Economics

1. Which type of tax takes a larger percentage of income from low-income groups than from high income groups? 2. Which type of tax takes a larger percentage of income from high-income groups than low-income groups? 3. What are the four characteristics of a good tax? 4. What is the “incidence of a tax” and what determines whether or not a producer can shift the burden? 5. What is the major source of federal tax revenue? 6. What is the “withholding” tax, and why does the government use this method? 7. What is FICA, and what two large government programs does it fund? 8. What are “tax incentives”? 9. What’s the difference between “mandatory spending” and “discretionary spending”? 10. Why is it easier for states to balance their budgets than it is for the federal government?

1. What are the phases of the business cycle? 2. What is the value of all final goods and services produced in a year called? 3. What is the difference between real GDP and nominal GDP? 4. If an employee loses her job as a result of technological change, what is she experiencing? 5. What measures inflation? 6. Who stands to benefit from inflation? 7. If your nominal income rises by 10% while the price level rises by 5%, how much will your real income be? 8. What is a market structure dominated by one large seller? 9. Give an example of a price ceiling and a price floor. How do they relate to inflation? 10. What are production costs that do not change with the level of output?

Here is a website that might be of interest to some of you who had questions about the Peak Oil theory. http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/ As it says in the header, the authors of the site do not hold to the abiotic theory. They just assert that the peak is way off in the future.

1. What is it called when a union and management negotiate a labor contract? 2. How are strikes damaging to workers and companies? 3. How are wages for a particular job determined? 4. What are the results of increased worker productivity? 5. If roofing skills are scarce in California, what effect might that have on wages? 6. What generally happens to the equilibrium wage when demand for worker is low and supply is high? 7. What were the major steps in the United State’s progression from an agricultural economy to a service economy? 8. If you gain human capital, what effect might that have on your wages, and why? 9. Give two possible reasons for the increased presence of women in the labor force. 10. Look at the chart on pg. 233. Why might wages for workers in retail be much lower than those for workers in construction?