International trade

by | Sep 30, 2021 | Trade

Ozland has closed itself off to international trade

SECTION A
Answer each question and explain as per the instructions at the bottom of each question.

QUESTION A.1

Ozland has closed itself off to international trade. Ozland citizens noticed that the policy shift resulted in no change in the prices of computers, why may that be?

A. Autarky prices and free trade prices are the same.

B. Autarky prices are larger than free trade prices.

C. Autarky prices are smaller than free trade prices.

D. The absolute value of autarky prices are negatively correlated with free trade prices.

(1 mark)

Explain your answer in up to 200 words and using a diagram

(4 marks)

QUESTION A.2

When Ozland closes off to trade, it notices that the number of firms in an industry doubles in size. What economic theory would help us explain this phenomenon?

A. Stolper-Samuelson.

B. Melitz.

C. Ricardian.

D. Cournot.

(1 mark)

Explain your answer in up to 200 words and using a diagram

(4 marks)

QUESTION A.3

In the Pure Specific Factors model with two sectors, Cars (C) and Wheat (W), Capital (K) is specific to C and Land (A) is specific to W. If the government imposes a tariff on the imports of W then

A. Both owners of K and owners of A will benefit.

B. Owners of A will benefit.

C. Owners of K will benefit.

D. Neither owners of K nor owners of A will benefit.

(1 mark)

Explain your answer in up to 200 words and using a diagram

(4 marks)

QUESTION A.4

In a Mixed Specific Factors model with two sectors, Cars (C) and Wheat (W), Capital (K) is specific to C and Land (A) is specific to W. If the government imposes a tariff on the imports of W then

A. Both owners of K and owners of A will benefit.

B. Owners of A will benefit.

C. Owners of K will benefit.

D. Neither owners of K nor owners of A will benefit.

(1 mark)

Explain your answer in up to 200 words and using a diagram

(4 marks)

QUESTION A.5

A country imposing a tariff can benefit in terms of social welfare if

A. The terms-of-trade benefit exceeds the sum of production and consumption distortion loss.

B. The tariff revenue exceeds the sum of production and consumption distortion loss.

C. The consumer surplus loss is less than the producer surplus gain.

D. The terms-of-trade benefit exceeds the consumer surplus loss.

(1 mark)

Explain your answer in up to 200 words and using a diagram

(4 marks)

SECTION B
Short answer questions. Answer each in up to 200 words.

Background
Imagine that you work for the World Bank and you have been called to Ghana to aid the new president to come up with a new international trade strategy.

You are told that the new government is interested in moving away from agriculture and into manufacturing. To do so, the government wants to pursuit a policy of import substitution industrialization (ISI).

You are given a brief about Ghana highlighting the following points:

About half of Ghana’s population depends on agriculture, but Ghana still imports some of its food.
The majority of Ghana’s people live in rural areas and exist on a subsistence way of life.
Ghana has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world.
Nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.

QUESTION B.1

Ghana imports and exports food from and to neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire. The latter nation is very similar to Ghana in most ways. Can you explain what may drive two very similar nations to trade?

(5 marks)

QUESTION B.2

Ghana’s parliament is debating how to undertake ISI. The debate centres on whether they should impose tariffs on imports or use quotas. Which system is better for consumers? (use a diagram to explain yourself).

(5 marks)

QUESTION B.3

Ghana’s president is also very interested in banning the imports of food in order to increase nutrition in her country. What is the logic behind this? Will it work?

(5 marks)

QUESTION B.4

A representative from Ghana’s agricultural organisation is very much in favour of closing borders. He argues that consumers and producers will benefit from this. Is he right? Who would benefit most, are there any losers from the policy?

(5 marks)

QUESTION B.5

After a meeting with Ghana’s president you learn that the government is also interested in repatriating migrants that went to European countries to study engineering a decade ago. Explain how this is likely to change Ghana’s comparative advantage.

(5 marks)

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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