° PS418/618 Syllabus - Fall 2008
° Renka's Home Page
° Drop Box
Do any five of these 9 questions from class and text. Each has a top value of 20 points, so 100 points are possible. Due date: by midnight Tuesday, September 23 at the Drop Box.
1. Why are units of analysis so important when someone writes out a policy CAM? What changes would you recommend be made in Munger's Table 1.3 covering the prison bed example?
2. Do Munger’s Problem no. 1 (Ch. 1, p. 26) on a policy problem of your own choosing. Feel free to employ this with a policy that you'll present later on in this class.
3. Do Munger’s Problem no. 5 (Ch. 1, pp. 27-28) on the “beanie brouhaha” with former Trade Rep. Charlene Barshefsky.
4. Munger in Ch. 2 says there are three sources of policymaking: markets, democracy, and expertise. And there are three types of policy conflicts that follow: efficiency policies, equity policies, and institutional reform policies. Give one or more pertinent examples of each type of policy conflict.
5. What are the advantages of markets with money over markets that rely exclusively on a system of barter?
6. In R.A. Radford’s Case 1: A Prison Camp Economy (in Munger pp. 89-99), cigarettes quickly became the standard currency among the inmates. Why did this currency replace a system of bartering goods? What were the strong points, and what were the deficiencies, in cigarettes as a form of currency there? What does "Gresham's law" tell us about the nature of money.
7. Munger cites the Kaldor-Hicks ethical criterion in application to the Singleton family which owned a Raleigh thrift store. What does the KH criterion say? How was it applied to the Singleton family?
8. Munger says decisions can be made either privately or publicly, and the effects of those decisions can be either private or public. What's the difference between a pure private good and a pure public good? What's the difference between a pure public good and a common pool good? And when is free riding a serious indicator of a market failure?
9. Governments are expected to intervene when and if markets fail (p. 114) even by our libertarian friend Michael Munger. I cited two areas where markets often fail, based on the list of perfect competition attributes on Munger, p. 114. What are the most important kinds of market failures? Cite two or more policy examples where a market failure justifies a resort to governmental responsibility for policy.