现代经济学第十二章讲义.pptVIP

This scenario, in fact, will occur over the coming 10-15 years. * Source: 2008 Economic Report of the President, Table B-49, with extra calculations as described in the caption to Table 2 in the textbook. This slide covers material discussed in the chapter in a case study entitled “Productivity and wages.” The data on this slide and the analysis on the preceding one show that technological progress benefits workers by increasing real wages. Unfortunately, technological progress makes some jobs obsolete. For example, the demand for typewriter repair technicians has fallen sharply over the past 25 years. A Luddite is someone who opposes technological progress. A Luddite would have argued in the 1980s that policymakers should restrict the spread of computers and word processing software to protect the jobs of typewriter repair technicians. Most students will readily agree that such a policy would have been a huge mistake – the productivity gains from computers and word processing software far outweigh the welfare losses of workers displaced from the typewriter repair industry. Moreover, this change has created other kinds of jobs, such as the technicians who charge $100/hour to recover your data from Windows crashes, spyware, and virus attacks. The textbook has a box entitled “The Luddite Revolt” that provides historical background on this issue. * We have seen how workers are compensated. What determines how much the owners of land and capital earn for their contribution to the production process? First, we distinguish between the purchase price and rental price of these factors. Then, we apply the lessons we learned about wage determination to help us understand the determination of the rental prices of capital and land. * Regarding the first point: When a firm buys a unit of capital, it will likely use that capital in its own production rather than rent it in the capital rental market. However, the opportunity cost of using its