曼昆经济学宏观经济学第五版教师参考手册chap06.docVIP

WHAT’S NEW: A new In the News box has been added on “Does a Drought Need to cause a Water Shortage?” The In the News box on “Rent Control in New York City” has been updated with a new article. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: By the end of this chapter, students should understand: the effects of government policies that place a ceiling on prices. the effects of government policies that put a floor under prices. how a tax on a good affects the price of the good and the quantity sold. that taxes levied on buyers and taxes levied on sellers are equivalent. how the burden of a tax is split between buyers and sellers. KEY POINTS: A price ceiling is a legal maximum on the price of a good or service. An example is rent control. If the price ceiling is below the equilibrium price, the quantity demanded exceeds the quantity supplied. Because of the resulting shortage, sellers must in some way ration the good or service among buyers. A price floor is a legal minimum on the price of a good or service. An example is the minimum wage. If the price floor is above the equilibrium price, the quantity supplied exceeds the quantity demanded. Because of the resulting surplus, buyers’ demands for the good or service must in some way be rationed among sellers. When the government levies a tax on a good, the equilibrium quantity of the good falls. That is, a tax shrinks the size of the market. A tax on a good places a wedge between the price paid by buyers and the price received by sellers. When the market moves to the new equilibrium, buyers pay more for the good and sellers receive less for it. In this sense, buyers and sellers share the tax burden. the incidence of a tax does not depend on whether the tax is levied on buyers or sellers. The incidence of a tax depends on the price elasticities of supply and demand. The burden tends to fall on the side of the market that is less elastic because that side of the market can respond less easily to t