In spring 2006, the Higher Education Council of Berks County (HECBC) conducted a study to measure the economic impact of the five colleges located in Berks County: Alvernia College, Albright College, Kutztown University, Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus (Penn State Berks) and Reading Area Community College (RACC). Although many higher…

This chapter introduces the key economic concepts, models, and methods that can help inform institutional research in higher education. (Contains 1 table and 9 figures.)

Investigates factors that influence the short-run and long-run effects of supply-side shocks on aggregate income and tax revenues. Concludes that the long-run relationship between tax revenues and the tax rate is completely independent of price-level elasticity. (CFR)

Contends that the traditional approach to the economics of pollution deals only with the special case of damage coming from the per-period flow of the pollutant. Examines the limitations of the traditional flow approach. Summarizes fundamental advances in the economic theory of stock pollutants using graphical descriptions. (CFR)

Maintains that it is generally assumed that rent control redistributes wealth from landlords to consumers of housing. Presents data and graphs to illustrate how rent control can benefit landlords and increase housing availability. Asserts that this exercise is effective for students studying microeconomic theory. (CFR)

Maintains that most economics textbooks continue to repeat past mistakes concerning returns to scale and economies of scale under assumptions of constant and nonconstant input prices. Provides an adaptation for a calculus-based intermediate microeconomics class that demonstrates the pointwise relationship between returns to scale and economies of…

Uses a graphical analysis to determine the importance of quantity for consumer welfare and to examine the manner in which private and social welfare diverge in a monopoly. Criticizes the opinion that technology adoption by a monopoly always assumes a uniformly downward shift in the marginal cost curve. (MJP)

Criticizes the standard presentation, in introductory economics, of the burden of a tax as an application of elasticity. Argues that using the slopes of a supply and demand curve is the simplest and easiest way to clarify tax incidence. Includes three graphs illustrating this approach. (MJP)

Describes an undergraduate economics course experiment designed to teach the concepts of comparative advantage and opportunity costs. Students have a limited number of labor hours and can chose to produce either wheat or steel. As the project progresses, the students trade commodities in an attempt to maximize use of their labor hours. (MJP)

Presents a relatively simple costs/benefits analysis problem perfectly suited for an introductory economics course. Reveals that neither the health insurer (which bears only the hospitalization costs of acute care) nor the patient (who incurs lost earnings and psychological costs) has an adequate incentive to pay for preventive care. (MJP)

Presents a simple diagrammatic technique for conveying the idea of Ricardian equivalence or policy neutrality in the provision of public goods. Includes several diagrams illustrating basic positions regarding the relationship between voluntary public contributions and taxation. Provides a brief explanation of the illustrated concepts. (MJP)