Demand and Supply - E*TRADE

Enter "MSFT" for Microsoft Corporation or "Yhoo" for Yahoo! in the "Quotes" box and review the Quote information for the selected stock.

• What factors "determine" your decision to purchase (demand) or sell (supply) any given stocks?
• Explain how some traders might try to use the bid size and ask size to measure impending short term upward or downward pressure on the stock's price.
• Review the 1 or 3 month "Chart" (e.g. price movement) and "News" information for the selected stock. Identify specific news that may have "shifted" its demand or supply curve.
  

Price - Hollywood Star Exchange

Review the home page information and select the "movies" link. Examine the current "box office" information at the bottom of the screen.

• Identify potential factors that may determine the current value or Hollywood Price (H$) for selected movies.
• Why do movie studios spend millions of dollars on advertising prior to the opening of their movies?
  

Rent Control

Read William Tucker's article on rent control (published by the Cato Institute).

a. What was the original intent behind rent control?
b. Why did voters in Boston decide to eliminate rent control?
c. The author argues that rents are higher in cities in which rent control exists than in cities without rent control. Does this necessarily suggest that rent control raises the rental rate for housing? Is there another possible interpretation?
d. Use a diagram containing demand and supply curves to illustrate the effects of rent control on the quantity of housing demanded and supplied.
e. Briefly describe the "shadow market" for housing existing in New York City. How might the existence of this market account for the large difference between median gross rent and median advertised rent (captured in Figure 2)?