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Econ 200 Fall 2009 Problem Set 9 1) Suppose that the residents of Vegopia spend all of their income on cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots. In 2003 they buy 100 heads of cauliflower for 200 dollars, 50 bunches of broccoli for 75 dollars and 500 carrots for 50 dollars. In 2004 they buy 75 heads of cauliflower for 225 dollars, 80 bunches of broccoli for 120 dollars and 500 carrots for 100 dollars. If the base year is 2003, what is the CPI in both years? What is the inflation rate in 2004? 2) The New York Times cost 15 cents in 1970 and 75 cents in 2000. The average wage in manufacturing was 3.36 dollars per hour in 1970 and 14.26 dollars in 1999. a. By what percentage did the price of a newspaper rise? b. By what percentage did the wage rise? c. In each year, how many minutes does a worker have to work to earn enough to buy a newspaper? d. Did workers’ purchasing power in thers of newspapers rise or fall? 3) Suppose that a borrower and a lender agree on the nominal interest rate to be paid on a loan. Then inflation turns out to be higher than they both expected. a. Is the real interest rate on this loan higher or lower than expected? Explain. b. Does the lender gain or lose from this unexpectedly high inflation? Does the borrower gain or lose? c. Inflation during the 1970s was much higher than most people had expected when the decade began. How did this affect homeowners who obtained fixed-rate mortgages during the 1960’s? How did it affect the banks who lent the money? 4) What is the opportunity cost of investing in capital? Do you think that a country can “overinvest” in capital? What is the opportunity cost of investing in human capital? Do you think that a country can “over-invest” in human capital? Explain. 5) Between 2003 and 2004, total US employment increased by 1.5 million workers, but the number of unemployed workers declined by only 0.6 million. How are these numbers consistent with each other? Why might one expect a reduction in the number of people counted as unemployed to be smaller than the increase in the number of people employed? 6) The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that in January 2006 of all adult Americans 142,076,000 were employed, 7,497,000 were unemployed, and 76,580,000 were not in the labor force. Use this information to calculate a. the adult population b. the labor force c. the labor force participation rate d. the unemployment rate 7) The Federal Reserve conducts a 10 million open market purchase of government bonds. If the required reserve ratio is 10 percent, what is the largest possible increase in the money supply that could result? Explain. What is the smallest possible increase? Explain. 8) Suppose that the T-account for First National Bank is as follows: Assets Liabilities Reserves: $ 100,000 Deposits: $ 500,000 Loans: $ 400,000 a. If the Fed requires banks to hold 5 percent of deposits as reserves, how much in excess reserves does First National now hold? b. Assume that all other banks hold only the required amount of reserves. If First national decides to reduce its reserves to only the required amount, by how much would the economy’s money supply increase?
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