国际经济学答案.docx

1、国际经济学答案Answers to Textbook ProblemsChapter 21. a. The production possibility curve is a straight line that intercepts the apple axis at 400 (1200/3) and the banana axis at 600 (1200/2).b. The opportunity cost of apples in terms of bananas is 3/2. It takes three units of labor to harvest an apple but

2、 only two units of labor to harvest a banana. If one foregoes harvesting an apple, this frees up three units of labor. These 3 units of labor could then be used to harvest 1.5 bananas.c. Labor mobility ensures a common wage in each sector and competition ensures the price of goods equals their cost

3、of production. Thus, the relative price equals the relative costs, which equals the wage times the unit labor requirement for apples divided by the wage times the unit labor requirement for bananas. Since wages are equal across sectors, the price ratio equals the ratio of the unit labor requirement,

4、 which is 3 apples per 2 bananas.2. a. The production possibility curve is linear, with the intercept on the apple axis equal to 160 (800/5) and the intercept on the banana axis equal to 800 (800/1). b. The world relative supply curve is constructed by determining the supply of apples relative to th

5、e supply of bananas at each relative price. The lowest relative price at which apples are harvested is 3 apples per 2 bananas. The relative supply curve is flat at this price. The maximum number of apples supplied at the price of 3/2 is 400 supplied by Home while, at this price, Foreign harvests 800

6、 bananas and no apples, giving a maximum relative supply at this price of 1/2. This relative supply holds for any price between 3/2 and 5. At the price of 5, both countries would harvest apples. The relative supply curve is again flat at 5. Thus, the relative supply curve is step shaped, flat at the

7、 price 3/2 from the relative supply of 0 to 1/2, vertical at the relative quantity 1/2 rising from 3/2 to 5, and then flat again from 1/2 to infinity. 3. a. The relative demand curve includes the points (1/5, 5), (1/2, 2), (1,1), (2,1/2). b. The equilibrium relative price of apples is found at the i

8、ntersection of the relative demand and relative supply curves. This is the point (1/2, 2), where the relative demand curve intersects the vertical section of the relative supply curve. Thus the equilibrium relative price is 2.c. Home produces only apples, Foreign produces only bananas, and each coun

9、try trades some of its product for the product of the other country.d. In the absence of trade, Home could gain three bananas by foregoing two apples, and Foreign could gain by one apple foregoing five bananas. Trade allows each country to trade two bananas for one apple. Home could then gain four b

10、ananas by foregoing two apples while Foreign could gain one apple by foregoing only two bananas. Each country is better off with trade.4. The increase in the number of workers at Home shifts out the relative supply schedule such that the corner points are at (1, 3/2) and (1, 5) instead of (1/2, 3/2)

11、 and (1/2, 5). The intersection of the relative demand and relative supply curves is now in the lower horizontal section, at the point (2/3, 3/2). In this case, Foreign still gains from trade but the opportunity cost of bananas in terms of apples for Home is the same whether or not there is trade, s

12、o Home neither gains nor loses from trade. 5. This answer is identical to that in 3. The amount of effective labor has not changed since the doubling of the labor force is accompanied by a halving of the productivity of labor.6. This statement is just an example of the pauper labor argument discusse

13、d in the chapter. The point is that relative wage rates do not come out of thin air; they are determined by comparative productivity and the relative demand for goods. The box in the chapter provides data which shows the strong connection between wages and productivity. Koreas low wage presumably re

14、flects the fact that Korea is less productive than the United States in most industries. As the test example illustrated, a highly productive country that trades with a less productive, low-wage country will raise, not lower, its standard of living. 7. The problem with this argument is that it does

15、not use all the information needed for determining comparative advantage in production: this calculation involves the four unit labor requirements (for both the industry and service sectors, not just the two for the service sector). It is not enough to compare only services unit labor requirements.

16、If als als*, Home labor is more efficient than foreign labor in services. While this demonstrates that the United States has an absolute advantage in services, this is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for determining comparative advantage. For this determination, the industry ratios ar

17、e also required. The competitive advantage of any industry depends on both the relative productivities of the industries and the relative wages across industries.8. While Japanese workers may earn the equivalent wages of U.S. workers, the purchasing power of their income is one-third less. This impl

18、ies that although w=w* (more or less), pp* (since 3p=p*). Since the United States is considerably more productive in services, service prices are relatively low. This benefits and enhances U.S. purchasing power. However, many of these services cannot be transported and hence, are not traded. This im

19、plies that the Japanese may not benefit from the lower U.S. services costs, and do not face an international price which is lower than their domestic price. Likewise, the price of services in United States does not increase with the opening of trade since these services are non-traded. Consequently,

20、 U.S. purchasing power is higher than that of Japan due to its lower prices on non-traded goods. 9. Gains from trade still exist in the presence of nontraded goods. The gains from trade decline as the share of nontraded goods increases. In other words, the higher the portion of goods which do not en

21、ter international marketplace, the lower the potential gains from trade. If transport costs were high enough so that no goods were traded then, obviously, there would be no gains from trade. 10. The world relative supply curve in this case consists of a step function, with as many steps (horizontal

22、portions) as there are countries with different unit labor requirement ratios. Any countries to the left of the intersection of the relative demand and relative supply curves export the good in which they have a comparative advantage relative to any country to the right of the intersection. If the i

23、ntersection occurs in a horizontal portion then the country with that price ratio produces both goods.Chapter 31. Texas and Louisiana are states with large oil-producing sectors. The real wage of oil-producing factors of production in terms of other goods falls when the price of oil falls relative t

24、o the price of other goods. This was the source of economic decline in these states in 1986.2. To analyze the economys production possibility frontier, consider how the output mix changes as labor is shifted between the two sectors.a. The production functions for goods 1 and 2 are standard plots wit

25、h quantities on the vertical axis, labor on the horizontal axis, and Q1= Q1(K1,L1) with slope equal to the MPL1, and on another graph, Q2= Q2(K2,L2) with slope equal to the MPL2.Figure 3-1b. To graph the production possibilities frontier, combine the production function diagrams with the economys al

26、location of labor in a four quadrant diagram. The economys PPF is in the upper right hand corner, as is illustrated in the four quadrant diagram above. The PPF is curved due to declining marginal product of labor in each good.3. a. To solve this problem, one can graph the demand curve for labor in s

27、ector 1, represented by (w=MPL1=demand for L1) and the demand curve for labor in sector 2, represented by (w=MPL2=demand for L2) . Since the total supply of labor is given by the horizontal axis, the labor allocation between the sectors is approximately L1=27 and L2=73. The wage rate is approximatel

28、y $0.98.Figure 3-2b. Use the same type of graph as in problem 2b to show that sectoral output is Q1=44 and Q2=90. (This involves combining the production function diagrams with the economys allocation of labor in a four quadrant diagram. The economys PPF is in the upper right hand corner, as illustr

29、ated in the text.)c. Use a graph of labor demands, as in part a, to show that the intersection of the demand curves for labor occurs at a wage rate approximately equal to $0.74. The relative decline in the price of good 2 caused labor to be reallocated: labor is drawn out of production of good 2 and

30、 enters production of good 1 (L1=62, L2=38). This also leads to an output adjustment, whereby production of good 2 falls to 68 units and production of good 1 rises to 76 units.d. With the relative price change from p2/p1=2 to p2/p1=1, the price of good 2 has fallen by 50 percent, while the price of

31、good 1 has stayed the same. Wages have fallen, but by less than the fall in p2 (wages fell approximately 25 percent). Thus, the real wage relative to p2 actually rises while to real wage relative to p1 falls. Hence, to determine the welfare consequences for workers, information is needed about their

32、 consumption shares of good 1 and good 2.4. The box diagram presented below is a useful tool for showing the effects of increasing the supply of the mobile factor of production, labor.a. For an economy producing two goods, X and Y, with labor demands reflected by their marginal revenue product curves, there is an initial wage of w1 and an initial labor allocation of Lx=OxA and Ly=OyA. When the supply of labor increases, the right boundary of this diagram is pushed out to Oy. The demand for labor in sector Y is pulled rightward with the boundary. The new intersection of the labor de