EconomicQuestionsandData演示稿件.pptVIP

Economic Questions and Data Economic Questions Economics suggests important relationships, often with policy implications, but virtually never suggests quantitative magnitudes of causal effects. Examples of economic questions. Does reducing class size improve elementary school education? Is there racial discrimination in the market for home loans? How much do cigarette taxes reduce smoking? What will the rate of inflation be next year? Q1: Reducing Class Size (Pros) With fewer students in the classroom, each student gets more of the teacher’s attention, fewer class disruptions, and learning is enhanced and grades improve. 解決流浪教師 Q1: Reducing Class Size (Cons) The observation does not seem to consistent with the actual data. Maintaining a smaller class size costs more money. 根據教育部的資料，93學年度到96學年度，平均每年有17萬169名教師考績是甲等，約占98.69%，乙等和丙等都只有一千多人，都不到1%。 Q2: Racial Discrimination The law prohibit the US lending institution to take race into consideration when deciding to grant or deny a request of mortgage. Researchers of Boston Fed found that 28% of black applicants are denied for mortgages while only 9% of whites applicants are denied. Is there a racial discrimination? Q3: Cigarette Tax Many of the cost of smoking, such as the medical expenses of caring or the second hand smoking, are borne by the other members of society. Because of that, there is a role of government intervention. Basic economics suggest that raising the cigarette tax is a way to limit its consumption. But how much? NT10, NT20, or NT150? The answer depends on the price elasticity of smoking Q4: Inflation Forecasting the price level in the next year is in the interests of firms (investment decision), banks (mortgages rates), financial institutions (interest rates), and economists (jobs). The price level is especially important for central banks because the size of inflation is the key reason to hike the primary interest rates. It is very difficult to predict the price level of the next year