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In Enigma Ohio There Are Two Kinds of Workers Klutzes

The document describes an economy with two types of workers: Klutzes and Kandos. Klutzes are worth $1,000 per month while Kandos are worth $2,500 per month. There are twice as many Klutzes as Kandos. Klutzes claim to be Kandos but cannot be distinguished. If the labor market was competitive, all workers would be paid the same wage.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

85 views2 pages

In Enigma Ohio There Are Two Kinds of Workers Klutzes

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trilocksp Singh

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Solved: In Enigma Ohio there are two kinds of workers

Klutzes
In Enigma Ohio there are two kinds of workers Klutzes

In Enigma, Ohio, there are two kinds of workers, Klutzes whose labor is worth $1,000 per month
and Kandos, whose labor is worth $2,500 per month. Enigma has exactly twice as many Klutzes
as Kandos. Klutzes look just like Kandos and are accomplished liars. If you ask, they will claim
to be Kandos. Kandos always tell the truth. Monitoring individual work accomplishments is too
expensive to be worthwhile. In the old days, there was no way to distinguish the two types of
labor, so everyone was paid the same wage. If labor markets were competitive, what was this
wage? ____________

(a) A professor who loves to talk offered to give a free monthly lecture on macroeconomics and
personal hygiene to the employees of one small firm. These lectures had no effect on
productivity, but both Klutzes and Kandos found them to be excruciatingly dull. To a Klutz, each
hour’s lecture was as bad as losing $100. To a Kando, each hour’s lecture was as bad as
losing $50. Suppose that the firm gave each of its employees a pay raise of $55 a month but
insisted that he attend the professor’s lectures. What would happen to the firm’s labor force?

What would happen to the average productivity of the firm’s employees?

(b) Other firms noticed that those who had listened to the professor’s lectures were more
productive than those who had not. So they tried to bid them away from their original employer.
Since all those who agreed to listen to the original lecture series were Kandos, their wage was
bid up to __________

(c) After observing the “effect of his lectures on labor productivity,” the professor decided to
expand his efforts. He found a huge auditorium where he could lecture to all the laborers in
Enigma who would listen to him. If employers believed that listening to the professor’s lectures
improved productivity by the improvement in productivity in the first small firm and offered
bonuses for attending the lectures accordingly, who would attend the lectures? ___________
having observed this outcome, how much of a wage premium would firms pay for those who
had attended the professor’s lectures?

(d) The professor was disappointed by the results of his big lecture and decided that if he gave
more lectures per month, his pupils might “learn more.” So he decided to give a course of
lectures for 20 hours a month. Would there now be an equilibrium in which the Kandos all took
his course and none of the Klutzes took it and where those who took the course were paid
according to their true productivity?

(e) What is the smallest number of hours the professor could lecture and still maintain a

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separating equilibrium?