Demand and Supply Curves: Rotations versus Shifts

Virtually all principles and intermediate texts draw demand and supply curves as parallel shifts when a non-price variable changes its value, which implicitly assumes that the demand (or supply) relation is linear. But economists commonly speak of “the” income elasticity, as if it were constant (and not varying continuously as is the case with the linear specification). If the income elasticity is constant, then the demand curve must rotate when income changes.     

Do Economists Recognize an Opportunity Cost When They See One? A Dismal Performance or an Arbitrary Concept?

2005 asked 199 professional economists a multiple‐choice question about opportunity cost. Given that only 21.6% answered “correctly,” they conclude that professional understanding of the concept is “dismal.” We challenge this critique of the profession. Specifically, we allow for alternative opportunity cost accounting methodologies—one of which is derived from the term's definition as found in Ferraro and Taylor— and rely on the conventional relationship between willingness to pay and substitute goods to demonstrate that every answer to the multiple‐choice question is defensible. The Ferraro and Taylor survey question suggests difficulties in framing an opportunity cost accounting question, as well as a lack of coordination in opportunity cost accounting methodology. In scope and logic, we conclude that the survey question does not, however, succeed in measuring professional understanding of opportunity cost. A discussion follows as to the concept's appropriate role in the classroom.     

Targeting Teaching Lecture Capture Learning: Do Students Perform Better Compared to Face‐to‐Face Classes?

Online learning has become more prevalent in colleges and universities as new technology is introduced. One such technology is lecture capture, which allows a live lecture to be recorded and packaged with classroom media and delivered online to many more students than a traditional face‐to‐face class. This article studies the selection process and educational outcome differences between students enrolled in a lecture capture and a face‐to‐face course in economic principles. Students could select either course format, both with the same instructor and course requirements, without capacity restrictions. We find that students’ attitudes toward online learning are the chief determinant of their choice of class over demographics, opportunity cost measures, or past online experiences. Additionally, our findings suggest that lecture capture students perform as well as those who take a face‐to‐face course when not accounting for self‐selection. When selection is taken into account, lecture capture is not significantly worse than face‐to‐face.     

Emporiophobia (Fear of Markets): Cooperation or Competition?

Widespread emporiophobia (fear of markets) has important policy implications, since it leads voters to demand anti‐market policies. There are many reasons for this anti‐market attitude; however, economists could reduce emporiophobia if we stressed cooperation rather than competition in writings and policy discussions. In a sample of introductory textbooks, competition is mentioned on average eight times as often as cooperation. The fundamental economic unit is the transaction, and transactions are cooperative. The benefit of a market economy—increased consumer surplus—comes from cooperation through transactions, not from competition. Competition in a market economy is competition for the right to cooperate. Competition is important because it guarantees that the best cooperators will win and because it establishes the efficient terms for cooperation, but cooperation is fundamental. For most people, competition has negative connotations since it focuses on losers, while cooperation implies a win–win situation. Other implications involve the morality of the market, “giving back,” and characteristics of market failures.     

RELATIVE FACTOR PRICES IN THE PERIPHERY DURING THE FIRST GLOBAL CENTURY: ANY LESSONS FOR TODAY?

Globalisation before 1939 had profound effects on factor prices and income distribution, especially between the industrialising core economies and the economies of periphery. Jeffrey Williamson reflects briefly on: the impact of globalisation on relative factor price convergence; the interaction between commodity market convergence and convergence in labour and capital markets; and whether the nineteenth history of the periphery was a different history from that of the industrialising European core. Williamson concludes with observations on why the blacklash against globalisation is less severe today than it was during the first global century.     

COMMENTS ON FACTOR PRICES AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN LESS INDUSTRIALISED ECONOMIES, 1870–1939: REFOCUSING ON THE FRONTIER

A great deal of the current research into nineteenth- and twentieth-century globalisation has been focused through a neoclassical trade theory lens. Applying the Stopler-Samuelson paradigm from Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory, the result is an approach that sees price convergence as pivotal in defining, identifying, and measuring globalisation. This focus, however, obscures the implications of frontier incorporation and other insights achieved by viewing nineteenth-century globalisation as a mechanism whereby peripheral economies were incorporated into the core of organised economic activity. A frontier-centred perspective also reintroduces the role of economic institutions as a crucial element of economic growth and development.     

HECKSHER-OHLIN IN CANADA: NEW ESTIMATES OF REGIONAL WAGES AND LAND PRICES

Many immigrant-receiving and land-abundant countries experienced a diminishing ratio of wages to land prices during the globalisation era from 1870 to 1910. Factor price evidence suggests that Canada does not fit the pattern. We present the first Canadian estimates of region-specific wages and land prices that span the period from 1871 to 1925. Our evidence indicates that while Canada as a nation looks like an anomaly in the era of convergence, this is largely an artefact of aggregating the experience of the labour-abundant eastern provinces with the late-settling and land-abundant western provinces.     

220KV线路微机保护器的运行与维护

随着220KV微机线路保护的广泛应用,微机线路保护的一些缺陷也开始逐渐显现出来。本文针对微机线路经常出现的一些故障和缺陷,提出了在220kv微机保护运行管理中要注意的一些问题。