The One-Handed Economist

So today I received an email from some student in an intro economics class wanting me to, I think, complete a review sheet for him/her and return it. Either this is the laziest student in the world or VikingMoose is running some sort of experiment to see how I respond to such inquiries. The answer below the fold. The portions from the email are pasted without edits, so imagine how sad the questionable grammatical skill of the author makes me. I weep for the future.

i am a student studying economics,i was wondering if you could help me out with some answers please.they are multiple choice questions and i have been doin revision and i want to confirm my answers are correct or nt.if you could please reply with the answers i would be very grateful!!!i no this is alot to ask……

my exam is on the 15th of jan,would be grateful to recieve a reply before then.

1.which of the following would cause a shift in supply?
a)income level of consumers change
b)the price of production inputs change
c)the production technology changes
d)both b and c are correct.

Answer: This is the kind of thing that should be so bloody obvious that I would beat any child over the age of 10 for failing to identify the answer correctly. That you’ve decided some random person on the internet should hand you this on a silver platter indicates exactly how pathetic you are.

2.if the price of a complement good increases,we would expect equilibrium quantity to ____ and the equilibrium price to ____?
a)increase,increase
b)increase,decrease
c)decrease:increase
d)decrease,decrease

Answer: Believe it or not this exact same question was on an exam for my intro micro class back in the day. I got it right. Because it is easy, why don’t you try looking up the definition of a complementary good and then using your little brain for a few seconds.

3.the opportunity cost of anything is measured by :
a)value of every other alternative available
b)the highest value of foregone alternatives
c)one of above

Answer: I’d pick C here, just to cover all of my bases if this is a multiple guess exam. Opportunity cost is one of the concepts in intro micro econ that people struggle with. People struggle with this concept only if they have no business wasting a valuable seat in an economics course.

4.key diff. between micro and macro economics:
a)examines decision making
b)focus on individual units in economy
c)deals with scarcity
d)looks at resource choices

Answer: Look, there’s only one problem in economics - resources are scarce and wants are unlimited. That doesn’t have anything to do with how to answer this question, but if you think for a minute about what those scary Latinate words micro and macro mean for a second the answer will present itself in due time.

5.if price elasticity is elastic ; total expenditure will_____ as the prce rises:
a)increase
b)decrease
c)stay same
d_depends amount of the price changes

Answer: Actually, I’ll give you a protip - the way you phrased this question is completely redundant. “If prices are elastic” would be a better way to put that together. Again, if you go look up what that means in your little intro text book the answer will become obvious.

6.at a price of $1 tom buys 15 candy bars at a price of $3,he would buy7.toms ara elasticity of demand would be:
a)-11/8
b)-8/11
c)-1/4
d)-4

Answer: Look, fine, okay, elasticity is the slope of the DEMAND KURVE. There, now you can answer that question using basic algebra that you should’ve learned when you were ten. The end.

7.two goods are complements if:
a decrease in the price of one reduces demand for other
(is this correct?)

Answer: No, you’re an idiot. You may, in fact, be made entirely of FAIL.

8.the firms short run marginal cost is the change in the shot run:
a)total cost due to the use of one more unit of output
b)average cost due to the use of one more unit of output
c)total cost due to the prodcution of one more unit of output (answer?)
d)avg.cost due to the production of one more unit on output

Answer: I hope to whatever cosmic forces you hold dear that you’re an ESL student because you didn’t even type this question up in a way that makes it clear, you may be missing a preposition. Actually, you’re probably not missing a preposition, I am missing it, you’ve likely been lobotomized and can no longer feel normal human emotions like loss. I’d pity you if I thought you’d care. And none of those answers is exactly right, by the by, total, average and marginal costs are all different things.

8.given tht a firm is a price taker the ____ the marginal physical prodcut,the_____ the marginal cost of output
a)higher,higher
b)lower.lower
c)lower.higher
d)none —

Answer: Again with the question that doesn’t really make any sense. If your marginal physical product is high you should probably stop feeding it peyote and quaaludes. If a firm is a price taker they generally end up at P=MC as the profit maximizing value (presuming the market model is one of those intro perfect competition deals that only exist on chalkboards). Meaning they’ll keep producing until the marginal cost is equal to the market price and supernormal profits will be zero. There, look, one actual answer. Congratulations.

9)a homogeneous good is a good:
with many perfect substitutes?

Answer: Do you hear that? It’s me. Laughing at your utter failure to grasp what the word homogeneous means. Somebody needs an OED, stat. Hey, I’ll actually be nice again for a second because I am still feeling generous: try using this handy website. Honestly, how weak is your google fu?

10)assuming a competitve market,positive profits for firms in the short run will:
a)shift demand function
b)cause the price ofthe input to increase in the longrun
c)cause the total markey quantity of output to decrease in the long run—-
d)cause new firms to enter the market

Answer: If you can’t answer this question you should see about getting that W instead of walking into your exam and facing complete and utter destruction. Honestly, did you just not go to class all semester? Were you drunk?

11)a competitve market is intially in long run equlibrium.there is an increase in market demand for the good.after long run adjustment,the new equlibrium price will be:
a)lowr for a decreasing cost industry
b)higher ” ” ” ” ” ”
c)lower for an increasing cost industry
d)higher ” ” ” ” ” “

Answer: Dude, which way does supply slope? Are you that dense? Have your fraternity brothers not stopped hazing you long enough that you can study a little?

And this goes on like this for another 30 questions or so, and you know what, I’m done. I’m not even going to waste any more of my time making fun of this kid. Could I have answered his/her questions in the time I just wasted mocking them? Probably, but let this be a lesson to anybody with the same lazy approach to learning: you will fail, and I will be glad about it. Toodles.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 3:40 am and is filed under Everyday Economics, Amusement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.