Econ 501 Fall 2020 Midterm II
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Econ 501
Fall 2020
Midterm II
This is an open-book/open internet exam. Use them if you need to. Do note that all answers must be in your own words (no cutting and pasting from any source). Also, note that e-mailing and texting anyone in the class during the exam is forbidden. If it is found out that you have been in touch with another class member during the exam period, all parties shall receive a 0/200 on this exam.)
Part I: Short Answer/Essay CHOOSE 3 out of 4 Questions. (3x30 =90 Points).
1. What is the concept of Present Value? Give an example of how this concept is used in economics, or finance?
2. What is the Laffer curve? Explain why it is important to know what side of the curve an economy is on?
3. What does it mean to say that the Competitive Equilibrium is not Pareto Optimal? Give an example where this is the case. Also, give some intuition for why this result occurs.
4. Suppose your supervisor at the tax agency asks you to determine the effect of a 10% increase in the tax on labor income for the economy’s employment, GDP, etc. Explain why this policy
question is not well-defined (i.e., not specific enough for you to be able to answer)? Part II Answer All 3 questions (110 pts)
1. Ricardian equivalence is said to exist when an alternative government policy does not change the equilibrium prices and allocations. Use the Overlapping generations with production that we used to study alternative pension systems to show that a tax on labor income will not lead to Ricardian Equivalence. (40 pts)
2. Consider this text taken from an article in the Economist from November 7th 2020 called “How to fix the market for Treasury bonds”
THIS HAS been an extraordinary yearforAmerican government debt. The Treasury market is usually the world’s most liquid bond market and a haven in stormy times. But in March it seized up as panic about the pandemic led to fire sales and failed trades. The Fedfixed the problem by buying, in two months, nearly as many Treasuries as it did during five years of quantitative easing after the global financial crisis. The market is now being drenched with new issuance as the federal government spends like mad. Since the start ofApril it has raised a net $3.3trn to fund its stimulus programmes, expanding the outstanding stock of bonds by 19%. Over the past week bond yields have seesawed as investors have weighed and reweighed the likelihood of more stimulus after the election.
Use your knowledge from the lectures on government finance to make sense of the above paragraph. (40 pts)
3. Take the Neoclassical Growth model we studied in class where we had a tax on consumption, labor income, tax on capital income less depreciation, and government spending. Now introduce a tax on investment. (30 pts = 6 x 5 pts)
The consumer’s budget constraint is therefore
(1 + ) + (1 + ) + = (1 − ℎ) ℎ + − ( − ) + (1 + − 1) −1
a. Which of these is the no arbitrage condition?
i. = +1 −
ii. (1 + ) = (+1 − )(1 − )
iii. (1 + )(1 + ) = 1 +(+1 − )(1 − )
iv. = (+1 − )(1 − ) −
v. (1 + )+1 = (+1 − )(1 − )
Consider the following NIPA data. Perform Step 3 of the calibration procedure and then answer the following multiple choice questions. In doing, assume that 75% of taxes on production and imports pertain to consumption goods.
Expenditures: Claims to Value Added Inputs
GDP = 1100 |
Gross National Income = 1100 |
Capital and Land |
Personal Consumption Expenditures = 750 Non –Durables and Services = 450 |
Wages Salaries and Other Comp. = 700 Capital Consumption Allowance 50
Mortgages = 50 |
Residential = 1000 Non-Residential = 2000 |
Non-Residential Investment = 12 |
Business Transfers = 0 Corporate Profits = 150 |
|
Government Consumption = 150
Government Investment = 50 |
100 Proprietors Income = 0 |
|
Net Exports = -50 |
|
Land = 1000 |
b. What is i(c)/y?
ii. .700
iii. .725
iv. .750
v. .775.
c. What is k/y?
2.90
ii. 3.21
iii. 3.63
iv. 4.00
v. 4.26
d. What is g/y?
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
.050
.063
.100
.136
.150
e. i(W)hat is τc?
ii. .074
iii. .082
iv. .097
v. .112
f. What is τx?
.076
ii. .111
iii. .143
iv. .171
v. .192
2022-03-09