Francis Michaud Econ-103 Assignment
Fall 2018 Econ-103
Assignment Due: November 28th, 2019
Homework: Article
Instructions:
1- Select one article that relates to an economic subject. The article should be long
enough to allow you to complete this assignment. However, there is no minimal (or
maximum) length to the article that you select. You can also select a small portion of
a book if you want.
To help you, I include some potential articles here (but feel free to choose a different
one if you want). Unfortunately, you cannot pick an article on the minimum wage
since Ive already presented an example using such an article (You can discuss with
me, if you think your discussion would be different from mine).
a. Proposed Article 1: Empty Shelves in Venezuela
Things you should consider: What is going on in
Venezuela? What kind of policies is the government using?
What is the impact of such a policy from an economic point
of view (Use graphs to help you answer)?
b. Proposed Article 2: Trump’s Tariffs
Things you should consider: What is a tariff? How do they
affect the economy? Who benefits and who suffers from
tariffs (Use graphs to help you answer)?
c. Proposed Article 3: Carbon Tax
Things to you should consider: What is a Carbon tax? What
kind of market failure is the tax trying to address? What is
the impact of not having a tax from an economic point of
view (Use graphs to help you answer)?
Once you selected an article, you should:
a. Summarize the article in roughly 0.5 to 1.5 pages (Line Spacing 1.5 lines).
b. Explain some of the economic concepts that the article is presenting using
the material seen in class in roughly 1 to 2 pages. (Graphs do not count
towards the number of required pages.)
https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21640395-government-offers-no-solutions-mounting-economic-crisis-empty-shelves-and-rhetoric
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-43512098
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-it-works-sort-of-what-canada-can-learn-from-bcs-carbon-tax/
Francis Michaud Econ-103 Assignment
2- Presentation: Your assignment should look professional. It should include:
a. A title page (with Instructor name, Course name, Institution name, your name,
date and assignment name).
b. Make sure that you proofread the document. Some mistakes are acceptable,
but mistakes in every sentences are not.
c. A header at the bottom of each page with your name and the assignment
name.
d. A bibliography with at least 2 references used to complete the assignment.
3- The assignment will be submitted no later than November 28th, 2019 at the
beginning of class. Feel free to submit your assignment at any time before this date if
it is completed. An assignment that is submitted pass the above mentioned deadline
will be penalized at a rate of 10% per day, starting immediately after the beginning of
class.
4- If points 1, 2 or 3 above are not respected, in part or in full, the instructor reserves
the right to refuse your assignment. Furthermore, you should ask yourself this basic
question: Would Francis submit a report that looks like this to his boss? If the
answer to this very simple question is No your assignment will not be accepted.
a. If the instructor refuses your document, it will be returned to you within 48
hours of submission. You will forfeit 20% of the full mark on the
assignment and will be given 72 hours to submit an acceptable copy of your
assignment.
b. If this second submission is of unacceptable quality, it will not be graded and
you will be awarded 0% on your assignment for Econ-103.
Francis Michaud Econ-103 Assignment
Assignment 1:
The Minimum Wage and its
Impact on welfare.
Assignment Presented by:
Francis Michaud
C*******
Econ 103
Principles of Microeconomics
Submitted to:
Francis Michaud
Camosun College
October 10th, 2019
Francis Michaud Econ-103 Assignment
Part A (Roughly 1 page of text):
For this assignment, I selected the following two articles The argument in the floor and How the
minimum wage promotes ageism.
The first article discusses the debate in economics regarding the minimum wage. One side of the
argument, using the basic logic that was introduced in the course, argues that the minimum wage
hurts the poor. For this reason, many economists oppose minimum wages. On the other side of the
debate are economists who argue that because firms have monopsony power, the minimum wage
may actually improve both employment and pay. Until the 1990s, most economists sided towards
the traditional argument that the minimum wage hurts the poor.
However, in the 1990s, Card and Krueger published novel research that seemed to imply that the
consensus opinion was wrong. They found that following an increase in the minimum wage in
New Jersey, not only did wage go up, employment also increased! Economists on both sides of
the argument started publishing research papers on the subject and today the debate has matured.
The article goes on to describe some of the research done on both sides of this debate. Finally, they
discuss the introduction of the minimum wage in the U.K. Apparently, the minimum wage in the
U.K. boosted wages across the income distribution and reduced inequalities.
They go on to discuss that bastions of economic orthodoxy, like the IMF or the OECD now argue
that a moderate minimum wage does no harm and probably does some good.
The second article reviews a research article that argues that a different minimum wage, based on
age, may lead to unemployment for young workers. It includes two graphs that show the salary of
workers as they approach and pass 18 years old and the unemployment rate for these workers. The
author spends a significant amount of time discussing the discontinuity (the jump in
unemployment) and other controls that the authors of the research paper used. He concludes that
the minimum wage change probably causes the unemployment jump that is observed.
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2012/11/24/the-argument-in-the-floor
https://fee.org/articles/how-the-minimum-wage-promotes-ageism/?utm_source=zapier&utm_medium=facebook
https://fee.org/articles/how-the-minimum-wage-promotes-ageism/?utm_source=zapier&utm_medium=facebook
Francis Michaud Econ-103 Assignment
Part B (Roughly 1.5 pages of text):
Both articles discuss the impact of a minimum wage. As such, I begin by discussing what we have
seen in class about this subject. For this section, I propose that you follow using the following
graph:
If we consider the market for unskilled labour, we have the demand for labour (Firms that wish to
hire unskilled labour) and the supply of labour (Workers who are looking for a job). If the
government imposes a binding price floor on this market the price of labour, the wage, will move
from ??? to ??????. (Ragan, 2017, p. 93)
Notice, that it is important that the price floor be binding. A non-binding price floor would be set
below the equilibrium wage (???). However, it would not have any impact on the market for
unskilled labour. (Ragan, 2017, p. 93)
Once the price floor is set, there will be an excess supply of labour (Ragan, 2017, p.96). The
quantity supplied of labour will be ???? and the quantity demanded will be ????. This will lead to
??
??
???? ????
??????
???
D
S
??
?? ??
Francis Michaud Econ-103 Assignment
unemployment as much more workers are looking for work (????) than firms who are willing to hire
them (????).
Finally, we can find the Consumer Surplus and the Producer Surplus before and after the policy.
It is clear from our graph that the consumer surplus shrunk. It was area A+B+C on our graph
initially and now it is only area A. However, we cannot conclude if the Producer Surplus (The
surplus that goes to workers) increased or decreased after the implementation of the policy. The
producer surplus went from area D+E to area D+B. It is unclear if area B will be smaller or greater
than area E (It will depend on the slope and intercepts for the demand and supply curves). I believe
that this is the argument from the opponents of the minimum wage. The minimum wage boosts
the wage of unskilled workers but decreases total employment and increases unemployment. It is
impossible to say if the impact will be positive or negative for workers.
The article also discusses the idea that economists have been arguing about this issue for a long
time (I could discuss the difference between normative and positive statements here, but I leave it
out to give you things to discuss in your own assignment). I believe the reason this debate as lasted
for so long is that it can be hard to distinguish between correlation and causation. Causation arises
when 1 variable causes another variable to change while correlation arises when 2 variables move
together (Ragan, 2017, p.31). It is important to understand that with correlation the relationship
between 2 variables might be purely based on luck. This makes it hard for economists to establish
if the changes in unemployment and wages are caused by the minimum wage or simply a
correlation. I used the second article because it demonstrate this point quite clearly. The author
spends a lot of effort trying to argue that other variables were accounted for or that no other
discontinuity exist. I believe the author is doing this to convince the reader that the link between
the change in the minimum wage and unemployment is in fact causal and not simply a correlation.
Francis Michaud Econ-103 Assignment
Bibliography:
I leave my bibliography out, I believe you have enough sources to figure out how to complete it.
Francis Michaud Econ-103 Assignment
Grading Rubric:
Grade 0 3 5
Presentation
An element from point 2
(presentation) is missing.
3 or more of the elements
from point 2 (presentation)
were not of the expected
standard.
1 or 2 elements from
point 2 (presentation)
were not of the
expected standard.
All elements from
point 2 (presentation)
were of the expected
standard.
Grade 0 6 10
Party A:
Summary
The summary is missing.
Some of the ideas in the
article are not summarized
correctly or are simply
wrong.
Many important points of
the article were omitted.
The summary is present
but some minor
mistakes (1 or 2) in
summarizing the article
were made. These
mistakes do not alter
the meaning of the
article.
The summary omits an
important point of the
article.
The article is perfectly
summarized. All of
the major points of the
article are present.
Part B:
Discussion
The discussion is missing.
The discussion is factually
wrong on 3 or more minor
points. The writer did not
demonstrate understanding
of these concepts.
The discussion is factually
wrong on 1 or more major
points. The writer did not
demonstrate understanding
of these concepts.
The discussion was
done.
It present no major
mistakes. It might be
factually wrong on 1 to
3 minor points.
The discussion was
done.
There are no mistakes
in the discussion.
Applied Sciences
Architecture and Design
Biology
Business & Finance
Chemistry
Computer Science
Geography
Geology
Education
Engineering
English
Environmental science
Spanish
Government
History
Human Resource Management
Information Systems
Law
Literature
Mathematics
Nursing
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Reading
Science
Social Science
Home
Homework Answers
Blog
Archive
Tags
Reviews
Contact
twitterfacebook
Copyright © 2022 SweetStudy.com
