Category Archives: Macroeconomics

Guess what! There was an error in my answer key for our second midterm Exam 2, on question 3. It was on the question about the average number of weeks people are unemployed in a simple economy. Congratualtions to Nick Doidge for finding the mistake and bringing it to my attention. It is important because you will need to know this way of computing averages.

3) In an economy of 100 people in the labor force, if 10 people are unemployed for 4 weeks during the year, and 30 people are unemployed for 8 weeks during the year, and the rest are employed continuously throughout the year, then the average duration of unemployment in this economy is:

A) 4 weeks B) 7 weeks C) 8 weeks D) 20 percent E) 40 percent

Answer: B Learning Objective: Duration Level of Learning: Application Type: Word Problem Source: Unique

This answer is wrong, courtesy of Nick Doidge. The correct answer is 2.8 weeks.

(.1)*4 + (.3)*8 + (.6)*0 = 2.8 weeks.

After the exam we will work on Chapters 8 and 9– Chapter 8 may spill over into next week, but we will try to complete them both by November 3.

Tomorrow we’ll play a game in class to demonstrate something important about returns to labor.

It’s time to form your groups to work on the second paper and project. See the second project in WebCT, where you get to play macroeconomist researchers.  We can talk about it a bit Monday.

After the exam we will focus on more traditional logistics topics.  We’ll do chapters 7 and 8 pretty much together starting Friday, and continuing all week.  Note that on Monday October 30 you’ll have a case presentation writeup due, on the Chippy or NAM cases– take your pick– from the case book.

These chapters are about modes of transportation and about transportation operations.   We’ll learn about strengths and weaknesses of different modes of transport, and some of the economics.  We’ll look at the types of players in the transportation arena, and some legalities, as well as the regulatory picture.  We will also study how rates are set today, particularly in trucking but applicable to all types.

There are  two presentations covering this material posted on WebCT.