There  is frequent confusion about the terms asymmetric information, moral  hazard and adverse selection?  Asymmetric information is the cause,  moral hazard and adverse selection are the outcome.  This video is great  at explaining the connection between asymmetric information and adverse  selection.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXPXpJ5vMnU  Your job will be to explain what is the adverse selection problem faced by the labor market for police officers. Many  police officer positions require the applicant to have a college degree  even though the tasks of a police officer rarely call upon college  course material. Why don't police departments increase their applicant  pool by dropping this requirement? What problem is faced by each party in  the process of hiring police officers?  As you answer this question  think back to last week and the problem of Type 1 and 2 errors and the  human tendency to be risk-averse.  

our phases of the business cycle consist of:A depression phaseA recessionary phaseRecovery phaseAn expansionary phaseDuring a recessionary phase of the business cycle would be the most desirable time to purchase large ticket items due to lower levels of inflation and interest rates.During an expansionary phase of the business cycle would be the least desirable time to purchase large ticket items due to higher levels of inflation and interest rates.Our labor force is consisted of both employed and unemployed workers.Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) = The term “full employment” implies that all willing and able people who can work are actively engaged in the labor force. “Full employment” suggests that our country’s unemployment rate is between 3-6%. Our country will never achieve zero-percent unemployment since our economy will always experience a natural rate of unemployment.Natural Rate of Unemployment = Frictional unemployment + Structural unemploymentFrictional unemployment are workers who are unemployed, but they have transferable job skills and they are in-between jobs.Structural unemployment are workers who have mismatched job skills.Discouraged workers are workers who have been out of work for four or more weeks. These individuals are not applying for open positions, are not registered at their local job service, and are not going on any interviews. They have become very discouraged and have left the labor force.Unemployed workers are applying for open positions, are going on interviews, and are registered at their local job service. They are actively seeking employment.Employed workers can range from workers who work from 1-hour to 40-hours plus per week.Four causes of unemployment include:Job losersJob leaversRe-entrantsNew entrantsFour types of unemployment:Seasonal unemploymentFrictional unemploymentStructural unemploymentCyclical unemploymentInflation is defined as an increase in overall prices across the board.

While the video provides a reason why a country may want to manipulate the value of it's currency, doing so is usually a violation of the free trade rules for fully floating currencies. The Chinese Yuan is a managed float currency, while the US Dollar is fully floating. You will examine these terms this week.Note: The video has Closed Captioning. To activate it, start the video, mouse over the bottom of the video and click on the CC icon, then select from the menu.This week we are going to look more globally and examine exchange rates.An exchange rate is simply the price of one currency in terms of another currency. In other words, how many US Dollars does it take to buy one British Pound? Remember that an exchange rate ALWAYS involves two currencies which means two countries. Review in detail, the three Exchange Rate presentations before you start your work on this week's discussion assignment.The Exchange Rates Part I presentation is below and can also downloaded as a Powerpoint presentation by clicking: Exchange Rates.Then review the downloadable Exchange Rates Part II Powerpoint presentation by clicking: here. (Part III is linked later in the instructions.) While they are conceptually simple, many economic factors go into the determination of exchange rates. And exchange rates influence many of the prices you pay in the store, they influence the number of jobs in the export sector of the economy and they even impact the price of a cup of coffee.Many people believe that a “strong” US Dollar is critical to the strength of the US economy. A “strong” dollar means one that can buy a goodly amount of a foreign currency. But does a “strong” dollar really benefit the US economy? And if so, in what ways? And in what ways does it harm the US economy? Review the Powerpoint presentation: Exchange Rates Part III before continuing with the week's discussion.Now we are ready to examine how exchange rates are set and what the impacts on the US economy from a “strong” dollar versus a “weak” dollar actually are.Assignment Summary:1) Watch the above video and study the three Exchange Rate Powerpoint presentations;2) Read the article in the textbook: "Is a Strong Currency Always in a Nation's Interest?", page 692-693 (Week 4.pdf), the article is the same in both the 7th and the 8th editions, only the art work is different.;3) Go to the X-Rates Web site (http://x-rates.com) and find the current:a) exchange rate for the US Dollar (USD) and any other country's currency that you wish to study - you can select the same country that you are using for your research project, (unless it is the Peoples' Republic of China). Do NOT select the Chinese Yuan as your other currency since it is not a freely floating currency;b) then from the icons below the currency selection boxes, select Graphs and then select 1 year;c) based on the 12 months of data, which currency is appreciating (gaining value) and which is depreciating (losing value)? Remember it can do both in a year.d) Now go to the CIA World Factbook and find out what goods and products the country you chose exports.4) Since most all of the goods that you buy are either imported or contain inputs from other countries, what do the trends in the exchange rates you examined tell you about the prices you can expect to pay for goods imported from the country you choose or for products that use inputs from that country (i.e., the exports of your country)?In a global economy most products contain materials from other countries and that includes food. If you had orange juice today, it may well have come from Brazil. Your computer and your cell phone contain parts from America or Japan or Taiwan or Thailand or one of the European countries or from all of these places. Thus, exchange rates directly impact the prices you pay for goods. This is your chance to learn more about how that works.5) On the discussion board, share your findings about whether the currency of the country you chose is appreciating or depreciating relative to the US Dollar. What do you think this means for American imports from your country? What do you think it means for American exports to your country?Refer to at least two different concepts from this week’s Chapters. Your illustration of the concepts MUST include an explanation why you think they are relevant to the week’s topic using specific information from the articles, Powerpoint presentations, videos and other research that you have done. Remember to include citations and references as needed.