Exam 12: The Economics of Information

The seller of an existing house claims that it is in great shape, and he is offering a 2-year warranty on the house. His statements about the quality of his house are likely to be:

Alex just got a new car. Because Alex obtained full-coverage car insurance, Alex will have an incentive to ________ because of ________.

The lemons problem gives the owners of above-average-quality used cars an incentive to:

Which of the following helps explain the problem of disappearing political discourse?

Suppose Mo is considering whether to see Zombie Revenge III at her local movie theater. Tickets cost $12 each, but Mo isn't sure how much she's going to like the movie. There's a 40 percent chance she'll get $20 worth of enjoyment from seeing the movie, and there's a 60 percent chance she'll only get $10 worth of enjoyment from seeing the movie. Mo's expected value of seeing the movie is:

To prospective employers, an honors degree from a highly selective college is:

Obi-Wan is considering whether to buy a lightsaber. With probability 0.50 he will value the lightsaber at $4,000, and with probability 0.50 he will value it at $1,000. If Obi-Wan is risk averse, then he will be willing to pay ________ for a new lightsaber.

Suppose Joe has a two-year old Honda Civic that's in excellent condition and that he would be willing to sell for $13,000. Lauren, who is risk-neutral, is considering whether to buy Joe's car. She's willing to pay $14,000 for a two-year Honda Civic that's in excellent condition and only $10,000 for one that's not in excellent condition. Lauren cannot tell whether Joe's car is in excellent condition. She believes that only 20 percent of two-year old Hondas for sale in the market are in excellent condition and that the other 80 percent are not in excellent condition. If other people who own two-year Honda Civics in excellent condition are like Joe, and other buyers in the market are like Lauren, then which of the following is likely to occur in the long run?

Judy is planning to sell an antique grandfather clock that she values at $200. If she sells the clock on Craigslist, it will be bought by someone who values it at $450. If she uses an antique dealer to sell the clock, it will be bought by someone who values it at $850. The antique dealer will charge Judy $100 to sell the clock, which just covers the antique dealer's opportunity cost of selling the clock. Relative to selling the clock on Craigslist, selling the clock through an antique dealer will lead:

Consumers know that some fraction, p, of all new cars produced and sold in the market are defective. The defective ones cannot be identified except by those who own them. Cars do not depreciate with use. Consumers are risk-neutral and value nondefective cars at $8,000. If new cars sell for $6,000 and used cars sell for $2,000, then what is the fraction p?

Alison decides to play the lottery. She has a 5 percent probability of winning $100 and a 95 percent probability of winning zero. The expected value of playing the lottery is:

The sum of the possible outcomes of a gamble multiplied by their respective probabilities is known as:

Suppose that the salary range for recent college graduates with a bachelor's degree in economics is $30,000 to $50,000, with 25 percent of jobs offering $30,000 per year, 50 percent offering $40,000 per year and 25 percent offering $50,000 per year and that in all other respects, the jobs are equally satisfying. Assume that in this market, a job offer remains open for only a short time so that continuing to search requires an applicant to reject any current job offer. The expected starting salary for a college graduate with a bachelor's degree in economics is:

The marginal cost curve for information is upward sloping because:

Suppose that there are two types of houses for sale: those with solid foundations and those with cracked foundations. In all other respects, the two types of houses are identical. Houses with solid foundations are worth $200,000, while those with cracked foundations are worth $200,000 minus the $20,000 to fix the crack, or $180,000. Sellers know which type of house they have, but buyers cannot detect whether the foundation has a crack. Suppose that 80 percent of the houses for sale have a solid foundation and 20 percent of the houses for sale have a cracked foundation. If some of the owners of houses with solid foundations remove their houses from the market because they can't sell their house for a price that is as high as the value of their house, then:

Suppose Chris is offered the following gamble:  with probability 0.1 he will win $90, with probability 0.4 he will win $50, and with probability 0.5 he will lose $60. The expected value of this gamble is ________. 

Suppose that there are two types of houses for sale: those with solid foundations and those with cracked foundations. In all other respects, the two types of houses are identical. Houses with solid foundations are worth $200,000, while those with cracked foundations are worth $200,000 minus the $20,000 to fix the crack, or $180,000. Sellers know which type of house they have, but buyers cannot detect whether the foundation has a crack. Suppose that 80 percent of the houses for sale have a solid foundation and 20 percent of the houses for sale have a cracked foundation. If buyers are risk-neutral and know the that 80 percent of the houses for sale have a solid foundation while 20 percent have a cracked foundation, then the owners of houses with a solid foundation will find that:

When auctions, such as those used on eBay, are used to sell a product, then:

There are two employers in Bucolic that hire people who do not have a high school degree: a grocery store and a hardware store. The grocery store pays $10 per hour and the hardware store pays $12 per hour. People who work at either store can work as many hours as they want at those wages. Assume that it takes two hours to interview for a job. Lee works at the grocery store, but would like to work at the hardware store. If Lee interviews at the hardware store, there is a 10 percent probability of being hired. Assume that Lee is risk-neutral. How many hours must Lee anticipate working at the hardware store to justify interviewing for the job?

This graph illustrates the marginal costs and marginal benefits of acquiring information before making a major purchase. Suppose this graph describes a town in which the only way to gather any information about the good is through Consumer Reports. If the subscription price of Consumer Reports increases, then the impact of this could be portrayed by the marginal: