Learn Your Economic Type

What is more important: ensuring that markets efficiently allocate goods and services, or boosting productivity, even if it's done by distorting allocation efficiency? *

Economic policy can either focus on the supply side (by encouraging individuals to work and companies to be efficient) or on the demand side (by ensuring that individuals, governments, and/or companies spend or invest money to keep the economy at full employment). All things equal, where is it more important for economic policy to focus on: the demand side or the supply side? *

Which is the most important factor in driving economic growth? Policies to spur more: *

Savings and investment, spurred by fiscal discipline and a sound macro-economic environment.

Savings and investment, spurred by lower taxes and sound macro-economic environment.

Innovation in new products and new ways of doing business.

Demand by consumers and business to buy more goods and services.

A key role for economic policy is to drive increases in savings (either private savings by individuals and companies or public savings through budget surpluses). *

While the federal government can influence the short-term business cycle, it can't do much to get the private sector to become more productive. *

Government spending distorts the economy and, after appropriate spending on areas like national defense, should be as low as possible. *

Economic policies can focus on growing the economy or ensuring that the benefits of growth are distributed more fairly, especially to individuals and families that earn less. What do you think the right ratio should be between growth and distribution in national economic policy? *

If the federal government had an extra $10 billion dollars, what share should go to (shares should add up to 100 percent):

Cutting taxes *

Reducing the national debt *

Support for programs like health care and low income housing *

Funding for infrastructure, research and development, and tax incentives for innovation and productivity *

People and firms make rational economic decisions almost all the time. *

More generous programs to help workers adjust to change (like unemployment insurance) blunt incentives to work hard and take risks. *

If government lowers taxes on work (e.g., cuts the personal income tax rate on wages and salaries), people will work at least somewhat more. *

Taxes, particularly high personal income tax rates, distort the economy and hinder growth. *

The ideal corporate tax code is a simple one with low rates and few deductions, rather than a more complex and higher one with many deductions that targets particular activities (e.g., like tax credits for activites such as research and development and clean energy). *

The tax code should be targeted to favor business investments in new machinery and equipment. *

The federal government should help fund business to develop technologies. *

Programs like the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program, which offers assistance to small firms to help them become more productive and competitive, are unnecessary because companies that are insufficiently profitable should go out of business or be taken over by others that can do better. *

The federal government should not actively work to get sectors like health care and transportation to use information technology to improve quality and cut costs, and should instead reduce barriers and rely on the market to drive change. *

The best trade policy for America is: *

More free trade and global economic engagement

More free trade and global economic engagement, coupled with more robust policies to help those hurt by trade (such as universal health care benefits)

More free trade and global economic engagement, coupled with more robust policies to help those hurt by trade, and with much more aggressive trade enforcement action against other nations engaged in unfair trade practices

Less focus on trade and global integration, and revising existing trade agreements to incorporate stronger labor and environmental standards

Which statement best describes your view towards international trade? *

Free trade boosts allocation efficiency and consumer welfare

Free trade boosts allocation efficiency and consumer welfare, but government should take more active steps to compensate those hurt by trade

Free trade, especially with low wage nations, can hurt workers and lower consumer demand

Free trade can bring gains, principally through increased competition, but only if foreign unfair trade practices are minimized

Demographic questions (these questions will not affect your score)