I have recently been showing my AP and IB Econ classes the following New Yorker interview with Columbia Professor Tim Wu, the man who coined the phrase “net neutrality”. Wu shares his views on the “cycles” of competition in the communications industry, from radio, telephone and television in the 20th century to the internet and the “mobile web” today.

I find it a useful video for starting discussions about the pros and cons of perfectly competitive markets (represented by the “chaotic” period of any new communications technology) and imperfectly, more monopolistic industries (represented by the period later in the cycle of any communications technology when market power becomes concentrated among a few large firms).

Watch the video and pause it along the way to discuss some of the questions below.

Currents: Tim Wu on Communication, Chaos, and Control : The New Yorker

Discussion Questions:

1. Why are new communications industries often characterized by “chaos” in their early years? How did the internet industry reflect the perfectly competitive characteristics in its early days, or even 10 years ago?
2. How are consumers affected as communications industries go from “chaos” to control under big companies like Apple and Google?
3. How does the behavior of firms like Google and Apple demonstrate the concept of non-price competition?
4. Would the technology industry be more efficient if it were more competitive?
5. Can you envision a world in which all of our online activities are done through one company, i.e. the “Googlenet” or the “Facebooknet” instead of the “Internet”? Would that world be better or worse than what we have now? Why?
6. How is the communications industry today similar to the telephone industry 30 years ago? How is it different?
7. Tim Wu suggest that in the future there will be no internet. Discuss as a class what you envision as a possible successor to the internet.
8. If you had a time machine and could travel back to 1970, how would you try to explain to someone on the stree how we communicate with one another in 2011. How would you have tried to explain the internet and smart phones? Do you think someone from 1970 would believe your descriptions of products like Skype, like Google, like a phone you could watch movies on, like video chat, like “Google goggles”, etc…?
9. If someone from 40 years in the future arrived in 2011 and tried to explain to you how humans are communicating in 2050, do you think you would believe them?
10. Economist Joseph Schumpeter referred to capitalism as a system driven by a system of “creative destruction”. How does the history of the communications industry demonstrate the concept of “creative destruction”?

Imperfect competition in the News: After watching the video and discussion the questions with your class, go to Welker’s Wikinomics Universe and follow the link to the “Econ News” tab.  Browse the headlines from the various news feeds and look for articles that you think may be about non-price competition between firms in a monopolistically competitive or an oligopolistic market.

When you’ve found one good article, open your Diigo toolbar and add highlights to the lines in the article that you think demonstrate non-price competition between the firms described. Add one or two sticky notes using the Diigo toolbar, and when you’ve added your own thoughts, bookmark the article. Be sure to share it to your class’s group before bookmarking it so your classmates can view your highlights and sticky notes online.

If there is time left in class, log into your Diigo account and visit our class group. Read some of the highlights from your classmates’ articles and discuss with the people around you the various types of non-price competition described.

• Introduction to Development – exploring prezi | Economics in Plain English

  tags: development economic development economics

  • This is an introduction to the concept of economic development which I am teaching to my class at the moment. You can click through the prezi by pressing the play button and choosing fullscreen under “more”. The up and down arrow keys, zoom in and out.

• Lesson Plan – Myths about Economic Development – debunked | Economics in Plain English

  tags: development economics

  • Essential Questions
    

    1. What is human development and what factors contribute to this development?
    2. What does it mean to have an improvement in the standard of living?
    3. What is the difference between economic growth and development?
    4. What indicators are used to measure the economic development of nations?
    5. How can data help us to better understand LDC’s while developing more effective strategies to improve their development.
    6. What are obstacles that stand in the way of development?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Should hunters switch to ‘green’ bullets? – CNN.com

Chis Rock once said,

“We don’t need gun control, we need bullet control. I think a bullet should cost $5,000, cause if a bullet cost $5,000 there would be no more innocent bystanders.”

Chris Rock may not have had market failure in mind when he wrote this joke, but he unknowingly demonstrated a perfect example of a case in which the over-consumption of a particular good results in spillover costs on third parties not involved in the original transaction (the “innocent bystanders”). In economics, this is known as a negative externality of consumption, and is considered a market failure because without some kind of government intervention, too much of the harmful good will be produced and consumed: in this case, too many bullets are consumed causing harm to society.

I always thought Chris Rock’s idea of taxing bullets was a good idea, but never thought I’d find a real example of such a solution to market failure, until now. Although the bullets in the article below are those used by hunters, whereas Chris Rock’s bullets are probably those used by gangsters, the economic concepts underlying the market failures are similar.

Three years ago, Phillip Loughlin made a choice he knew would brand him as an outsider with many of his fellow hunters:

He decided to shoot “green” bullets.

“It made sense,” Loughlin said of his switch to more environmentally friendly ammo, which doesn’t contain lead. “I believe that we need to do a little bit to take care of the rest of the habitat and the environment — not just what we want to shoot out of it.”

Lead, a toxic metal that can lower the IQs of children, is the essential element in most ammunition on the market today.

But greener alternatives are gaining visibility — and stirring controversy — as some hunters, scientists, environmentalists and public health officials worry about lead ammunition’s threat to the environment and public health.

Hunting groups oppose limits on lead ammunition, saying there’s no risk and alternatives are too expensive…

Lead bullets cause harm to the environment and possibly to human health. The private consumption of these bullets exceeds what is socially optimal, while “green” bullets, on the other hand, are under-consumed by private individuals. There are two market failures occurring here, and they can be illustrated as follows:
When markets fail, government action is sometimes necessary to achieve a more socially optimal allocation of resources. The bullet market represents a market failure because too many harmful lead bullets are being consumed while not enough environmentally friendly “green” bullets are being consumed.

The graphs above show the impact of corrective taxes and subsidies in resolving these market failures. Whether or not governments will pursue such corrective policies has yet to be seen. A couple of states, however, appear to already understand that market failures require government intervention.

Last year, California banned lead bullets in the chunk of the state that makes up the endangered California condor’s habitat. The large birds are known to feed on scraps of meat left behind by hunters. Those scraps sometimes contain pieces of lead bullets, and lead poisoning is thought to be a contributor to condor deaths.

Arizona, another condor state, gives out coupons so hunters can buy green ammunition. Utah may soon follow suit.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why don’t all states simply ban the use of lead bullets by hunters? Is this solution socially optimal?
2. Besides corrective taxes and subsidies, how could government reduce the demand for lead bullets and increase demand for “green” bullets?
3. How will Arizona’s use of coupons demonstrate a market-based approach to externality reduction?
4. And this one is from the authors of the Environmental Economics blog: “Do you think the deer care which kind of bullets the hunters use?”

Singapore is a flush with different examples of price discrimination. The city’s population is a melting pot of different groups of people who have contrasting spending habits. Many of the local firms have embraced price discrimination to boost profits and a bar called Brewerkz seems to be the best example.

Brewerkz sells mugs, pints and jugs of beer at a desirable location beside the river. At different times of the day tourists and locals are charged different prices for exactly the same product. I arrived last weekend after our school graduation to enjoy a beer with my colleagues at 1pm and was very pleased with the price, $10.00 for a jug of beer. If I had arrived later in the evening at 8pm, I would have parted with $37.00 of hard earned cash for the same privilege. At this price I would have tempted to stick to the water.  A sample of prices from the menu is below.

Note: $1 SGD = $0.50 Euro or $0.70 USD
This practice is very common in Singaporean bars and is the extension of the ‘happy hour’ concept. People can also sit and drink the same beer at local hawker food markets for around $6 dollars for a 750ml bottle. Singapore has extreme differences in income levels and high-income inequality. Wealthy investment bankers mingle with poor immigrant helpers and builders living on subsistence wages.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the necessary conditions for the practice of price discrimination to occur?
2. Explain how customers in each different time slot may have different price elasticity’s of demand?
3. What would occur if the bar could not stop customers from stockpiling and then reselling at a later time (arbitrage) slot to their friends?
4. Explain how a bar could also use first and second degree price discrimination to maximize profits.

Competitively Priced Electricity Costs More, Studies Show – New York Times

The problem with monopolies, as our AP students have learned, is that a monopolistic firm, left to its own accord, will most likely choose to produce at an output level that is much lower and provide their product at a price that is much higher than would result from a purely competitive industry. A monopolist will produce where its price is greater than its marginal cost, indicating an under-allocation of resources towards the product. By restricting output and raising its price, the monopolist is assured maximum profits, but at the cost to society of less overall consumer surplus or welfare.

Unfortunately, in some industries, because of the wide range of output over which economies of scale are experienced, it sometimes makes the most sense for only one firm to participate. Such markets are called “natural monopolies” and some examples are cable television, utilities, natural gas, and other industries that have large economies of scale. (click graph to see full-sized)

Government regulators face a dilemma in dealing with natural monopolistic industries such as the electricity industry. A electricity company with a monopoly in a particular market will base its price and output decision on the profit maximization rule that all unregulated firms will; they’ll produce at the level where their marginal revenue is equal to their marginal cost. The problem is, for a monopolist its marginal revenue is less than the price it has to charge, which means that at the profit maximizing level of output (where MR=MC), marginal cost will be less than price: evidence of allocative inefficiency (i.e. not enough electricity will be produced and the price will be too high for some consumers to afford).

Here arises the need for government regulation. A government concerned with getting the right amount of electricity to the right number of people (allocative efficiency) may choose to set a price ceiling for electricity at the level where the price equals the firm’s marginal cost. This, however, will likely be below the firm’s average total cost (remember, ATC declines over a WIDE RANGE of output), a scenario which would result in losses for the firm, and may lead it to shut down altogether. So what most governments have done in the past is set a price ceiling where the price is equal to the firm’s average total cost, meaning the firm will “break even”, earning only a “normal profit”; essentially just enough to keep the firm in business; this is known as the “fair-return price”.

Below AP Economics teacher Jacob Clifford illustrates and explains this regulatory dilemma. Watch the video and see how he shows the effect of the two price control options on the firm’s output and the price in the market.

The article above examines the differences in the price of electricity in states which regulate their electricity prices and states that have adopted “market” or unregulated pricing, in which firms are free to produce at the MR=MC level:

“The difference in prices charged to industrial companies in market states compared with those in regulated ones nearly tripled from 1999 to last July, according to the analysis of Energy Department data by Marilyn Showalter, who runs Power in the Public Interest, a group that favors traditional rate regulation.

The price spread grew from 1.09 cents per kilowatt-hour to 3.09 cents, her analysis showed. It also showed that in 2006 alone industrial customers paid $7.2 billion more for electricity in market states than if they had paid the average prices in regulated states.”

The idea of deregulation of electricity markets was that removing price ceilings would lead to greater economic profits for the firms, which would subsequently attract new firms into the market. More competitive markets should then drive prices down towards the socially-optimal price, benefiting consumers and producers by forcing them to be more productively efficient in order to compete (remember “Economic Darwinism”?). It appears, however, that higher prices have not, as hoped, led to lower prices:

“Since 1999, prices for industrial customers in deregulated states have risen from 18 percent above the national average to 37 percent above,” said Mrs. Showalter, an energy lawyer and former Washington State utility regulator.

In regulated states, prices fell from 7 percent below the national average to 12 percent below, she calculated…

In market states, electricity customers of all kinds, from homeowners to electricity-hungry aluminum plants, pay $48 billion more each year for power than they would have paid in states with the traditional system of government boards setting electric rates…”

That $48 billion represents higher costs of production for other firms that require large inputs of energy in their own production, higher electricity bills for cash-strapped households, and greater profits and shareholder dividends for the powerful firms that provide the power. On the bright side, higher prices for electricity should lead to more careful and conservative use of power, reducing Americans’ impact on global warming (since the vast majority of the country’s power is generated using fossil fuels).

Here arises another question? Should we be opposed to higher profits for powerful electricity firms if their profits result in much needed energy conservation and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions? An environmental economist might argue that if customers are to pay higher prices for their energy, it might as well be in the form of a carbon tax, which rather than increasing profits for a monopolistic firm would generate revenue for the government. In theory tax revenue could be used to subsidize or otherwise promote the development and use of “green energies”.

Whether customers paying higher prices for traditionally under-priced electricity is a good or bad thing depends on your views of conservation. But whether higher profits for a powerful electricity company are more desirable than increased tax revenue for the government are beneficial for society or not seems clear. If we’re paying higher prices, the resulting revenue is more likely to be put towards socially desirable uses if it’s in the government’s hands rather than in the pockets of shareholders of fossil fuel burning electricity monopolies.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do governments regulate the prices in industries such as natural gas and electricity?
2. Why would a state government think that de-regulation of the electricity industry might eventually result in lower prices in the long-run?

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What makes oligopolistic markets, which are characterized by a few large firms, so different from the other market structures we study in Microeconomics? Unlike in more competitive markets in which firms are of much smaller size and one firm’s behavior has little or no effect on its competitors, an oligopolist that decides to lower its prices, change its output, expand into a new market, offer new services, or adverstise, will have powerful and consequential effects on the profitability of its competitors. For this reason, firms in oligopolistic markets are always considering the behavior of their competitors when making their own economic decisions.

To understand the behavior of non-collusive oligopolists (non-collusive meaning a few firms that do NOT cooperate on output and price), economists have employed a mathematical tool called Game Theory. The assumption is that large firms in competition will behave similarly to individual players in a game such as poker. Firms, which are the “players” will make “moves” (referring to economic decisions such as whether or not to advertise, whether to offer discounts or certain services, make particular changes to their products, charge a high or low price, or any other of a number of economic actions) based on the predicted behavior of their competitors.

If a large firm competing with other large firms understands the various “payoffs” (referring to the profits or losses that will result from a particular economic decision made by itself and its competitors) then it will be better able to make a rational, profit-maximizing (or loss minimizing) decision based on the likely actions of its competitors. The outcome of such a situation, or game, can be predicted using payoff matrixes. Below is an illustration of a game between two coffee shops competing in a small town.

In the game above, both SF Coffee and Starbuck have what is called a dominant strategy. Regardless of what its competitor does, both companies would maximize their outcome by advertising. If SF coffee were to not advertise, Starbucks will earn more profits ($20 vs $10) by advertising. If SF coffee were to advertise, Starbucks will earn more profits ($12 vs $10) by advertising. The payoffs are the same given both options for SF Coffee. Since both firms will do best by advertising given the behavior of its competitor, both firms will advertise. Clearly, the total profits earned are less when both firms advertise than if they both did NOT advertise, but such an outcome is unstable because the incentive for both firms would be to advertise. We say that advertise/advertise is a “Nash Equilibrium” since neither firm has an incentive to vary its strategy at this point, since less profits will be earned by the firm that stops advertising.

As illustrated above, the tools of Game Theory, including the “payoff matrix”, can prove helpful to firms deciding how to respond to particular actions by their competitors in oligopolistic markets. Of course, in the real world there are often more than two firms in competition in a particular market, and the decisions that they must make include more than simply to advertise or not. Much more complicated, multi-player games with several possible “moves” have also been developed and used to help make tough economic decisions a little easier in the world of competition.

Game theory as a mathematical tool can be applied in realms beyond oligopoly behavior in Economics.  In each of the videos below, game theory can be applied to predict the behavior of different “players”. None of the videos portray a Microeconomic scenario like the one above, but in each case a payoff matrix can be created and behavior can be predicted based on an analysis of the incentives given the player’s possible behaviors.

Assignment: Watch each of the five videos below. For each one, create a payoff matrix showing the possible “plays” and the possible “payoffs” of the game portrayed in the video. Predict the outcome of each game based on your understanding of incentives and the assumption that humans act rationally and in their own self-interest.

“Batman – the Dark Night” – the Joker’s ferry game:

“Princess Bride” – where’s the poison?:

“Murder by Numbers” – the interrogation:

“Golden Balls” – split or steal:

“The Trap” – the delicate balance of terror:

Discussion Questions:

1. Why is oligopoly behavior more like a game of poker than the behavior of firms in more competitive markets?
2. What does it mean that firms in oligopolistic markets are “inter-dependent” of one another?
3. Among the videos above, which games ended in the way that your payoff matrix and understanding of human behavior and rational decision making would have predicted?
4. How often did the equilibrium outcomes according to your analysis of the payoff matrices correspond with the socially optimal outcome (i.e. the one where total payoffs for all players are maximized or the total losses minimized)?

Should President Obama consider writing a thank you note to Chinese leaders for artificially manipulating the Chinese Yuan in the foreign currency markets?

For many years now, Chinese authorities have artificially intervened in the foreign currency market by buying up U.S. dollars spent on Chinese products and, in turn, investing those same U.S. dollars in U.S. Treasury Securities (ie, bonds and notes). For those that are not familiar with the foreign currency market, Chinese authorities buy the same U.S. Dollars provided by the U.S. to purchase Chinese products and, thus, leave or supply Chinese Yuan to the currency traders resulting in a decrease in the price of the now more plentiful Yuan and an increase in the price of the now more scarce dollar.  The Chinese authorities intervene in the foreign currency market for the sole purpose of depreciating (weakening) the Yuan relative to the U.S. Dollar, thereby helping Chinese exporters to become more price competitive in global markets. It is estimated by many economists, that the Yuan may be overvalued versus the U.S. dollar by approximately 30% due to this foreign currency intervention by China.

So while it is true that this action taken by Chinese authorities clearly depreciates the Yuan and appreciates the Dollar, thus, unfairly harming U.S. exporters; it is also hitting the “sweet spot” by sending those same U.S. dollars back to the U.S. Government to fund the record federal deficit spending expecting to total $1.3T in 2011 and providing American citizens with reduced prices on imports via the stronger dollar! More specifically, this currency intervention by Chinese authorities provides needed loanable funds back to the U.S. Government lowering borrowing costs or interest rates during this important U.S. economic recovery time. It also appears that US leaders are sending mixed messages to China as just last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Beijing to encourage Chinese leaders to continue to purchase U.S. Government securities. This seems at odds with US officials cry for China to stop intervening in the foreign currency markets because by doing so needed federal deficit funding would dry up from the Chinese, forcing the US to borrow elsewhere and raise interest rates to entice that lending.

In summary, perhaps in the short term the United States should consider not pressuring China, as Treasury Secretary Tim Geihtner, Obama and the media have done regularly. Perhaps US officials should lay low, at least for awhile, and start pressuring the Chinese again in about three or four years, after the Government’s budget no longer calls for such large spending deficits.

Review Questions

1. What specifically are Chinese leaders doing to keep the Yuan weak against the U.S. dollar?
2. Why are Chinese leaders intervening in the foreign currency market?
3. Which parties, both American and Chinese, are helped and hurt by this intervention?
4. What would happen, other things equal to U.S. interest rates if Chinese authorities immediately stopped intervening in the currency market? Why?
5. What would be the immediate impact on the U.S. poor and working class if the Chinese immediately stopped intervening in the currency market?
6. What policy position would you take as President of the United States on this issue?

I have lived in Singapore for two years now and am always interested in the nuances of the city state’s economy. In some measures Singapore has the one of the highest levels of Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world. As measured using Purchasing Power Parity, Singapore is ranked 7th in the world with $53,900 GDP per capita

Singapore also has a high, and growing level of income inequality which has been associated with the form of rapid economic growth. In 2009 Singapore was ranked as having the second highest level of income inequality in developed countries, with a Gini Coefficient score of 0.425. Hong Kong was 1st and USA 3rd. In most rapidly developing economies (China, Brazil, India) strong economic growth is leading to growing income inequality. The gains from growth are not being shared equally between all citizens and the rich continue to get richer at the expense of the poor. Here are some economic indicators from Singapore.

• During 2010 Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product expanded by 14.7%. This is the fastest rate of economic growth in the world.
• Since 1989 it’s GDP per capita has risen from $16,000 to $48,000.
• Total Gross Domestic Product in Singapore Dollars has increased from $56 Billion in 1989 to $265 Billion.
• The bottom 10% of the population now account for only 5% of the national income, compared to the top 10% of people who account for 49% of the income.

Each of the above statistics support the economic goals of Singapore except for the last bullet point. Singapore believes in inclusive growth and attaches a high degree of importance on the ideals of social cohesion. These statistics are a challenge to the goals of the country, which aims to allow all families to live in dignity and with material self sufficiency.

Therefore one possible way to increase the income of the lowest people is to introduce the concept of a minimum wage. Currently the free market determines the market wage. For some occupations such as cleaners, constructions workers and domestic helpers the market is awash which cheap labour from neighbouring countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh. This drives down the market wage. The average domestic live in helper in Singapore would make $120 a week and construction workers slightly more. These workers also have the lowest bargaining power and are often unable to negotiate for higher wages. Thus free market wage seems to disadvantage low income workers in Singapore.

Introducing a Minimum Wage:

The minimum wage is a wage floor. In Singapore, employers would not be allowed to pay their employees a rate below the minimum wage and this presumes the minimum wage was binding and set above the prevailing market rates. Some would call this a living wage and would be set to enable citizens to enjoy a basic standard of life and subsistence.

The negative aspects of the minimum wage legislation would be an increase in unemployment. After the introduction of the minimum wage the market demand for workers would fall to LD. At a higher wage firms have less incentive to hire workers. The other important feature is that Labour Supply would increase at the level of the new minimum wage. More workers would be attracted into the workforce. This therefore creates a disequilibrium where Labour Demand does not equal Labour Supply. In the Labour Market this is known as unemployment. In Singapore potential foreign investors could be less willing to invest in a country with higher labour costs and the nations competitiveness with other economies could fall. After the introduction of minimum wages in Japan (1959), South Korea (1988) and Taiwan (1956) researches found no evidence of a fall in foreign investment or economic competitiveness.

Positive aspects of introducing a minimum wage?

1. To reduce poverty: To help reduce poverty for the bottom 20% of households in Singapore, a binding minimum wage set above the market wage would lift incomes. The lifting of incomes should also reduce the level of income inequality for low income households.
2. Taxes and Benefits: If workers begin to earn higher wages then tax receipts should increase. At the same time the level of financial support for such families will likely fall as they become more self sufficient. This could also help reduce government spending. Both of these effect will likely have a positive impact on the government budget.
3. The effect on worker productivity: Some economists believe that the increased wage might improve labour productivity. Workers may respond to their higher wage rate by working harder, possibly as a result of worrying about losing their job now that the increased wage rate has made it a more ‘sought after’ job. Employers may force through productivity improvements. Some workers will work shorter hours and achieve a greater work life balance and hopefully be more productive during these hours at work.

Market interventions are obvouisly not the only way to improve the incomes of low income households. Singapore currently does many small things to improve the quality of life for low income households. In my opinion in the long run the economy needs to think of other ways to increase incomes of low income households so that Singapore holds the value of social cohesion and does not become a infamous country of unequal incomes and  extremes of wealth and poverty.

• Subsidized Housing and Grants for first home buyers – HDB Scheme
• Free education from Kindergarten to Secondary School.
• Subsidized health care
• Various financial assistance schemes including the Workfare Income Supplement

Resources and Background :

• Minimum Wage Theory – S-Cool UK | Economics
• “Don’t knock the minimum wage yet” | Tommy Tan – see commentary here (The Straits Times, A32, November 11th 2010)
• CIA Factbook | Singapore Overview

Discussion Questions:

1. Describe the kind of tax system which could be developed to reduce income inequality?
2. Outline the difference between income and wealth?
3. What is the more concerning problem for governments, the inequality of wealth or income? Explain.
4. Evaluate the methods available to government to reduce income inequality.