曼昆微观经济学第六版书后练习答案-8.docVIP

Chapter 8 1. a. The statement, If the government taxes land, wealthy landowners will pass the tax on to their poorer renters, is incorrect. With a tax on land, landowners can not pass the tax on. Since the supply curve of land is perfectly inelastic, landowners bear the entire burden of the tax. Renters will not be affected at all. b. The statement, If the government taxes apartment buildings, wealthy landowners will pass the tax on to their poorer renters, is partially correct. With a tax on apartment buildings, landowners can pass the tax on more easily, though the extent to which they do this depends on the elasticities of supply and demand. In this case, the tax is a direct addition to the cost of rental units, so the supply curve will shift up by the amount of the tax. The tax will be shared by renters and landowners, depending on the elasticities of demand and supply. 2. a. The statement, A tax that has no deadweight loss cannot raise any revenue for the government, is incorrect. An example is the case of a tax when either supply or demand is perfectly inelastic. The tax has neither an effect on quantity nor any deadweight loss, but it does raise revenue. b. The statement, A tax that raises no revenue for the government cannot have any deadweight loss, is incorrect. An example is the case of a 100 percent tax imposed on sellers. With a 100 percent tax on their sales of the good, sellers wont supply any of the good, so the tax will raise no revenue. Yet the tax has a large deadweight loss, since it reduces the quantity sold to zero. 3. Since the demand for food is inelastic, a tax on food is a good way to raise revenue because it does not lead to much of a deadweight loss; thus taxing food is less inefficient than taxing other things. But it is not a good way to raise revenue from an equity point of view, since poorer people spend a higher proportion of their income on food, so the tax would hit them harder than it would hit wealthier people. 6. a.