Author Question: A typical household in Orangeland consumes only orange juice and shorts. Last year, which was the ... (Read 82 times)

michelleunicorn · **on:** Jun 29, 2018

A typical household in Orangeland consumes only orange juice and shorts. Last year, which was the base year, the household spent 400 on juice and 120 on shorts. In the base year, juice was 2 a bottle and shorts were 10 a pair.

This year, juice is 3 a bottle, shorts are 12 a pair, and a typical household has bought 180 bottles of juice and 14 pairs of shorts. a) What is the basket used in the CPI? b) Calculate the CPI in the current year. c) Calculate the inflation rate in the current year. d) Is the inflation rate that you've calculated likely to be biased? Why or why not?

Question 2

The demand curve facing the monopolist is

A) the same as the market demand curve.
B) more elastic than the market demand curve.
C) less elastic than the market demand curve.
D) upward sloping.

Zack0mack0101@yahoo.com · **Reply #1 on:** Jun 29, 2018

Answer to Question 1

a) The CPI basket is the quantities bought in the base year. In the base year, a typical household spent 400 on juice at 2 a bottle, so the quantity of juice bought was 400/2 = 200 bottles. The household spent 120 on shorts at 10 a pair, so the quantity of shorts bought was 120/10 = 12. Thus the CPI basket is 200 bottles of juice and 12 pairs of shorts.
b) The cost of the CPI basket last year was 400 + 120 = 520.The cost of the CPI basket in the current year is 3 200 + 12 12 = 744. So the CPI is (744/520 ) 100 = 143.1.
c) The inflation rate is the percentage change in the CPI. Because the last year was also the base year, the CPI last year was 100. So the inflation rate for the current year is (143.1 - 100 )/100 100, which is 43.1 percent.
d) The calculated CPI is likely to overstate inflation because of the commodity substitution bias. The relative price of shorts has fallen from 5 to 4 bottles of juice. This fall led consumers to buy more shorts and less juice. As a result, the actual consumer basket in the current year is less expensive than the CPI basket. The CPI ignores this commodity substitution, and so overstates the inflation rate.

Answer to Question 2

A