Exam 33: Building Theories to Explain Everyday Life: From Observations to Questions to Theories to Predictions

The _________________ the opportunity cost of bad behavior,the _________________ likely one is to exhibit bad behavior.

A person who lives in a good-climate city says,"It's expensive to live here,but at least the climate is free." In terms of a theory advanced in the text,this person has either forgotten or is unaware that

Which of the following is not a prediction of the theory on baseball caps and cheating?

Economists often evaluate a theory in terms of how consistently and accurately it predicts what happens. Implicit in this position is the belief that

Scientists are interested in finding out when their theories are wrong,as well as when they are right.

It often appears as if there are "too few" workers at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)to service all their customers at a given point in time. Based on one of theories discussed in the text,this is probably because

If a theory can predict those things that you should observe if it is right and can also predict those things that you should observe if it is wrong,it is said to have the virtue of falsifiability.

A theory predicts that all swans are white. A thousand people go out into the field and identify the color of the swans they see. Their results reveal that,of the 10,000 swans they saw,all were white. It follows that

Kristie currently spends her $1,000 a week income on X,Y,and Z. Her mother gives her an extra $400 and tells her to use it to buy more Z. Kristie actually takes the $400 her mother gave to her,adds it $40 of the $300 she usually spends on Z,and buys $660 worth of Z. Did Kristie's mother's $400 go to buy only Z?

Theory A predicts that the higher the opportunity cost of having a child,the fewer children a woman will have. Which of the following is evidence against the theory if opportunity cost is measured in terms of foregone salary?

Which of the following is true?

A man moves from a large city to a small town. In the small town he seems like a very different person than the person he was in the big city. For instance,he is more polite in the small town than he was in the big city. This could be because

A theory is a perfect description of reality.

People sometimes act differently in different settings. An economist is likely to explain this by saying

If a theory gives a scientist results that she does not want,then she should not believe in that theory.

Theories should be judged based upon how consistently and precisely they predict and how well they explain things.

A gift-giver's efficient number of gifts (to give to a gift-recipient)has fallen from 10 to 8. This could be because

There is a direct relationship between the opportunity cost of bad behavior in a public venue and the use of bad behavior in that venue.

The ______________ the gap between the tuition a college student pays and the equilibrium tuition for that college,the _____________ likely the student's instructors will be on time and attentive during their office hours.

Smith says that criminals are rational and that they consider both the benefits and costs of criminal activity. Jones disagrees. He says criminals are irrationals and can't possibly be considering both the benefits and costs of criminal activity. If they did,he argues,they wouldn't be criminals. An economist who wants to figure out if criminals are rational,would most likely build a