Ka-fu Wong University of Hong Kong

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Ka-fu WongUniversity of Hong Kong
Discussion questions
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Economic Naturalism

• Applications
• Use cost-benefit analysis to explain some pattern
  of events or behavior you have observed in your
  own environment

Start simple Repetition and drill
Active learning apply to real life
phenomena
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Economic Naturalism
Observe things happening around us
Ask interesting questions
Provide plausible answers
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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 2
• Why would the traditional top schools choose to
  switch to Direct Subsidy Scheme? But, the
  traditional middle and bottom school would
  not?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 3
• Why would the Chinese government want to fix its
  exchange rate against US dollar?
• Why would the US government want to see a
  floating Reminbi?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 4
• A lot of governments regulate their retail
  gasoline price. Is it possible to maintain the
  price regulation as the world oil price rises?
  Why?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 5
• In Hong Kong, more LPG pumps are reported broken
  at the designated pump stations when the world
  price of LPG has gone up. No similar complaint
  were filed when taxis were run on Diesel. Why?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 6
• In Hong Kong, there has been a recurrent debate
  on the legislation of minimum wage. Why hasnt
  Hong Kong ever passed a legislation of minimum
  wage?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 7
• Hong Kong is running out of space for landfills.
  Yet we are producing a lot more domestic waste.
  How should we manage this problem of waste?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 8
• About half of Hong Kong residents live in public
  housing. Why should housing be provided by the
  government? Is there a better alternative to the
  public housing provision?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 9
• Multi-Fiber Agreement, under which exporting
  countries were imposed a voluntary export
  restraint (VER), has phased out in late 2005.
  Yet, both the US and EU negotiated with China on
  a new quota system (again, voluntary export
  restraints as in MFA). Free trade has been said
  to be good for participating partners. Why would
  countries like the US and EU want to restrict
  trade? Why would countries like China be willing
  to voluntarily restrict its export?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 10
• There are three cross-harbor tunnels connecting
  Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Three different
  tolls are charged. Different congestion
  conditions are resulted. Some critics say that in
  order to reduce the congestion, the government
  should let the same company operate the three
  tunnels. Other critics say that the tunnels
  should be operated by three different private
  firms. Yet, more critics say that the government
  should operate the three tunnels. Which idea is
  better? Why?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 11
• Landing slots in Hong Kong International Airport
  are effectively owned by airlines. Critics say
  that such fuzzy ownership of landing slots
  results in inefficient use of the airport, and
  anti-competition among airlines. Is it so?
• What can we do about the allocation of landing
  slots?

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Find a plausible answer for the following .

• Week 12
• The time taken to commute from Wan Chai to
  Central is predicted to take more than 40 minutes
  during peak hours in a couple of years. There
  has been a debate between building a Wan Chai
  By-Pass and the introduction of Electronic Road
  Pricing (ERP, in short). Do you think ERP is a
  viable alternative to road building?

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End