The UK government made a pledge to increase the number of apprenticeships to three million by 2020 as part of a broader initiative to encourage more young people into vocational training. An apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade profession with the on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. The minimum wage for young (16-18) apprentices was increased significantly in October 2015, from £3.30 to £3.90 per hour. Explore the effect of such an increase? Please add graphs to represent the effect. What data would you need to measure the effect of an increase in the minimum wage for young apprentices?

In 2008 the world experienced an economic recession to which the UK and most parts of western Europe have not yet fully recovered. This became known as the ‘Financial Crisis’. It is believed that the crisis originated with the subprime mortgage market in the US as households took on debt they could not sustain. In your view what would be a possible Keynesian response to this crisis? How different/similar is this to a response likely to be suggested by Hayek. Explain the reasoning for your answers

The potato crisp in question is sold in the UK under PepsiCo’s Walkers brand – as iconic there as Smith’s in the antipodes. Undertaking a comprehensive audit of its carbon footprint (an exercise in detailed carbon accounting), Walkers discovered a perverse incentive in its supply chain.
By paying its suppliers strictly by delivered weight, the chip-maker was encouraging everyone from farmers to its factory door to maximise the potatoes’ water content. This was energy-expensive twice: the suppliers spent money on temperature-controlled humidifiers to protect their precious crop, while Walkers then spent money on extra frying time to drive off the extra moisture. Having discovered the wasted carbon input during a joint project with the UK’s Carbon Trust, Walkers crafted an incentive to reward farmers for lower water content, and cut its own emissions by saving 10 percent of the frying time.

1. Specify the kind of incentives that you would put in place to reward farmers for lower water in potatoes and also reducing the electricity bills (lower carbon footprint).

2. Would your company prefer carbon tax or carbon trading to pay for your carbon emission? Justify your position.

3. What would be the great challenges in Carbon Accounting Disclosure?

An artifact classified as charcoal, found in a site at Longmoor, UK, is found to have a 14C radioactivity of 8.72×10-2 counts per second per gram of carbon. If living carbon-containing objects have an activity of 0.255 counts per second per gram of carbon, estimate the age of the artifact? The half-life of 14C is 5730 years An artifact classified as bone, horse, found in a site at Belloy-sur-Somme, France, is found to have a 14C radioactivity of 7.34×10-2 counts per second per gram of carbon. If living carbon-containing objects have an activity of 0.255 counts per second per gram of carbon, estimate the age of the artifact? The half-life of 14C is 5730 years

Assume that 61% of population in UK vote for Candidate A. The rest of population vote for Candidate B. If we randomly select 36 people in town,
i. What is the center and dispersion of the proportion of voters supporting candidate A in the sample? Can you determine the (approximate) shape of the distribution? Why?
ii. What is the probability that the sample proportion supporting candidate A is less than 60%?
iii. What is the probability that the sample proportion of voters supporting candidate B is greater than 40%?

The Price of Baked Beans
As residents in the UK hunkered down at home to protect themselves from the spread of novel
Coronavirus they filled the pantries with toilet paper, sanitizing products and convenience foods.
Baked beans, one of the UK’s most enduringly popular convenience foods, are expected to
become scarce and expensive during the next months. The reason is unprecedented heavy rainfall
which has devastated crops in the main growing areas, the American state of Michigan and the
Canadian province of Ontario. A few weeks ago growers were expecting a record harvest but the
position is described now as catastrophic.
The price of a 100lb –bag of Canadian beans has soared from $27 to around $70, which
has added $0.60 to the retail price of a 15oz can previously costing between $1.50 and $1.20.
Moreover, the crop failure caused and unseemly scramble for supplies among big
canning firms such as Heinz and Crosse and Blackwell. Alternative sources being sought
includes South America, East Africa and even Romania.
Worldwide baked beans consumption is around 800,000 tonnes a year. The British eat a
healthy 80 000 tonnes, which represents 4 500 000 cans a day, with an annual retail value of
more than $200 million. The annual import bill is between $20 and $30 million.
Source: adapted from The Times.
Questions
1. Using the above information, explain and illustrate the factors which caused a rise in the
price of baked beans.
2. Analyse the factors which might have influenced the amount by which the retail price
was raised to consumers.
3. Discuss, with reference to the information in the passage, the economic effects of the
increase in the price of beans on growers.
4. Examine other possible economic effects of the increase in the price of beans.

Question 1     

In a survey of the population of employed workers in the UK, respondents are asked how many hours they usually work per week in their main job. The average of the responses is 25 hours, with a standard deviation of 8 hours. Suppose that working hours in the population follow a normal distribution with these values of the mean and standard deviation.

1. What percentage of people in the population work between 22 and 35 hours per week?
2. The middle 70% of people in the population have weekly working hours between which two figures?
3. What is the number of hours such that only 22% of people work that long or longer per week?
4. What is the number of hours that only 35% of people work that or less per week?

In 2008 the world experienced an economic recession to which the UK and most parts of western Europe have not yet fully recovered. This became known as the ‘Financial Crisis’. It is believed that the crisis originated with the subprime mortgage market in the US as households took on debt they could not sustain. In your view what would be a possible Keynesian response to this crisis? How different/similar is this to a response likely to be suggested by Hayek. Explain the reasoning for your answers[20 marks]

The UK’s relationship with EU after the winning of the Brexitters is uncertain. UK will have to negotiate with EU member nations on almost everything, ranging from tariff to maintaining the most favored nation’s status.

1. Why and how would the two groups benefit in the long-term? (3-4 sentences)

2. Why and how would the two groups NOT benefit in the long term (3-4 sentences)

3. Which decision do you think is best economically and why?

Please provide 1 source to support your thinking.

The annual inverse demand for a year of studies at UK is P(q) = 12,000 - .15q. The marginal cost is $3,000

a. What is the profit maximizing tuition rate and how many student enroll

b. For poorer families, the inverse demand is P(q) = 8,000 - 5q. Is it profitable to offer "need based" scholarships to poorer families? (Determine new P and Q and think in tems of 3rd degree price discrimination)