Lesenotizen Angewandte Ökonomik#

1. Accidental Theorist#

title: Accidental Theorist, Chapter 1
author: Paul Krugman
date: 04.1999

Example Model:

  • economy with two goods (Hot Dogs and Buns)

  • complementary goods (one with the other)

  • 120 million workers

    • 60 million buns industry

    • 60 million in Hot dog industry

    • 2 days per good producing

=> 30 million Hot Dogs + Buns per day

Shock: new Hot Dog production technology (one Hot Dog one day)

  • now 40 million hot dog workers

  • and 80 million buns workers

=> 40 million Hot Dogs + Buns per Day

technological change => shift in employed people in different industries but not less employed!

2. Voodoo Multipliers#

title: Voodoo Multipliers
author: Robert J. Barro
date: 01.01.2009

Situation:

  • 2009 after Financial Crisis

  • Economy not at full capacity

  • Obama implements government stimulus program with multiplier of 1.5

Barro Gordon Critique:

  • government investment is not free

  • government not better than private market at distribution of money

  • Comparison to 2WW War Economy

  • Multiplier = 0

  • to solve crisis = lower taxes for companies?!

But:

  • at War, there is no idle capacity

  • everybody was working at the time for war effort

  • obvously then no stimulus

  • 2009 is completely different situation!

Response from Krugman on Barro’s Piece

3. Grüne Paradoxon#

title: Das grüne Paradoxon, Warum man das Angebot bei der Klimapolitik nicht vergessen darf
author: Hans-Werner Sinn
date: 05.2008

Fokus der Umweltpolitik auf Klimaschutz und Nachfrage nach Öl

Nachfragepolitik Instrumente:

  • Erneuerbaren Förderung

  • Forschung

  • Besteuerung

  • Dämmung

Ziel: Reduktion der Emissionen durch weniger Verbrauch in Industriestaaten

Angebotspolitik

Sinn: Angebot wurde vergessen…

  • nur Industrieländer Nachfragereduktion

  • Schwellenländer stoßen weiter aus

Betrachtenswert ist Entscheidung der Förderländer:

  • wenn weniger Nachfrage aus Westen

  • dann Preise senken und auf andere Länder ausweichen

  • => keine Einsparung

Angebotsreaktion der Ölländer:

  • substituierbares Gut

  • Anbieter = intertemporale Nutzenmaximierer

  • stabile Preise, da alle in Zukunft rechnen

    • wenn heute nicht verkaufen

    • dann morgen verkuafen müssen

    • aber moregn weniger abnehmer

    • aufgrund angekündigter Nachfragepolitik

=> mehr Extraktion heute = Klimawandel

Warum: Eigentümer erschöpfbarer Ressourcen = anders als normale Güter!

Lösung: Innovation?!

Realität:

  • OPEC Kartell (kein klarer Markt)

  • Ölländer betreiben Preisziel, nicht Menge

  • Absatzminderungen des Kartells => Einsparungen für Klimawandel

=> Kritik ist modellhaft richtig, aber nicht realitätsnah!

4. Who pays for your coffee?#

title: Undercover Economist, Chapter 1
author: Tim Harford
date: 2012

Situation:

  • busy metro stations

  • expensive coffee from big brands (starbucks)

  • huge demand for convenient coffee

who makes money from these prices?

  • production cost = very cheap => Starbucks?

  • but only reason for price = location

=> the landlord makes the profit

  • negotiates with many different coffee chains

  • competition for the location = less markup for these chains

  • limited number of attractive sites

Ricardian Analysis back in the 1870s:

  • napoleonic whars = wheat price rises

  • high rents on agricultural lands

  • reason: scarcity of land => bargaining power on the side of landlords

  • limited by competition of other countries and cheaper, less productive fields

=> scarcity shifts bargaining power (land or coffe shop location doesnt matter)

Importance of marginal land:

  • land that is currently not cultivated

  • value of other land = relative to marginal land

  • productivity of different lands = price of rent

Other reasons for high rent:

  • artificial scarcity (politics)

  • cartels and missing competition

  • high barriers to entry

  • violence (mafia)

5. Monetary Policy#

title: The Role of Monetary Policy
auhtor: Milton Friedman
date: 1986

Keynes:

  • monetary policy not able to stop depression

  • nonmonetary reaction needed

  • money not as important

1960s:

  • this lead to “cheap money”

  • and infaltion after war

  • Great Depression = bad monetary policy, not missing fiscal policy

  • changing views on potency of monetary policy

Friedman:

  • to much belief in monetary policy = bad

  • MP not as powerful

    • not able to peg interest rates

    • not able to peg unemployment rate

    • each for longer times

  1. Interest Rates in longer term not possible:

  • more money = initially lower interest rates

  • but more money = more investment

  • more income = higher prices

  • after long period = back to natural interest rate

  • also: more money = higher inflation expecations = higher expected retunrs and interest

=> MP is not effective

(or needs constant supply of new money)

  1. Unemployment

  • why not MP until target Unempl. is reached?

  • low interest rate > market rate = inflation

  • anticipation of inflation = higher wage is needed

  • Philipps Curve = one way only

=> MP is not effective, because too low interest rate in the long run raises inflation

short run: temporary tradeoff between unemployment and inflation (Philipps Curve)

  • comes from unanticipated inflation

  • not inflation per se

long run: no tradeoff

  • both have to be at “natural rate”

Theory: Focus on Money Supply, not interest rates! (Monetarismus)

low interest rates are a sign that monetary policy has been tight -in the sense that the quantity of money has grown slowly; high interest rates are a sign that monetary policy has been easy