If the USA can produce 12,000 personal computers or 16,000 TVs, and Japan can produce 10,000 personal computers or 30,000 TVs, then it follows that a. the USA does not have an absolute advantage in TVs. b. the USA does not have an absolute advantage in computers. c. Japan has an absolute advantage in both TVs and computers. d. the USA has an absolute advantage in both TVs and computers.

Consider the following scenarios. use what you have learned to decide if the goods and services being provided are individual, public, or merit goods. for each case, state what kind of good has been described and explain your answer using the definitions of individual, public, and merit goods. (6 points each) 1. from your window, you can see a city block that's on fire. you watch city firefighters rescue people and battle the flames to save the buildings. 2. while visiting relatives, you learn that your cousins attend a nearby elementary school that is supported financially by local property tax revenue. 3. you see a squadron of military jets flying overhead. 4. you find out that your aunt works for a defense manufacturing company that has several defense contracts with the government. she tells you that she works for a team that is producing a communications satellite. 5. your class visits a local jail run by a private, profit-making company that detains county criminals and is paid with tax revenue.

Suppose general motors demands labor according to the labor demand function 푤푤= 40−0. 5퐸퐸, where 푤푤 is the hourly wage and 퐸퐸 is the number of employees. the united auto workers union has a utility function given by 푈푈=푊푊∗퐸퐸. a. in 1984, the united auto workers union started negotiations with general motors by assuming that they were a monopoly union. find the wage and employment demands that the united auto workers union would have demanded before any bargaining began. b. if general motors and the united auto workers union both had excellent bargaining representatives, would this be the final labor contract? if not, then explain in words and graphically where they would end up after the bargaining process.

Suppose a firm faces a fixed price of output, 푝푝= 1200. the firm hires workers from a union at a daily wage, 푤푤, to produce output according to the production function 푞푞= 2퐸퐸12. there are 225 workers in the union. any union worker who does not work for this firm is guaranteed to find nonunion employment at a wage of $96 per day. a. what is the firm’s labor demand function? b. if the firm is allowed to choose 푤푤, but then the union decides how many workers to provide (up to 225) at that wage, what wage will the firm set? how many workers will the union provide? what is the firm’s output and profit? what is the total income of the 225 union workers? c. now suppose that the union sets the wage, but the firm decides how many workers to hire at that wage (up to 225). what wage will the union set to maximize the total income of all 225 workers? how many workers will the firm hire? what is the firm’s output and profit? what is the total income of the 225 union workers? [hint: to maximize total income of union, take the first order condition with respect to w and set equal to 0.]