來源: 資格考考古題
科目:Welfare economics
問題:Consider an economy with one consumer, one producer, and a government.
The consumer has Cobb-Douglas preferences for cigarettes and leisure.
Suppose the consumer has an endowment of time and can allocate time to
producing cigarettes to earn a wage. The producer uses a decreasing
returns-to-scale production process using only labor, is taking prices,
and profit maximizing. Suppose the government taxes both labor and
cigarettes, though at different per unit tax rates. Government revenues are
transferred by a lump-sum transfer, back to consumers.
a. Define notation and characterize the competitive equilibrium of the
setting described. Within your notation, solve for the competitive
equilibrium allocation of labor, etc.
b. Using the model in part a, write down an equation that characterizes the
marginal (general equilibrium) change in welfare from a marginal change
in the cigarette tax in light of the pre-existing tax on labor. Explain the
terms in the formula using simple language.
c. Suppose a colleague claims that given that the above setting assumes a
perfectly competitive market it follows that the optimal cigarette tax must
be zero. Is that logic correct? Explain your answer.
d. Now, suppose cigarette consumption reduces labor productivity.
Introduce this externality into your notation used in parts a-c, and derive
the optimal tax in this new setting. Explain the logic of this new
equilibrium.
我的想法:
抱歉請教版上的高手們!小妹沒有學過福利經濟學，無相關經濟學背景，但不小心念了
經濟博...此為個經的考古題，內容涉及到福利經濟學的部分，完全不知道要如何回答...
先謝謝願意回答的人了!