POLS 334
BERCH
SPRING 2015
Review for exam #1
Exam #1 will take place on Monday, February 9. You will have 75 minutes to complete the
exam. It will consist of short answer
questions and short essay questions. You
will have some choice in each section.
In order to be prepared, you should be familiar with the following
material that we’ve covered so far this semester:
The blog assignment due the day of the exam (3pm).
The ways in which government may influence the economy.
Producer regulation.
Downs’ issue-attention cycle
Huntington’s agency capture theory
The factors (political, economic, and other) that might
influence electricity rates
The classic battles over the budget process (executive vs.
legislature, and Ulysses and the Sirens)
The major changes that have occurred in the federal budget
process in the last 100 years.
You may ask questions during my office hours (1:45-3:15) on Monday, February 9. You may also email questions to the address on the syllabus (berchnorto@msn.com) until 9 pm on Sunday, February 8. Or you may submit questions in the comments section of this blog entry until 9 pm on Sunday, February 8. I will respond to those questions on Sunday night in the same comments section. Thus, you will be able to read each other's comments and questions (no names necessary). Good luck!
Update: I'm in hospital (exam is still on as scheduled). I'll try to answer blog questions as late as possible on Monday. If you have a very late question, you can call 412-445-3957 during office hours. Depending on medical tests, I'll try to talk with you.
You may ask questions during my office hours (1:45-3:15) on Monday, February 9. You may also email questions to the address on the syllabus (berchnorto@msn.com) until 9 pm on Sunday, February 8. Or you may submit questions in the comments section of this blog entry until 9 pm on Sunday, February 8. I will respond to those questions on Sunday night in the same comments section. Thus, you will be able to read each other's comments and questions (no names necessary). Good luck!
Update: I'm in hospital (exam is still on as scheduled). I'll try to answer blog questions as late as possible on Monday. If you have a very late question, you can call 412-445-3957 during office hours. Depending on medical tests, I'll try to talk with you.
NB,
ReplyDeleteI know you talked a bit about it in class but what about Producer Regulation? My group is at a road block on that one.
Dustin
Most regulation is to protect larger groups from big business (workers or consumers from companies, etc.), but sometime the producer says their industry needs regulation to help consumer (like the barbering industry, lawyers, etc.). They will argue that the industry must be licensed to protect consumers from bad beard trims, bad lawyers, etc. This "protection" also serves to limit entry into the industry, thus raising prices
DeleteProfessor Berch:
ReplyDeleteCould you elaborate some more on the topic pertaining to electricity (i.e. political, economic, etc.) and how those impact the costs?
Thanks.
The point is that political variables (strength of interest groups, etc.) economic variables (transportation costs of energy, or age of infrastructure) and even things like local climate impact electricity prices
DeleteI have in my notes "negative exponalities" as a way the government can intervene in the economy...could you elaborate?
ReplyDeleteNegative externalities (things that are negative but outside the company's business) can have an impact. We talked about how the company ASARCO caused cancer due to not having scrubbers on its smokestacks, but they had no incentive to do anything about the health of its neighbors without government intervention.
DeleteProf. Berch,
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you might elaborate on the differences between Seattle and Philadelphia's electricity pricing. Is one subsidized by the govt.? Are they governed by different state level regulations? Are they "walled" programs. And, if so, and they are supposed to fund themselves, what are the contributing factors to the difference in prices? So bottom question would be, are they both regulated in the same way? I hope you'll forgive these mundane questions since I know the answers should be in my notes, but any insight would be much appreciated.
--Chris