Macro – Assignment questions

Thanks to Beth Runciman for asking some questions about the homework. Here they are, and also my answers.

Dr. Hartman,
I am wondering about the answers you gave for Chapter 2, question 3 and Chapter 4, question 3. For Chapter 2, #3 the countries should be many worker economies with indivuals that have varrying opportunity costs. Thus it seems the PPC should be curved and the low-hanging-fruit principle would apply. Am I not understanding something as your answers show a constant opportunity cost. Also, the last statement of question 3 for Chapter 4 seems to be normative, the key work being “should”. Again am I missing something? Why is the key word asserted? Thanks for your help, Beth Runciman

My answers:

Chapter 2, #3:

The problem says: The opportunity cost of a car in Outlandia is 300 bushels of wheat.

That means, at all times. Therefore the slope of the ppc is constant, and so is a straight line.
So the lhf principle does not apply!!!

Last statement of question 3 for Chapter 4 seems to be normative:

Problem says:
The Speaker of the House of Representatives asserted that there should be a balanced budget amendment

We can check if he said it. What he said was a normative statement, but the assertion that he said it is positive!

Marshall Fisher

One of the top people in the field of supply chain management and logistics also is a leader in the field of optimization, haveing written one of the most famous papers about Lagrangean methods.

Marshall L. Fisher Faculty Profile – The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

UPS Transportation Professor for the Private Sector; Professor of Operations and Information Management
Co-Director,Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations ManagementPhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1970; SM, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1969; SB, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1965

Research Areas
Supply chain management, retailing

Recent Consulting
Technical support on vehicle routing, DART, Inc, 1989-90; Logistics planning, Campbell Soup, 1989; Manufacturing strategy, Scott Paper, 1989-90; Supply chain restructuring, Century Products, 1994, London Fog, 1994, Lutron,1995-96; Charming Shoppes, 1995, Spiegel, 1996; General Motors, 1996; Americold, 1996, IBM, 1998; Ahold, 1997-98; Anderson Consulting, 1998

Current Projects
Sloan Foundation Industry study of retailing. Managing logistics supply chains to improve the ability to match supply with demand for short-lifetime, high-fashion products with volatile demand. Managing Product Portfolios in an environment of high product variety.

The envelope theorem

Here is a precise discussion of the envelope theorem, a staple in optimization theory.

The envelope theorem