Name:___________________
Economics of Development
Spring 2011
Exam 1
Total quiz is 30 points. Each question is worth three points. Each sub question is worth
an equal share of these three points.
1) Circle to indicate whether the statement is true or false.
Statement
Transfer pricing is when a firm that has monopoly power in a home
country sells uses the monopoly profits to sell at a lower price in
foreign markets to drive out competitors.
The United States is the largest provider of ODA compared to any
other member of the OECD in terms of the total amount provided
by a country.
The United States is the largest provider of ODA compared to any
other member of the OECD in terms of the total amount provided
by a country as a share of that country’s GNI.
Every country has to have an absolute advantage in at least one
commodity by the theory of absolute advantage.
Is the statement
True or False?
True or False
True or False
True or False
True or False
The Lewis model assumes the marginal product of labor in the
manufacturing sector is zero but the marginal product of labor in
the agricultural sector is greater than zero.
An overvalued currency means that market forces would lead to
more units of the domestic currency being needed to purchase one
unit of a foreign currency than is possible at the current rate.
Solow designed his model to explain the cross country evidence
suggesting there is ‘club convergence’ across countries in income
per capita over time.
The Romer model is based on the idea of “technology spillovers”
due to increasing returns to scale in economy wide capital stocks.
True or False
Conversion of a currency by the purchasing power parity method
applies a common set of international prices to all goods and
services produced in a country.
True or False
True or False
True or False
True or False
2) Growth theories.
a. Using the notation on this graph, use the space below the graph to describe the
contrast Solow drew between growth from technological progress and growth
from increased savings. In the graph, k is capital per worker on the x axis, output
per worker is defined as 𝑦 =∝ 𝑘𝛽 on the y axis. α represents technological
knowledge, β is the share of national income controlled by owners of capital, n is
population growth rate, δ is the depreciation rate, and s is the savings rate.
16
(δ+n)k
αk^β
sαk^β
s'αk^β
α'k^β
sα'k^β
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1
6
11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66 71 76 81 86 91 96
a. Growth from technological progress is represented on this graph in what way?
b.Growth from a higher savings rate is represented on this graph in what way?
c.Explain using the notation on the graph and your answer to parts (a) and (b) Solow’s
argument about what could and what could not explain long run growth in income per
capita over time in an economy. That is, in terms of the model you just explained, what
could lead to constant growth in y over time?
3) Rodrik et al.
a) Describe what this figure illustrates in terms of what causes high income levels,
noting the three ‘strands of thought’ on what leads to income differences over
time.
b) What are the main findings of the paper in terms of which is ‘strand of thought’
most strongly supported by the findings?
4) Sandlandia workers can produce 5 units of dried fish per unit of labor and 10
units of millet per unit of labor. Neighboring Tropicalia workers can produce 10
units of dried fish and 15 units of millet per unit of labor.
a. Write out the production functions for each good in each of the two
countries with units of output as a function of units of labor (y=f(L) takes
what form for each product in each country).
Dried Fish
Millet
Sandlandia
Tropicalia
b. Identify the product in which each country has a comparative advantage
and explain why this is the product in which they have a comparative
advantage.
c. If there are 100 laborers in Sandlandia and 100 in Tropicalia, describe the
level of production of each commodity in each country in autarky if each
country divides up their labor force with half of the work force allocated
to each commodity.
Dried Fish
Sandlandia
Tropicalia
TOTAL
Millet
d. Illustrate by moving 20 of Sandlandia’s workers and 11 of Tropicalia’s
workers to the commodity for which they have comparative advantage
how it is possible to increase total production of the two goods without
using any new resources.
Dried Fish
Millet
Sandlandia
Tropicalia
NEW TOTAL
e. Illustrate how Sandlandia and Tropicalia can both be better off than they
were in autarky if they trade 101 units of dried fish for 180 units of millet.
Dried Fish
Millet
Sandlandia
Tropicalia
NEW TOTAL
5) Consider the following set of figures taken from the textbook and answer the
questions below.
a) What is the name usually given to this model?
b) What qualitative change in the economy of a country is this model designed to
describe?
c) How does the model describe the economic forces that lead to the increase in the
capital stock from KM1 to KM2?
6) New Growth Theory.
a. What is ‘the commitment problem’ and how can it explain why economic
growth may fail to happen if individuals act in their own self-interest?
b. What are spillovers, and how can they be used to explain why we don’t
find unconditional convergence in cross country data?
c. New Growth Theory is sometimes called Endogenous growth theory.
What was taken as exogenous in Solow’s model that is treated as
endogenous in Endogenous Growth theory, and why is this distinction
important?
7) Exchange rates.
a. Illustrate on a supply and demand for foreign currency graph the impact
of an overvalued official exchange rate.
b. In a country with an overvalued official exchange rate, are importers or
exporters in the country likely to be helped if the currency is devalued to
the market determined exchange rate? Explain briefly.
c. Explain why a country might want to use an overvalued exchange rate as
part of the country’s development strategy.
8) Illustrate the following:
a. Place a tariff on the imported commodity such that the selling price with the tariff
included is 3. Show the level of domestic supply, the level of international
supply, and the tax revenue generated. Y axis is price, x axis is quantity.
16
Demand
14
Domestic Supply
12
International Supply
10
8
6
4
2
27
0
25
0
23
0
21
0
19
0
17
0
15
0
13
0
11
0
90
70
50
30
10
0
b. Illustrate on an isoquant the impact of neutral technological progress with capital
and labor as the two inputs.
9) There are four workers in the economy who differ in their labor quality as defined by
their ‘q’ value. Q is defined on a scale of [0,1] with higher q being higher quality.
Worker one has q=1, worker two has q=0.9, worker three has q=0.8, and worker four is
q=0.7. Production takes place using two workers, with output of combining workers i
and j defined by yij  qi  q j .
a) Fill in the following
Combination 1 Resulting
output 1
(1, 0.9)
(1, 0.8)
(1, 0.7)
Combination 2
Resulting
output 2
Total output
(1+2)
(0.8, 0.7)
(0.9, 0.7)
(0.9, 0.8)
Say production can be increased by paying for training that will increase the q of a given
worker. The cost of this training, c, can be expressed in terms of output y. Training that
costs c raises the skills of a worker as represented by a 0.1 increase in their q value. As
you may recall from class, training will be given to the lower q worker in a given pair so
you can just focus on that.
b) What is the maximum cost c a firm would be willing to pay for the training that
will increase the skill level of the 0.9 worker in a (1, 0.9) pairing?
c) What is the maximum cost c a firm would be willing to pay for the training that
will increase the skill level of the 0.7 worker in a (0.8, 0.7) pairing?
d) Contrast your answers to (b) and (c) to illustrate why the O-ring theory can be
used to explain a lack of ‘convergence’.
10) More models.
a. Identify the model associated with this figure and define F, L, N and W.
b. In the figure as drawn above, is coordination across sectors needed to
allow for adoption of the modern technology in this sector given the
modern sector wage rate implicit in the line W? Why or why not.
c. Describe the nature of the positive externality that the firm in figure (a)
generates for the other N-1 firms in the economy if it modernizes and pays
the modern wage rate.