i have a economic case to analyze, but i'm just an english major and don't know how to do it. can you help me? thanks a million. the case is very long: bob is going to university but his mother asks him to buy his clothes himself. he has limited money and wants to buy sneakers and jeans. in his decision, he buys 4 for each.
What are your directions for analyzing this "economics case?"
For the case is too long and i'm afraid nobody would help me, so i'm sorry i didn't type it patiently. would you like to help me? if you are so kind to help , i would type it for you.
You could type it here, but I don't have a background in economics. Only one of our regular tutors is an economist, and he only comes online here once in a while.
Bob is really excited about next year at the university, which starts in two weeks. But his parents just dropped a bombshell: he is going to have to buy all of his own clothes for the fall semester. On no, he has never paid for his own clothes! And he really wants more od his favorite blue jeans. Well, at least he knows his own tastes! And bob wants lots of pairs so he won¡¯t have to do laundry between visits home! Then bob looks at his tattered and outdated sneakers and wonders how long they will last. What good are great blue jeans if the sneakers are too weirds? Sigh. Time to do some research and figure out how to manage this.
Ok, bob thinks, I can figure this out. I¡¯ll just fet on the internet and find what I need to know. I wonder what the prices of blue jeans are these days? Perhaps the web site of a certain company will have some imformation about the jeans and prices .
Hmmm, company L has lots of great graphics and information, but it doesn¡¯t post prices. Wonder why? Bob finds another web page that explains a bit about L¡¯s policies on retail pricing of jeans. This is useful information which tells Bob that he needs to do some price comparing. A bit more searching and there they are¡ªthe western srore, denim blue jeans discounters, and even bluejeans company in UK¡ªyhe prices of exactly what he wants in both new and used. Additional sites can be found by using search engines. What are the range of prices from these outlets? Allright, bob is ready to think about how many pairs he can buy.
Oops, he¡¯s not quite ready to plan how many pairs he can buy.¡± let¡¯s see,¡± thinks bob ¡°two more weeks of work before school starts and the part-time job has been paying an income of about $200 per week. No way can I buy the 8 pair that would last from one home visit to another without hitting the laundromat. And then there is the issue of new sneakers( related goods). Time to be realistics! For sure my rich sister Jackie won¡¯t help me! Maybe I could talk to my boss, Tina, and work a few more hours to increase my expected income. Hey, I¡¯ll bet they¡¯ll have a ¡®back to school sale¡¯ next week and expected prices will be lower. Maybe I should wait to buy some of the blue jeans.¡±
Bob works an extra five hours this week and the blue jeans prices do come down by several diollars. He manages to buy 4 new pairs of blue jeans, nes sneakers, and the shoe store throws in a new T-shirt to promote their sale. Bob has a gloriously successful first semester in his blue jeans and his economics class .
Tasks
1,review Bob¡¯s decision process. What are these elements or determinants of amount purchased?
2 consider each of these elements or determinants individually( one at a time): if that determinant increases, how does that affect the amount of the good that is purchased?
Actually I need to write an essay about 1500 to analyze this case. And this essay should analyze all the related economic knowledge, including these two questions. But I don¡¯t even know what the two questions¡¯ meaning and don¡¯t know what kind of economic knowledge are reflected in this case. So I need help and thanks a million.
My thoughts are not in the vocabulary of economics -- but they may get you started.
1. Bob knew how much had to spend and what he wanted. Then he researched and realized he didn't have enough money (resources) to meet his wants. He increased his resources by working extra hours. He also brought down the cost of his clothes by comparison shopping and waiting til they went on sale.
2. Study your text to find explanations for these elements or determinants. It sounds like your instructor wants you to apply what you should have learned to this practical situation.
thank you so much for you've got the point. maybe i am noy familiar with the economic terms my teacher told me, so i have no idear how to finish it. you are so kind to enlight me! thabk you a million!
First off, about 99% of basic economic questions can be answered with common sense. You really know more than you think. (Higher level econ has a lot of math mumbo-jumbo. But don't worry about that now.)
Concepts:
We desire goods and services (in this case jeans and sneakers) and more is better. Economic term is Utility.
We get the most utility from the first purchase. However, utility declines as the quantity goes up. (1st pair of jeans because Bob needs something to wear. Following pairs because Bob doesnt want to do laundry very often.) Concept: utility diminishes.
How we learn the price of things varies. In the olden days, we actually went to store to compare prices, nowadays we can compare online via the internet. Regardless, we generally search for the "best" prices. (Not always the lowest price is used as sometimes people pay higher prices because of better service. )
Economic concept: Products are exchanged for money at a given price, and we will purchase from the seller with the best price.
Economic concept: There are many sellers competing with each other. In order to get your money, they need to sell at the "best" price. Often, they draw you in with a sale. And you, expecting a sale, will wait until a seller lowers his prices.
Bob has, initially a fixed budget. He need to purchase both sneakers and jeans. Economic concept: maximize utility given a fixed budget constraint. Another concept: Opportunity Cost. To get more jeans Bob must give up Sneakers, and vice versa.
Bob decides to work more. Again Opportunity Cost. Bob must give up leisure time to get more money for jeans and sneakers.
I hope this is enough to get you started.