Economics 381
Spring 1988
D. Maki
                    MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Instructions:  Answer any four of the following six
questions.  Questions are equally weighted.  This is a
closed book examination.  Total time allowed:  1 hour and 50
minutes (until 12:20).

1.   Using standard labour-leisure choice theory,
can the labour supply curve can be backward  bending if
leisure is an inferior good?  Explain.

2.   Over the last 20 years or so, the labour force
participation rate of women in Canada has been
affected  by a number of secular and cyclical factors.  List
several of these factors, and note their theoretically
expected effects.

3.   Explain how the demand for labour by a competitive firm
is determined in the long run (technology fixed but all
factors of production variable).

4.   "Garbage collectors earn less than computer programmers
because their work is unpleasant and disagreeable."  Do
you agree with this statement?  Explain your position.

5.   Define general and specific training, and explain the
importance of this distinction in human capital theory.

6.   In the neoclassical theory of short run labour demand
under imperfect competition, explain how wage and
employment determination differ depending upon whether one
assumes the employer has (i) some monopsony power in the
labour market, or (ii) some monopoly power in the output
market.