Ap Macro Country project 1

       The economy of Japan is the third largest national economy in the world after the United States and the People's Republic of China and is the world's second largest developed economy.
       
         For three decades from 1960, with US military protection, Japan could ignore military spending and instead budgeting on the economy that it experienced rapid economic growth, which was referred to as the Japanese post-war economic miracle. Japan was able to establish and maintain itself as the world's second largest economy from 1978 until 2010, when it was supplanted by the People's Republic of China. By 1990, income per capita in Japan equalled or surpassed that in most countries in the West.
      
       However, in the second half of the 1980s, rising stock and real estate prices caused the Japanese economy to overheat in what was later to be known as the Japanese asset price bubble caused by the policy of low interest rate by Bank of Japan. The economic bubble came to an abrupt end as the Tokyo Stock Exchange crashed in 1990–92 and real estate prices peaked in 1991. Nonetheless, GDP per capita growth from 2001-2010 has still managed to outpace Europe and the United States.

 

         Manufacturing, construction, real estate, services, and communication are Japan's major industries today. Additionally, key industries in Japan's economy are mining, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, bioindustry, shipbuilding, aerospace, textiles, and processed foods. Agriculture makes up only about two percent of the GNP. Most important agricultural product is rice. Resources of raw materials are very limited and the mining industry is rather small.

 

Exports: Japan's main export goods are cars, electronic devices and computers. Most important trade partners are China and the USA, followed by South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Germany.

Imports: Japan has a surplus in its export/import balance. The most important import goods are raw materials such as oil, foodstuffs and wood. Major supplier is China, followed by the USA, Australia, Saudia Arabia, South Korea, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

  

 

 

 



Response to 'The Economic Impact of the Black Death"

       In the Fourteenth Century, the Black Death spread through Europe and took away the lives of one third of the European population.  Despite its demographic effects, this epidemic also had great socialeconomics impacts on the survivals.
       First of all, the population decline cause the labor supply to decrease. Accroding to the rule deminishing marginal returns, the marginal physical product would increase when the number of workers decreased. Therefore, the wages of workers increased during the Black Death period because in factor markets, the market wage should be equal to the marginal revenue of labor.
      

















Citation:
Routt, David. "The Economic Impact of the Black Death". EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. July 20, 2008. URL http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Routt.Black.Death

Response to Chapter 3

            Normally speaking, as one's income increases, one will buy Starbucks coffee rather than Folgers coffee. Therefore Folgers coffee is considered inferior goods and Starbucks coffee is considered normal goods. However, as long as I am concerned, my demand for either Folger coffee or Starbucks coffee won't change as my income increases because I do not drink coffee.
          
       In my opinion, whether a good in inferior or normal depends on individual tastes and preference. For example, spam is normally regarded as an inferior goods because people's demand for it usually decreases if their purchase ability increases. Before coming to American, I never bought spam because Chinese cuisine seldom use it. However, I buy more spam now because spam tastes good and it is easy to cook. Although I don not have a job or salaries, spam is never an inferior goods to me as I actually get more pocket money from my parents after coming to America. 
         
         Another example comes from my parents, who always prefer to drink instant coffee than to drink  Starbucks coffee. When their income increases, they actually buy more instant coffee because they like drinking it. So to my parents, instant coffee, which is cheaper than Starbucks coffee, is not an inferior goods.
             
          I can understand that the definitions of inferior goods and normal goods applies to a majority of people, but it is not always true for everyone since people's tastes vary from each other. So a question raises in my mind: "Why is it necessary to divide the goods between inferior and normal if these two terms are not necessary true for everyone?"

Salt Monopoly in Ancient China

       In the early decades of the Han dynasty, the emperor Han Wudi instituted an empire-wide state monopoly of salt, concentrating its production, transport, and sale in official hands. The purpose of this salt monopoly, the first monopoly in Chinese History, was to secure his centralized feudal monarchy as well as to raise revenue for this vast empire.

       In the system of monopoly monopoly sales, the Han state restricted entry into the market, took ownership of all salt, and assumed command over production, which had been in the hands of small local producers. The producers of salt, often landless peasants drafted into salt production had to submit all salt had to be submitted to the state, which punished private production. After collecting the salt, the state transported the salt to all parts of the country and sold the salt at prices that  greatly exceeded the costs of production and distribution.

      The Han salt administration ran separate from and parallel to other central and local government administrations. The Office of Agricultural Supervision established salt offices around the country, controlled prices, and managed distribution.

      The salt monopoly does not exist today. Actually, the monopoly came under broad criticism upon Wudi's death. In 81 BC, a Salt Debate was called at court by Confucians and Legalists to deliberate over the continuation of the monopoly. On one side, the "literate and virtuous" Confucians sympathised with the common people and argued against the monopoly that placed such a burden on them. But in the context of a centralized bureaucratic state, neither the Confucians nor the merchants could stand up to bargain with the ruler. The Legalists, on the other hand, stressed the financial deficit and the absolute necessity of maintaining the salt monopoly as a prime revenue source. At that time the Legalists won because the land tax was insufficient to support the government. The salt monopoly continued down and was not ended until the turn of the twentieth century. As The trend towards privatization in 'modern China'  escalated in 20th Century, the salt monopoly gradually disappeared.

Activity 2 responce

1. How do incentives influence your study habits? Why do students so often ask, "Is this topic going to be on the test?" Why would it be unwise for an education-maximizing instructor to reply, 'No, it isn't'?

   

    Usually I study because I think it's the right thing to do as a student. However, when my schedule is too tight or when I study something that doesn't interest me at all, other incentives such as high grades become dominant. For example, I have been focusing on the college application these weeks, and I did not spend much time on school work. When writing college essays seems to be more important to me, the reason that I still finish homework and pay attention in class might be that I still need to maintain a good GPA for my transcript. At this point, I do not want to do extra exercise on my school work as I did in the past because I care more about the college essays.

 

      Incentives influence my study habits a lot. Because I want to keep ahead of others, I will study a lot even if I am not required to do so. If I am not good at Chemistry, I am willing to  study it first and make extra efforts on this subject because I really want my grades to improve. Additionally, I always like taking arts class because I love drawing and painting. In this case, my passion drives me to work hard on my art projects.

 

     Most students, including me, often ask "What topics are going to be on the test". As students, we really care about our test scores since getting good score motivates us to study hard. Because of that. we probably will study what we know for sure is going to be on the test.  For those materials we do not know whether they are going to appear on the test, we will not spend as much time. It an education-maximizing instructor answers "No, it isn't.", he's bascially telling the srudents not to spend time on this topic. For instance, when I took Mrs. Garcia's French class, she always gave us a review packet, which included everything that might be on the test. After finding out that I could save time if I only reviewed what's in the packet, I didn't go over other vocabularies in the textbook any more. So if the instructor wants the students to learn as much knowledge as they can, he should not tell them specifically what's going to be on the tests.