Thinking Like an Economist

JIUJIANG UNIVERSITY

《微观经济学》

2011-2012学年第二学期 期中考试

类 别 案例研究（或习题分析）

英文题目 Thinking Like an Economist

院 系 商 学 院

专 业 国际经济与贸易

姓 名

班 级 A1113

学 号

演讲日期：第 4 周 星期三

Thinking Like an Economics

Part1: REVIEW QUESTIONS

1.A friend of yours on the tennis team says, “Private tennis lessons are definitely better than group lessons.”explain what you think he means by this statement. Then use the Cost-benefit Principle to explain why private lessons are not necessarily the best choice for everyone

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2. True or false: your willingness to drive downtown to save $30 on a new appliance should depend on what fraction of the total selling price $30 is. Explain.

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3.Why might someone who is trying to decide weather to see a movie be more likely to focus on the $10 ticket price than on the $20 she would fail to earn by not babysitting？

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4.Many people think of their air travel as being free when they use frequent—flyer coupons. Explain why this people are likely to make wasteful travel decisions.

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5. Is the nonrefundable tuition payment you made to your university is semester a sunk cost? How would you answer differ if your university were to offer a full tuition refund to any student who dropper out of school during the first who months of the semester?

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1.The most you would be willing to pay for having a freshly washed car before going out on a date of $6.The smallest amount for which you would be willing to wash someone else’s car is $3.50.You are going out this evening and your car is dirty. How much economic surplus would receive from washing it?

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2. To earn extra money in the summer ,you grow tomatoes and sell them at the farmers’ market for 30 cent per pound. By adding compost to your garden ,you can increase your yield as shown in the table below .If compost costs 50 cents per pound and your goal is to make as much money as possible, how many pounds of compost should you add?

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3. Residents of your city are charged a fixed weekly fee of $6 for garbage

collection. They are allowed to put out as many cars as they wash. The average household disposes of three cans of garbage per week under this plan. Now suppose that your city changes to a “tag” system. Each can refuse to be collected must have a tag affixed to it. The tags cost $2 each and are not reusable. What effect do you think the introduction of the bag system will have on the total quantity of garbage collected in your city? Explain briefly.

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4. Once a week, Smith purchase a six-pack of coal and puts it in his refrigerator for his tow children. He invariably discovers that all six cans are gone on the first day. Jones also purchases a six-pack of coal once a week for his two children, but unlike Smith, he tells them that each may drink no more than three cans. If the children use cost-benefit analysis each time they decide whether to drink a can of coal, explain the coal lasts much longer at Jones’s house than at Smith’s.

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5. Tom is a mushroom farmer. He invests all his space cash in additional mushrooms, which grow on otherwise useless land behind his barn. The mushrooms double in weight during their fist year, after which time they are harvested and sold at a constant price per pound. Tom’s friend Dick asks Tom for a loan of $200, which he promises to repay after 1 year. How much interest will Dick have to pay Tom in order for Tom to recover his opportunity cost of making the loan? Explain briefly

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6. Suppose that in the last few you devoted to question 1 on your physics exam you earned 4 extra points, while in the last few seconds you devoted to question 2 you earned 10 extra points. You earned the total of 48 and 12 points, respectively, on the tow questions and the total time you spent on each was the same. If you could take the exam again, how-if at all-should you reallocate your time between these question ?

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7. Martha and Sarah have the same preferences and incomes. Just as Martha arrived at the theater to see a play, she discovered that she had lost $10 ticket she had purchased earlier. Sarah also just arrived at the theater planning to buy a ticket to see the same play when she discovered that she had lost a $10 bill from her wallet. If both Martha and Sarah are rational and both still have enough money to pay for a ticket, is one of them more likely then the other to go ahead and see the play anyway?

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8. You and your friend Joe have identical tastes. At 2 P.M., you go to the local Ticketmaster outlet and buy a $30 ticket to a basketball game to be played that night in Syracuse, 50 miles north of your home in Ithaca. Joe plans to attend the same game, but because he cannot get to the Ticketmaster outlet, he plans to buy

his ticket at the game. Tickets sold at the game cost only $25 because they carry no Ticketmaster surcharge. (many people nonetheless pay the higher price at Ticketmaster, to be sure of getting good seats.) at 4 P.M., an unexpected snowstorm begins, making the prospect of the prospect of the drive to Syracuse much less attractive then before (but assuring the availability of good seats ). If both you and Joe are rational, is one of you more likely to attend the game than other?

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9. For each long-distance call anywhere in the continental United States ,a new phone service will charge user 30 cents per minute for the first 2 minutes and 2 cents per minute for additional minutes in each call. Tom’s current phone service charges 10 cents per minute for all calls ,and his calls are never shorter than 7 minutes .If Tom’s dorm switches to the new phone service, what will happen to the average length of his calls?

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10. The meal plan at university A lets students eat as much as they like for a fixed fee of $500 per semester. The average student there eats 250 pounds of food per semester .University B charge $500 for a book of meal tickets that entitles the students to eat 250 pounds of food per semester. If the student eats more than 250 pounds, he or she pays $2 for each additional pound ;If the students eats less, he or she gets a $2 per pound refund. If students are rational, at which university

will average food consumption be higher? Explain briefly.

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