I feel that I could have studied more for this test – I came in without knowing much about comparative advantage and other components of the test. Honestly I surprised myself with an 80%. It seems like I had most trouble with the diagrams and definitions, because I hadn’t studied. The evaluation I was able to do because I understood the concept of a trading bloc and the stakeholders of the situation. I could refine my evaluation however, to get a higher grade. Thank you for grading my test!

The population growth rate is at 2.878%, ranked at 18 out of 235 countries. The dependency ratio is more than 1:1, as there are 109 people supported by 100 people.

The unemployment rate is not listed for Niger.

Niger’s export value is $428 million, while Japan’s is $65 billion. In addition, all of their exports are commodities, which include uranium ore, livestock, cowpeas, and onions. Also, 90% of their population is employed in agriculture.

Health -

The crude death rate is 20 people, while the life expectancy is at 44 years at birth. The physicians per 1000 people is 0.03. In other words, there are 3 doctors for every 100,000 people.

2. Definitions:

Tariff: Tariffs are taxes on goods imported into a country. They are a form of protectionism and are often used by governments to try to reduce the level of imports into a country.

3. Triple A Textbook:

Tariffs

A tariff is a tax on imports, which can either be specific (so much per unit of sale) or ad valorem (a percentage of the price of the product). Tariffs reduce supply and raise the price of imports. This gives domestic equivalents a comparative advantage. As such, tariffs are distorting the market forces and may prevent consumers from gaining the benefit of all the advantages of international specialisation and trade. The impact of a tariff is shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 Impact of a tariff

The tariff has the effect of shifting the world supply curve vertically upwards by the amount of the tariff. The level of imports will fall from QaQd to QbQc. The government will also raise revenue, shown by the blue shaded area. The level of domestic production will increase from 0Qa to 0Qb.

4. Powerpoint Slides

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5. Diagrams

6. Evaluation Suggestions

Since this question is, in essence, an evaluation question, I would examine the stakeholders of the situation in order to evaluate the introduction of a tariff. The relevant stakeholders are mentioned in step 1: domestic producers, international producers, the government, and domestic consumers.

The article states that although there was a devaluation of the pound, exports have remained at a measly 1% increase, while imports have increased by 5%. If exports in the UK were elastic, then a small devaluation of the pound would bring about a large increase in quantity of exports. Meanwhile the devaluation of the pound would decrease imports as the price of buying foreign currencies increases. In reality, however, the demand for imports may possibly be fairly inelastic, as a small devaluation of the pound has increased imports by 5%. On the other hand, the small devaluation of the pound has only increased the quantity of exports by 1%.

My data response was a lot better than I expected. Seeing as in my practice DBQ I found some of the questions really hard I find my high 6 very rewarding. I understood the diagrams much more in this assignment. The part I fell through was the actual descriptions of the demand and supply graphs, If I talked about the price and quantity directly that would have resulted in a better grade. In part d my organization and lack of evaluation stopped me … Read More

via Harmeets Econ Blog

The graph on the left shows the current account balance of the Netherlands, which clearly shows the historic trend of being positive.

The current account surplus of the Netherlands as a percent of GDP is at 7.96%.

As a real world example, the EU is a great example of a successful free trade union. The countries that are part of the EU allows for the free expansion of economies spread across the nations of the EU.

In our presentation, the one weakness we had not addressed was the outsourcing of workers to foreign countries. We had made the assumption that the problem was based solely in the United States. However, outsourcing of workers would mean poorer quality workers, especially if in less economically developed countries (LEDCs). Therefore, we thought it better to give additional training to the workers here in the United States, increasing productivity and aiding the economy.