人力資源理論與應用
練習題
1. 是非題
1)
Occupation A and B are identical in every respect except that the jobs in A
require being away from home three nights a week. In a competitive
market the equilibrium wage in A must be higher than in B. (Assume that
all workers dislike being away from home three nights a week.)
Ans:
True. According to the concepts of the compensating Wage Differentials, the
occupation A, which asks the worker to be away form home three nights a week, will
offer more wages to attract employers as assuming all workers dislike being away
from home. Therefore, the relationship between the wage and the number of days
needed to be away from home is positive.
2)
Suppose that the skills acquired in school depreciate over time, perhaps
because technological change makes the things we learned in school
obsolete. If the rate of depreciation increases, a worker’s optimal amount
of schooling will also increase.
Ans:
False. If the rate of depreciation is very high, the payoff to educational investments
declines. As a result, a worker’s optimal amount of schooling will also fall.
2. 問答題
1)
Suppose Jane has three years of college, Pam has two years of college, and
Mary has one year of college. Jane earns $21 per hour, Pam earns $19 per
hour, and Mary earns $16 per hour. We know their abilities are the same,
and the difference in educational attainment is completely due to different
discount rates. How much can the available information tell us about
Jane’s, Pam’s, and Mary’s discount rates?
Ans:
The return to increasing one’s education from two to three years of college is
21  19
100  10%
20
The return to increasing one’s education from one to two years of college is
19  16
100  17.1%
17.5
Having observed their educational choices, we can tell that Mary’s discount rate
is greater than 17.1 percent, Pam’s is between 10 and 17.1 percent, and Jane’s is
less than 10 percent.
2)
Suppose that all persons feel the same about working in a job that offers a
polluted working environment. In particular, the utility function for all
workers is given by:
 w  2x ,
where w is the wage rate offered by the job and x is the proportion of
the firm’s air that is composed of toxic pollutants. There are only two types
of jobs in the economy, a clean job ( x  0 ) and a dirty job ( x  1 ). Let w0
be the wage paid by the clean job and w1 be the wage paid by the
polluted job. If the clean job pays $16 per hour, what is the market
compensating wage differential?
Ans:
If all persons feel the same about working in a job with a polluted working
environment, market equilibrium requires that the utility offered by the clean job be
the same as the utility offered by the dirty job (otherwise all workers would move to
the job that offers the higher utility). This implies that:
w0  w1  2
16  w1  2
Solving for w1 implies that w1 equals $36. The compensating wage differential (or
w1  w0 ), therefore, is $20.