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
Income is the return of factors, such as labor, human capital and physical capital, that you own and exchange with other agents in the economy.
Inflation is the rate of change of the price level (i.e., the “cost of living” as measured in dollars). The standard framework economists use to understand price changes is supply versus demand. For example, if supply of an item (i.e.,
Currencies that are fully pegged to USD will continue to buy the same amount of US dollars. So a peg, by definition, keeps the exchange rate fixed against the base currency, which in this case is USD.
This is an interesting question with a complicated answer.
Similar to the response of your AP Micro teacher -- part (potentially a large part) of the gender wage gap can be accounted for by the differences in the fields and positions that working men and women hold in the workforce.
The RR is one instrument the Fed uses to control money supply or the amount of money in circulation. The Fed deems that the other instruments, such as open market operations, are better.
To my knowledge, there is no requirement that new regulations be first subject to a cost-benefit analysis in the State of Iowa. This is in contrast to the federal government which under Executive Order 12866[1]
Healthcare and healthcare insurance in the United States have been the focus of much research by hundreds of health economics in the last several decades. There are many complex economic issues involved.
An interesting question that I’m not sure there’s a precise answer to, especially given my limited knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons, so I’ll try to unpack some of intuition around money supply.
This is a very interesting question and one I'm sure a lot of people are seeking an answer to. Admittedly, the 7.6% interest rate is pretty high and it adds up to a significant amount of money over the course of six years.
You have asked several important questions.
This is a very difficult question to answer but certainly an important one! Unfortunately, the pandemic has had some very sudden and very negative effects on our economy.
The question of Africa uniting is not a theoretical one; indeed, there are ongoing efforts toward regional integration and economic cooperation.
Some of the highest paid pro athletes today are paid $30-40 million per year. For example, Lebron James (NBA) just signed a two-year extension with the Lakers at over $40 million/year.
There are many reasons a student might choose to study economics, and consequently many different types of extra-curricular activities you might want to pursue.
A negative externality often describes a situation where a power plant or a farmer's production led to pollution and lost ecosystem services.
Increases in the minimum wage tend to cause firms to raise wages for those whose wages were initially above the new minimum in order to maintain the former pay hierarchy. The biggest effect is on workers closest to the minimum wage.
Florida is putting a minimum wage to a referendum of voters. The proposed minimum wage policy would raise the minimum wage from its current $8.86 to $10.00 per hour effective September 30th, 2021.
Economists are said to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I actually think that's backward. Figuring out the price is tough.
The easiest way to respond to this question is to answer in the context of custom feedyards that are included in the ISU Beef Feedlot Monitor - ...
Continue Reading AnswerChina mainly cuts corporate tax and fees (no tax cut for individuals) during the COVID-19 epidemic period so that firms could have incentive to increase the production compared to the scenario without tax and fee cuts.
1. A mainstream neoclassical synthesis economist would say that this system can be doable but it has what we would call a lot of incentive compatibility problems.
If the principle has a name, I suppose it would be DIVERSIFICATION.
Individual consumers have different preferences and information, which guide those individuals to choose what is best for themselves.
The idea underlying diversification is to achieve a desired expected rate of return at the smallest possible risk.