微观经济学 第6章 现实中的市场.ppt

* * * * * * * * * * * Students are always interested in this analysis. The major thing to achieve is an awareness that declaring an activity to be illegal must be backed up with incentives—penalties. And taxes can work as an alternative incentive to achieve an identical outcome in terms of price and quantity. This analysis is another good place to emphasize that the opportunity cost of something is the market price plus any other costs of buying. * * * * * * * * * * * * Talk about the study of wage and employment data by David Card and Alan Krueger (Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage Law, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), which suggests that minimum wage laws do not cause unemployment. Note that other economists disagree and claim that ceteris paribus conditions were violated regarding: the timing of hiring decisions regional differences * Do a Google search for “living wage” and you’ll come up with a lot of stuff, much of it very current. This topic generates a spirited classroom discussion. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Taxes and the inelasticity of “sinful” acts. If students understand the basics of taxes, they will become more informed citizen voters. Raise a number of provocative issues related to taxation to evoke student interest in understanding why some goods are taxed and others are not. Taxing the consumer surplus of smokers—“Once, Twice . . . Three times a levy.” Provoke the students’ interest in tax policy by showing them how cigarette smokers are “taxed” at least three times for their habit: Many believe that smoking is considered to be one of the most addictive, legally available products in the market without a doctor’s prescription. The government recognizes demand for cigarettes is highly inelastic and places a hefty sales tax on each pack of cigarettes. Strike one. Many governments have sued the major tobacco companies for compensation for past and future health care costs arising from the smoking-r