Your Classmates from the University of Chicago Are Planning to Go

question 47

Multiple Choice

Your classmates from the University of Chicago are planning to go to Miami for spring break, and you are undecided about whether you should go with them. The round-trip airfares are $600, but you have a frequent-flyer coupon worth $500 that you could use to pay part of the airfare. All other costs for the vacation are exactly $900. The most you would be willing to pay for the trip is $1400. Your only alternative use for your frequent-flyer coupon is for your trip to Atlanta two weeks after the break to attend your sister's graduation, which your parents are forcing you to attend. The Chicago-Atlanta round-trip airfares are $450. If you use the frequent-flyer coupon to fly to Atlanta, would you get any economic surplus by making the trip?

• A) No, there is a loss of $50.
• B) Yes, surplus of $350.
• C) Yes, surplus of $400.
• D) Yes, surplus of $100.

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Definitions:

Natural Rate

The long-term rate of unemployment around which the job market is in balance, where all those willing to work at prevailing wage rates can find employment.

Policymakers

Individuals or groups responsible for making decisions and creating policies for political, economic, or social systems.

Natural Rate

Often referred to in the context of unemployment, it is the long-term rate of unemployment that an economy experiences even when it is operating at a full capacity.

Natural Rate

The long-term unemployment rate that is observed once the effect of short-term cyclical factors has been removed and is thought to be due to structural factors in the economy.