Ask an Economist

I’m an applied economist, and I have found both graduate school and my job to be challenging, varied, rewarding, and, I hope, impactful. Economics gives us a useful set of skills, and an intuitive way to understand the world.

Thank you for your question. This is a classic example of how economic reasoning and distributional impacts come into play in pricing decisions.

Tariffs by the US hurt Americans, somewhat, when they want to purchase imported goods (because tariffs are akin to a tax on imported goods).

You raise a wonderful point. In a globalized world, countries produce goods in which they have some sort of comparative advantage.

Countries are not taxing other countries or their governments; they are setting up a machinery (the entire system of tariffs) to tax the companies of foreign nations who wish to sell foreign-made products in the country.

When Canada retaliates, as you observe correctly, Canadians pay more for American goods yes, but that action also hurts US companies trying to sell American goods to Canada.

It is difficult to be exact about the effects of such mass layoffs of federal employees (although some people have had their jobs reinstated).

Even though economic theory suggests that consumer behavior can be rationalized through a utility function, a growing body of research explores the role of sociodemographic, psychological, emotional, and cognitive factors in decision-making.

The scenario you describe is entirely possible although economists believe a whole new set of jobs will be created once AI takes over our lives.

To begin, for those not familiar with it, Alexander’s book is an examination of the economic decline of Lancaster, Ohio, a city dependent especially on Anchor Hocking Glass.  Like many smaller cities throughout the American Midwest that were

Economics, broadly speaking, is not a predictive subject, certainly not in the way, say, meteorology is. Meteorology is very useful at predicting both short-and long term weather, when it will rain, will we get snow or a tornado, etc.

First of all, the question is related to an IRS rule and is technical.

Rent-to-buy agreements are highly tailored to each situation.

Many small cities have struggled economically in the past half century, especially in the Midwest with previously manufacturing-heavy local economies.

Without the transitivity assumption, an economic agent can exhibit preference cycles, leading to potential risk-free arbitrage opportunities.

There are some very good resources on the web that answer many questions about student debt.

No, the increase in national debt is not subtracted from GDP. (Debt, per se, is not productive.) But interest payments on outstanding debt enter GDP as government expenses, as G in Y = C+I+G. 

Thanks for this question. First, I would like to point out that the electric rates are regulated.

The calculation of real income involves regularly updating the basket of goods and services to ensure it remains relevant and accurate.

Your understanding of Quarterly and Annual data is correct.