Macroeconomics (ECON 201)
Assignment 1 Questions: Week 2 & Week 3
Case Study:1 (5 Marks)
Read the case “The Minimum Wage” from Chapter 6 “Supply, Demand, and Government Policies” Page: – 117 given in your textbook – “Principles of Macroeconomics”. A case study discusses the federal minimum-wage law.
Questions: 1
⦁ Suppose the minimum wage is above the equilibrium wage in the market for unskilled labor. Using a supply and-demand diagram of the market for unskilled labor, show the market wage, the number of workers who are employed, and the number of workers who are unemployed. Also show the total wage payments to unskilled workers.
⦁ Now suppose the secretary of labor proposes an increase in the minimum wage. What effect would this increase have on employment? Does the change in employment depend on the elasticity of demand, the elasticity of supply, both elasticities, or neither?
⦁ What effect would this increase in the minimum wage have on unemployment? Does the change in unemployment depend on the elasticity of demand, the elasticity of supply, both elasticities, or neither?
⦁ If the demand for unskilled labor were inelastic, would the proposed increase in the minimum wage raise or lower total wage payments to unskilled workers? Would your answer change if the demand for unskilled labor were elastic?
Important Note: – Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories from the textbook.
Questions: 2
⦁ Should a nation tend to export or import goods for which it has a comparative advantage? Explain. Why do economists oppose policies that restrict trade among nations?
⦁ Maria can read 80 pages of economics in an hour. She can also read 40 pages of sociology in an hour. She spends 6 hours per day studying.
⦁ Draw Maria’s production possibilities frontier for reading economics and sociology.
⦁ What is Maria’s opportunity cost of reading 120 pages of sociology?
