Microeconomic questions are asked below, provide solutions for these
Consider an economy with two types of individuals: skilled and unskilled workers. The only differ- ence between the two is that the skilled have a higher hourly wage w. = 40 than the unskilled do, wu = 10. Suppose that there are 400 unskilled and 100 skilled workers in this economy. Suppose that each individual has a utility function over consumption (c) and leisure (1) of the following form: U(c, 1) = In(c) + 2In(1) where I E [0, 24]. 1. (a) (3 minutes) Write down the individual's budget constraint in terms of consumption and leisure. Draw the budget constraints for the skilled and unskilled workers in the same graph with leisure on the r-axis. (b) (7 minutes) Solve for each individual's optimal leisure, labor, and consumption choice. 2. (10 minutes) Now suppose that the government wants to redistribute from the skilled to the unskilled workers. It levies an income tax which collects 20% of each skilled worker's earnings and then uses the tax revenue to give an equal amount (lump-sum transfer) T to each unskilled worker. So only the skilled workers are taxed and only the unskilled workers receive the transfer. (a) (4 minutes) On the same set of axes, draw the new budget constraints faced by the two types of individuals. (b) (4 minutes) Solve for each skilled individual's new optimal leisure, labor, and consump- tion. Does labor supply change? What is the intuition behind this result? (c) (2 minutes) Compute the total tax revenue collected by the government from taxing the skilled individuals. 3. (a) (4 minutes) Suppose that for every tax dollar collected, 6.25 cents are lost due to admin- istrative costs. Suppose that the government sets 7 so that it spends what it collects (the government balances its budget). How large is T"?(b) (4 minutes) Calculate consumer and producer surplus under trade. (5) (15 minutes) The US government is unhappy with steel imports and decides to impose a 200 percent tariff on imported steel so that the price of imported steel is now 3 when importing from abroad. (Continue to assume that the US domestic steel market operates in perfect competition with production function S(L) = =L) (a) (2 minutes) What is the price of domestic steel? Will car manufacturers choose to use domestic or foreign steel? (b) (5 minutes) Calculate the new equilibrium in the US market for cars, continuing to assume that cars are traded freely at a world price of 100. Does the US still export cars? 4. Beatrice has initial wealth of wo and suffers from quasi-hyperbolic discounting. At any date s, her utility from a consumption stream z = (To, 21, . ..) is U (r s) = In(2.) +8 ) 8 In(x.+2). k=1 where 8, 6 6 (0, 1). She gets return of r > 1 from her savings so that her wealth at t + 1 is ut+1 = " (1 - 2) if her wealth at t is a and she consumes r, at t. (b) Find a sophisticated-optimal consumption strategy for her in which the self at any given date s consumes yu's. Compute the constant y and briefly verify that this is indeed a subgame-perfect equilibrium of the multi-agent game. (c) For 8 " (E) > 0 > > > u (D). Find the condition under which she takes the test
