What does are the implications of the fact that knowledge

ECONOMICS HOMEWORK

 

September 21, 2018 “Opportunity Cost and Trade”

“The Use of Knowledge in Society,” American Economic Review, vol XXXV, no.4 (1945). Available Here: http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html

Basic Economics Chapters 5-8 (pages 89-162)

“They Clapped” by Michael Munger http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2007/Mungergouging.html (2 Pages) Public Choice” http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html

“Incentives Matter” by Russell Roberts http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2006/Robertsincentives.html

Thought Questions:

* What does are the implications of the fact that knowledge is decentralized and not known to any one mind? What does this have to do with economics?

* Why is top-down planning inconsistent with tacit and dispersed knowledge?

* How are prices and the emergence of prices related to knowledge constraints?

* Can policy manipulate prices? What are the costs?

* How do markets reward and encourage increased productivity?

* What is the market incentive for material and economic progress?

* How does Economic Freedom help us understand whether a nation is prosperous?

* How does the law affect economic activity?

* What are the requirements of the rule of law?

* How does the rule of law become distorted?

* What is the difference between legal and illegal plunder?

September 28, 2018 “Government, Military Intervention and Economic Growth”

Basic Economics Chapters 15-17 (pages 325-364)

The Growth of Government: Robert Higgs http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GovernmentGrowth.html

After War Chapters 1-4

After War Chapters 5,7

Thought Questions:

* How do we measure aggregate economic growth and prosperity? What is good/bad about these measures?

* What factors best explain the growth of government over the past 200 years in the U.S.?

* What is public choice and how does it help us analyze political behavior?

* What are the potential unintended consequences of military reconstruction efforts? What are the political motivations?

* What are the key internal and external constraints that we must consider in reconstruction efforts?

* What was so different about Japan and Germany that has not occurred in Afghanistan or Haiti?

* What is the empirical relationship between economic and political freedom, why does this seem to hold? How should this empirical relationship info

 

paper

Economic Freedom/Policy Essay (45%): This essay will be based on The Economic Freedom of the World Report http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html and will ask to you compare the relationship between the economic freedom and political freedom in a specific country.

You are required to apply economic analysis the country in question and analyze what aspects of economic freedom (along the five pillars) are weakest, and why. Then you must assess how economic freedom is affecting political freedom as measured by (Freedom House) and what can the country do to better it’s conditions. How can trade policy with the US and international community foster greater economic freedom and what is required for in-depth institutional change?

There are no exceptions for late work and all work must be submitted in hard copy.

Please consult The Chicago Manual of Style for all citations. You must reference cited works in your paper. Word length should be between 3000-4000 words.

DUE today: Paper Idea and short abstract: give me one based on instructions 

DUE today: Outline with list of sources