Ask an Economist
Would the transition be better if I pursued pure mathematics instead, because my experiences has been lately in proof making? What can I look forward to? How and what should I be looking into, to start off, if economics is a good choice? I am a highly curious person. Plus, I have worked hard, I have been doing pure mathematics on my own since 2004 until presently; but, it has been slow going; so, I thought that by going into something that has a better return in investments of my intellectual energy, I should try microeconomics?
The prospect of a mid-life career change would be daunting for anyone. In the end, you’ll have to make that difficult decision on your own. But I can give you a few tips on how you might begin to explore whether a career in economics...
After about a month when the commodity has less than 2 weeks of shelf life it may be sold at .69/lb and then discarded after another week.
1) Why would the store not further discount these items at let's say .30/lb to clear the complete stock? ( I understand it is so as not to let the global/US prices of the commodity go down.)
2) Is wasting better for the store than to sell it at a discount?
3) Even if customers stop buying fresh commodity and start to wait until the price goes down to .30/lb. Isn't it economically profitable to the store to actually sell it than waste it ?
Thanks
Food waste arises from preferences, incentives, and constraints. Retailers have time and other resource constraints which implies that it simply will not be worth it to sell every last item of food in every instance. It can be said that there is...
Okay, so this is going to be a really stupid question but I need to know the answer to this. There is a message board about collecting video games and we got into a argument about the definition of the word "rarity." With these games, we all know the exact amount of copies printed for each title. Say Game A has 2000 copies printed and Game B has 5000 copies printed. Assuming that no copies are lost or destroyed, Game A will always be rarer, correct? Someone else is arguing that the availability of copies on the secondary market changes this.
If Game A has 20 copies available on the marketplace right now and Game B only has 2 copies, would Game B be considered to be rarer overall? At that moment in time, sure, but overall, I would say no. Are either of us correct? Would the monetary value of the game on the secondary market change the definition of rarity? Thanks for your time!
In the strictest (or standard) sense of the word, you would be correct that game A is “rarer”, given that there are fewer of these in existence than game B. However, the other person is not totally wrong because, in the words of economists, the “...
Thank you
Projects like temples and pyramids, as with public monuments today, represent a choice about how labor effort in a society is directed. Some labor is required to produce food, shelter and clothing that are necessities for sustaining life. Beyond...
https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/doud-china-is-stockpiling-world-s-grain-supplies
Mr Doud, the chief agricultural negotiator for the U.S. trade representative, has put out statistics saying that China has been stockpiling large amounts of the world’s residual supplies of grains and other commodities and says that stockpiling these commodities is “depressing prices for every other farmer across the globe,”. But why would stockpiling lead to depressing prices? It would seem to me that taking residual commodities off the market (stockpiling) would have the opposite effect; that it would create greater competition for the remaining supplies, which would lead to higher prices.
The impact of stockpiling commodities on prices depends on the timeframe. While the stockpiling is occurring, your reasoning is accurate. The stockpiling is removing supplies from the market, creating more intense competition for the remaining...
Inflation is the natural outcome of price changes brought about by market forces and governmental forces. It is the rate of change in the price level that, in a country like the U.S., is entirely determined by market forces and the actions of the...
Bitcoin itself doesn't affect global financial markets very much now. It has been used with some unlawful activities such as purchasing drug and money laundering. It certainly can be and have been used to violate capital regulation law in some...
You could allow the group to report this to the station master and get a Rs. 25 award. You could randomly check buses unannounced. You could offer a bonus to the ticket master for every ticket he has proof of having sold.
The writer has already shown that a good argument can be made either way. There is no correct answer the way the question is framed. The friends will debate the question until the restaurant closes. So, let's give them something else to debate...
The Iowa State University Estimated Livestock Returns (http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/estimated-returns/) provides estimates of cattle finishing and hog production costs and returns. The...
First, it is important to understand the difference between a few concepts. The demand is a function that describes that the quantity demanded (consumption) declines as the price increases. That is, the demand is the relationship between the...
I teach an Economics of Sports class here at Iowa State University. In my class, we discuss the economic structure of the NCAA and professional sports leagues in the U.S. You are correct that the NCAA is a cartel and so is a...
There are really two questions here: (1) what are the causes of economic fluctuations, generally? And (2) what role do wars and military spending play in these fluctuations?
Answering the first question is beyond the scope of this...
I am trying to calculate GDP for countries and the numbers dont seem to add up.
I am using the formula GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government spending + Imports - exports
I am using the example of France
It has a GDP about 2500 bn dollars per year.
Thus the components of C, I, G and X-Y should equal about 2500 right?
These are the figures that I have found
C = 1360, Investment = 20 per cent of GDP ie around 500, G= 1370
Frances trade balance is negative to about 55 bn per year and government borrowing is 85 bn
So if you calculate 1360 + 500 + 1370 - 55 - 85 you end up with 3090 which is more that 20 per cent more than the published figure.
So where am I going wrong in my calculations?
I was thinking it was something to do with PPP v nominal dollar values but the difference between the two is only 10 per cent whereas my figures differ by more than 20 per cent
Thanks for any help
Mick Cooke
Figures are from
C = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_consumer_markets
I = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gross_fixed_investment_as_percentage_of_GDP
G = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_government_budget
X-Y = http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/fra/
The main problem with your calculation is that you are using as "G" the French government's budgetary expenditure, which most likely includes large transfer payments. Transfer payments are not part of GDP. Another problem is that you are...
This question is in two parts: 1) How prevalent is the requirement for 100% giving of any amount; and 2) Do organizations raise more money if there is a 100% giving expectation?
Let me begin by stating that I’m not aware of any research...
The answer is no. It is not correct to conclude that Bukina Faso’s economy is supported by only 15% of the population. It is a common challenge in developing countries to appropriately account for employment and the economic contributions of a...
Effectively, you are asking: how can there be different prices across countries within the same currency zone? This may sound surprising because within the Euro common currency, for example, we label regions as countries and there is a price...
The American Communities Survey provides information on median household income
This is before taxes and transfers
American Fact Finder
I wanted to value a high-tech start-up of which I have the cash flows of the coming 6 years. I am not a VC just a post-grad student, so I decided to use the discounted cash flow method. To do so, I calculated the discount rate. For a high-tech start- up the discount rate = Rate of equity (which can be determined by the capital asset pricing model). So I calculated my discount rate, used it in the DCF model, and found an approximation of the value of the high-tech firm.
But I didn't take into consideration that the company sells their products globally. This fact has an impact on its beta factor, and consequently on the discount rate, and finally on the value of the firm!
One option is to use the International CAPM model, but my company is going to sell globally, so how do I know the impact of that to the discount rate? Any help would be very appreciated.
Thanks
If your company is based in the U.S., the valuation should be based on the standard CAPM. However, barring exceptional circumstances, one would expect the beta of such a firm to be closer to zero than the beta of an otherwise identical firm...
Let me start by reminding you that GDP is a measure of the total amount of goods and services produced in an economy, say the USA, in a year. So it sums the total value in dollars of everything that has been produced in the country in a given...
Let me start by saying that I have expertise in the economics of commercial fishing. I cannot speak to whether GDP will increase next year. If GDP does rise, there may be channels by which commercial boat building and therefore boat ownership...
GDP is the final $ value of all final goods and services produced in a year. Even if a service exists to help compliance with a regulation, it is included because the provision of that service, such as that performed by a tax attorney, is income...
Social welfare maximization in economics typically refers to the correct allocation of scare resources to agents (firms, individuals) so as to generate the maximum possible utility (or other criterion) for the agents. The term has no negative...
Minimum wages are wage floors set by law, not by the market. They, however, are subject to political pressure from citizens. If, say, hypothetically, all immigration, legal or otherwise, was stopped, then there would be a stronger demand to hire...
Also, is there a name for the sub-field of economics that studies how demographics is related to economy?
The question of how demographics relate to economic issues (e.g., poverty, economic growth) has been at the forefront of economics ever since its infancy as a science. For instance, Rev. Malthus (1766-1834) controversially suggested that...
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