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CHAPTER
Economic Models:
Trade-offs and Trade 2
1. Two important industries on the island of Bermuda are fishing and tourism.
According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
and the Bermuda Department of Statistics, in 2009 the 306 registered fishermen in
Bermuda caught 387 metric tons of marine fish. And the 2,719 people employed by
hotels produced 554,400 hotel stays (measured by the number of visitor arrivals).
Suppose that this production point is efficient in production. Assume also that the
opportunity cost of 1 additional metric ton of fish is 2,000 hotel stays and that this
opportunity cost is constant (the opportunity cost does not change).
a. If all 306 registered fishermen were to be employed by hotels (in addition to the
2,719 people already working in hotels), how many hotel stays could Bermuda
produce?
b. If all 2,719 hotel employees were to become fishermen (in addition to the 306
fishermen already working in the fishing industry), how many metric tons of fish
could Bermuda produce?
c. Draw a production possibility frontier for Bermuda, with fish on the horizontal
axis and hotel stays on the vertical axis, and label Bermuda’s actual production
point for the year 2009.
S1o. lutio n
a. Forgoing the production of 1 metric ton of fish allows Bermuda to produce 2,000
additional hotel stays. Therefore, forgoing the production of 387 metric tons of
fish allows Bermuda to produce 2,000 × 387 = 774,000 additional hotel stays. If
all fishermen worked in the hotel industry, Bermuda could produce
554,000 + 774,000 = 1,328,400 hotel stays.
b. Forgoing the production of 2,000 hotel stays allows Bermuda to produce 1 addi-
tional metric ton of fish, so giving up 554,400 hotel stays allows Bermuda to produce
554,400/2,000 = 277.2 additional metric tons of fish. If all hotel employees worked in
the fishing industry, Bermuda could produce 387 + 277.2 = 664.2 metric tons of fish.
c. The accompanying diagram shows the production possibility frontier for Bermuda.
Note that it is a straight line because the opportunity cost is constant. Point A is
Bermuda’s actual production point.
Quantity of
hotel stays
(thousands)
1,328.4
A
554.4
Bermuda
PPF
0 387 664.2
Quantity of fish (metric tons)
S-11
S2o. luti oo int is feasible but not efficient in production. Producing 1.8 billion bushels
a. This po
of wheat and 9 billion bushels of corn is less of both wheat and corn than is pos-
sible. They could produce more if all the available farmland were cultivated.
b. At this new production point, farmers would now produce 1 billion more bush-
els of wheat and 1.7 billion fewer bushels of corn than at their original produc-
tion point. This reflects an opportunity cost of 1.7 bushels of corn per additional
bushel of wheat. But, in fact, this new production point is not feasible because we
know that opportunity costs are increasing. Starting from the original production
point, the opportunity cost of producing 1 more bushel of wheat must be higher
than 1.7 bushels of corn.
c. This new production point is feasible and efficient in production. Along the pro-
duction possibility frontier, the economy must forgo 0.666 bushel of wheat per
additional bushel of corn. So the increase in corn production from 11.807 billion
bushels to 12.044 billion bushels costs the economy (12.044 − 11.807) billion
bushels of corn × 0.666 bushel of wheat per bushel of corn = 0.158 bushel of
wheat. This is exactly equal to the actual loss in wheat output: the fall from 2.158
billion to 2 billion bushels of wheat.
3. In the ancient country of Roma, only two goods, spaghetti and meatballs, are pro-
duced. There are two tribes in Roma, the Tivoli and the Frivoli. By themselves, the
Tivoli each month can produce either 30 pounds of spaghetti and no meatballs,
or 50 pounds of meatballs and no spaghetti, or any combination in between. The
Frivoli, by themselves, each month can produce 40 pounds of spaghetti and no meat-
balls, or 30 pounds of meatballs and no spaghetti, or any combination in between.
a. Assume that all production possibility frontiers are straight lines. Draw one
diagram showing the monthly production possibility frontier for the Tivoli and
another showing the monthly production possibility frontier for the Frivoli. Show
how you calculated them.
b. Which tribe has the comparative advantage in spaghetti production? In meatball
production?
In A.D. 100 the Frivoli discover a new technique for making meatballs that doubles
the quantity of meatballs they can produce each month.
c. Draw the new monthly production possibility frontier for the Frivoli.
d. After the innovation, which tribe now has an absolute advantage in producing
meatballs? In producing spaghetti? Which has the comparative advantage in meat-
ball production? In spaghetti production?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
The production possibility frontier for the Tivoli was calculated as follows: the
Tivoli can produce either 30 pounds of spaghetti and no meatballs, or they can
produce no spaghetti but 50 pounds of meatballs. That is, the opportunity cost
of 1 pound of meatballs is 3⁄5 of a pound of spaghetti: in order to produce 1 more
pound of meatballs, the Tivoli have to give up 3⁄5 of a pound of spaghetti. This
means that the slope of their production possibility frontier is −3⁄5. A similar
argument for the Frivoli shows that their production possibility frontier has a
slope of −4 ⁄ 3.
b. For the Tivoli, the opportunity cost of 1 pound of meatballs is 3⁄5 of a pound
of spaghetti. For the Frivoli, the opportunity cost of 1 pound of meatballs is 4 ⁄ 3
pounds of spaghetti. That is, the Tivoli have a comparative advantage in meatball
production because their opportunity cost is lower. For the Tivoli, the opportunity
cost of 1 pound of spaghetti is 5⁄3 pounds of meatballs. For the Frivoli, the oppor-
tunity cost of 1 pound of spaghetti is 3 ⁄4 pound of meatballs. That is, the Frivoli
have a comparative advantage in spaghetti production because their opportunity
cost is lower.
c. The Frivoli’s new production possibility frontier is the line labeled “New Frivoli
PPF” in panel (b) of the diagram. Instead of producing 30 pounds of meatballs (if
they produce no spaghetti), they can now produce 60 pounds.
d. Now the Frivoli have the absolute advantage in both meatball production and spa-
ghetti production. The Frivoli’s opportunity cost of meatballs has now fallen to 4 ⁄6
= 2 ⁄3; that is, for each pound of meatballs that the Frivoli now produce, they have
to give up producing 2 ⁄3 of a pound of spaghetti. Since the Frivoli’s opportunity
cost of meatballs (2 ⁄3) is still higher than the Tivoli’s (3 ⁄5), the Tivoli still have the
comparative advantage in meatball production. The Frivoli’s opportunity cost of
spaghetti is 3 ⁄2 pounds of meatballs and the Tivoli’s is 5⁄3 pounds of meatballs, so
the Frivoli have the comparative advantage in spaghetti production.
KrugWellsECPS4e_Micro_CH02.indd S-13 9/30/14 12:51 PM
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"What a beautiful specimen!" Gerry sighed with professional longing. "I
really think it wants to make friends. Doesn't it remind you of an
oversize Scotty pup sitting up to beg?"
Strike snorted.
"What an imagination! Looks more to me like—"
"Watch it!" came the sudden warning.
In the discussion, they had taken their eyes from the newcomer, and it
had seized the opportunity to move in. The center of its head opened to
reveal an enormous mouth, filled with hideous, slavering, black fangs.
Emitting an eerie whistling note, the Thing rushed savagely upon the
group, in a horridly blind fury.
Everyone scattered like flushed quail, and the hairy enemy, unable to
make quick turns, charged harmlessly through like a bull. Abandoning
all pretense, it turned and came sliding back in another silent, deadly
rush. Again, the castaways dodged aside.
"He has such an endearing way of showing his friendliness!" Strike
gibed at his fiancée.
But though there were elements of humor in being chased round and
round the space-boat, tiring muscles soon warned that the situation was
no joke.
"This can't go on indefinitely," Gerry finally gasped. "Someone'll slip, or
dodge a little too late. And if we retreat into the ship, it'll just mean a
siege. If that blasted Dacres had only left us a weapon—"
She might have been a lady Aladdin, speaking the magic formula, for the
lifeboat opened and Barrows, grinning uncertainly, tossed an improvised
contraption to Strike. It consisted of two scalpels, fastened with wires
from the control panel to a three-foot metal piece of weather-stripping
ripped from the doorsill, to form a spear.
"Best we could do on short notice," Barrows apologized, then retreated
precipitately, as the shaggy, faceless nemesis charged raveningly against
the closing porte.
As the Thing reeled back from the shock, Strike deftly moved in with his
crude weapon, slashing for the abdomen. The result was so completely
devastating that Strike was dumbfounded.
The razor-sharp little knives went in as if through butter, and when they
were withdrawn, a torrent of grayish fluid spouted forth almost endlessly,
as if the strange creature were filled with the stuff to the exclusion of any
kind of organs.
Eventually, the rank flood ceased, and the enemy collapsed like an empty
glove, dead. The victory was so absolute—the weird animal had been so
utterly ferocious, animated solely by the two emotions of cunning and
hate. It had been defeated so easily—that bewilderment took the place of
triumph. Everyone gathered round Strike and his trophy.
"Funny stuff," Kranz said, pointing to the great puddle of vital fluid, as
yet unaffected by the temperature. "Wonder what it is?"
"Must be anti-freeze," Gerry hazarded.
"Be interesting to examine the beast," Strike said slowly.
He and Kranz exchanged a long look and, by common consent, seized
the shrunken carcass and bore it into the lifeboat. They could rig up a
rough laboratory there, putter around for hours with the smelly corpse,
and be quite happy.
Kranz was a fiend for chemical analysis. He would sample the Styx as
Charon rowed him across. Gerry, whose interest in strange creatures was
confined to live ones with commercial value, shrugged it off. It was one
of the few times in her life she missed the point.
Seven times, Neptune's pale bulk popped over the horizon to make its
swift journey across the sky before Strike, smiling like a cat in a bird-
cage, invited Gerry into the lifeboat.
"Interesting beastie," he observed. "Skin as thin as paper, despite the
shaggy coat. No circulatory system. Somehow that mess of fluid takes
the place of blood—has corpuscles and things in it, too. Rudimentary
organs of some kind about where you'd expect to find eyes. In the
absence of a Latin scholar, we've named it Apod Shaggius—footless and
hairy. 'Shaggie' for short."
"That hardly accounts for the self-satisfied smile," Gerry said shrewdly.
Strike grinned wider.
"We analyzed the fluid," he said. "It's a chlorinated compound, as you
might expect—basically perchlorethylene."
"And so?"
"Kranz thinks it would be easy to convert the stuff, right inside the
creature's body, into hexachlorethane, without any immediate harm. Just
a few injections."
"Now there's a brilliant experiment!" Gerry simmered exasperatedly.
"And at a time like this, marooned at the outer extremities of the System,
our days numbered! Why, for heaven's sake?"
She still did not see the point, nor did any of the others except Kranz,
and Strike found perverse delight in that fact. Gerry had kept still about
Triton's peculiar balance of centrifugal and gravitational forces while she
wasn't sure.
He, too, would have his little mystery till he knew whether his
experiment was going to pan out.
The fact was, within a few hours, or days, Dacres would be returning to
see if his murder plot had worked, and to set the stage for the rescue
parties. The castaways would have one chance—and one only—to fight
for their lives. It had to be good. And anything, however unlikely, that
might give them an edge was well worth the effort.
"Never mind why," Strike urged. "Just be a good gal and help me out. All
we need is one of these Shaggies captured alive to work on. You can do
it. There's chloroform in the medical kit, and a rope that'd make a fine
lasso. And, anyhow, surely one little old monster couldn't faze the
inimitable Gerry Carlyle!"
Gerry choked back some very unladylike words.
CHAPTER V
Knockout
Came the day when Tommy Strike's stomach had butterflies in it. That
was not from hunger, although rations hadn't been generous. It was the
sensation that every fighter knows as the ring lights go on, and the house
darkens, and he awaits the bell for the first round.
They were all awaiting the bell now, tense and drawn-faced, as they hid
in the darkened lifeboat, ready for a bigger, more desperate fight than
any their prizefight pal, Kid McCray, had ever engaged in. Days of
anxious waiting were over. Miles above the tricky Neptunian satellite,
hovered The Ark, slowly descending, quartering in geometric pattern, as
the detectors sought the smaller craft.
Were they ready for battle? Strike wondered. Some crude knives and
knuckle-dusters had been made, and there had been some excitement
when they captured one of the weird-looking hairy creatures they called
Shaggies. Strike's enthusiasm for the experiment he and Kranz had
performed on the beast had waned.
It was admittedly a longshot, though even if it didn't succeed, they would
be no worse off than before. What it all boiled down to was an ambush.
Dacres and his mob would be expecting to find nine corpses, the result of
the murderous gravity. He was due for a shock.
It would be attacking proton-pistol-armed killers almost barehanded, but
they had the advantage of stunning surprise. And the captured Shaggie
just might help. It had been "doped up," as McCray expressed it, and
turned loose when The Ark had finally come into sight. Now it stood out
there, a blot on the landscape, surely one of Nature's mistakes.
Of course, the creature would inevitably attack any moving thing,
including unwary pirates, with vigor. But whether subsequent events
would conform with theory, was in the lap of the gods. And to them,
Strike, in the intensity of his desire to rectify what he felt to be his fault,
prayed fervently.
At length the time for wondering was over, for Dacres had finally located
the wreck and was bringing The Ark down in a swift plunge, to hover
lightly a few feet above the surface, balloon-like.
"They sure handle it sweet," someone muttered grudgingly.
"They ought to. They've had plenty of time to practise." That was
Baumstark.
"S-sh! They might hear us!"
Minutes ticked away, as the gangsters in The Ark made their routine
tests. Then the ship came to rest, the main porte slid open, and the entire
vicious mob stood in the big lock staring eagerly out. All wore gravity
clogs.
Strike recognized Dacres at once, taller than the others, and anger began
to seethe in his brain like an acid bath, ran like liquor through his veins.
He felt his companions stir in the grip of that emotion, as they peered
through pin-point peepholes. He could literally smell the hate as it
sweated out of their trembling bodies.
"Not yet. Not yet," Strike whispered restrainingly. "Watch."
It was an ancient movie—jerky action, but no accompanying sound.
Outside, the Shaggie was going through its familiar routine, sliding
closer and closer, as it believed itself unobserved, to the men in the lock
entrance, amazingly like an enormous friendly puppy, afraid of a kick,
but hoping for a bone.
One of the gangsters, completely taken in, snapped his fingers at the
creature invitingly. Then, inevitably following its fixed emotion-habit
pattern, the Shaggie plunged viciously into action. Its initial rush carried
it right into the air-lock.
A fearful tangle ensued.
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