Economía Ayudantía # 06: Crecimiento y Desempleo

Transcripción

1 Ayudantía # 06: Crecimiento y Desempleo Profesor: Carlos R. Pitta 1 1 cpitta@spm.uach.cl

2 PREGUNTAS BREVES Pregunta Corta 01: Enumere y describa cuatro determinantes de la productividad. RESPUESTA: The four determinants of productivity are: (1) physical capital, which is the stock of equipment and structures that are used to produce goods and services; (2) human capital, which consists of the knowledge and skills that workers acquire through education, training, and experience; (3) natural resources, which are inputs into production that are provided by nature; and (4) technological knowledge, which is society s understanding of the best ways to produce goods and services. Pregunta Corta 02: Cómo influye la tasa de crecimiento de la población en el nivel de PIB per cápita? RESPUESTA: The higher the rate of population growth, the lower is the level of GDP per person because there's less capital per person, hence lower productivity. Pregunta Corta 03: Cuáles son las tres categorías en las que dividen las estadísticas laborales a todas las personas? Cómo se calcula la población activa, la tasa de desempleo y la tasa de actividad? Aumentó el poder adquisitivo de los trabajadores expresado en periódicos, o disminuyó? RESPUESTA: The INE categorizes each adult (16 years of age and older) as either employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force. The labor force consists of the sum of the employed and the unemployed. The unemployment rate is the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed. The labor-force participation rate is the percentage of the total adult population that is in the labor force. Pregunta Corta 04: Explican las leyes sobre el salario mínimo mejor el desempleo estructural de los adolescentes, o el desempleo de los titulados universitarios? Por qué? RESPUESTA: Minimum-wage laws are a better explanation for unemployment among teenagers than among college graduates. Teenagers have fewer job-related skills than college graduates do, so their wages are low enough to be affected by the minimum wage. College graduates' wages generally exceed the minimum wage. Pregunta Corta 05: Cómo influyen los sindicatos en la tasa najural de desempleo? RESPUESTA: Unions may affect the natural rate of unemployment via the effect on insiders and outsiders. Because unions raise the wage above the equilibrium level, the quantity of labor demanded declines while the quantity supplied of labor rises, so there is unemployment. Insiders are those who keep their jobs. Outsiders, workers who become unemployed, have two choices: either get a job in a firm that is not unionized, or remain unemployed and wait for a job to open up in the union sector. As a result, the natural rate of unemployment is higher than it would be without unions. PROBLEMAS Problema 01: Suponga que la sociedad decidiera reducir el consumo y aumentar la inversión. a) Cómo afectaría este cambio al crecimiento económico? b) Qué grupos de la sociedad se beneficiarían de este cambio? Cuáles podrían resultar perjudicados? Problema 02: Suponga que una compañía automovilística que fuera enteramente propiedad de ciudadanos alemanes abriera una nueva fábrica en nuestro país. a) Qué tipo de inversión extranjera representaría? b) Cómo afectaría esta inversión al PIB de nuestro país? Sería mayor el efecto producido en el PNB de nuestro país, o menor? Problema 03: En la década de 1980, los inversores japoneses realizaron grandes inversiones directas y de cartera en Estados Unidos. En esa época, estas inversiones desagradaron a muchos americanos. a) En qué sentido fue mejor para Estados Unidos recibir esta inversión japonesa que no recibirla? b) En qué sentido habría sido aún mejor que los americanos hubieran realizado estas inversiones? Problema 04: Los datos internacionales muestran que existe una correlación positiva entre la estabilidad política y el crecimiento económico. Prof. Carlos R. Pitta 2

3 a) Por medio de qué mecanismo podría conducir la estabilidad política a un elevado crecimiento económico? b) Por medio de qué mecanismo podría llevar un elevado crecimiento económico a la estabilidad política? Problema 05: En los Estados Unidos la tasa de actividad de las mujeres aumentó bruscamente entre 1970 y Sin embargo, al igual que ocurre en el caso de los hombres, existen diferencias entre los grupos de edad, como muestra el siguiente cuadro: Por qué cree usted que la tasa de actividad de las mujeres más jóvenes aumentó más que la de las mujeres de edad avanzada? Problema 06: Tienen los siguientes trabajadores más probabilidades de experimentar desempleo de corta duración, o de larga duración? Explique por qué. a. un obrero de la construcción despedido a causa del mal tiempo b. un obrero industrial que pierde el empleo en una fábrica situada en una zona aislada c. un trabajador de la industria de carruajes despedido como consecuencia de la competencia de los ferrocarriles d. un cocinero que prepara platos sencillos y rápidos que pierde el empleo cuando abre enfrente un nuevo restaurante e. un soldador experto que tiene pocos estudios reglados y que pierde el empleo cuando la empresa instala maquinaria de soldadura automática. Problema 07: Considere el caso de una economía en la que hay dos mercados de trabajo, ninguno de los cuales está sindicalizado. Suponga ahora que se establece un sindicato en uno de ellos. a. Muestre cómo afecta el sindicato al mercado en el que se forma. En qué sentido es ineficiente la cantidad de trabajo empleada en este mercado? b. Muestre cómo afecta el sindicato al mercado no sindicalizado. Qué ocurre con el salario de equilibrio de este mercado? Prof. Carlos R. Pitta 3

4 SECCIÓN DE RESPUESTAS Problema 01: a. More investment would lead to faster economic growth in the short run. b. The change would benefit many people in society who would have higher incomes as the result of faster economic growth. However, there might be a transition period in which workers and owners in consumption-good industries would get lower incomes, and workers and owners in investment-good industries would get higher incomes. In addition, some group would have to reduce their spending for some time so that investment could rise. Problema 02: a. When a German firm opens a factory in Chile, it represents foreign direct investment. b. The investment increases Chile s GDP because it increases production in Chile. The effect on Chile s GNP would be smaller because the owners would get paid a return on their investment that would be part of German GNP rather than Chile s GNP. Problema 03: a. The United States benefited from the Japanese investment because it made our capital stock larger, increasing our economic growth. b. It would have been better for the United States to make the investments itself because then it would have received the returns on the investment itself, instead of the returns going to Japan. Problema 04: a. Political stability could lead to strong economic growth by making the country attractive to investors. The increased investment would raise economic growth. b. Strong economic growth could lead to political stability because when people have high incomes they tend to be satisfied with the political system and are less likely to overthrow or change the government. Problema 05: Younger women experienced a bigger increase in labor-force participation than older women because more of them have entered the labor force (in part because of social changes), so there are more two-career families. In addition, women have delayed having children until later in life and have reduced the number of children they have, so they are in the labor force for a greater proportion of their lives than was the case previously Problema 06: a. A construction worker who is laid off because of bad weather is likely to experience short-term unemployment, because the worker will be back to work as soon as the weather clears up. b. A manufacturing worker who loses her job at a plant in an isolated area is likely to experience long-term unemployment, because there are probably few other employment opportunities in the area. She may need to move somewhere else to find a suitable job, which means she will be out of work for some time. c. A worker in the stagecoach industry who was laid off because of the growth of railroads is likely to be unemployed for a long time. The worker will have a lot of trouble finding another job because his entire industry is shrinking. He will probably need to gain additional training or skills to get a job in a different industry. d. A short-order cook who loses his job when a new restaurant opens is likely to find another job fairly quickly, perhaps even at the new restaurant, and thus will probably have only a short spell of unemployment. e. An expert welder with little education who loses her job when the company installs automatic welding machinery is likely to be without a job for a long time, because she lacks the technological skills to keep up with the latest equipment. To remain in the welding industry, she may need to go back to school and learn the newest techniques. Prof. Carlos R. Pitta 4

5 Problema 07: a. Figure 3 illustrates the effect of a union being established in the manufacturing labor market. In the figure on the left, the wage rises from w 1 U to w 2 U and the quantity of labor demanded declines from U 1 to U 2 D. Because the wage is higher, the quantity supplied of labor increases to U 2 S, so there are U 2 S U 2 D unemployed workers in the unionized manufacturing sector. b. When those workers who become unemployed in the manufacturing sector seek employment in the service labor market, shown in the figure on the right, the supply of labor shifts to the right from S 1 to S 2. The result is a decline in the wage in the nonunionized service sector from w 1 N to w 2 N and an increase in employment in the nonunionized service sector from N 1 to N 2. Prof. Carlos R. Pitta 5