BUEC 280
Spring 2002
D. Maki
FINAL EXAMINATION

Instructions:  There are 18 questions on this examination, all equally weighted.  Answer all questions.  For each question, define the concept(s) underlined, and answer the question asked.

1.  Is there an efficient level of efficiency wages?  Explain.

2.  How does the Self-Sufficiency Project differ from a negative income tax scheme?

3.  What would be the effect of an employment equity program on firms that met the standard before the program was implemented?

4.  How does the work incentive effect of a demogrant compare with a wage subsidy scheme?

5.  Is the Lorenz curve associated with a given Gini coefficient unique?  Explain.  Would the Gini coefficient satisfy the transfer axiom as a measure of poverty?  Again, explain.

6.  The B.C. government is currently in the process of implementing welfare reform.  List any three changes that have been noted in the press.

7.  Discuss provisions relating to early retirement and special retirement typically found in earnings-based private pension plans.

8.  In a job evaluation scheme, what is the point-to-line approach?

9.  The Federal government ended up recinding (they "backtracked") one element of the new immigration rules adopted effective December 17 last year.  What was this element?

10.  Explain what isoprofit curves have to do with the determination of the contract curve in union-employer bargaining theory.

11.  Explain how the bargaining power of the union depends on the costs of agreement and disagreement.

12.  Is the spillover effect of unions on resource allocation negative or positive?  Is it large or small?  Explain.

13.  Canada's (Un)Employment Insurance system subsidizes certain types of workers, industries and regions.  Explain, giving examples of each.  Would experience rating eliminate all of these subsidies?  Explain.

14.  It is sometimes claimed that there is an "optimal" duration of frictional unemployment which is greater than zero.  Explain why this might occur.

15.  What do the Marshall-Hicks rules say about the share of wages in total costs?

16.  Were the Industrial Workers of the World an example of business unionism?

17.  It is claimed that trade unions would like to influence the demand for labour.  What would they like to do to it, and how might they try to do this?

18.  Is there a difference between demand-deficient unemployment and cyclical unemployment?  Explain.