Explain the view of Thomas Malthus on population growth in 1789 and contrast it with what has happened since that time
What will be an ideal response?
Thomas Malthus in his An Essay on the Principle of Population argued that human living standards could only temporarily rise above subsistence levels. In his view, higher living standards would bring forth more population and the increased population would eventually reduce living standards. The opposite, however, has occurred. Higher living standards have resulted in birthrates that are lower than the replacement rate that is necessary to keep a population from declining over time. The majority of the world’s population now resides in nations where the total fertility rate is less than that needed to keep a nation’s population stable over time.
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Explain the following statement: “Good decisions typically require marginal analysis, which weighs added costs against added benefits.”
What will be an ideal response?
If a monopolist is producing a rate of output at which market demand is inelastic,
a. it may or may not be maximizing its short-run profit b. reducing output would reduce both total revenue and total cost c. reducing output would increase both total revenue and total cost d. reducing output would increase total revenue and reduce total cost e. increasing output will increase its short-run economic profit
Critics of the U.S. definition of poverty claim it is an inaccurate measure of our poor because:
A. it is a single number that does not capture regional differences in the cost of living. B. the ratio of food to total income is different now than when the definition of poverty was defined. C. it fails to account accurately for expenditures other than food. D. All of these are true.
When Classical economists of the 1930s looked at the Great Depression, they:
A. thought it was a result of prices adjusting too quickly. B. suggested wages were too flexible. C. blamed it on activist fiscal and monetary policies. D. lacked a good explanation of why it was happening.