Ask an Economist
Welcome to Ask an Economist, a public service of the Department of Economics at Iowa State University, designed to answer your economic questions.
Our talented faculty and alumni can answer questions on a variety of economic topics to help you make more informed choices about your day-to-day decisions--or to just add a more reasoned voice when talk of the economy comes up around the dinner table.
Questions & Answers
Economists always consider it important to identify whether theoretical models effectively explain the real economy. Your question has also been a long-standing one for economists.
I commend your interest in Economics as a discipline. Economics offers powerful insights about many aspects of the way society is organized and provides a helpful way of thinking about many contemporary policy issues.
Let’s start by understanding the numbers (Table 1).
Table 1 |
Like any other taxes, people have different views on luxury tax. Some might view it as a way to raise government revenues without having large impacts on the less wealthy.
Let’s consider the three parties involved with a car sale and its potential repair. The three parties are, the consumer, the firm, and the repairman.
To understand Open Market Operations (OMOs), we first need to understand, Government securities. Government securities are a tradeable instrument issued by the Government (Treasury securities in case of US).
The primary issue you have identified is the shortage of houses, especially those priced below $150,000.
There is nothing wrong with your findings. What you described may happen. It is about the rejection cycles that form in each iteration. During the running of the algorithm, many rejection cycles may occur.
GDP per capita and average family income are two distinct indicators used to evaluate economic performance. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, which vary based on the specific question and context.
Your question is nearly as much philosophical as economic in nature. Philosophy is definitely outside my comfort zone, but, fortunately, I was able to confer with a philosopher. So let me start by addressing that part of your question
“Economic Growth” is the year-on-year increase in a country’s GDP, that is, the total market value of goods and services produced in a year.
A few reasons livestock producers may be interested in selling locally include having:
- an available market
- potential to capture premium prices
- a direct connection with consumers
There is an extensive research record on the role of information on stock and commodity prices. Among the examples:
To start, I’ll clarify a couple pieces of the question. First, from Lacy et al. (2019): A binding price floor is a legal minimum price, set by the government, at which a good can be sold.
Disclaimer. The following is not intended as investment advice. You should consult a financial advisor who knows the tax and real estate issues related to New York City as there are likely many factors to consider.
This is an interesting observation. We regularly see spatial clustering of similar establishments for a number of reasons including natural advantage, agglomeration economies, zoning, social networks, and "norms" shaping location decisions....
Continue Reading AnswerThe BLS reports Consumer Price Indices which are different from nominal prices reported by other sources mentioned in the question.
By definition, revenue equals price of product times the number of units of the product sold.
Most economists would start to answer this question by asking a question: what is the objective you have in mind, and why? Specifically, what problem are you trying to solve for which the solution is a wealth cap?
[The following guidance provided herein is of a generic nature and derived from overarching principles of economics.
Members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) take a broad range of information into account when forming their economic forecasts, including considering how changes to fiscal policies may affect the economy. One way to get a sense of
Thanks for asking. This is a good and long-lasting debated question in Economics. As reported, the recent fertility rate in Canada is around 1.4, which is relatively low because the subsistence level is 2.1.
This is an interesting thought experiment. Many factors must be considered, and it is difficult to address them all at once, but here are some important ones.
According to Motoyama, Sadaki, and Watanabe (2016), "on a global scale, the carcass production of Wagyu is quite limited, equivalent to about 2% of beef carcass production in the United States (11,698,479 t) and Brazil (9,675,000 t), 4% of that...
No, it's not possible; that is, the Federal Reserve can always pay IORB. The reason is simple: unlike an ordinary bank, the Fed's liabilities are in units (dollars) that it creates. Put differently, unlike a private business, the Fed d