Answer Sheet

Here are the answers to the Fun Quiz I posted a few days ago:

1.         For 35 years, Bob Barker welcomed those who had "come on down" to this TV game show.

The Price is Right

2.         New Ec10 soap opera starring Luke, Laura, and Francis Edgeworth.

General Equilibrium (or General Equilibrium Hospital)

3.         First U.S. car manufacturer to offer seat belts as an option.

Nash

4.         Neurosis shared by bus rides and margarine .

Inferiority Complex

5.         One-word term for one's first apartment.

 

Efficiency

6.         The result of Atlas's misplacing his celestial sphere.

Deadweight Loss

7.         "Careful!  The Bayeux Tapestry's wall mounts are loose!"

Mural Hazard

8.         Can we use this same phrase for the sensitivity of either crucifix or rosary bead demand to the cost of the crucifix?

 

Cross Price Elasticity of Demand

9.         Metropolis governed by U-boat captains.

 

Sub City

10.       Pushpins adorned with benzene rings.

Carbon Tacks

11.       My cousin Vinny is a sports reporter and is always asking coaches at press  conferences, "May-a I-a ________________ you-a on-a that-a?"

Quota

12.       Tony Award-winning Miss Saigon actor's hardwood entryway.

 

Price Floor

13.       Flo's employer.

Progressive

14.       Red Sox / Yankees:  the most heated one in professional sports.

Rivalry

15.       What we might have when Pamela Ewing's rep is out of control. 

A Principal-Agent Problem
 
16.       What we've made upon deciding which poem to use in our Super Bowl commercial.

Ad Verse Selection

17.       New Parker Brothers board game fashioned after Laurel & Hardy or Burns & Allen or Rodgers & Hammerstein or Marx & Engels or Masters & Johnson......

 

Duopoly

 

18.       If an MP were to suffer a heart attack during David Cameron's question time,  it would be a _____________________________ .

Tragedy of the Commons

19.       The best comedians/comediennes reach the highest point on the  ________________________.

Laugher Curve

20.       Past, Present, or Future Perfect equivalent of the price of our bathroom basin.

 

Sunk Cost

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand II

If you are thinking about buying a smaller car or a hybrid in response to the high price of gasoline, here (from the Financial Times via Art Carden) is an alternative idea:

Farmers in the Indian state of Rajasthan are rediscovering the humble camel. As the cost of running gas-guzzling tractors soars, even-toed ungulates are making a comeback, raising hopes that a fall in the population of the desert state’s signature animal can be reversed.

“It’s excellent for the camel population if the price of oil continues to go up because demand for camels will also go up,” says Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development. “Two years ago, a camel cost little more than a goat, which is nothing. The price has since trebled.”

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand XII

The next in the series:

demand for new, more fuel-efficient aircraft has never been greater. The latest versions of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, the single-aisle workhorses for which demand is strongest, are up to 40% cheaper to run than the vintage planes some American airlines still use.

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand X

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Amtrak rides high as price of fuel soars

Soaring fuel prices are filling seats on Amtrak trains.... In the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, Amtrak ridership nationally has climbed 11 percent, to more than 21 million passengers, through June, and it expects to exceed the record 25.8 million set the previous year. "We believe the largest single reason is that people want to avoid the higher cost of driving their own vehicle," said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

Click here for a previous installment in this series.

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand VIII

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:

Gas Prices Drive Students to Online Courses

For Christy LaBadie, a sophomore at Northampton Community College, the 30-minute drive from her home to the Bethlehem, Pa., campus has become a financial hardship now that gasoline prices have soared to more than $4 a gallon. So this semester she decided to take an online course to save herself the trip­—and the money....

Many institutions say their online summer enrollments have jumped significantly, compared with last summer's, and that fuel prices are a key factor in the increase. The Tennessee Board of Regents, for instance, reports that summer enrollment in online courses is up 29 percent this summer over last year.

Click here for the previous installment in this series.

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand V

The AP reports:

High gas prices drive farmer to switch to mules

High gas prices have driven a Warren County farmer and his sons to hitch a tractor rake to a pair of mules to gather hay from their fields. T.R. Raymond bought Dolly and Molly at the Dixon mule sale last year. Son Danny Raymond trained them and also modified the tractor rake so the mules could pull it.

T.R. Raymond says the mules are slower than a petroleum-powered tractor, but there are benefits.

"This fuel's so high, you can't afford it," he said. "We can feed these mules cheaper than we can buy fuel. That's the truth."

Thanks for Frank Stephensen for the pointer.

Here is the previous installment in this series.

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand VII

The LA Times reports:

As Gas Prices Climb, So Do Scooter Sales

Scooters...are selling as fast as their little wheels can carry them from showroom floors. Sales have jumped 23.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007.

Click here the the previous installment in this series.

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand III

Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit (as well as to smaller cars and camels).

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand XIII

The next in the series:

Fuel prices have grounded an unexpected frequent-flyer: Sean "Diddy" Combs....

The hip-hop mogul said he is now flying on commercial airlines instead of in private jets, which Combs said had previously cost him $200,000 and up for a roundtrip between New York and Los Angeles.

"I'm actually flying commercial," Diddy said before walking onto an airplane, sitting in a first-class seat and flashing his boarding pass to the camera. "That's how high gas prices are."

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand IX

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The appeal of fuel efficiency is moving beyond the new-car market and creating a run on small used cars. Used economy cars that once could be difficult for dealers to move -- the Ford Focus and Chevrolet Aveo, for instance -- are now flying off the lots, and prices are rising.

Click here for a previous installment in this series.

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand IV

Gas prices knock bicycle sales, repairs into higher gear

Here is the previous installment in this series.

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand

As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Are Flocking to Small Cars.

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand XI

One more for our continuing series on how people respond to prices:

Golf carts switch course from green to road

Rising fuel costs drive move to economical but unconventional transport

Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand VI

The AP reports:

Home buying practices adjust to high gas prices

In his hunt for a new home, Demetrius Stroud crunched the numbers to find out that, with gas prices climbing, moving near an Amtrak station is the best thing for his wallet.

Click here for a previous installment.

Cross-elasticity

A former ec 10 student alerts me to an article proving yet again, as all Pigou Club members know in their hearts, that the demand for public transport depends on the price of gasoline:

T ridership jumps with gas prices

The high cost of gasoline has helped fuel a sharp increase in MBTA riders over the first two months of the year and a decrease in the number and length of traffic jams, according to T officials and traffic specialists.

The number of T trips rose from 27 million in February 2007 to nearly 30 million in February 2008, up more than 11 percent for the month, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials said. The numbers were up about 5 percent for January. Combined, the average increase is 8.3 percent.

The rising MBTA numbers follow a national trend. More Americans rode public transportation last year than at any time in history, according to the American Public Transportation Association, which also cited gas prices as a major factor.