518 Miller Economics Today, Nineteenth Edition
Chapter 4 Extensions of Demand and Supply Analysis
OPEC and Oil Prices
In July 2008, the price of oil increased to $147 per barrel. By October, it had fallen to around $60 per
barrel. OPEC saw the price of their major export, oil, decrease by 60 percent in a few months. During that
Sugar production in Jamaica amounts to a little more than
could sell its sugar in the European Union (EU) at a price three times higher than the world market price.
Under an agreement reached with the World Trade Organization in 2009, the EU agreed to cut the sugar
Why Ships Face Traffic Jams
In most U.S. ports, docking fees, which are fees charged to ship owners for the right to dock and load and
unload passengers or freight, are set by government agencies. In recent years, the demand for docking
space at U.S. seaports has increased as the number of cruise ships and number of pleasure cruises have
Movements in Supply and Demand
happened in the underwater fiber-optic cable business. This is a perfect classroom example.
The demand for underwater fiber optic cables doubled in 2003 and continued to grow in 2004 and 2005.
Lecture Extender Examples 519
Profiting by Lowering the Transaction Costs of Junking Computers
Having a computer that is so out-of-date that it cannot be adapted or at least easily adapted to modern
software can create problems for its owner. Most states have laws against throwing computers away
because they contain toxic metals and other potentially harmful sources of pollution. As a result, for fees
Preventing Price Gouging Promotes Black Markets in Florida
for any
the date of the declaration. Florida is susceptible to hurricanes, and in 2004, three successive hurricanes
Price Controls in Sierra Leone
Lisa Walker spent a year in Sierra Leone, West Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer, and she kept a diary of
her experiences. One thing she wrote about was what happened when the government imposed price
controls on many com
says the Maggi cubes have to be sold for 30 cents, but the sellers bought them for 50 cents, so when military
men enter the village to enforce the government price, those with Maggis hide them. It is the same story for
520 Miller Economics Today, Nineteenth Edition
Should the Legal Quantity of Cigarettes Be Set at Zero?
Nicotine has been used as a psychoactive drug by the native peoples of the Americas for approximately
8,000 years. Five hundred years ago, Christopher Columbus introduced tobacco to Europeans, who
discovered, once they overcame the nausea and dizziness produced by snorting, chewing, and smoking
it, they simply could not get along without it. Nicotine rapidly joined alcohol and caffeine as one of the