Topic 15: What is a Monopoly

The three main characteristics that make a firm a monopoly are only one seller, producing a unique product, and having barrier to entry. A monopoly sets the price in the market by itself because the firm is the only producer of a certain product, it can manipulate the quantity produced to a profit maximizing quantity. They reach this by producing at the point where marginal cost is the same as the marginal revenue. At this point, monopoly produces at the profit maximizing quantity. However, they can go over this point unlike perfect competition, monopolies can increase the price because they are the only producer of a certain product, the more inelastic the prices would be, the more price they can raise. The cost of the monopolist is the cost for the firm to product the products and the benefits is the profits they earn by selling the product they makes. The consumer will get less benefit because monopoly will have a price that is above normal average price which will cost them to pay more money for the products. One commentator mentions that a problem with monopoly is that monopoly will take extra money from the consumer, but economists are not concerned about this. Economists are concerned about the inefficiency. Economists encourage an efficiency monopoly. I agree because an inefficiency monopoly will harm both producer and consumer which are not good for everyone. Monopoly can be good if average cost is decreasing output, then large scale manufacture in production. I don’t think is worth it to attain a monopoly because there is dead weight lose and it’s also inefficient.

Topic 14: Productivity Experiment

In this experiment we are observing the relationship between the numbers of workers and the efficiency of the work. My job in that experiment is the worker who is hire by the boss of the firm to work for the product. I join the firm at the middle of the time which is about eight workers at that time working in the firm. At the beginning the marginal benefits keeps going up after each unit of worker is add in the firm. However, when the workers keep adding in firm, the marginal benefits keep decreasing and become negative at the end. At the end when twenty workers are working in one firm produce about the same products compare to five workers. Which is very inefficient because the boss will need to pay extra money for those workers who are doing nothing are can’t do anything to help because of the lack of capital. This is what I expected will happen because the products will not keep going up when the workers are increase. In the short terms, the company can make the productivity to the highest by keeping the workers at the numbers that produce the maximum marginal benefits. In the long terms, If the marginal benefits keep decreasing, the firm shall just shut down or add more capital in order to keep the company running and learn money.

Topic 13: The Return of the Zeppelin

Determinants of demand are change of tastes, income and possibly the amount of buyers. Determinants of supply are the price of factors of production, the prices of related goods produced and technology. Also personal preference might affect the demand of people as well. People might like Zeppelin for a while but then dislike it later. The technology is important as well. This is because before there is accident happening in 1930s which people’s demand fell. Then, when the technologies improve and the Zeppelin’s quality become better and people’s demand for riding on it start to increase again. Also the increase in technology can decrease the price of production and increase the quantity supply as well. This market is an oligopoly and it is very close to a monopoly because there are only three of them in the world that makes it an oligopoly. It’s almost a monopoly because there is only one in North America which means that people from United State only can go to Zeppelin if they want it. Three determinants of demand for the success of Airship Ventures are preference, expected future prices, and the prices of related goods. This is because people who will go to Zeppelin is mainly base on if they want it or not and the price of it. No one will want to pay a very high price to just get on the hot balloon

Topic 12: Pizza for Pesos?

The pizza store is accepting pesos because it is related to utility. The utility for the buyer to buy pizza increase if they can pay pesos instead of U.S. dollar, this is because that most of the buyers who pay pesos are Mexican which they don’t have U.S. dollar. This is meaning that if the pizza store doesn’t allow them to pay with pesos, many buyers will not buy it because they don’t have U.S. dollar and is not convenient. This is also related to consumer preference, the Mexican will be more willing to pay for pizza with pesos instead of U.S. dollar because that’s their money. They will think that is not convenient to change their money to U.S. dollar. The exchange rate can cause Pizza Patron to either lose money or gain money base on the exchange rate between U.S. dollar and pesos. If pesos money is good at a certain time, Pizza Patron will earn a little bit more than usual because they can exchange more U.S. dollar with pesos compare to usual. The budget line will be affect and shift the curve either right or left depend on the exchange rate. I think accepting pesos is a good choice because first, it can increase the utility for Mexican to buy pizza from them and the income might be greater if the exchange rate is good.

Topic 11: Brand Names and Utility‏

Most people are very dependent on the brand names. Even though that the products is not that goods, people will still buy it just because of their brand name. This related to the idea of utility. The wants people want for the brand name can be the utility of it. People want brand name is because is either that they think is cool and want to show off in front of other people or think that is a symbol of wealth and richness. Brand names will greatly increase the chance of people buying the product which also increase the satisfaction and the utility of people for the brand name. This is related to consumer preference because that the products might not be good as their quality. However, some people will still buy it for the brand name instead of the quality. These are all personal preference bases on if people like the brand names or care the brand names or not. There are a great difference between non brand names products and products with brand names for some people. For example if there are two products that are exactly the same but one with brand name and one without. People will choose the one with brand name more if the name is famous and people like it. Brand names will definitely bring more utility to people. For example many people like the brand name LV, which there are many bags that are alike with the LV bags. However, people will most likely buy the one with LV on it than the non grand one.

Topic 10: Consumer Preference and Utility

The main targets for Skechers are people who are in the age between 12 and 24. Skechers assess consumer utility by many ways. One of the examples is that they will post their information about shoes in the magazine covers and have advertisement on television. You can see that magazine and television are source that young people between the ages of 12 to 24 will watch and look at. The strategy they use is that they will try to make their products best they can and put advertisement to let the young people see it. Then they will ask the young people to give feedback and they will try to fix and make their shoes better base on the young people’s feedback. The innovation Skechers might have that can compete with others is that they might be specific about what type of shoes they are making. For example, if they are good at making tennis shoes, they might have a shop beside the tennis field. I don’t think that the strategy they use will influence my utility because I am a person that will not care about who is making the products. I just buy one that I feel most comfortable. I have high utility on computers because right now we are doing most of the works on computer. This means that buying a good computer is important for us and also because that I play games and edit video which might need better computer and I will be willing to pay more than other products. I don’t get why do people buy like famous brand beg that will cost around 40 thousands NT or maybe more. It’s just not worth the money to buy a such expensive beg that just have the same function as normal begs.

Topic 9: The Myth of Outsourcing's Effect‏

The comparative advantage of globalization is that a country is most likely to find either labors or products that are cheaper from other countries. Outsourcing are the labors, goods or any products that are from other countries. The comparative advantage of globalization is strongly related to outsourcing because the main advantage of globalization is that people can get what they want for a cheaper price. This is all because outsourcing, every county have their own products and what they are good at. Open economy is an economy in which there are economic activities between domestic community and outside. Production and efficiency is related to outsourcing because the price of producing something might be cheaper if it’s import from other countries. When the price of production decrease, the production will become more efficient. Without outsourcing, the cost of producing something will increase. This is because the production will be more expensive base on the labor and the tools that they use to produce product will be more expensive. Outsourcing relate to the concept of opportunity costs because when outsourcing occurs, people start to work for other countries and people from other countries come to our country to find jobs. Therefore, the unemployed rate increase and cost the increase of opportunity costs. The marginal product of labor with outsourcing will be greater than the marginal product of labor without outsourcing because the price for labor with outsourcing will be cheaper.

Topic 8: Debate on Globalization

Globalization is helping the world’s economic grow and created many opportunities of job for the people. Also another definition for globalization is the interaction or trading between people from different countries. There are many benefits for globalization for example; it created more jobs for people, improve the technology, lower the certain products’ price, more consumer choices. The cost of globalization is that people in a country might relay on other countries’ products and cause the country to have zero productions. Also that another cost is that people in a certain country might lose their own country’s identity. Western people all think that people in China and India work for little amount of money. However the wage for Chinese and Indian are way above the minimum wage in their countries. Globalization affects my life very much. Almost everything I used in my life come from other countries. Also because of globalization, we are able to search information about other countries. If there is no globalization, then I can only use the products that come from Taiwan. Food, computer and everything will be gone because it’s all made in other countries. Globalization affects s Taiwan a lot too. If there are no globalizations, Taiwan will be a crappy place because most of the products are come from other countries. People in Taiwan will get affect a lot because they can’t do anything. People can only work for jobs that are for Taiwan products and buy Taiwan product only.

Topic 7: Government Farm Subsidies

The video talks about that the government’s subsidies go to farmer who earn less than one-quarter million per year. The produces’ point of view is that they do not support farm subsidies. This is because that the main people who are getting the money or benefits from it are the rich farmers. The poor farmers which the subsidies are supposed to help do not get the subsidies. Many people decide to leave the situation basically because they can’t survive in that situation anymore; the government is not helping them. I agree with what the producers said because the main suppose for the government’s subsidies is to help the poor people which in this case it only help the rich people. This is helping the situation, so I do not support farm subsidies. I think one subsidy might help the poor formers is that the government increase the minimum prices for agricultural produce. There are other industries that need subsidy such as medicine and Junk food. I think education need to receive subsidy because therefore, schools can have better quality because they have more money. Also everyone is paying the tax, so it encourages everyone to get education because if they do not get education, they might think that they are wasting money. People who do not have school-aged children will have to paid for tax to support schools as well, because education is like one of the most important requirement for the whole world.

Topic 6: Opportunity Cost of a College Education

        Marginal analysis is when people are comparing marginal benefits and marginal costs. It’s used in a good decision because it’s a good decision when the marginal benefit is greater than the marginal costs. The marginal benefits of learn one more years of higher education is that people can get paid higher in future job. The marginal cost of learning one more year of higher education is the time and the money you can get during the time you study.

        It’s not accurate that college graduate earn $1 million more than those non-graduated. This is because according to statistic, non-graduated learn higher or about the same as the college graduate student.

        Students decide to leave college after one year of education because that the marginal benefits of learning one more year of college education is only the few growth of their money in the future job or non growth in money for the future. However the marginal costs of learning one more year is that they need to pay the money for the college and the time and money they can get if they don’t take one more year of college.

        The information in the video is somewhat related to what my parents told me. Both talk about the benefits of going to college. I change my thought of going to college after watching this video. Before, I think that going to college will greatly increase the income of your future job, but after watching this video. I realize that there’s not much change about going to college.

Topic 5: Ripple Effects and Elasticity

         Ripple effect is when a single subject change the price, it influences many other products that are related to it’s which create a difficult pattern to predict. For example if the price of corn increases, the price of animals who eat corn increase. If the price of oil increases then most of products or things’ cost increase. For example crayon, fish, food and other thing. Anything that includes transportation in the process will raise their cost because oil’s price increases. The rise of cost of oil will affect individual as well. It will affect our family too because most of the thing we use include transportation in the process that mean the cost of everything we use rise. Also every time when my parents drive me to somewhere, the price of driving me to a certain place increase as well. Like what I said before, corn is another ripple effect because when the cost of corn increase. Any animals that eat corns will increase their price because they need more money to let them be full.

        The idea of elasticity effect can influence the market because if an object is very elastic, the quantity will increase in a great amount even if the price only changes a little bit. However, if the object is inelastic, the quantity will not change a lot even though the price changes a lot. I want the new iPhone and it is elastic because people are deciding between if they shall get an iPhone or other types of smart phone. This mean that if the iPhone price decrease a great amount of people will have a great incentive to buy iPhone instead of other types of smart phone.

Topic 4: Where Choices Lead

       There is always opportunity cost when people are making a decision. Some opportunity costs of getting into PAS for me are the education of local school, less money pay for school and time in Taiwan. The opportunity costs of taking AP Micro are classes that I can take during that class time and less study times.

        I think my choice of coming to PAS is rational. The benefit of coming to PAS is that there is a much higher chance of getting in a good college or university. Another great benefit is that I can improve my English ability in PAS which is very important for our future jobs or business. On the other hand, the opportunity costs are about money and time. Therefore I think the benefits of coming to PAS are much greater than the opportunity costs and this make my decision rational.

        I think my decision of coming to this class is rational. This is because the benefits of taking this class are possible to score a higher GPA, complete my prerequisite of social study for University. The opportunity costs are taking other class that is easier and less study time. From my own opinion that I think my decision is rational because I still need social study credit and I’m also interesting in this class more than other social study. Even though I may spend more time on study, but I think is worth it to do so.

        I will still make the same decisions even if I have full freedom to choice whatever I want.

Topic 3: Incentives to Attend School

        The video “Incentives for Perfect Attendance,” use incentives to make students attend to school. This is because some students rather go to work and get money than going to school. The school decide to give them laptop and car if students attend to school. The disincentive is that the students are living in a pool family, so they rather go earn money for their family instead of going to school. I think that punishments are stronger incentives compare to reward because people might not want the reward because they either don’t want it or don’t need it. However, most people don’t want to get punish, therefore punishment are mush efficient.

        In PAS, we use punishment more than reward. For example, the lock out policy and the punishment for speaking Chinese are all punishments. The incentive in our school is that if you work hard in the school, you can go to a better college. However, if you don’t work hard in the school, it’s possible that you may get expel from the school. These incentives are effective and students change because of the incentive. For example, there are less people who are late after the lock out policy. The goal in the video is to make sure that all students are attending the school which is one of the goals of our school as well. The incentives that are use in the video are mostly reward. However in PAS, the incentives are mostly punishments.

Topic 2: Scarcity at School?

People are always making decision about which one to choose when they are facing different type of scarcity. People in PAS also face scarcity all the time. For example, students in PAS may face scarcity when they are picking their classes. They may be picking between P.E. and expository writing. They have to give up when in order to take another. For example if the student takes P.E., then he can’t take expository writing class. Another example is that teachers will face scarcity when they are thinking about if they shall teach an extra class or not. If the teacher teaches an extra class that means that they can get extra money from them but the trade off for making that choice is the teacher need to spend more time and energy for that extra class.

        Example about me is when I am making a choice between taking an extra AP class or not. At choose to take an extra AP class which is AP computer science because I think I can handle it and I can get a study hall if I take it. The trade off of taking AP computer science is that I give up P.E. class and need to work harder for the AP test. The resources that I want more are classes which either are honors or AP, or classes that can easily get a high GPA. However there are two reasons that keep me from getting what I want. The first reason is that my ability is limited, I can’t handle if I take too much AP or honor class. Second reason is that we need to full fill the prerequisite of college, this mean that we need to take different type of class for certain years in order to get into colleges or universities.

Topic 1: The Big Questions.

If I think about PAS as an economy, and everyone at PAS as both a producer and consumer, the goods or services they produce are educations. This is because that the main products that a school produces or given is education, people come to school to learn. The people who produce the goods or services are the teachers in the school. They provide knowledge for students and educate them by teaching. How are the product produce? The teachers get their knowledge when they were in school or life experience and pass down the knowledge to students in PAS. The products, which is education is mainly produce for students. Parents send their kids to our school to let them get educated. The person who make the choices governing what, how, and for whom goods and services get produced is the head of our school which is Ms. Pamela, she controls everything and make every decisions.

One way to the choices that made at PAS about what, how, and for whom reflect different people’s self-interest is that the teachers who are producing the education to the students are in PAS is because they want money for themselves. This self-interest can also promote social interest because when teachers get money, they can buy more products. When the company sells more products because of the teachers they get more money and the whole economic can run better with more money. Same thing with students, students in PAS are because they want to go in to good college and get a better job which is self-interest. This can make our world or countries to have more human capital because students are well educated. When we have more human capital, it means that we can produce more products and get more benefits for the company which can make a country richer. This is another self-interest that reflects social interest.

       

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