Assignment: Economic Questions

1. Human-caused (anthropogenic) emissions of Carbon Dioxide are only about 3 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions each year. Oceans are the biggest emitters. Why is so much attention directed at anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide?

2. Why are foreign producers of products, like ethanol (which can be produced more cheaply in Brazil), so often the subject of special taxes such as the import tax on ethanol?

3. How do deposits on bottles and cans affect the incentives of individuals to recycle these products?

4. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, American automobile manufacturers greatly increased the quality of cars they produced relative to the cars produced in other nations. What effect do you think this had on American imports of Japanese cars, Japanese imports of American cars and American exports of goods and services other than automobiles?

5. Who gains and who loses from import restrictions? Make sure to mention all workers, import-competing industries, consumers and exporting industries.)

6. When you go shopping for a new computer, is your real objective to "import" a computer into your apartment or is it to "export" cash from your wallet? What does this tell you about the true object of international trade - is it exports or imports?