Quizzol

QUESTION:

Suppose that Darnell, an economist from a research facility in Washington, and Eleanor, another economist from a graduate program in the Northeast, are both guests on a popular science podcast. The host of the podcast is facilitating their debate over saving incentives. The following dialogue represents a portion of the transcript of their discussion:

Eleanor: I think it's safe to say that, in general, the savings rate of households in today's economy is much lower than it really needs to be to sustain an improvement in living standards.

Darnell: I think a switch from the income tax to a consumption tax would bring growth in living standards.

Eleanor: You really think households would change their saving behavior enough in response to this to make a difference? Because I don't.

The disagreement between these economists is most likely due to .

Despite their differences, with which proposition are two economists chosen at random most likely to agree?

Employers should not be restricted from outsourcing work to foreign nations.

Central banks should focus more on maintaining low unemployment than on maintaining low inflation.

Business managers can raise profit more easily by reducing costs than by raising revenue.

ANSWER:

The disagreement between these economists is most likely due todifferences in scientific judgments Correct

Points:

1 / 1

There are two main reasons that economists tend to disagree: differences in values and differences in scientific judgments. In this case, the economists disagree due to differences in scientific judgments because they disagree about a factual matter: the responsiveness of saving rates to changes in tax regimes. In contrast, disagreement due to differences in values reflect differing assessments on fairness or equity.