Ask an Economic Question

2,583 thoughts on “Ask an Economic Question”

1. Would expansionary fiscal policies be more effective for a large open economy such as USA
   compared to a closed economy such as Russia or a small open economy such as Singapore?

2. explain the five basic point on the indifference curves of the ordinalist utility analysis.

3. who fixes the value of rupee in india ?

4. could pliz send mie some economics past exam papers from 1997-2005 pliz

5. I don’t have a question, but i do have a couple suggestions if you wanted to make a second post with additional concepts on this:

   https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5628/economics/applying-economics-in-everyday-life/

   (I had a third concept as well and I wrote it down, but I didn’t take the paper I wrote it on in with me.)

   1.Distinction between the short run and the long run. Some things that work in the short term don’t work over the long term, though I can’t think of anything that fits that description right now, but also in terms of daily life, in the long run people have the time to adapt or adjust to changes that are much harder to adjust to in the short term.

   2.Asymmetrical information and the related concept of signalling. George Akerlof addressed this with a similar ‘question from everyday life’ in his The Market for Lemons (used cars) but, Asymmetrical information also explains, for instance, why franchise restaurants are found at stops for tourists/travelers along freeways.

   Prior to the rise of Donald Trump, Asymmetrical information was the biggest problem I noted during political campaigns: people know (or think they know) all about the present system, but when an opposition party presents an alternative approach, people can only guess how that would work. This presents an asymmetrical situation between the public knowledge of the governing party and the opposition party and leaves the opposition to be able to say ‘the grass is greener with us’ while, on the other hand, the government replies ‘you’re better with the devil you know.’

   Of course, economists can generally give some answer as to how the opposition party’s alternative approach would work, but, especially these days, many people dismiss economists as ‘elite intellectuals.’

   Also, I don’t know what it’s like in the U.K, but especially in the United States with the rise of what I refer to as ‘television economists’ who usually spout nonsense about their economic forecasting (I’m especially thinking of Larry Kudlow), many people unfortunately dismiss economists as people who go on about future job creation numbers that never actually occur.

   If I did have a question, it would be: why don’t academic economists publicly condemn these economic charlatans? Of course, I don’t know if those ‘television economists’ exist in Great Britain. However, since many of these charlatans work for private companies or for industry associations, I suspect they do.

6. Is it necessary to draw diagrams in every question in the A-Level exams???

   • Not essential. It depends on question and whether a diagram would help illustrate writing.

7. A couple other suggestions for a second post on economics in daily life with two of my favorite economics terms:

   1.Moral hazard. This was a term used frequently a few years ago especially in the United States when some loudmouthed television economist (I think for the Fox ‘News’ business channel) complained about some moral hazard he claimed then newly elected President Obama was pushing for in a piece of legislation around the time of the financial meltdown of 2008 that would have protected average consumers but for some reason this person didn’t complain about moral hazard when the banks (and bankers) were being bailed out.

   2.Dead Weight Loss/Monopoly Cartels/Creative Destruction
   Especially relevant now I think with the so-called ride sharing apps and maybe some other aspects of the ‘sharing economy.’

   This is an article on economics in everyday life:
   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/business/students-ponder-the-economics-of-everyday-life.html

   From that article:
   “The assignment is my response to the distressing finding that six months after having completed a standard introductory economics course, students are no better able to answer questions about basic economic principles than others who have never even taken economics. In standard courses, hundreds of concepts — many of them embedded in complex equations and graphs — often seem to go by in a blur. In contrast, grappling with questions that students care about appears to be a far more effective learning strategy. And that’s in no small part because the problems they pinpoint are so intriguing.”

   My view on the reason for that is similar to his, but a bit different. I think the problem is that economics (and all courses with a heavy mathematics component) are taught with the ‘number crunching’ aspects emphasized far too much, while the concepts and principles themselves are often regarded as what I call a ‘social science sideshow.’ (Actually I just came up with that term.)

   Of course, on the other hand, every economics teacher is an individual and not all of them fall into that trap.

   I also realize that some concepts in economics can only be understood with mathematics.

8. what should we do in S Sudan to improve Economic situation in the country

9. What is a key monetary policy tool available to the monetary policy committee to reduce the inflation rate and the supply of money?

10. How real wages are linked to economic growth and the wider economy ?

11. an economy can grow but not develop I don’t understand this concept how is it possible

12. What is the full meaning of AD in your submission?

    • Aggregate demand (total demand in economy)

13. What factor can deter the effectiveness of these two policies in any economy.

14. what’s are the factors that affect supply and demand

15. Discuss forms of money

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