IB Econ HL Section B

This is a a comment by Daniel Hamermesh on the Price discrimination apple uses with iPhone applications. Some applications with only a few more features cost a great deal more.

This is a discussion between specialists Ken Auletta, Fred Wilson, and John Markoff concerning Google's current position in the market and where it may hope to progress in the future. Since Google has few competitors and many economies of scale, it is very close to a natural monopoly. However, what will happen to Google in the future? What about developments in technology and industry? Google will have to work hard to stay on top.

This article is about holiday shopping in local stores. Many stores offer sales during the holiday seasons. This is a form of price discrimination, as it is different prices charged for the same product based on time of year.

Russian steelmaker, Severstal, has posted a net profit of $66 million. The article says this was partly due to the reduction in production costs, thus improving the productive effciency.

This article is about the increasing manufacturing in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region. The trend in jobless aid claims continued to go downwards. This represents an increase in output, and thus a possible increase in productive efficiency.

This article is about a pending deal to stop "banana" wars. This is a dispute over the policy enacted in 1993 to give preferential treatment to bananas from former British colonies, and to put tariffs on other bananas. This distorted the market and created barriers to entry and exit. It also meant that firms in former colonies were making supernormal profit in the European banana market. This deal will put an end to this policy and make move the market for bananas closer to one of pure competition.

This article is about how the financial crisis of 2008 has affected the market for luxury yachts in the Middle East. The article reports that sales of leisure boats are expected to plunge up to 75% as people are less willing to splurge on luxury goods. This shows that the YED for luxury yachts is relatively elastic, as the loss of income resulting from the crisis has caused a greater than proportional change in quantity demanded.

This article is about imposing a tax for the sole purpose of increasing revenue to put towards health care. The article talks about putting a percentage tax on all goods. In total, the burden of the tax should be spread out as there is a range of elasticities of goods being taxed.

Many economists and policymakers are considering the idea of a tax credit to American companies that create new jobs. This is intended to encourage companies to begin hiring again by making it cheaper to get new workers. Lawmakers hope this will help reduce unemployment.

This article promotes Portugal as a place where to buy houses for summer and holidays; it refers to elasticity as the propaganda views that during holidays there will probably be an increase in demand due to the remanining accessible prices of houses in Porto and Lisbon. Since prices are good, demand at summer will tend to increase.

This article is about market for high-end and luxury goods in Asia. With an increase in income and spending power, there has been an increase in the demand for luxury goods.The article also highlights the movement of these luxury markets from NY and Geneva as a result of the economic crisis. Income has decreased in these places, therefore demand for luxury items has decreased.

This article refers to the dilemma of producing energy but through wasting a huge amount of resources, in this case electricity vs. water. The Solar Millenium, a German developer, would provide hundred of jobs and generate electricity, but this would imply the use of 1.3 billion gallons of water a year, 20 percent of the water available to the town.

In this article, the relation between supply and price is being referred to, as Opec is being criticized for lowering the price of crude oil although it has announced the largest supply cut in its history. The article thus criticizes Opec, and in short accuses it of not using price as help on allocating crude oil.

Japanese woman were one the of "the world's biggest spender on luxury product" and they would happily part with a month's rent or even salary for designers handbangs, scarfs, clothes, and shoes. However, the economic downtown caused by the worldwide crisis has brought wages into a 15 months fall and unemployment rate to exceed 5%. Luxury brands are goods that are heavily effected by the overall health of the economy and the wages of the consumers

This article talks about Ford Motor's involvement in the auto market. The article cites statistics showing that sales are falling, which means that the demand is elastic. The attempt to sell cars for a low price in India also shows that the demand for cars is elastic, as people are not willing to pay a high price for them.

Because the US citizens are not using natural gas, the Energy Information Administratino reported that the gas is nearing the US storage capacity. The price for natural gas is severely dropping and may drop even more. However, it is assumed that the price for natural gas to spring back as winter approaches. Because of such cheap price, people will choose to use natural gas in the coming winter.

Australia wants to limit foreign stakes in big mining companies. These limits are aimed mostly at China, after several political and business arguments. These limits are a form of price control, as the Australian government is intervening in the market.

After G20 summit discussing the aftermath and the resolution for the ecnomic crisis that left great impact in the world market, countries agreed to establish tighter regulations over financial institutions and made advices for specific countries for improvement. For example, Japan and China were encouraged to reduce their dependence on exports by promoting products domestically. Quotas like these are examples of price controls in a world wide scale.

The government of Switzerland is planning to impose tax on nuclear energy to fund other renewable energy sources. Nuclear powerplants have been give a longer "life-span" from 40 years to 55 years. Supporters for this taxation say that Extra profit created from the nuclear energy could go toward renewable energies such as solar, geothermal or wind power. However, the nuclear safety issues and alternative taxation are still in questions.