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Ka-fu Wong University of Hong Kong

Ka-fu Wong University of Hong Kong. Discussion questions. Economic Naturalism. Applications Use cost-benefit analysis to explain some pattern of events or behavior you have observed in your own environment. Start simple Repetition and drill Active learning – apply to real life phenomena .

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Ka-fu Wong University of Hong Kong

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  1. Ka-fu WongUniversity of Hong Kong Discussion questions

  2. Economic Naturalism • Applications • Use cost-benefit analysis to explain some pattern of events or behavior you have observed in your own environment Start simple Repetition and drill Active learning – apply to real life phenomena

  3. Economic Naturalism Observe things happening around us Ask interesting questions Provide plausible answers

  4. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 2: • Why would the traditional top schools choose to switch to Direct Subsidy Scheme? But, the traditional “middle” and “bottom” school would not?

  5. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 3: • Why would the Chinese government want to fix its exchange rate against US dollar? • Why would the US government want to see a floating Reminbi?

  6. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 4: • A lot of governments regulate their retail gasoline price. Is it possible to maintain the price regulation as the world oil price rises? Why?

  7. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 5: • In Hong Kong, more LPG pumps are reported broken at the designated pump stations when the world price of LPG has gone up. No similar complaint were filed when taxis were run on Diesel. Why?

  8. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 6: • In Hong Kong, there has been a recurrent debate on the legislation of minimum wage. Why hasn’t Hong Kong ever passed a legislation of minimum wage?

  9. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 7: • Hong Kong is running out of space for landfills. Yet we are producing a lot more domestic waste. How should we manage this problem of waste?

  10. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 8: • About half of Hong Kong residents live in public housing. Why should housing be provided by the government? Is there a better alternative to the public housing provision?

  11. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 9: • Multi-Fiber Agreement, under which exporting countries were imposed a voluntary export restraint (VER), has phased out in late 2005. Yet, both the US and EU negotiated with China on a new quota system (again, voluntary export restraints as in MFA). Free trade has been said to be good for participating partners. Why would countries like the US and EU want to restrict trade? Why would countries like China be willing to voluntarily restrict its export?

  12. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 10: • There are three cross-harbor tunnels connecting Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Three different tolls are charged. Different congestion conditions are resulted. Some critics say that in order to reduce the congestion, the government should let the same company operate the three tunnels. Other critics say that the tunnels should be operated by three different private firms. Yet, more critics say that the government should operate the three tunnels. Which idea is better? Why?

  13. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 11: • Landing slots in Hong Kong International Airport are effectively owned by airlines. Critics say that such fuzzy ownership of landing slots results in inefficient use of the airport, and anti-competition among airlines. Is it so? • What can we do about the allocation of landing slots?

  14. Find a plausible answer for the following …. Week 12: • The time taken to commute from Wan Chai to Central is predicted to take more than 40 minutes during peak hours in a couple of years. There has been a debate between building a Wan Chai By-Pass and the introduction of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP, in short). Do you think ERP is a viable alternative to road building?

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