Economics HL - Jacob Solomon's group - Year 1

Street lights are an example of a public good - one person using a street light will not prevent others from using it, and it is impossible to stop other people from using a street light once one person is able to use it. Because they are public goods, they are provided by the government, but in this case it is costing the government too much to leave the street lights on all night, so they are considering shutting them off for a portion of the night to save money.

Hey, This article is about how the current economic climate is affecting many industries in the eurozone and how this may be making our situation worse in the long run as less money is being fed into the economy. Hannah

Hello, This article talks about problem and the negative externality an 5,000 gallon oil spill has caused in a local river, which covered over two miles. The article talks about the clean up act and how some fish are dying. The article does not talk about how the dying fish will affect local trade, however, I think it should not affect it that greatly due to the fact there are other rivers and seas from which to fish in and the river was quiet small. However, the oil could get into people's drinking supply and it could make people ill. From, Tim

Although part of this article talks about the hypocrisy of staging Climate Change Comferences (due to the environmental implications of travelling to it), the middle of it talks about some economics. Instead of just harping on the envoronmental effects of climate change, people are suggesting that the negative externalities of creating pollution may begin to affect a country's GDP. This is interesting because now the social cost that the company should have paid is now being bounced back for everyone to pay.

China has been, is, and will continue to be a coal-powered economy. In 2007 Chinese coal production contained more energy than total Middle Eastern oil production. The rapid growth of coal demand after 2001 created supply strains and bottlenecks that raise questions about sustainability.

This is an externality of production because the air pollution from the buses imposes an unpaid social cost upon society; the article then discusses how the government plans to fine people to deter this activity and raise revenue.

This article shows the real-life application to the new ideas we've been discussing in terms of the Republic of Cyprus. "Cyprus has so far been an energy island -an isolated energy system- and has till recently been almost totally dependent on imports of oil which burden the current account balance. A bright horizon of peace, cooperation and economic growth will then open up for the area of the Eastern Mediterranean, to the benefit not only of the countries and peoples of the area but also of our wider European family." I have included the conclusion to the article as well, which wraps up this sustainability-conscious article."In shaping the world of today and tomorrow through their decisions on energy issues, visionary leaders will aim at improving the prospects of both the current and future generations in terms of economic and social development and of sustainability, and certainly in terms of establishing and strengthening peaceful and hence productive international relations."

This article talks about how British teens going to other European resorts are too unruly to be there. There only aim is to get drunk and party, so the article examines how this haoppens, why this happens, and the effect such actions have on local communtities in the areas where thiese problems are most prevalent.

For this week, I decided to find an article that is very close to most of us, because we all, at one point or another, eat meat, as well as drink milk. When we consume these products we probably don't realize what harmful chemicals go into these products and how they can negatively affect us. This article talks about the antibiotics and hormones that are injected into livestock to increase the rate of growth as well as in cows, the increased production of milk, and how these chemicals can negatively effect us.

This article discusses the environmental and human health costs of power plants. These type of costs would be considered negative externalities of production, because they are harmful effects that do not effect the firm producing the power, but rather a third party, society as a whole. When producers are making the power, they value the cost as the private costs to their firms, but as outlined by this article, there are many social costs which they do not consider, and this leads to over-production, which means the market is failing, as the resources are not being allocated efficiently. An interesting aspect is that they are able to put a true "cost" on environmental and health effects, which can be quite hard to determine.

Hello, In this article it talks about how the Venezuelan government are trying to control inflation by setting fixed prices. The government's policy of price control demonstrate faith that one day they might succeed and lower their inflation rate which is at 27 per cent, the same as last year. The government are imposing a new law which the price controls will affect five general areas; personal and domestic hygiene products, car parts, medicines and health services and food. The government tries to prevent companies from "hoarding and speculation" and "exploiting the people". Also, the prices for 18 products are being frozen, and companies like Heinz, Pepsi, Coca Cola, and Nestle need 'special' attention. People say that the fear the private companies how will lead to more shortages and more inflation. From Tim

This article concerns the problems that are being caused by a wagon-assembly factory in India. Not only does the factory cause air-pollution through fumes, but it also causes noise-pollution and vibrations that make living in the area very uncomfortable. This clearly illustrates how the MSC is much greater than the MPC of production, and is therefore is therefore a "Negative Externality of Production".

The government has installed tight price controls as they have the world's highest inflation rate at the moment. They imposed these strict price controls on basic goods however, food prices have still risen up to 9 times as high as they were before. However, the price controls may be doing some good as Venezuela has been in the same situation before and after the price controls they had in place were lifted, prices rose from 40% to more than 100%.

Minimum price controls should be imposed on alcohol and tougher drink-driving laws introduced, policy options circulated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggest. Details in the global consultation process have emerged as the government is resisting demands from health professionals for alcohol to become more expensive.

A market failure occurs when the transaction between a buyer and seller imposes costs on a third party and these costs are not included in the price paid. The third party impact is called an externality. When the externality is negative, like in this scenario, then we should try to limit the consumption, thus raise the price, however this has evidently not happened.

This article discusses the current issue in the United States when it comes to the price controls for sugar. Not only has it cost a lot of people their jobs, it is also eliminating the possibility for the growth of more jobs. And the problem isn't just with the jobs...the price control for sugar has caused an increase inprice in many goods that use to make their products...such as breakfast cereal....so even thought the price control is meant as a normative economic action...it may negatively impact the market.

This article relates to government intervention in the form of increasing the minimum wage in some states. However, this increase was met with an increase in unemployment; which we also looked at. This unemployment is caused by a high price where supply is greater than demand, and the need for workers therefore decreases (increasing unemployment).

A government sponsored agency currently controls the prices for dairy products in Canada. This was implemented because the government wanted to regulate the prices paid to dairy farmers and the amount of milk they could produce, in order to protect the farmers. However, problems have begun to arise because of these price controls, mostly due to the fact that the market price is much higher than it should be (which hurts consumers) and it is costing billions of dollars each year.

This is pretty neat considering it relates to people our age living in Canada (aka me!). The Canadian government, who have set a minimum wage of $9.60/h for youths and $10.50/h for those older than 18, have decided to subsidize part or all of the payroll given out by small business to their student employees. The purpose is to try and invest in student employees so that they get the work experience they need. Although not mentioned much in the article, minimum wage plays a big roll, as now it is the government paying for the wage they set themselves... perhaps there is a chance it will be changed in the future for this reason.