Exam 19: Public Goods and the Tragedy of the Commons

If policies like sugar quotas and tariffs have benefits that are concentrated among few people, why do taxpayers who pay for the costs of these policies remain rationally ignorant?

Special interest groups have a large incentive to be ________ about legislation that benefits them directly, whereas voters tend to be ________ regarding these issues.

When the battle of presidential elections is done, historians mark one personality and set of issues as having won the day and reflected the will of the:

Evidence from an important study of media ownership concludes that:

Voter myopia refers to the fact that voters:

Reference: Ref 19-2 (Figure: Smoking Ban Policy Spectrum) Refer to the figure. If there are only two candidates, A and B, and a smoking ban is the only issue being debated in this election, which one of the voters is the median voter?

Do ―good politics‖ and ―good economics‖ always coincide? Explain why or why not.

The Fanjuls are:

When a policy is highly visible, appears often in the newspapers, and has a major effect on the lives of millions of Americans, lobbies and special interests very often get their way.

How are elections correlated to economic business cycles in the United States?

Sugar consumers likely won't do much to oppose a law that reduces the supply of sugar and raises prices.

Which of the following explains why the sugar quota is a winning policy for politicians?

Reference: Ref 19-2 (Figure: Smoking Ban Policy Spectrum) Refer to the figure. If there are only two candidates, A and B, and a smoking ban is the only issue being debated in this election, based on the median voter theorem, which candidate will win the election?

Which of the following explains why the sugar quota is a winning policy for politicians?

Voters are myopic so they most likely focus on the economic conditions over a president's entire term.

Which of the following statements seems to be that of a rationally ignorant person?

It is rational to be ignorant when:

Reference: Ref 19-1 (Figure: Kidney Trade Ban Policy Spectrum) Refer to the figure. If there are only two candidates, A and B, and an open market for kidney trading is the only issue being debated in this election, which one of the voters is the median voter?

The association between democracy and wealth occurs because democracy creates a demand for wealth.

Sugar consumers are likely to oppose sugar quotas because the widespread costs, although small, fall on all households in the form of higher prices.