Question

1. "You are the best student in the class. You can get into Harvard." Which part of the statement is positive? Which part of the statement is normative? 2. The government has been trying to discourage the use of plastic bags. Give one negative incentive to achieve that. 3. Give one opportunity cost of watching TV rather than studying. 4. Dexter decides to buy a new smartphone and offset the cost by selling his old phone to one of his friends. His friend has no money and wants to barter for the old phone. Dexter's preference for the items offered is in this order: laser printer, television, headphones, and bicycle. Dexter can only exchange his old phone for one of the four items. If Dexter accepts the headphones as payment, what is his opportunity cost of this exchange? 5. What happens to the PPF when more resources for production are discovered. 6. Refer to the following table, give the range of the price of errands such that both Lo and Manuel will be willing to trade. Assume the opportunity cost is constant. (Don't forget the units) Errands Dishes Run Washed Lo 2 50 Manuel 40 7. Suggest one government policy such that the PPF of a country can shift out a lot in the future.

Answer 1

1. "You are the best student in the class. You can get into Harvard."  

• The first part of the statement - 'You are the best student in the class' is a positive statement. A positive statement is one which focuses on the present situation like what is. It is a factual statement that can be proven or tested.

Here, the statement talks about the present situation of a student that he is the best student in the class. This factual information must have been conveyed after the assesment of the student's performance in the class.

Thus, this part of the statement is positive statement which tells about the present situation of the student i.e. he is the best in the class.

• The second part of the statement - 'You can get into Harvard'. It is a normative statement. Normative statements are based on opinion. They can not be proven as they are mere opinion. They tell about the ideal situation like what should be etc. Normative statements expresses the possibilities of the ideal outcomes.

In this statement, the teacher expresses that because the student is bright so he can get into Harvard. Here, the teacher is expressing the ideal possibility of the outcome i.e. the student can get into Harvard.

Thus, this part of statement is Normative because it is expressing the possibility of ideal outcome.

Therefore, the statement is divided into both Positive and Normative statements. The first part is Positive and the later is Normative.