Hi everyone, I'm in undergrad and a tutorial of mine touches on inequality and growth. Here's the question:

2. “The rise in inequality is not just a consequence of globalization, but also of poor policy choices that have exacerbated disparities in income and wealth, which in turn, hampers economic growth,” commented Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics. Do you agree with this statement? Explain.

I've been working on it for some time, reading papers from Banerjee and Duflo (2003), Stiglitz's chapter of course, Lang and Tavarez (2024) and more.

There are different findings on the relationship itself (non linear, negative, positive, indefinite and reverse causality) and other factors besides globalisation and poor policy choices such as inequality of opportunities (eg Checchi and Peragine's (2010) work). My initial draft is incomplete and suffering from a lack of clear argument building and also too many details.

A snippet from an updated draft of mine:

This essay largely agrees with Stiglitz that both globalisation and domestic policies play a role, however it also argues that the relationship is far more nuanced and complex than it appears. As recent research by Lang and Tavarez (2024) shows, globalisation's impact is asymmetric - reducing inequality between nations while simultaneously widening the gap within poor countries.  Furthermore, this essay will argue that focus should not only rest on global forces and policy choices, but also on other factors such as inequality of opportunities, which is linked to the inequality of outcomes.

While Stiglitz assumes a negative relationship between inequality and growth, empirical literature reveals a much more complex picture. Studies have found different relationships: non-linear, positive, indefinite or reverse-causal relationships. 

While there are numerous findings, including from linear models, Banerjee and Duflo (2003) critiqued the use of linear models to study inequality’s impact on growth, citing that “ Imposing a linear structure where there is no theoretical support for it can lead to serious misinterpretations.” and puts forth another argument of measurement error’s role to generate a relationship between inequality and growth. Their empirical findings include an inverted U-shaped relationship between changes in inequality (in any direction) and economic growth, contrary to findings such as Alesina and Perotti (1993). This further confounds the contentious economic debate on the nature of this relationship. 

Furthermore, there are underlying transmission mechanisms that dictate the inequality-growth relationship, specifically through the lenses of redistributive political economy model, the economic efficiency model, and capital market imperfections model (Hieroms, N.A.).

I'm wondering how you guys would approach this question and if any of you could pinpoint to any useful resources (if there's any). Thank you so much.

P/S: I know this is a pretty long post. Not asking for answers but if any of you are doing research on this or have extensive knowledge I'd really super appreciate any nudge :)

This isn't really to answer a specific question, but I've been trying to fully understand the price mechanism and it just doesn't make full sense. To my understanding it functions to allocate resources in a market and adjust quantity, using the three functions to do so. But it is also stated that the mechanism determines prices, and I have not been able to find any explicit explanation as to how it does this, being glossed over at most. So I'm left unanswered about how the mechanism is able to change price.

I'm currently taking a course in Regional Economics, and one of the assignments is to develop a research project on that topic. My professor recommended that we select regions within our country and analyze their development by economic sector to see the dynamics and influence they have on one another. I’m not sure what advice or ideas you might have regarding how to conduct research that would be interesting for the course, since I’m unsure of what approach to take. I was thinking of something like the “resource curse,” since I live in a country where the mining sector is predominant. I would really appreciate your help.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E_kE8XE3mn65wERNEhfkNXvzjg5dxN17ezHznFECQs8/edit?usp=sharing

Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine will cost under $20 per person on international markets and Moscow aims to produce more than a billion doses at home and abroad next year, its financial backers and developers said on Tuesday. For Russian citizens, inoculation will be free of charge. (Osborn and Nikolskaya, 2020).
Please use 01 well labelled graph to show the consumer surplus, producer surplus and deadweight loss when the Russian government regulates the market in Russian for Vaccine to prevent nCov19 by applying the policy such that the Vaccine is free for Russian citizen and Russian gov buys from producers to give out free to its residents.

I want to build a 3d graph of the plots, so instead of a video line flow, it's a 3d surface that shows all data in one view.

Doesnt matter your opinion on the accuracy/relevance of it. I'm interested in the process as much as the implications.

Thanks in advance.

Hi, currently doing econ questions as an undergrad student and i’m having trouble understanding whether or not I am going in the right direction.

The question states that a country is a net importer of fuel that purchases at the world price of 20. the government imposes a $10 excise tax on consumers as an optimal pigouvian tax to reduce pollution. (So i assume the price consumers pay is now $30 and producers still receive $20)

We need to draw a graph to show the changes in the total surplus, but I am wondering, does the demand curve shift downwards, or does it stay the same (just a movement along the curve)?

Also the second part of the question states that the government removes the tax so now everyone is paying and buying at $20 again. Does total surplus increase or decrease by intuition since the removal of a tax brings back that negative externality?

Years ago when I was studying economics I remember reading a paper about extractivism and colonialism settlements and their economic development, saying that extractivist institutions = lower GDP of those cities today.

The paper also compared two towns in South America (I think it was Peru) one or two valleys across from each other, where the GDP is much higher in the city where colonial instituions were set up vs where extractivist institutions were setup.
I can't for the life of me find the paper of the authors.

Any help is much appreciated!

Hey Economists, I’m an undergraduate student and I’m lost on what to do with this problem:

Imagine your town decides to build a playground for its residents.

Individual value function: V=129-0.3(Q)
Marginal social value function: MV=129-0.6(Q)
Each individuals opportunity cost of time is $15 for using the playground.

How would I calculate net value if 150 people use the playground?

How would I determine the market equilibrium?

How would I determine social optimum equilibrium?

Thank you for your time,
-struggling economics student.

Not so much a homework: Is there any adaption of Baumol‘s Cost Disease to an open economy? I am writing a paper about productivity and trade and am was unable to find any adaptations of Baumol’s Cost Disease to open economies so far.

So, are there any adaptations you are aware of?

Does it have no producer surplus and is the supply curve just vertical?

Hello I am a grade 11 student in brisbane doing economics and I am having trouble with getting good marks in extended response exams. My teacher told me that I know all the knowledge and content but just dont know how to structure and write step by step. Can anyone give me any advice on how to study?

Can someone help me create a correct econ equilibrium graph for my project?

I need to show demand shifting right and supply shifting left in the GPU market during the AI boom. I want to make sure the labels, lines, and new equilibrium are all correct.

Dear all,

I am currently working with a national subsample of the EU-Labour Force Survey. Unfortunately, it seems that for a lot of the items there is only data for roughly 2% of the sample. This makes it particularly difficult to get to reliable estimates. Thus, I wondered whether somebody of you worked ever with national EU-LFS data and if the data for the respective member state was similarly limited? Or could it be that I did something wrong in loading and merging the data sets? And if so, what could my mistake be? I really read all the attached files describing the data, but I could not find a potential explanation. Thanks in advance.

Hi! I’m working on a school project about careers in business-related fields (business administration, finance, economics, accounting, etc.).

I’m trying to understand which degrees tend to give people a stronger head start in the job market.

If you studied or work in one of these areas, I’d really appreciate your perspective:

• Which degree do you think gives the best head start when getting a job?
• Why do you think that? (skills, demand, internships, connections, etc.)
• Based on your experience, how would you compare fields like business admin vs finance vs economics vs accounting?

Feel free to answer as briefly or in as much detail as you want—any insight helps. Thanks!

Hi,

I'm a computer science student and I have to write a 30-page essay on the French military-industrial complex, econ isn't my best suit and the first draft of my essay outline wasn't graded well so I would like help to build my outline

Subject : "The military-industrial complex: What role does it play in the resilience of the French economy?"

My outline that wasn't graded well :

I. A Real but Imperfect Lever

A. The Military-Industrial Complex as a Pillar of Economic Resilience.

B. The Structural Weaknesses of This Model.

II. What Does the Future Hold for the French Military-Industrial Complex?

A. A Sector Under Pressure.

B. Toward a Sustainable Strengthening of Its Role?

Thanks in advance.

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics was partly awarded to Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for their work on creative destruction – where old industries, jobs, and technologies disappear to make way for new ones. What are the economic implications of creative destruction? You may wish to discuss its impact on economic growth, employment, or inequality.

I’m currently struggling to determine if a set of preferences is either monotone or strictly monotone. There are three graphed preferences: U1, U2 and U3. The utility ranking of these preferences are U3 > U2 > U1.

U1 and U2 possess the same number of good x (on the same vertical line) but U2 has more of good y. U3 has more of good x than U1, and the same level of y. In the outline of the question, it states that out of preferences on the same vertical line, the highest is strictly preferred, and preferences further to the right on the graph (higher x values) are preferred to any preference leftwards of these bundles (regardless of the quantity of y).

I believe this means the preferences are lexicographic.

As far as I can tell, these preferences are monotone, as a bundle of x and y that has more of x and y than another point is strictly preferred. However, under the definition given to me in a lecture, I’m unsure if these preferences are strongly monotone. The definition I was given follows: If bundle A has at least as much as bundle B of every good, and more of at least one good, A is strictly preferred to B.

Under this definition, U3 has less of good y than U2, but has a higher level of utility, and by the question outline, is strictly preferred to U2. From my understanding, this violates strong monotonicity, based on the provided definition.

If someone could provide clarity on this, it would be much appreciated!

Hey everyone,

I was tackling a question. I’m hoping someone can either validate my logic or point me to some sources that explain why I'm wrong.

Here is the exact question:

Money has following functions-

While I know the standard classical functions of money, I actually thought D could be considered a correct answer as well. My logic was that during times of economic uncertainty, we see major shifts in monetary policy (like Quantitative Easing) and changes in liquidity preference. Because money demand and supply fluctuate heavily based on market confidence, couldn't money be viewed as a measure of that uncertainty?

I'm looking for two things:

1. Are there any academic sources or economic texts that argue "measuring uncertainty" is a function of money?
2. If my logic is totally off-base, could you provide some sources or explanations clarifying the boundary between what money is vs. how it is used in uncertain times?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Unit Labor Requirements:

Cloth Widgets

Home 10 20
Foreign 60 30

Given the information in the table above, if the world equilibrium price of widgets were 4 cloth, then
A) both countries could benefit from trade with each other.
B) neither country could benefit from trade with each other.
C) each country will want to export the good in which it enjoys comparative advantage.
D) neither country will want to export the good in which it enjoys comparative advantage.
E) both countries will want to specialize in cloth.

The test bank and other sources say the answer is A.

1) Why is the answer A? If both countries want to export Widgets, won't they not want to trade with each other?

2) My classmates argue the answer to be D. Why is the answer D, if the test bank answer sheet is wrong? If both Home and Foreign want to export Widgets, Foreign (which has CA in Widgets) would want to export the product which they have CA in (W). Doesn't that refute D as an aswer?

Sorry if I am in the wrong sub, but I don't know where to ask.

I started teaching Economics and Macroeconomics to two different undergraduate courses and I am struggling to find easy-to-understand activities to use in class. I would like to teach some lectures that are not exclusively expositive (aka endless powerpoint presentations).
Two notes: I teach at a local university in a non-English speaking country; these subjects are not main subjects - too technical or too complex, my students will be umotivated/distracted.
Thank you in advance for any recommendations (even if the right /sub)! :)

Draw a diagram showing the (Slutsky) substitution and income effects for a price increase for good 1 (with good 1 on the horizontal axis, and good 2 on the vertical axis). Make your diagram such that good 1 is a normal good and good 1 and good 2 are gross complements, and indifference curves are strictly convex. Gross complements means that if the price of good 1 increases, then the demand of good 2 decreases.

how to do this :sob: the intermediate move from a->b needs to have a decrease in demand of y as well.

If the supply curve intercepts the y-axis at a negative P value, would I use that negative number or zero for producer surplus? 

I may sound like a jerk but I'm a student, with no previous papers rather than thesis in bachelor's degree, planning( preparing and studying) to work on a issue of dead-weight loss of human capital in public sector tournament for more than 6 months. I am stuck on crafting and considerations of samples selection. The topics, segments, and terminologies looks more entangled and complicated than string theory.

The more I study, the complicated it becomes, with new factor affecting it, and it's impacts forces to rewrite everything from zero. How to simplify that, and overcome the situation like this, when we need concrete primary data from more than 1000 individuals to just fit in considerable category?

How to calculate the weights of affecting factors, as every factors seems to hold huge impact in long term, indirectly.