Deck 29: Postwar Industry and Agriculture

Question 1

From the late 1970s to the late 1980s,Hall (1994)finds that leverage buyouts most commonly take place among firms

A) in the volatile tech industry.
B) facing steep global competition.
C) that are unstable.
D) like those mentioned in all of the above.

Answer 1

facing steep global competition.

Question 2

The evidence shows that both the U.S.steel and auto industries seem to have lost their vigor for growth and competitive edges in the global marketplace.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The rapid adoption of Basic Oxygen Furnaces by "Big Steel" (the top six firms)kept the American basic steel industry from falling behind changes in world technology during the 1960s.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The steel industry successfully lobbied for protection from foreign competition.Consequently,the steel-producing industries and those industries using steel benefited.

Question 5

A slowdown in labor productivity causes a slowdown in economic growth when all else is held constant.

Question 6

Low-wage manufacturing industries exhibit which of the following?

A) Low output per worker
B) Added value that rises above labor's share of total employment
C) Highly educated and skilled workers
D) All of the above

Question 7

Industrial growth and location changed while manufacturing employment rose in the Sun Belt and fell in the Frost Belt.This growth and relocation were primarily due to the relocation of plants,functions and people moving from the Frost Belt to the Sun Belt.

Question 8

Chandler (1994)maintains that domestic labor productivity has a tendency to dip with

A) a decrease in the variety and number of new goods and services.
B) flat consumer demand.
C) increased foreign competition.
D) all of the above.

Question 9

Governments,not markets,have the best record of allocating investment resources into those projects with the highest expected rate of return.

Question 10

Growth rates in labor productivity

A) increased in the 1970s.
B) slowed across all employment sectors, with some experiencing ?more severe drops than others.
C) decreased across all employment sectors at the same rate.
D) were largely stagnate.

Question 11

Compared to other countries,the U.S.government is very concerned with intellectual property rights.This can explain,in part,the success of its software,computer and other electronic industries.

Question 12

There has been a massive relocation of heavy industry from the U.S.Northeast and upper Midwest to?the "Sun Belt."

Question 13

Labor productivity is measured by dividing Gross Domestic Product (GDP)by population.

Question 14

The loss of total market share of steel in the world market for steel can be blamed on steel producers' decisions to not adopt the latest steel technology.The producers in other countries that adopted it gained market share at the expense of the U.S.

Question 15

The decline of output of other domestic auto producers besides Ford,General Motors and Chrysler occurred in the presence,even before 1970,of rising sales of imported cars in the U.S.market.

Question 16

The income elasticity for cars is high.During the late 1960s,some U.S.citizens experienced?a decrease in their real incomes.Consequently,they purchased

A) more expensive U.S. cars.
B) more foreign imports due to their relatively low costs.
C) used U.S. cars in order to avoid foreign imports.
D) U.S. cars of any type to avoid foreign imports.

Question 17

Even though the number of workers in manufacturing has increased in the post-war world?(since 1947),the proportion of manufacturing workers in the total labor force has declined.

Question 18

The overall productivity crisis of the 1970s can be attributed,in part,to insufficient investment in research and development.

Question 19

Stagflation at the end of the 1970s was marked by increasing inflation and unemployment.

Question 20

Employment in manufacturing fell by almost twenty percent between 1980 and 1999.

Question 21

From the mid-1960s to the present,what would a graph of U.S.productivity rates against time reveal?

A) A stable upward trend in the amount of output per paid hour
B) An unstable but upward trend
C) A U-shape
D) A downward trend

Question 22

Burns (1934)argued that retardation and decline in some industries are

A) healthy for a growing and developing economy because resources are released for use in productive sectors.
B) healthy only for the competitors of the declining industries.
C) unhealthy for a growing economy because resources are idle in the declining industries.
D) unhealthy for a growing economy because the released resources are used unproductively ?by the competitors of the declining industries.

Question 23

In absolute terms and relative to other countries,what happened to U.S.growth rates in productivity as measured by output per paid hour in the late 1960s and 1970s?

A) They increased.
B) They stayed the same.
C) They fell.
D) They fell early on and then increased past their previous levels.

Question 24

Increased specialization in the computer industry is evidenced by

A) the types of government policies implemented to aid the computer industry.
B) the growth of the software industry.
C) the growth of the manufacturing industry.
D) the growth of agriculture.

Question 25

During the 20th century,the agricultural sector experienced an increase in

A) the number of operating farms.
B) the farm population.
C) the farm output.
D) all of the above.

Question 26

According to Kuznets (1954),competition will

A) unfairly destroy leading industries and impede overall economic growth across industries.
B) require government intervention.
C) push efficient industries into leadership roles and pull the backward and forward industrial links to these leaders with them.
D) contract consumer market opportunities.

Question 27

The market for U.S.cars was impacted significantly by consumers' options to buy which of the following?

A) Used cars
B) New cars produced by U.S. producers
C) New cars produced by foreign producers
D) All of the above

Question 28

The income elasticity for cars is high.This is best illustrated by which of the following?

A) College students buy a high percentage of the lower priced, dependable foreign cars.
B) The purchase of all hybrid cars increases in response to the call to reduce the auto's footprint.
C) U.S. cars built by foreign automakers sold at relatively lower prices than their equal American counterparts.
D) All of the above.

Question 29

In 2002 the steel industry successfully lobbied Congress to impose a tariff of 8 to 30 percent on foreign steel.Which of the following is an unintended consequence of this tariff?

A) U.S. steel firms were protected from the price cutting efforts of foreign competitors benefiting from governmental support in their countries.
B) U.S. steel firms could charge higher steel prices in order to boost profits.
C) Many steel-using firms in the U.S. went out of business and about 200,000 workers lost their jobs to higher steel prices.
D) American steel workers kept their jobs.

Question 30

Since the 1950s,

A) U.S. holdings of foreign assets and foreign holdings of U.S. assets have risen steadily.
B) U.S. holdings of foreign assets and foreign holdings of U.S. holdings have declined.
C) U.S. holdings of foreign assets have declined while foreign holdings of U.S. assets ?have risen steadily.
D) U.S. holdings of foreign assets have risen steadily while foreign holdings of U.S. ?assets declined.

Question 31

The U.S.demand for foreign cars has increased dramatically since the early 1900s because

A) Americans perceive foreign cars as lower quality cars than U.S.-produced cars.
B) foreign producers are manufacturing relatively fuel-efficient cars.
C) U.S. consumer demand for large, fuel inefficient cars has increased.
D) of all of the above reasons.

Question 32

U.S.automobile manufacturers chose not to switch to producing subcompact cars for which of the following reasons?

A) They did not perceive the U.S. demand for subcompacts as permanent.
B) This switch was not economically feasible in the long run.
C) Government policy prevented them from doing so.
D) All of the above.

Question 33

Between 1967 and 1999,the industrial structure of the U.S.experienced which of the following changes?

A) The industries experiencing slow or negative growth-primary metals, transportation, mining and steel-sought protection from competition from the federal government.
B) All major nondurable sectors experienced growth.
C) Machinery and electronics experienced rapid growth.
D) All of the above.

Question 34

Darby (1984)argues that the problem with declining productivity of the 1970s was not an issue.He adjusted labor productivity upward to take into account which of the following?

A) The immigration policies of the 1970s restricted the free migration of highly qualified workers.
B) More men than women re-entered the workforce.
C) The overall labor force was relatively young and comprised of individuals still maturing in ?their knowledge base and skill sets.
D) The labor force of the 1970s was older, more senior and had gained more experience than ?in the past.

Question 35

Which of the following contributed to the clear advancement of the automobile and steel industries?

A) Oligopoly behavior
B) Voluntary export restrictions
C) Quotas set for the number of foreign products entering the U.S.
D) Dynamic entrepreneurialism

Question 36

Chandler (1994)credits IBM's dominance in the world computer market to

A) advancements in technology.
B) investments in research and development.
C) solid management and sophisticated marketing.
D) all of the above.

Question 37

Unlike the steel industry,the automobile industry

A) became more concentrated.
B) became less concentrated.
C) remained the same in terms of concentration.
D) constantly fluctuated in terms of concentration.

Question 38

According to Chandler and Cortada (2000),the driving force of the U.S.economy has been what since the beginning?

A) Agriculture
B) Manufacturing
C) Information
D) Steel and automobiles

Question 39

In the 1970s,the largest steelmakers were slow or failed to adopt quickly the latest technology: oxygen furnaces.Some researchers blame

A) the federal government for its enterprise-crippling policies, subsidies and ?import restrictions.
B) unions for their low productivity efforts and high wage demands.
C) management for not keeping abreast of global changes in the marketplace.
D) all of the above.

Question 40

The implementation of new technology can be quick throughout the world if

A) patent rights are leased and purchased.
B) unions are strong.
C) economies are closed to foreign competition.
D) tariffs are placed on those imported goods and services benefiting from ?the technological advancements in the rest of the world.

Question 41

How did the federal government's actions impact the steel and automobile industries negatively? Positively?

Question 42

Discuss how the U.S.government policy that enabled firms to import semi-finished goods helped U.S.firms to be more internationally competitive with respect to production capacities.

Question 43

Discuss the demise of the steel industry from the economic historian's perspective.

Question 44

Discuss the role of research and development in growing industries.

Question 45

Discuss the developments in agriculture during the 20th century.

Question 46

From the economic historian's perspective,discuss the changes in the automobile industries between 1945 and 2000.What was the role of these changes in the macro-economy of the U.S.? Do you agree or disagree with government intervention in these industries? Use economic reasoning to support your answer.

Question 47

Describe the "productivity crisis" of the 1970s and identify the sources of this crisis.Reference Chandler's (1994)work.Discuss how Darby (1984)addresses the crisis issue.

Question 48

Describe the notable changes in industrial growth since 1967.Identify those industrial sectors experiencing the highest value-added and those realizing the lowest.Compare changes in value-added to changes in shares of total employment.What do you infer?

Question 49

Discuss the economic history behind the U.S.semiconductor industry.Highlight the role of foreign competition.

Question 50

The U.S.has remained the world's leader in the computer industry since the 1950s.Do you think it faces the same fate as the U.S.steel and automobile industries? Explain your answer.