a lung disease that results from prolonged (often ten years or more) exposure to breathing of cotton dust and fibers present in the air during the production of cloth from raw cotton (in the U.S. most textile mills process cotton fiber so the most common cause of Byssinosis in the U.S. is cotton fiber, in other countries it is caused by flax, hemp or other material fibers as well as cotton). It is believed that byssinosis is the result of constant irritation and/or release of toxic substances by the fiber on the lungs over a long period of time. Byssinosis is characterized by shortness of breath, feelings of tightness in the chest and constant coughing. Continued exposure after onset of disease results in a reduced ability to breathe, especially exhale, which is very similar to the symptoms experienced by people with chronic bronchitis. There is some indication that smoking or occurrence of other lung ailments aggravates byssinosis. While "brown lung" is the term used to describe the condition, patients' lungs do not turn brown as a result of the disease.
When the new OSHA standards for cotton dust in the mills were implemented industry representatives stated that compliance with the new regulations could be accomplished by either a $2 BILLION dollar investment in new air filtering equipment or $1.49 per worker for dust masks. The $2 BILLION was the total cost of installing new air filtering equipment in all existing cotton mills. Masks are not comfortable and many workers would not wear them, which is probably why the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union opposed them.
The problem with the regulation was the fact that it was a typical "one size fits all" government mandate. The masks, which would have done the job, would have been a temporary measure as companies would have included the new filtering equipment in new mills when they were built. Retrofitting an existing factory with new mechanical systems is usually considerably more expensive than including such systems in the design of new factories. Also, installing the filtering equipment in new factories as they were built would have allowed the companies to spread the cost of the equipment over a period of a decade or more rather than having to absorb the costs within a couple of years. When the textile workers union got the U.S. Supreme Court to order the companies to install the air filtering equipment immediately rather than use masks many of them could not afford it and were forced to either go out of business entirely or close their factories in the U.S. and move production facilities overseas. The result, according to your text, the loss of over 300,000 jobs in this industry.
The video cites OSHA statistics stating that about 100,000 workers were AT RISK of contracting brown lung disease. Again, according to the video, these 100,000 workers represented about 20% of the total workforce in the industry (whose total workforce would then be about 500,000 workers). "At risk" means that these workers could get brown lung disease but there was no certainty that they would get it(if you drive to work you are "at risk" of being injured or killed in an auto accident, but this does not mean that every driver gets injured or killed). Why were only 20% rather than 100% of the workforce at risk of getting the disease? There are a number of possible reasons, among them:
1 Simply inhaling the fibers does not cause the disease - it is the constant inhaling of the dust and fibers over a long period. In certain parts of the mill the concentration of dust & fibers will be higher than in other parts so those people working in high concentration areas will have a higher risk of the disease.
2 Constant exposure over a period of ten years or more is usually required to contract the disease. Not everyone stays on the job for ten years or more and, among those who do, many will move from the production area (highest concentrations) to other areas with smaller or no concentrations over the course of their careers.
3 People who smoke and/or have other lung conditions are more susceptible to contracting the disease than non-smokers and others with healthy lungs.
According to the video and statistics cited by OSHA at the time of the implementation of safety standards to prevent the disease in 1978, only about 35,000 (7% of the estimated workforce) of the estimated 100,000 AT RISK actually contracted the disease during the period in question. Of these 35,000 cases of the disease, OSHA figures indicate that between 120 and 188 workers actually died from the disease in the period 1979 - 1996 (this is less than 1/2 of 1% of the estimated 500,000 person workforce). Yet the cost of the regulations to the workers was the loss of 300,000 jobs (60% of the 500,000 workforce). The opportunity cost of using air filtration systems over face masks to prevent 35,000 cases of brown lung disease, of which up to 188 were fatal, was 300,000 workers losing their jobs.
While the motives of the union, OSHA and the justices of the Supreme Court were good the results of their action were disastrous for 300,000 workers. The union, OSHA and the Supreme Court looked at the pain and suffering caused by brown lung disease, saw that there was a solution (retrofit mills with air filtration systems at a cost of $2 Billion) and mandated the solution. Problem solved! None of the three considered the consequences of the cost because they did not have to pay it (although the union did suffer financially in the end by losing 300,000 dues paying members). It was the workers (and stockholders in the companies) who bore the cost of this edict and individuals within these two groups did not have a say in the decision.
How would the free market have handled the problem? When the problem became apparent (remember it takes the disease a decade or more to develop and only about 7% of the workers develop the disease), and the cotton dust and fibers were identified as the cause, workers would have at least three choices:
1 Decide the job is not worth the risk and quit.
2 Decide the job is more important than the risk and keep the job.
3 Decide to keep the job but take steps to reduce the risk (stop smoking, wear a mask, look for opportunities to transfer to positions with lower or no concentrations of dust and fiber, etc.).
As workers left and potential new workers set their sites on other, safer, industries, the textile companies would be faced with the choice eventually either going out of business due to lack of workers or increasing incentives to work in their mills by:
1 Increasing pay.
2 Paying for masks, providing more safety training and other steps to reduce the risk of contracting the disease.
3 In the long run building new mills and new processes that are designed to eliminate or drastically reduce the dust and fiber in the air.
Companies need workers in order to operate. But labor markets, like any other market, operate on the basis of supply and demand. Individual workers offer their labor based upon their needs and costs. If it costs a worker $10 per day for transportation, clothes, childcare, etc. in order to work then that worker requires a job that pays more than $10 per day ? anything less and the cost of getting to work exceeds the pay so it is less expensive to just stay home. Factors like workplace safety (level of danger of injury or illness from the job), job stress, work conditions, existence of alternative employers, etc. are "costs" to the worker in the sense that they make the job less desirable and workers demand more pay to take such jobs. Of course workers need money to live and have to balance this need against the negative aspects of jobs. A worker with few options (due to lack of skill, ability, location, discrimination, etc.) will be more open to lower paying and less desirable jobs than one who has many options. Each worker is an individual and their job choices will reflect their individual assessment of their needs and options. These factors make up the supply curve of the labor market.
Employers make up the demand curve for labor. Like any other consumer of a good or service, employers seek to get the most for the lowest price. As the price of labor rises the quantity of labor demanded decreases. When the price is too high (i.e., they cannot afford it) their quantity demanded of labor goes to zero. In addition to cash wages, the cost of labor includes everything else that is needed to attract a sufficient supply of workers ? normal benefits (vacation, health care, etc.) as well as things like safety, comfortable work environment, etc.
In a free market the forces of supply and demand result in a wage rate that balances the needs/desires of workers and employers and results in zero involuntary unemployment. This doesn't mean that workers and employers are happy with the resulting equilibrium wage (workers would obviously like more pay and employers would prefer to pay less in order to increase profits). But for both sides the equilibrium wage rate is better than any alternatives (i.e., a lower paying job for workers, less production & sales for employers). Finally, this situation is not zero unemployment in the sense that everyone is employed. Rather it is zero INVOLUNTARY unemployment ? everyone who wants work has it. But people married to a high income spouse, college students with a generous allowance from parents, retired people, adjunct faculty who just got a substantial raise in their "day job", etc. may choose not to work because the opportunity cost of working (i.e., the time they have to give up) is worth more than the equilibrium wage. Raise the wage and these people might reconsider and re-enter the labor force.
Contrast this free market situation where each worker is free to choose among employment alternatives with the situation where government seeks to make a decision for an entire class (whose only common bond is that they work in the same industry) and the opportunity cost of the decision is substantial INVOLUNTARY unemployment.
For more information see:
American Lung Association web page
U.S. Dept of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) web site:
Ludwig von Mises Institute article entitled The Free Market and Job Safety
Economics 200 ? CRN 10072
Fall 2005
Assignment 1
Read the article below entitled The Economics of Happy Feet by Jeffrey Tucker. Also read the introduction and first two chapters of your text and view the first two broadcasts of Economics U$A. Then answer the following questions.
1 (10 points) According to the author, how do shoes today differ from those in the past in terms of availibility, price, comfort, etc.?
2 Here is an excerpt from the May 2, 2005 blog Rediff.com entitled Poverty, Footwear and Cold Water by Yazad Jal, CEO of the Praja Foundation in India (www.praja.org):
When I was a boy, seeing people walk about barefoot was common. I remember asking my mother's aunt (who used to help take care of me) "Why don't these people wear shoes or slippers?" and she'd shush me up, a bit embarrassed.
Today as I walk down the same roads of my childhood (my current office is located on a road parallel to where my grandaunt lived), I have to strain to see someone barefoot. I actually took a walk yesterday around those lanes of Grant Road just to check that out and I could not find even a single barefooted person.
Even the poorest labourers at a construction site wore rubber Hawaii chappals. This is not true just in Bombay. I've observed it during my trips to Pune, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkatta, and across Madhya Pradesh. Even the poorest have some sort of footwear. Being barefoot was common twenty years back. It's not any longer. People can afford slippers, fancy sandals and shoes. Shoes! Look around. You'd see more people decently shod today than at any other time in the past that I remember.
So how have so many poor people got themselves the money for shoes, transport, private education, fridges, television, coolers and cell phones? Maybe those figures have some answers after all. They're worth a brief look. India's GDP per capita in 1990, before liberalisation, was $1,300. Today it's $2,830, more than double. It's increased at around 5.33 per cent per year.
a. (5 points) How is this excerpt similar to the theme of Tucker's article? (be specific)
b. (5 points) In this piece the author, Yazad Jal, attributes the sudden appeareance of shoes on everyone in India to the doubling of per capita income in the 15 years between 1990 and 2005. In the Tucker article the present day near universal wearing of shoes is attributed to both rising incomes and falling shoe prices. Explain how falling prices improve the lot of the poor.
3 In his article, Tucker states that in 2003 Americans purchased 2 billion pairs of shoes (total U.S. population in 2003 was about 290 million) but that this represented only about .65% of our budgets (i.e. out of every $100 earned by average Americans 65 cents goes towards the purchase of shoes). In addition to Americans, the rest of the world is now buying shoes (though not as many pairs per person as Americans and spending a much larger portion of their budgets than do Americans).
a. (4 points) What does this say about the quantity of shoes (supply) being produced now compared to 20 years ago? Include a graph showing what has happened to the supply curve for shoes (for simplilcity, assume that the demand curve for shoes has not changed in this period).
b. (3 points) What effect has this dramatic increase in production had on the price of shoes?
c. (3 points) What is "economic growth" and how is this dramatic increase in world shoe production an example of economic growth?
4 In his article Tucker comments that it is now very difficult to tell a person's income or social status by looking at their shoes and also that shoes have become a throw away product and are discarded long before they wear out or need repair (despite the fact that they are no longer made to last as shoes were in the past).
a. (2 points) Can you determine a person's income/social status by their shoes alone? Explain your reasons why you can or cannot do this.
b. (2 points) Quality, like beauty, can be in the eye of the beholder. What quality features do you consider when purchase a pair of shoes: looks, comfort, latest fashion, which sports figure is promoting them, durability (i.e. how long they will last), ability to impress people, adds to image you want to project, fit a special purpose (i.e., running, playing tennis, playing basketball, make you look good for a job interview). Explain.
c. (3 points) When you decide to purchase a pair of shoes is your motive to replace existing shoes that are physically worn out; replace a pair that is in very good condition but no longer in style; or add to your existing supply of shoes? Explain.
d. (3 points) If, as was true in times past, a shoe purchase required a major expense (say 6 ? 9 months of income or more ? i.e., 50% ? 75% of annual income rather than six tenths of 1% of your annual income) would your decision be motivated more by their durability (i.e. last a lifetime and then leave them to your heirs in your will) or fashion?
5 (10 points) Both Tucker and Jal are staunch advocates of free markets and are generally opposed to government involvment in the economy. (NOTE: Jal's phrase "before liberalization" in the excerpt above refers to the period prior to 1990 when the Indian economy was basically socialist and the "liberalisation" he referst to is the elimination of many government economic regulations and the introduction of a more free market economy). Your book and the video take a more middle of the road approach and argue that government intervention is a necessary counter balance to limitations of the price system of the free market. Compare and contrast the view of the text book with that of Tucker and Jal.
Economics 202
NELC
Take Home Exam 1
Fall 2005
Covers Material & Topics in Part One (Chapters 1 ? 4) of Text
Multiple Choice ? each question worth 5 points for a total of 100 points.
1 Through war, many of the factories in country 1 are destroyed and many of its people are killed. As a result, the country's
a) production possibilities frontier (PPF) after the war is probably farther away from the origin than its PPF becore the war.
b) PPF after the war is probably closer to the origin than its PPF before the war.
c) PPF after the war is probably the same PPF as before the war.
d) ability to produce goods and services has increased.
2 Which of the following is consistant with the law of demand?
a) People substitute higher-priced goods for higher-quality goods.
b) People substitute some higher-priced goods for other higher-priced goods.
c) People substitute lower-priced goods for higher-priced goods.
d) People substitute some lower-priced goods for other lower-priced goods.
3 An effective minimum wage law can be expected to
a) clear the market for unskilled workers.
b) increase employment for some affected workers.
c) increase the number of firms in those industries where the law is effective.
d) reduce the hours worked for some unskilled workers.
4 On a supply and demand diagram, equilibrium is found
a) where the supply curve intercepts the vertical axis.
b) where the demand curve intercepts the horizontal axis.
c) where the demand and supply curves intersect.
d) at every point on either curve.
5 The minimum wage is an example of
a) a price door.
b) a price wall.
c) a price floor.
d) a price ceiling.
6 Efficiency implies that
a) all consumers' wants are satisfied.
b) no advance in technology will occur in the future.
c) the attainable region is greater than the unattainable region.
d) gains are impossible in one area without losses in another.
e) all of the above.
7 If goods are not rationed according to price, it follows that
a) they won't get rationed at all.
b) something will ration the goods.
c) first-come-first-served will necessarily be the rationing device.
d) there will be surpluses in the market.
e) none of the above.
8 An increase in the expected price of corn would likely
a) increase both the demand and supply of corn.
b) decrease both the demand and supply of corn.
c) increase the demand but decrease the supply of corn.
d) increase the supply but decrease the demand for corn.
9 Opportunity cost is the value of
a) the next best forfeited alternative.
b) the chosen alternative.
c) a free good.
d) an economic good.
10 At a price below equilibrium price, there is
a) a surplus.
b) a shortage.
c) excess supply.
d) sub-equilibrium.
e) none of the above.
11 You can determine the consumers' surplus if you know the
a) price received.
b) the maximum buying price.
c) price paid.
d) b and c.
e) a and b.
12 An "increase in demand" means that
a) the demand curve has shifted to the left.
b) price has declined and consumers want to purchase more of the good.
c) the demand curve has shifted to the right.
d) the price of the good can be expected to decline, assuming supply stays constant.
13 Choice is a consequence of
a) opportunity cost.
b) formulating hypotheses.
c) scarcity.
d) none of the above.
14 An "increase in the quantity demanded" means that
a) the demand curve has shifted to the right.
b) the supply curve has shifted to the left.
c) the price has declined and consumers therefore want to purchase more of the good.
d) given supply, the price of the good can be expected to rise.
15 Most states have instituted mandatory seat belt laws to reduce traffic fatalities. An economist may point out that an unintended effect of these laws is
a) an increase in the price of automobiles, further reducing fatalities.
b) an increase in driving speed, increasing the number of accidents.
c) a decrease in driving speed, further reducing fatalities.
d) an increase in risky driving behavior, increasing fatalities.
16 The California energy crisis of 2001 was caused by
a) changes in the supply of electricity only.
b) changes in the demand for electricity only.
c) changes in the demand and supply of electricity, along with a government imposed price ceiling.
d) changes in the demand and supply of electricity, along with a government imposed price floor.
17 The joke about it taking eight economists to change a light bulb ? one to screw in the build and the other seven to hold everything else constant ? is a joke about how economists
a) use the ceteris paribus assumption.
b) fail to deduce conclusions from their assumptions.
c) confuse association with causation.
d) would much rather construct theories than test them.
18 The synonym economists commonly use for "additional" is
a) capital
b) rational.
c) marginal.
d) economic.
19 In economics, scarcity implies
a) disutility.
b) utility.
c) choice.
d) ceteris paribus.
20 The amount of one good that is forfeited in order to produce more of another good is called
a) transaction costs.
b) specialization.
c) efficiency.
d) opportunity cost.
e) none of the above.
Short Essay (use back of exam pages)
1 (8 points) Explain why it is important to differentiate between the "number of unskilled workers" and the "number of unskilled labor hours" when evaluating the impact oon the market for unskilled labor of a change in minimum wage.
2 Eighty percent of all navel oranges grown in the U.S. come from California. In the winter of 1998 a series of storms in California damaged about 70% of the navel orange crop. Explain how this severe weather most likely impacted each of the following markets.
a. (3 points) California-grown navel oranges
b. (3 points) Imported navel organges
c. (3 points) Commercially prepared fruit salad (that contained navel oranges)
3 (8 points) List and describe the seven steps of building and testing a theory.
Economics 202 - NELC
Fall 2005
Assignment 1 (Chapters 1 ? 4)
Read chapters 1 ? 4 in your book and the article (What You Need to Know About the Minimum Wage by Shawn Ritenour) below than answer the following questions.
1 a (5 points) Explain how the price of a good is determined by supply and demand in a market.
b (5 points) When employers purchase labor services from workers the price of the labor services is refered to as a wage. Certis paribus, is the price (wage) employers pay for labor services also determined by supply and demand just like apples in a grocery store? Explain why or why not.
2 (10 points) Suppose local educators argue that teachers' salaries are too low. At the same time it is said that the school district received 750 applications for 5 new openings. Are salaries too low?
3 (10 points) TheRitenour article refers to absolute poverty and relative poverty. Explain what these two types of poverty are and how they differ. Also, is it possible to design policies to alleviate absolute poverty? Why or why not? Is it possible for government policies to reduce or eliminate relative poverty? Why or why not?
4 According to the Ritenour article:
a (5 points) Who, specifically, are the people who work in low paying jobs that are affected by the minimum wage?
b (5 points) In terms of economic responsibilities how do the majority of these people differ from the majority of American workers who earn more than minimum wage?
5 (10 points) According to the Ritenour article, how does the imposition of a minimum wage law harm unskilled worker and young workers just entering the market without skills? Also, what types of job skills needed for all types of work can be learned by new workers when they take a low skill job at a place like McDonalds? Why are such skills important for future success?
Assignment 6
Part VI ? Chapters 18- 19
Economics 202 ? Macro
Fall 2005
Read the article entitled Imports? Never! by Norman Van Cott and answer the following questions.
1 (10 Points) According to the author, which of the two scenerios ? cheap foreign imports or expensive foreign imports (with "cheap" and "expensive" being relative to domestic American prices for these products) are bad for the U.S. economy? Why?
2 (10 Points) What does the author mean by the statement "What protection teaches us is to do to ourselves in time of peace is what enemies seek to do to us in time of war"? How are peacetime laws designed to prevent or limit the importation of foreign goods the same as wartime actions by one's enemies to prevent their importing goods from abroad?
3 (10 Points) Why are we better off economically when we are able to import foreign goods for a lower price than what we produce domestically?
4 (10 Points) If my household were considered a nation would my family and I be better off trying to raise chickens on our townhouse (for eggs and meat) rather than "importing" eggs and meat from a "foreign" source such as Safeway or Fry's? Why or why not? What is the difference between me "losing" my job as a chicken farmer and butcher (in a townhouse) to competition from Fry's and an American steelworker losing his job to a "foreign" producer from Korea?
5 (10 Points) Explain why cheap foreign imports raise our standard of living and make us better off economically.
Economics 202
NELC
Exam 5 (Text Chaps 16 ? 17)
Fall 2005
Multiple Choice ? 5 points each for a total of 100 points:
1 An increase in labor productivity without an increase in the labor force leads to _______ real economic growth.
a. absolute, but not per-capita
b. per-capita, but not absolute
c. absolute and per-capita
d. neither absolute nor per-capita
2 Generally, what must be sacrificed in order to build more capital now is
a. Real GDP now.
b. consumption now.
c. Real GDP in the future.
d. consumption in the future.
3 The frequent use of economic policies to counteract economic movements deemed to be undesirable is called.
a. course tuning.
b. fine-tuning.
c. course adaptation.
d. fine adaptation.
4 _______________ rights refer to the range of laws, rules, and regulations that define rights for the use and transfer of resources.
a. Individual
b. Constitutional
c. Property
d. Economic
e. none of the above.
5 An increase in nominal GDP
a. is absolute real economic growth
b. is per-capita economic growth
c. is both per-capita and absolute real economic growth.
d. may be neither absolute nor per-capita real economic growth.
6 In the 1970s, the U.S. Economy experienced
a. stagflation.
b. low inflation and low unemployment.
c. high inflation and low unemployment.
d. b and c.
e. none of the above.
7 "Absolute real economic growth" is ___________ from one period to the next.
a. an increase in nominal GDP.
b. an increase in Real GDP.
c. an increase in Real GDP per person.
d. a decrease in the unemployment rate.
8 Stagflation consists of
a high inflation and high interest rates.
b. low inflation and high unemployment.
c. high inflation and high unemployment.
d. high unemployment and an economy in a deep recession.
9 According to the real business cycle theory, business cycle contractions begin as a result of changes in
a. the self-interest of politicians.
b. decreases in business investment.
c. decreases in the growth rate of the money supply.
d. decreases in the economy's capacity to produce.
10 Technological advances make it possible to
a. produce goods without using any resources.
b. obtain the same output by using more resources.
c. obtain the same output by using fewer resources.
d. lower labor productivity.
11 New classical economists build their theories upon
a. adaptive expectations.
b. inflexible wages and prices.
c. rational expectations.
d. the assumption that it takes a long time for markets to achieve equilibrium values.
12 Industrial policy is ___________ political corruption because it picks out _______
a. susceptible to, certain businesses to aid.
b. susceptible to, nationwide regulations to tighten or relax.
c. immune from, certain businesses to aid.
d. immune from, nationwide regulations to tighten or relax.
13 The original (1958) Phillips curve stated that
a. unemployment and money wage rates move in the same direction.
b. unemployment and money wage rates move in opposite directions.
c. there is an inverse relationship between price inflation and unemployment.
d. there is a direct relationship between price inflation and unemployment.
14 The simultaneous occurrence of high inflation and high unemployment is called
a. recession.
b. disflation.
c. stagflation.
d. "fooling".
15 Deregulation is primarily a ____________-side policy meant to ________ PPF.
a. demand; expand the economy's
b. demand; bring the economy closer to its
c. supply; expand the economy's
d. supply; bring the economy closer to its
16 According to the original Phillips curve, the cost of reducing the unemployment rate in the short run is a
a. fall in Real GDP.
b. fall in nominal GDP.
c. lower rate of price inflation.
d. higher rate of wage inflation.
17 "Watering the green spots" is a phrase one hears when discussing
a. property rights.
b. taxes.
c. monetary policy.
d. industrial policy.
e. new growth theory.
18 The original (1958) Phillips curve
a. showed that stagflation is inevitable.
b. showed the tradeoff between the use of monetary and fiscal policy.
c. has never been used as an important economic policy tool.
d. suggested a tradeoff between wage inflation and the unemployment rate.
19 The frequent use of economic policies to counteract economic movement seemed to be undesirable is called
a. course tuning.
b. fine-tuning.
c. course adaptation.
d. fine adaptation.
20 Stagflation is the simultaneous occurrence of
a. low inflation and high unemployment.
b. high inflation and low unemployment.
c. low inflation and low unemployment.
d. high inflation and high unemployment.
Short Essay
1. (8 points) Describe the policy ineffectiveness proposition (PIP). Be sure to state which economic theory the PIP is associated with and the assumptions that are necessary for this argument to hold.
2. (8 points) List and describe four factors that can contriubte to economic growth.
3. (9 points) How does discovering and implementing new ideas cause economic growth?
Assignment 5
Part VIII ? Chapters 16 - 17
Economics 202 ? Macro
Fall 2005
1 Read the insert on page 407 of your text entitled "How Economizing on Time Can Promote Economic Growth.
A (5 points) Explain why time is considered as a resource.
B (5 points) How does saving time increase economic growth and cause the Production Possibilities Curve to shift outward?
C (5 points) Your book cites computers as an example of time saving technology that results in greater output. Name four (4) other technological devices and explain both how they save time and result in greater output.
D (5 points) Explain how the invention of the wheel helped the ancients save time and improve their output.
2 (10 points) List and describe four factors that can contribute to economic growth.
3 (10 points) Explain the relationship that exists between economic growth and the price level.
4 (10 points) Describe the new growth theory. Explain how it differs from neoclassical growth theory.<
Economics 202
NELC
Take Home Exam 4
Fall 2005
Covers Material & Topics in Part Four (Chapters 12 ? 15) of Text
1 The direct exchange of one good or service for another is called
a) a token exchange.
b) a standard of deferred payment.
c) the exchange of purchasing power.
d) barter.
2 Transaction costs are best defined as the
a) various costs of different goods and serivces.
b) cost of one good in terms of another; that is, the price of apples in terms of oranges.
c) costs involved in borrowing money from someone, that is, the interest that must be paid for the use of someone else's money.
d) costs associated with the time and effort necessary to make an exchange.
3 Which of the following illustrates a barter transaction?
a) A bushel of oranges is traded for a bushel of apples.
b) Someone buys a pizza for the special price of $4.
c) Someone buys a house of $100,000.
d) A car dealer gives a free plane ticket to each new car buyer.
4 If market interest rates increase, the prices of existing bonds will
a) decrease.
b) not change.
c) increase.
d) decrease if Real GDP decreases and increase if Real GDP increases.
5 Money evolved out of the self-interested actions of
a) economists.
b) governments.
c) a few kings and queens.
d) individuals.
e) none of the above.
6 When the Fed purchases securities from a member of the public with a check that is cashed,
a) reserves increase.
b) currency in circulation increases.
c) the money supply increases.
d) b and c.
e) all of the above.
7 The advantage of holding money as an asset is that
a) money earns interest.
b) money is liquid.
c) money is safe from thievery.
d) the value of money appreciates over time.
8. When the Fed increases the required-reserve ratio, a bank's
a) excess reserves are unaffected.
b) excess reserves are increased.
c) excess reserves are decreased.
d) required reserves are decreased.
e) b and d.
9 The money supply in the United States is backed by
a) faith.
b) gold.
c) silver.
d) government policy.
10 Which of the following is false?
a) Banks cannot print money.
b) Banks can create checkable deposits by extending loans.
c) Banks must maintain a certain percentage of their total (checkable) deposits in reserve form.
d) Checkable deposits is a larger component of M1 than currency.
e) Today, in the United States, gold is money.
11 An individual buys a bond for $50 and sells it one year later for $70. What is the rate of return that this individual has received?
a) 10%
b) 20%
c) 30%
d) 40%
12 Changes in the money supply affect
a) expected inflation rates.
b) actual inflation rates.
c) the supply of loans.
d) a and b.
e) a, b and c.
13 When the Fed conducts open market operations, the impact of the buying or selling of bonds will include changes in
a) the money supply.
b) interest rates.
c) the expected rate of inflation.
d) a and c.
e) a, b and c.
14 Nonactivists favor
a) the use of fiscal policies to manage the economy.
b) the use of moneary policies to manage the economy.
c) fine tuning.
d) rules for conducting monetary and fiscal policies.
15 As the opportunity cost of holding money decreases,m the quantity demanded of money
a) increases.
b) decreases.
c) remains unchanged.
d) increases, then decreases.
e) decreases, then increases.
16 A gold standard tries to
a) stabilize the price level over time.
b) reduce political and economic interference in the money supply process.
c) change the money supply at a specific rate.
d) a and b.
e) all of the above.
17 In the equation of exchange, the letter "V" stands for
a) variance.
b) validity.
c) volume.
d) velocity.
18 The major disadvantage of holding money balances as an asset is
a) liquidity.
b) foregone interest earnings.
c) lack of convertibility.
d) that it is unlawful in most countries.
19 The simple quantity theory of money predicts that if
a) the money supply rises by $200, then GDP falls by $200.
b) GDP rises by $400, then money supply rises by $400.
c) the money supply rises by 10 percent, then the price level rises by 10 percent.
d) the money supply falls by $300, then GDP rises by $300.
20 Unanticipated inflation clearly redistributes buying power from
a) borrowers to lenders.
b) lenders to borrowers.
c) some borrowers to other borrowers.
d) some lenders to other lenders.
Short Essay (use back of exam pages)
1 (8 points) Explain how a change in the money supply can affect the following in the short run:
a (2 points) The supply of loanable funds.
b (2 points) Real GDP.
c (2 points) The price level.
d (2 points) The expected inflation rate.
2 (9 points) What is Gresham's Law? What three conditions are necessary in order for it to be valid?
3 (8 points) What is money?
Assignment 4
Part IV ? Chapters 12- 15
Economics 202 ? Macro
Fall 2005
1. (10 points) Describe the process by which banks create money.
2. (10 points) Describe the expectations (or Fisher) effect.
3. (10 points) List and describe the four positions held by monotarists that help to explain the monetarists view of the economy.
4 (10 points) List and describe the three monetary policy tools the Federal Reserve can use to increase the money supply. Which tool is used most often?
5 (10 points) List and describe the three functions of money.
Economics 202
NELC
Take Home Exam 2
Fall 2005
Covers Material & Topics in Part Two (Chapters 5 ? 6) of Text
Multiple Choice ? each question worth 5 points for a total of 100 points.
1 The civilian non-institutional population consist of everyone in the population who is
a) at least 16 years of age, in the armed forces, or institutionalized.
b) at least 16 years of age.
c) not in the armed forces.
d) not institutionalized.
e) b, c, and d
2 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value of all
a) final goods and services produced annually within a country's borders.
b) final and intermediate goods and services produced annually within a country's borders.
c) intermediate goods and services produced annually within a country's borders.
d) final goods and services produced every month within a country's borders.
3 "Full employment" is said to exist when the unemployment rate equals
a) zero.
b) the cyclical unemployment rate.
c) the structural unemployment rate.
d) the natural unemployment rate.
4. If a person did at least one hour of work as a paid employee during the survey week, how is she classified?
a) ias an employed person.
b) as not in the labor force.
c) as an unemployed person.
d) none of the above.
5 Which of the following will NOT lead to a leftward shift in the AS curve?
a) an increase in wage rates.
b) an increase in the prices of nonlabor inputs.
c) an increase in productivity.
d) an adverse supply shock.
6 What does annual economic growth refer to ?
a) annual increases in GDP
b) annual increases in consumption spending
c) annual increases in investment spending
d) annual increases in Real GDP
e) none of the above
7 A recession is always a part of a
a) contraction
b) recovery
c) detraction
d) remission
8 To macroeconomists, investment is mainly the purchases of goods and services
a) by businesses.
b) to hold as wealth, such as gold coins or art.
c) by foreign countries.
d) in the period previous to the period being studied.
9 A person is unemployed if he
a) is a member of the civilian labor force, out of work, and actively seeking work.
b) is 15 years old and seeking his first job.
c) is out of work, available for work, but not actively seeking work.
d) all of the above.
10 A dynamic, changing economy will
a) experience frictional and structural unemployment.
b) experience only cylicial unemployment.
c) have zero unemployment.
d) have no natural unemployment.
11 Who is unanticipated inflation likely to help?
a) Lenders
b) Borrowers
c) All consumers
d) All producers
12 Inflation can be defined as
a) an increase in the purchasing power of money.
b) a decrease in the purchasing power of money.
c) no change in the purchasing power of money
d) an increase in real income.
13 What is the proper sequence of the phases of a business cycle?
a) peak, contraction, trough, expansion, recovery.
b) peak contraction, revovery, trough, expansion.
c) peak, contraction, trough, recovery, expansion.
d) contraction, peak, trough, recovery, expansion.
e) recovery, trough, peak, expansion, contraction.
14 Assuming that they are actively seeking employment, which of the following categories of people would be considered unemployed?
a) Those who were fired from their job.
b) Those who resigned from their job.
c) New entrants into the job market
d) All of the above are correct.
15 One measure of the inflation rate is the
a) sum of the CPIs of adjacent years.
b) percentage change in the CPI of adjacent years.
c) percentage change in the Real GDP of adjacent years.
d) GDP minus Real GDP in a year.
16 Persons who are retired or engaged in own-home housework are considered to be in which of the following categories?
a) in the civilian labor force
b) not in the labor force
c) employed
d) unemployed
17 Real GDP is GDP
a) in current-year prices.
b) in base-year prices.
c) in GDP-prices.
d) in that year's prices.
18 Norman just brought shares of stock in Amazon.com for $1,000 and paid a $45 commission to his broker. How did this affect GDP?
a) It had no impact on GDP.
b) GDP increased by $45.
c) GDP increased by $995.
d) GDP increased by $1,000.
e) GDP increased by $1,045.
19 Leisure is
a) a good that is not counted in GDP.
b) a good that is counted in GDP.
c) neither a good nor a bad, and it is not counted in GDP.
d) a bad as far as economists are concerned, because it is not tangible.
20 An example of income received but not earned is
a) government transfer payments.
b) undistributed profits.
c) compensation of employees.
d) rental income.
e) a and c.
Short Essay (use back of exam pages)
1. ( 8 points) List and describe the three different types of unemplolyment..
2. ( 8 points) Describe what the term "full employment" means to an economist.
3. (9 points) Describe the difference between GDP and GNP.
Assignment 2
Part II ? Chapters 5- 6
Economics 202 ? Macro
Fall 2005
Read Chapters five and six in your text and the article entitled America's Job Puzzle: A Labour Market that Works, by Gerald Baker (email instructor at nugentwork@yahoo.com for a copy of the article). Then answer the following questions.
1 (11 points) Draw an appropriate diagram to represent the business cycle and label each of the five phases. Provide a brief description of each phase.
2 (11 points) List and describe the three different types of unemployment.
3 (10 points) According to the Baker article, how is the rise of temporary workers and job training programs for people who are structurally unemployed helping to relieve the presure of rising demand for workers? Draw a graph showing how the rise in the number of temporary workers and newly trained workers is keeping wage rates from rising despite the increase in demand by employers for workers.
4 (10 points) What are the new types of flexable wage schemes that employers are using and how do these work to enable businesses to increase productivity without incurring inflationary wage increases? How do you as a consumer feel about flexible wage schemes? How do you as an employee (or potential employee) feel about flexible wage schemes? Identify some advantages and disadvantages of flexible wage schemes from an employee's point of view.
5 (10 points) Baker does not discuss the role of immigration (legal or illegal) in easing the pressures of the labor shortage. How does immigration act to increase the supply of labor and keep wages from rising and fueling inflation? Based on the facts presented in the article do you think that employers are hiring immigrants because they work for less or because there is no one else available to work? Explain. In your opinion, if the economy stopped growing and demand for labor stopped increasing, would people from abroad still want to immigrate to the U.S. for work? Explain your answer.
Assignment 3
Part III ? Chapters 7 - 11
Economics 202 ? Macro
Fall 2005
1 (10 points) Explain the policy implications of the classical economists' beliefs.
2 (10 points) Describe some of the problems with the current Social Security system. What are some of the solutions to these problems that were outlined in the text?
3 (10 points) Explain how tax cuts can impact both aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Give an example of each.
Read the attached article entitled Say's Law in Context and then answer the remaining questions below:
4 (10 points) What does the author mean when he writes at the end of the sixth paragraph "...Say recognized that all men were both producers and consumers"?
5 (10 points) Why must one be a producer in order to be a consumer?
BONUS: (15 points) According to Say how is the problem of over production or under production solved by the market?
Assignment 6
Part VI ? Chapters 18- 19
Economics 201 ? Micro
Fall 2005
Read the article entitled Imports? Never! by T. Norman Van Cott and answer the following questions.
1 (10 Points) According to the author, which of the two scenerios ? cheap foreign imports or expensive foreign imports (with "cheap" and "expensive" being relative to domestic American prices for these products) are bad for the U.S. economy? Why?
2 (10 Points) What does the author mean by the statement "What protection teaches us is to do to ourselves in time of peace is what enemies seek to do to us in time of war"? How are peacetime laws designed to prevent or limit the importation of foreign goods the same as wartime actions by one's enemies to prevent their importing goods from abroad?
3 (10 Points) Why are we better off economically when we are able to import foreign goods for a lower price than what we produce domestically?
4 (10 Points) If my household were considered a nation would my family and I be better off trying to raise chickens on our townhouse (for eggs and meat) rather than "importing" eggs and meat from a "foreign" source such as Safeway or Fry's? Why or why not? What is the difference between me "losing" my job as a chicken farmer and butcher (in a townhouse) to competition from Fry's and an American steelworker losing his job to a "foreign" producer from Korea?
5 (10 Points) Explain why cheap foreign imports raise our standard of living and make us better off economically.
Economics 201
NELC
Take Home Exam 5
Fall 2005
Covers Material and Topics in Part V (Chaps 17 ? 18) of Text
Multiple Choice ? 5 points each for a total of 100 points:
1 A negative externality is
a. a type of tax.
b. a type of subsidy.
c. a type of money price.
d. linked to external costs.
e. linked to external benefits.
2 Public choice refers to
a. the decisions and decision-making processes that individuals go through to solve public problems.
b. political decisions made in the interest of the public at large.
c. the application of economic principles and tools to public-sector decision making.
d. the process that individuals undergo to decide what goods and services they will purchase and consume.
e. the process that individuals undergo to decide whether or not they will pursue a career in government service.
3 If private property rights were established in the oceans, there would probably be
a. more ocean pollution.
b. less ocean pollution.
c. the same amount of ocean pollution that exists without private property rights in the ocean.
d. more ocean voyages on cruise ships.
4 Government bureaus and bureaucrats are not as likely to try to please their "customers" as are private firms. Why?
a. Government bureaus usually employ more employees than private firms.
b. There are fewer government bureaus than private firms.
c. Government bureaus do not face competition, private firms do.
d. Government bureaus provide more nearly essential services than private firms.
e. none of the above.
5 Politicians
a. prefer to discuss means rather than ends.
b. prefer t discuss the issues in specific terms rather than in general terms.
c. do not like to be perceived as either an extreme "left-winger" or an extreme "right-winger".
d. often refer to their opponents as "middle-of-the-roaders."
6 "Market environmentalism" refers to
a. attempts at using market forces to deal with environmental pollution.
b. attempts at making profits by producing and selling "environmentally safe" products to "environmentally conscious" consumers.
c. government mandates of pollution standards backed by stiff penalties for violators.
d. the 1992 privatizing of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
7 The primary difference between private goods and public goods is that
a. private goods are consumed by private individuals whereas public goods are not consumed by private individuals.
b. private goods often yield externalities but public goods do not.
c. property rights can be assigned to public goods but not to private goods.
d. public goods are nonrivalrous in consumption whereas private goods are rivalrous in consumption.
8 Which of the following is an example of an externality that has been internalized?
a Acid rain, originating in the United States, destroys Canadian forests.
b. Robert Frost breaths the air polluted by the emissions of a nearby steel plant.
c. Erica Evans, a beekeeper, decides to keep more bees because her neighbor, an orchard owner, has agreed to compensate her for the bees' pollination of the orchard.
d. Jack Stevens, a concert pianist, rehearses Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and his neighbors enjoy the "free concert".
e. all of the above.
9 In a simple majority vote on a public project,
a. the project will never be undertaken if the costs exceed the benefits.
b. the project may be undertaken even though the total costs exceed the total benefits.
c. the intensity of individual preferences is taken into account.
d. the project will always be undertaken if the total benefits exceed the total costs.
10 The side effect of an action that increases the well-being of others is called
a. an augmentation.
b. an elasticity.
c. a passive benefit.
d. a positive externality..
11 Public choice is concerned with
a. relative prices.
b. government decision making.
c. marketing techniques.
d. consumer surveying.
12 "Logrolling"
a. is vote trading among elected officials.
b. eliminates the influence of special-interest groups.
c. puts downward pressure on federal spending.
d. b and c.
e. a.. of the above.
13 A side effect of an action that adversely affects the well-being of others is called a
a. complement.
b. supplement.
c. negative externality.
d. marginal cost.
14 Government failure is a situation where
a. the existing government is overthrown by the military.
b. the existing government is overthrown by the people.
c. government is overthrown by a foreign power.
d. government enacts policies that produce inefficient and/or inequitable results.
e. government interferes with the workings of the market system.
15 Public choice is concerned with decision making by
a. consumers.
b. businesses.
c. government.
d. foreigners.
e. consumers and businesses.
16 Some pollution may be preferable to zero pollution because
a. attempting to decrease the level of pollution to zero may cause significant losses in society's welfare.
b. we really do not have that much pollution.
c. the nation's citizens are against government's involvement in solving the pollution problem.
d. no form of regulation has been shown to be effective at solving the pollution problem.
17 Which of the following persons is most likely to become informed on the National Endowment for the Arts?
a. an attorney
b. a mayor of a city
c. a farmer
d. a student of agriculture
e. a playwright.
18 Would we expect the "average" person to take more time to learn about the car he or she is considering purchasing or about the issues in the upcoming U.S. Senate race in his or her state?
a. The Senate race, because it is critical that we elect the right people to government.
b. The car, but there is no rational reason for this.
c. The Senate race, because the person who is elected senator today may become president tomorrow.
d. The car, because a mistake here can potentially cause him or her more harm on a day-to-day basis; in addition, a person is unlikely to be able to affect the outcome of a Senate race.
19 A voter will tend to be more informed if the issue in question
a. affects everyone very little.
b. is complicated and difficult to understand.
c. has an intense and direct effect on the voter.
d. is of special interest to a small group to which the voter does not belong.
20 A subset of the general population that holds an intense preference with respect to a particular government activity is called a
a. public-service group.
b. special-interest group.
c. union.
d. federation.
Short Essay (use back of exam pages)
1 Review the section in your book that discusses special interest legislation and rent seeking.
a (4 points) Explain what the Factory Acts were, the real objective of those pushing for passage of the acts and how the real intent contrasted with the way they were sold to the public.
b (4 points) Explain what the term "rent seeking" is and how the Factory Acts were an example of rent seeking.
2. (8 points) Why do many prospective voters choose to watch sports on television rather than watching the news or political roundtables? In your answer, be sure to mention the role played by rational ignorance.
3 (9 points) Describe how market environmentalism works.
BONUS (10 points) In the nineteenth century the U.S. passed laws designed to protect women and children in the workplace by placing numerous restrictions on the types of work they could engage in, hours, etc. Like the Factory Acts in England, the real motivation behind these laws was to increase the wages of men (on whom there were no work restrictions) by reducing the overall supply of labor. A century later the Woman's Movement in the U.S. succeeded in getting the laws restricting female labor repealed. But laws regulating child labor are still in effect.
Answer part A or part B below (answer one only ? no additional credit will be given for answering both BUT points will be subtracted for any omissions, inconsistancies or faulty reasoning in either part of your answer).
A What differences exist between nineteenth century family income and living standards and twenty-first century family income and living standards that would cause 21st century parents to prevent their children from being exploited by having to work long hours and/or work in dangerous or unhealthy conditions?
B How can bureaucrats, working 8 ? 5 do a better job of monitoring the working hours and conditions of a child than that child's parents could do? Also, why would you expect a bureaucrat working 8 ? 5 to be more concerned about a given child's welfare than that child's parents?
Economics 201 - NELC
Fall 2005
Assignment 5
Covers Material & Topics in Part Four (Chapters 17- 18) of Text
Total Points for This Assignment = 50
Read the article entitled Bambi Buys the Farm by Mary Anastasia O'Grady (Wall Street Journal, Dec 10, 2004, pg. W.17)* and answer the questions relating to it below:
1. (10 Points) Give an explanation as to why legalizing the sale of venison (deer meat) solved the problem of an over population of deer when government culling programs (which probably consisted of either having wildlife ranger hunt the deer or removing limits on the hunting of deer by sportsmen or a combination of both) failed to reduce the population to managable proportions. Why did the incentive of creating property rights to deer and legalizing the sale of venison result in a greater reduction in the deer population than keeping deer as common property but forbidding the sale of deer meat?
2. (10 Points) New Zealand succeeded in solving the problem of a run away deer population by allowing deer to become private property and giving the owners the right to sell the meat. Some economists have also argued that the creation of property rights for endangered species, like the rhinocerous, would result in the preservation of those animals. Currently, rhinocerouses in the wild are a burden to local farmers whose lands they tend to damage. They are also prized by hunters who shoot them, illegally, for either trophies or to collect the horns which, when ground into a powder command a high price as an aphrodisiac in some parts of the world. How would allowing people to raise rhinocerouses and make money allowing wealthy sportsmen to shoot them as trophies or selling the horns and other parts of them which are in demand result in keeping the rhinocerous from becoming extinct?
3 (10 Points) According to the article, deer related automobile accidents resulted in 367 deaths in 2003 and the annual cost of property damage and injuries resulting from collisions with deer is at least $1.2 billion. The article also states that while it it is illegal to farm deer for venison in the U.S., this country is New Zealand's second largest customer for venison. Use public choice theory to explain how various special interests (sportsmen, conservationists, game wardens, restaurant owners, etc.), each seeking their own narrow ends via the political system rather than the market, can produce such an illogical result (i.e., legally importing and selling a product that is illegal to produce here while spending over a billion dollars a year to repair damage resulting from the overabundance of a resource we are protecting).
4 (10 points) An August 25, 2005 story on "Yahoo News" about the current round of military base closings had the following comment "It also wants to close Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico.
Anticipating the high-stakes votes, the entire South Dakota congressional delegation ? Sens. John Thune, a Republican, and Tim Johnson, a Democrat, and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth ? attended the hearing,..." (NOTE: South Dakota has a small population and thus has only 1 representative in the House of Representatives thereby making the entire state one Congressional District). Senator Thune, a conservative Republican elected in 2004 with strong support from President Bush strongly opposes the Bush Administration's plan to close Ellsworth AFB and has gone so far as to threaten to vote against the President's choice for U.N. Ambassador if the base is closed. Use Public Choice theory to explain why a Republican Senator would join Democrats in opposing the President from his own party? The Bush Defense Department is urging the closure of Ellsworth, AFB as part of its plan to reduce costs and improve national defense by using scarce resources more efficiently. Would these two Senators and Representative fight to keep Ellsworth, AFB open if their re-election depended upon getting a majority of the votes of the ENTIRE NATION rather than just a majority of the voters in South Dakota? Why or why not?
5 (10 points) Rent seeking may be rational from the individual's perspective, but it is not from society's perspective. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.
* Contact Instructor for copy of article
Economics 201
NELC
Take Home Exam 4
Fall 2005
Covers Material & Topics in Part IV (Chapters 13 ? 16) of Text
Multiple choice. 5 points each for a total of 100 points:
1 Since today workers can move from city to city (quite easily) and from firm to firm (again, quite easily), it is unlikely that there are very many
a) monopsony firms.
b) oligopoly firms.
c) monopoly firms.
d) perfectly competitive firms.
e) factor price takers.
2 Which of the following assumptions is NOT likely to be met in the real world?
a) Demand for labor is identical in every labor market.
b) Nonpecuniary factors in each job are the same.
c) All labor is homogeneous.
d) All labor has zero costs of mobility.
e) all of the above.
3 A factor that does NOT contribute to income inequality includes
a) innate abilities and attributes.
b) the amount of work a person chooses to do.
c) education and training.
d) luck.
e) none of the above; that is, all factors contribute to income inequality.
4. Marginal revenue product is
a) the additional cost of employing a factor.
b) the additional revenue generated by employing an additional factor unit.
c) marginal revenue multiplied by price of the factor Univ.
d) price of the good that is sold multiplied by the unit cost.
e) none of the above.
5. An organization that does not require individuals to be union members in order to be hired, but does require them to join the union within a certain period of time after becoming employed, is called a
a) craft union.
b) employee union.
c) union shop.
d) closed shop.
e) employee association.
6. Which of the following is true?
a) A major corporation pays a higher interest rate for a $10,000 loan than a single parent working for an insurance company.
b) The more risky the loan, the higher the interest rate charged, ceteris paribus.
c) The less risky the loan, the higher the interest rate charged, ceteris paribus.
d) The duration (length) of a loan is unrelated to the interest rate charged for the loan.
e) None of the above.
7. If a firm is incurring a loss, the loss is a signal that
a) the firm is not a monopolist.
b) the firm has never enjoyed profits.
c) consumers would rather have some of the resources used by the loss maker be used to produce other goods.
d) the government has withdrawn its "protection" of the firm.
8. Which of the following is an example of human capital?
a) a computer
b) an electronic calculator
c) education
d) stocks and bonds
9. An individual's income equals
a) labor income + wages + asset income.
b) labor income + asset income.
c) labor income + asset income ? taxes.
d) labor income ? taxes.
e) labor income + asset income + transfer payments - taxes
10. "Economic rent" is
a) what an individual pays for the use of land or buildings.
b) a payment in excess of the producer's explicit costs of production.
c) a payment in excess of opportunity costs.
d) a payment for capital goods.
e) none of the above.
11. Since today workers can move from city to city (quite easily) and from firm to firm (again, quite easily), it is unlikely that there are very many
a) monoposony firms.
b) oligopoly firms.
c) monopoly firms.
d) perfectly competitive firms.
e) factor price takers.
12. The potential for both profits and losses is
a) greater in a deregulated environment than in a regulated environment.
b) greater in a regulated environment than in a deregulated environment.
c) the same in a deregulated environment as in a regulated environment.
d) none of the above.
13. Jim Smith made his fortune by buying and selling real estate. Which of the following theories on the source of profits best describes the reason behind his success?
a) Uncertainty is a source of profits.
b) Profit is the reward for alertness to arbitrage opportunities.
c) Profit is the return to the entrepreneur as innovator.
d) Land is always a source of economic rent and profit.
e) If one works hard enough, one will be rewarded.
14. In what sense are profit and loss signals?
a) They signal resources where to move.
b) They signal what goods consumers may want to buy and what goods they may not want to buy.
c) They are important for government and business accounting procedures.
d) a and b.
15. Successful collective bargaining (on the part of a labor union) will
a) increase the demand for labor.
b) decrease the demand for labor.
c) change the marginal physicial product of labor.
d) none of the above.
16. Suppose it has just been discovered that working for long periods of time at a computer terminal causes eye strain, poor posture, and stress. We would expect, ceteris paribus, that the supply curve of computer programmers would shift __________ and the wage rate paid to programers would _____________.
a) rightward; decrease
b) rightward; increase
c) leftward; decrease
d) leftward; increase
17. Part of the cost of committing a crime is the probability of serving a jail sentence _________ the real wage that would be earned if not serving time in jail.
a) multiplied by
b) divided by
c) added to
d) less
18. A firm knows that it can borrow funds at 7% to invest in capital. Whether or not it borrows the funds depends upon the
a) amount of people's savings.
b) rate of time preference of consumers.
c) return on capital relative to the price of credit.
d) difference between its interest payments and the interest rate.
e) none of the above.
19. The Taft-Hartley Act allowed states the right to
a) check into the past of prospective employees before they were hired.
b) prosecute labor union bosses who did not obey the labor practices deemed reasonable by state authorities.
c) pass right-to-work laws.
d) b and c.
e) none of the above.
20. Transfer payments are payments that are
a) made in return for goods and services currently supplied.
b) made in return for goods and services to be supplied in the future.
c) made in return for goods and services that were supplied in the past.
d) not made in return for goods and services currently supplied.
Short Essay (use back of exam pages)
1. (8 points) What is the difference between a union shop and a closed shop? Are either (or both) legal in the United States?
2. (8 points) Describe how nineteenth-century economist David Ricardo viewed the relationship between rents and grain prices in England. How did his perspective differ from that of the prevailing view on this situation.
3. (9 points) Describe the relationship between income and education in the United States.
Economics 201 - NELC
Fall 2005
Assignment 4
Covers Material & Topics in Part Four (Chapters 13 ? 16) of Text
Total Points for This Assignment = 50
Read the attached article (which is found on the web at http://www.mises.org/story/1878) and answer the questions below:
1 (10 points) According to the article, why is state (government) support of unions necessary for them to be successful? What type of support is provided by the state for unions?
2 (10 points) Westly describes unionized workers as a "special class of workers" who have been able to obtain and maintain above market wages. However, in the long run ? which is now occuring ? they lose the above market wages despite government support/protection. How are consumers responsible for the loss of above market wage gains unions have enjoyed in the past? Union members, like other workers and business owners are consumers as well ? explain (give examples) how union members in their role as consumers are contributing to the decline of union wages overall.
3 (10 points) How, according to the article, are wages determined in a free market? Does Westly's explanition as to how wages are determined in a free market agree or disagree with the explanation in your book as to how wages and prices of other goods and services are determined in a free market? Explain.
4 (10 points) Why is it possible for the recycling of paper or plastics to use up more resources than the activity saves?
5 (10 points) Welfare recipients would rather receive cash benefits than in-kind, but much of the welfare system provides in-kind benefits. Is there any reason for not giving recipients their welfare benefits the way thay want to receive them? Would it be better to move to a welfare system that provides benefits only in cash?
Economics 201 - NELC
Fall 2005
Assignment 3
Covers Material & Topics in Part Three (Chapters 9 ? 12) of Text
Total Points for This Assignment = 50
Read chapters 9 ? 12 in your book and the article below entitled Myths about Business by Ninos Malek
Then answer the following questions:
1. Define the following terms (1 point each for a total of 10 points):
a. price taker f. monopolistic competition
b. arbitrage g. marginal revenue (MR)
c. oligopoly h. regulatory lag
d. marginal cost (MC) i. Natural monopoly
e. cartel j. profit maximization rule
2. (9 points) It has been noted that rent seeking is individually rational, but socially wasteful. Explain.
3. The concept of "consumer surplus" is discussed in the "Myths..." article.
a. (4 points) Explain the concept of consumer surplus.
b. (4 points) Give an example of a product or service for which you would be willing or would expect to pay more than the vendor is currently charging.
c. (4 points) Do you feel you are cheating the vendor when you have to pay less than you intended to pay for an item?
4. (10 points) How is monopolistic competition like perfect competition? How is it like monopoly?
5. (10 points) Define price discrimination. What three conditions must exist before a firm can use it?
10 Point optional BONUS question:
In the "Myths" article, the author provides the following quote from Ludwig von Mises
The common man is the sovereign consumer whose buying or abstention from buying ultimately determines what should be produced and in what quantity and quality. ["The Anti-Capitalist Mentality", p. 1, Ludwig von Mises]
a. (5 bonus points) Explain how the purchasing choices of consumers determine the type, quantity and quality of goods and services that are produced.
b. (5 bonus points) Explain how a free market (with easy entry and exit for competitors) makes it difficult or impossible for a business to cheat its customers or the public on a regular basis.
Economics 201
NELC
Take Home Exam 2
Fall 2005
Covers Material & Topics in Part II (Chapters 5 ? 8) of Text
Multiple Choice 5 points each for a total of 100 points:
1 An inferior good is
a) any good that consumers think is of low quality.
b) a good for which the quantity demanded decreases as its price increases.
c) a good for which the demand rises as income falls.
d) a good for which the demand rises as income rises.
e) any good that a producer cannot sell a large quantity of, even at a low price.
2 A share of stock is
a) a claim on the assets of the corporation that gives the purchaser an ownership right in the corporation.
b) the share of profits distributed to stockholders.
c) a promise to pay for the use of someone else's money.
d) a promise to loan money to someone.
3 A consumer is in equilibrium if he or she derives the same
a) total utility from each good consumed.
b) total utility per dollar spent on each good consumed.
c) marginal utility from each good consumed.
d) marginal utility per dollar spent on each good consumed.
4. Diamonds are more expensive than water because
a) markets do not always reflect value.
b) they have ewer uses.
c) they yield higher marginal utility.
d) they yield higher total utility.
5. A business that is owned and operated by two or more co-owners who share the profits the business earns is called a
a) proprietorship.
b) partnership.
c) nonprofit firm.
d) corporation.
6. Real income is
a) income adjusted for price changes.
b) the amount of money a person earns in a year.
c) the amount of money a person expects to earn in his or her lifetime.
d) the amount of money a person has to spend in a year.
7. In the long run,
a) all costs are variable costs.
b) all costs are fixed costs.
c) there are no variable costs.
d) a and b
8. The assets of a firm are
a) also known as equity.
b) the difference between liabilities and net worth.
c) the sum of the total debts of the firm.
d) anything of value to which the firm has a legal claim.
e) the sum of a firm's investments in stocks and bonds.
9. The "income effect" indicates that
a) when the price of a good falls, a consumer will be able to buy more of it with a given money income.
b) consumers should substitute among various goods until the marginal utility of the last unit of each good purchased is the same.
c) when the money income of a consumer rises, the consumer will purchase more units of a normal good, assuming that prices are held constant.
d) none of the above.
10. If the marginal utility of a good is negative, then
a) consumers should buy less of it.
b) consumers will consume it only if it is free.
c) consumers should buy more of it to make its marginal utility positive.
d) the law of diminishing marginal utility is being violated.
11. Implicit cost is a
a) cost that is incurred when a monetary payment is made.
b) cost incurred in the past that cannot be changed by current decisions and therefore cannot be recovered.
c) cost that represents the value of resources used in production for which no monetary payment is made.
d) sunk cost.
12. As a percentage of U.S. firms, which type of business firm is most common?
a) proprietorships
b) partnerships
c) corporations
d) non-profit organizations
13. One of the advantages of a partnership is
a) its ability to realize the benefits of specialization.
b) the limited liability of each of the partners.
c) the unlimited life of the partnership.
d) its ability to raise capital through the issuance of stock.
14. Economic profit is
a) total revenue minus cash expenses.
b) accounting profit plus implicit costs.
c) the same as accounting profit
d) accounting profit minus implicit costs.
15. Utility refers to the
a) usefulness of a good or service.
b) satisfaction that results from the consumption of a good.
c) relative scarcity of a good.
d) rate of decline in the demand curve.
16. A bond is
a) a claim on the assets of the corporation that gives the purchaser an ownership right in the corporation.
b) the share of profits distributed to bondholders.
c) a promise to pay for the use of someone else's money.
d) a promise to loan money to someone.
e) c and d.
17. Most economists say that the firm's goal or objective is to maximize
a) sales.
b) employment.
c) profits.
d) worker satisfaction.
18. If the demand for a good is inelastic and the price of the good decreases,
a) total revenue increases
b) total revenue decreases.
c) total revenue is not affected.
d) the direction of the change in total revenue cannot be determined from the information given.
19. Real income is
a) income adjusted for price changes.
b) the amount of money a person earns in a year.
c) the amount of money a person expects to earn in his or her lifetime.
d) the amount of money a person has to spend in a year.
20. Churches and charitable organizations are examples of
a) nonprofit firms.
b) proprietorships.
c) trusts.
d) partnerships.
Short Essay (use back of exam pages)
1. (6 points) Yexplain how a seller can determine whether the demand for his or her good is inelastic, eleastic, or unit elastic between prices.
2 (6 points) Is there a logical link between the law of demand and the assumption that individuals seek to maximize utility? (Hint: Think of how the condition for consumer equilibrium can be used to express the inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded).
3 (6 points) Explain the difference between a corporate bond and a share of stock.
4 (7 points) What is the difference between economic profit and accounting profit. Also, explain why a firm making zero economic profit is not necessarily operating at a loss.
Economics 201 - NELC
Fall 2005
Assignment 2
(Chapters 5 ? 8)
1. (10 points) Describe the diamond-water paradox.
2. (10 points) What is the endowment effect?
3. (10 points) Explain why even conscientious workers will shirk more when the cost of shirking falls.
4. (10 points) Explain the differences between a share of stock and a bond.
5. (10 points) Suppose the current price of gasoline at the pump is $2.50 per gallon and that one million gallons are sold per month. A politician proposes to add a 20-cent tax to the price of a gallon of gasoline. She says the tax will generate $200,000 in tax revenues per month (one million gallons x $0.20 = $200,000). What assumption is she making?
Economics 201
NELC
Take Home Exam 1
Fall 2005
Covers Material & Topics in Part One (Chapters 1 ? 4) of Text
Multiple Choice ? each question worth 5 points for a total of 100 points.
1 Through war, many of the factories in country 1 are destroyed and many of its people are killed. As a result, the country's
a) production possibilities frontier (PPF) after the war is probably farther away from the origin than its PPF becore the war.
b) PPF after the war is probably closer to the origin than its PPF before the war.
c) PPF after the war is probably the same PPF as before the war.
d) ability to produce goods and services has increased.
2 Which of the following is consistant with the law of demand?
a) People substitute higher-priced goods for higher-quality goods.
b) People substitute some higher-priced goods for other higher-priced goods.
c) People substitute lower-priced goods for higher-priced goods.
d) People substitute some lower-priced goods for other lower-priced goods.
3 An effective minimum wage law can be expected to
a) clear the market for unskilled workers.
b) increase employment for some affected workers.
c) increase the number of firms in those industries where the law is effective.
d) reduce the hours worked for some unskilled workers.
4 On a supply and demand diagram, equilibrium is found
a) where the supply curve intercepts the vertical axis.
b) where the demand curve intercepts the horizontal axis.
c) where the demand and supply curves intersect.
d) at every point on either curve.
5 The minimum wage is an example of
a) a price door.
b) a price wall.
c) a price floor.
d) a price ceiling.
6 Efficiency implies that
a) all consumers' wants are satisfied.
b) no advance in technology will occur in the future.
c) the attainable region is greater than the unattainable region.
d) gains are impossible in one area without losses in another.
e) all of the above.
7 If goods are not rationed according to price, it follows that
a) they won't get rationed at all.
b) something will ration the goods.
c) first-come-first-served will necessarily be the rationing device.
d) there will be surpluses in the market.
e) none of the above.
8 An increase in the expected price of corn would likely
a) increase both the demand and supply of corn.
b) decrease both the demand and supply of corn.
c) increase the demand but decrease the supply of corn.
d) increase the supply but decrease the demand for corn.
9 Opportunity cost is the value of
a) the next best forfeited alternative.
b) the chosen alternative.
c) a free good.
d) an economic good.
10 At a price below equilibrium price, there is
a) a surplus.
b) a shortage.
c) excess supply.
d) sub-equilibrium.
e) none of the above.
11 You can determine the consumers' surplus if you know the
a) price received.
b) the maximum buying price.
c) price paid.
d) b and c.
e) a and b.
12 An "increase in demand" means that
a) the demand curve has shifted to the left.
b) price has declined and consumers want to purchase more of the good.
c) the demand curve has shifted to the right.
d) the price of the good can be expected to decline, assuming supply stays constant.
13 Choice is a consequence of
a) opportunity cost.
b) formulating hypotheses.
c) scarcity.
d) none of the above.
14 An "increase in the quantity demanded" means that
a) the demand curve has shifted to the right.
b) the supply curve has shifted to the left.
c) the price has declined and consumers therefore want to purchase more of the good.
d) given supply, the price of the good can be expected to rise.
15 Most states have instituted mandatory seat belt laws to reduce traffic fatalities. An economist may point out that an unintended effect of these laws is
a) an increase in the price of automobiles, further reducing fatalities.
b) an increase in driving speed, increasing the number of accidents.
c) a decrease in driving speed, further reducing fatalities.
d) an increase in risky driving behavior, increasing fatalities.
16 The California energy crisis of 2001 was caused by
a) changes in the supply of electricity only.
b) changes in the demand for electricity only.
c) changes in the demand and supply of electricity, along with a government imposed price ceiling.
d) changes in the demand and supply of electricity, along with a government imposed price floor.
17 The joke about it taking eight economists to change a light bulb ? one to screw in the build and the other seven to hold everything else constant ? is a joke about how economists
a) use the ceteris paribus assumption.
b) fail to deduce conclusions from their assumptions.
c) confuse association with causation.
d) would much rather construct theories than test them.
18 The synonym economists commonly use for "additional" is
a) capital
b) rational.
c) marginal.
d) economic.
19 In economics, scarcity implies
a) disutility.
b) utility.
c) choice.
d) ceteris paribus.
20 The amount of one good that is forfeited in order to produce more of another good is called
a) transaction costs.
b) specialization.
c) efficiency.
d) opportunity cost.
e) none of the above.
Short Essay (use back of exam pages)
1 (8 points) Explain why it is important to differentiate between the "number of unskilled workers" and the "number of unskilled labor hours" when evaluating the impact oon the market for unskilled labor of a change in minimum wage.
2 Eighty percent of all navel oranges grown in the U.S. come from California. In the winter of 1998 a series of storms in California damaged about 70% of the navel orange crop. Explain how this severe weather most likely impacted each of the following markets.
a. (3 points) California-grown navel oranges
b. (3 points) Imported navel organges
c. (3 points) Commercially prepared fruit salad (that contained navel oranges)
3 (8 points) List and describe the seven steps of building and testing a theory.
Economics 201 - NELC
Fall 2005
Assignment 1
Covers Material & Topics in Part One (Chapters 1 ? 4) of Text
Total Points for This Assignment = 50
Read Part I of your text (Chapters 1 ? 4) and the article entitled Myths About Business. Then answer the questions below.
1. Ninos Malek, author of the Myths About Business, writes that market transactions are voluntary and are only occur if both the buyer and seller agree to the transaction.
a. (2 points) Explain the author's arguments as to why both buyer's and seller's in a market transaction act in their own self interest and neither can be accused of exploiting the other.
b. (2 points) Malek's arguments about the voluntary nature of market transactions make sense, but what about situations where the consumer genuinely NEEDS the product or service (medical care, food, water in the desert, etc.)? Do seller's have an obligation in this situation to sell the good or service at a price that the consumer can afford? Defend your answer.
c. (2 points) Do consumers have an obligation to help businesses by purchasing their products especially when the business NEEDS their patronage in order to keep the business in operation or specific workers employed (i.e., should vegetarians be obligated to purchase meat each week in order to prevent the stores from laying off clerks in the meat department?).
d. (2 points) In the case of either a consumer who feels that the prices of a particular business are too high or a business owner/professional who feels he/she is not making enough money in their chosen business/profession, what are their options other than complaining about the "greed" of the business or consumer?
2 (10 points) Describe at least four different types of thinking that define how an economist views the world.
3 (10 points) Explain how the study of economics might be benefiticl to a history major.
4 (10 points) Suppose the purchase and sale of marijuana are legalized and the price of marijuana falls. What explains the lower price of marijuana?.
5. Assume that on the first evening of one of your classes you meet a fellow student named Joe. Joe is in the military and that afternoon received orders to leave tomorrow for a six month temporary assignment in Korea. Joe has managed to cancel his other classes, take care of other personal business and pack. But two things remain. One, he has not yet sold the new textbook he purchased for this class (at a cost of $125) and, two, he still has one payment left on the engagement ring he and his fiancee picked out a few months ago and which is being held by the store on layaway until it is paid in full. Joe was planning to make the final payment and present the ring to his fiancee next week when he received his pay. You haven't brought the book for this class and are planning to purchase it when you get paid at the end of this week. Joe came to this evening's class hoping to sell the book then leave to get the ring and have dinner with his fiancee. He still owes $100 on the ring and has $75 in his pocket. He offers to sell you his book for $65 since he needs the money now and the book store is closed thereby precluding him from returning it this evening. You offer to write a check and post date it for Friday (when you get paid) but the jewelry store closes in 45 minutes and Joe needs cash now. You check your wallet and see that you have a twenty, a five and ten $1 bills. You tell Joe that you appreciate the offer but will have to pass as you don't have the money. Desperately wanting to get the ring and give it to his fiancee before he leaves, Joe offers to reduce the price of the book to the $35 you have in your wallet. You decline again as you explain that the ten $1 bills are for your son's lunch money for school this week. Joe makes a quick calculation and decides that, since Uncle Sam will be providing him with transportation, food and lodging, he can afford to do without cash until he gets paid next week and offers (pleads) to sell you the book for $25. You accept but offer to send him the other $40 (his original offer was $65) when you get paid. But, in his rush to get to the jewelry store he leaves without hearing your offer. None of your fellow students know Joe and both your instructor and the college administration inform you that the FERPA law (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) make illegal for them to provide you (or anyone) with contact information for Joe.
a. (4 points) Did you take advantage of Joe by purchasing his book from him for $100 less than he paid for it? If your answer is "No" explain what benefits each of you received from the transaction and how these benefits were greater than what each of you would have had if the transaction had not taken place. If your answer is "Yes" explain how Joe and/or you would have been better off by not entering into the transaction and how you and/or Joe were compelled, against your will(s), to go ahead with the transaction.
b. (4 points) Ideally, Joe should have been able to return his text book to the bookstore for a full refund of the $125 purchase price. By agreeing to sell the book for the $25 he needed for the $100 payment required to complete the purchase of the ring, Joe ended paying $200 for his final payment on the ring (the $100 he gave them plus the $100 loss he took on the sale of the book). Use the concept of consumer surplus to explain Joe's actions.
c. (4 points) At the end of the semester you go to the bookstore and sell the book back to the bookstore as a used textbook and willingly accept the $75 price they pay for used copies of this book. Did you cheat the bookstore by selling them a used book for three times what you paid for it? If you wait until the start of the next semester to sell the book and the student who is next to you in line is in the line only to purchase that book will you be cheating her if she offers to pay, and you accept, $75 for your copy so she can leave now rather than wait in line to pay the bookstore $75 for the same used title? For "No" answers be sure to explain how each party to the transaction is better off as a result of the transaction. For "Yes" answers be sure to explain how one or both of the parties (you being one of the parties) were harmed and why they would consent to go ahead with the transaction even though they are harmed (in their eyes) by the transaction.
Economics 200
Homework Assignment 9
Assigned November 1, 2005
Due November 8, 2005 ? Half Credit after November 15, 2005
1. (6 points) What happens to the money supply when the Fed sells bonds on the open market? What happens to the assets and liabilities of the Fed?
2. (7 points) What is the money multiplier and how is it calculated?
3 (4 points) How can the Fed change the money supply
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Economics 200 - Fall 2005
Telecourse
Suggested Assignment / Test Schedule
As stated in the course syllabus, all work MUST be turned in by 4 p.m. on Friday December 9, 2005. However, students are strongly encouraged to submit work in an orderly manner over the course of the semester so as to benefit from feedback from the instructor and to avoid having to cram in the last days of the semester. Below is a suggested schedule for turning in assignments. This schedule is based upon the cable projection schedule. This is merely a suggested schedule and students are free to devise their own schedules provided all work is turned in by 4 p.m. on December 9, 2005.
Part I - Text Chapters 1 - 2, TV Programs 1 - 2
Assignment 1 Due: Sept 9
Take Home Test 1 Due: Sept 16
Part 2 - Text Chapters 3 - 7, TV Programs 3 - 7
Assignment 2 Due: Sept 30
Take Home Test 2 Due: Oct 9
Part 3 - Text Chapters 8 - 14, TV Programs 8 - 14
Assignment 3 Due: October 21
Mid-Term (take at Community Campus) take week of October 30
Part 4 - Text Chapters15 - 21, TV Programs 15 - 21
Assignment 4 Due: Nov 11
Take Home Test 4 Due: Nov 20
Parts 5 & 6 - Text Chapters 22 - 28, TV Programs 22 - 28
Assignment 5 Due: Nov 25
Assignment 6 Due: Dec 2
Final Exam at Community Campus: take week of December 4th*
*NOTE: Final exam MUST be completed and turned in by 4 p.m. on Friday December 9, 2005.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Economics 200
Homework Assignment 11
Assigned November 15, 2005
Due November 22, 2005 ? Half Credit after November 29, 2005
Read the attached article, which can be found at http://www.mises.org/story/1958, and answer the following questions:
1. (6 points) What is ?psychic profit? and how is it like business profit?
2. (7 points) Anderson claims that present oil prices are temporary. What are his reasons for making this claim?
3 (4 points) What were Karl Marx?s views on profits?
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
ECONOMICS 200
Fall 2005
TERM PAPER INSTRUCTIONS
As indicated in the syllabus, there is an optional term paper for this course. The paper will be worth 150 points, the same as the mid-term and final exams. The paper is optional and may be submitted in lieu of the mid-term or final exam. You may also elect to take both the mid-term and final exams AND submit a paper - in this case the two highest grades of the three will be recorded and the lowest discarded.
The paper, for those who elect to do one, will be due no later than noon on Wednesday December 7, 2005. Papers may be handed in prior to this date.
The topic of the paper must be chosen from one of those listed below:
- PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY. For this you can either examine the present system and present ECONOMIC arguments in favor of keeping it as is or abolishing it outright, or you can analyze one of the current plans for reform and give arguments for accepting or rejecting it.
- PRIVATIZATION OF GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES. Pick one of the following economic activities (all of which are provided mainly by government but do have some private sector counterparts) and explain how it could be privatized (i.e., sold to investors, sold/given to employees of the entity, given to taxpayers, etc.), the economic effects of the choice of privatization and the economic benefits/losses of having the free market provide the goods/services rather than the government. The activities are:
U.S. Postal Service
Air Traffic Control System
Tucson Water
SunTran
Public School System (K-12)
Pima College
University of Arizona
National Parks, Forests and other lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management
- HIGH OIL PRICES AND OIL COMPANY PROFITS ? What is causing the high prices; should oil companies be criticized or penalized for their current high profits; how will the market solve the problem of high energy costs; what is the difference between government and market approaches to high energy costs; which approach to the current "crisis of high prices & energy shortages ? the market approach or the government approach is best and WHY?
After choosing a topic from above and researching it, take a stand, on one side or the other, and present economic arguments for or against the position you have chosen.
While political, sociological, philosophical, etc. views/ideas/effects can be included in the paper the main thrust MUST be on economic factors and effects. THIS IS TO BE AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM FIRST AND FOREMOST. You are to choose an area within the scope of the assignment, define the problem, as you see it, and, using Economic Reasoning, provide a clear cut solution to the problem.
Minimum formatting requirements are as follows:
? The paper must be typed on 8 1/2" X 11" paper.
? Material drawn from outside sources must be cited using a recognized footnote format.
? Each paper must contain a bibliography showing all sources from which information was obtained.
? Pages are to be numbered and stapled (unless submitted electronically) together in proper order.
? Paper must contain a cover page showing title of paper, student's full name and date submitted.
? Points will be deducted for errors in spelling and grammar.
Students' must do their own research and writing (typing can be done by another). No credit will be given for plagiarized papers.
Minimum research requirements:
? The bibliography must contain AT LEAST ten (10) books, articles, internet sites or video/audio tape sources.
? Non-print media sources (i.e., video, audio, radio, TV or other electronic media - other than computer databases and the World Wide Web) may be used for research but these may not exceed one third of the total research sources used.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
Peter Drucker, world renowned management guru, died this past Friday, November 11th, at the age of 95.
Born in Vienna in 1909, he received his doctorate in public and international law from Frankfurt University in 1931. In Frankfurt he worked as a financial reporter for the Frankfurter General Anzeiger newspaper. In 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany and moved to England where he worked as a securities analyst for an insurance company. In 1937 he came to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence University.
Drucker is best known for his books and articles on modern management. His writings were not only ahead of their time when published but remain relevant classics to this day.
I remember reading a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal in the 1970s in which he pointed out that Karl Marx's dream of worker ownership of the means of production had been realized in the United States of all places. This was achieved not through the nationalization of industry as in the then Soviet Union and other communist countries nor through utopian communities where all productive resources were owned in common with "each taking according to his needs, and each contributing according to his ability" as envisioned by Marx. Rather it was businesses competing for workers with a combination of pay and retirement pensions and funding the pensions with investments in corporate stocks. In this way the majority of stock, which represents ownership in corporations, in American corporations came to be owned by workers indirectly through their pension funds. Today, thanks to IRA's, 401(k)'s, 403(b)s and other worker directed retirement accounts the percent of corporations owned by the workers of America is probably greater than when Drucker described this in his article.
Drucker was also ahead of his time in stressing the importance of worker's training and knowledge in modern production. "Human capital" as we now describe it. Drucker himself was a part of the great wave of human capital that fled Nazi dominated Euope and flowed into America in the 1930s and 1940s. Hundreds of scientists, academics, artists, filmmakers, etc. fled to the U.S. to escape Hitler's wrath and the U.S. economy benefited greatly from this in migration of foreign knowledge and talent.
Drucker has left behind a couple of generations of managers trained in his innovative ideas and, through books and articles he has left behind, he will continue to influence future generations of managers. Despite his passing, the American economy will continue to employ his insights and ideas to continue its remarkable growth.
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