Articles Review Example: The Three Demand Functions. Gender Contribution to Income Equality. Fertility and Unemployment.

Tutorial 3 Article review

The article A systematic analysis of the links amongst the Marshallian, Hicksian and Frischian demand, and function contains a detailed analysis of three-demand functions using profit maximization hypothesis. The three demand functions analyzed in the article include the Hicksian, Marshallian, and Frischian (Sproule, 2013). In the article, the author defined a relationship between the three demand functions and provided a clear analysis. The hypothesis that the author used in the analysis hold that the profit maximize is the decision maker. The organization of the paper takes the form of three stages. In stage 1, the author laid the foundation for the concept, profit-maximizing decision maker. In the second part of the paper, the author gave a clear definition of the relationship that exists between Hicksian, Marshallian, and Frischian demand functions. The last section of the paper is the conclusive remarks that summarize the entire paper.

The author introduces the reader to the profit- maximization problem as follows. PMDM is max x1, x2... xn p = r u(x1, x2. . . xn) n i=1 pixi. In these cases, r symbolizes the PMDMs price utility, p stand for profit level of the PDM. It is clear that, solving the first order condition result in Frischian Demand function as shown. x F j= arg max x1, x2,..., xn ( r u(x1, x2, . . . , xn) ni=1 pixi ).In the text, the Frischian demand function and the Frischian profit functions are related as follows. xFj = x F j (p1, p2, . . . , pn,r) = p (p1, p2, . . . , pn,r)/ pj . The Hicksian demand function is xHj = x H j (p1, p2, . . . , pn, u) while the PDM expenditure function is m = e (p1, p2, . . . , pn, u). The systematic analysis section is a summary of Lemma 1-3. The equation for lemma 1 as associated with langrage is l = l (p1, p2, . . . , pn, u). The Lemma 2 equation is l = l(p1, p2, . . . , pn, u)= e(p1, p2, . . . , pn, u)/ u . And equation for lemma 3 = l = l (p1, p2, . . . , pn, m) = v(p1, p2, . . . , pn, m) m (Sproule, 2013). .

Analysis

The paper is organized. The author proofed the relationship that exists between Marshallian, Frischian and Hicksian demand functions. The hypothesis that was adopted throughout the entire paper is that the profit maximizer is the decision maker. It is simple to read and understand the work of author because it is systematic. For example, the author laid a foundation to the reader on the meanings of the three demand functions. It was important to explain the meaning of the individual demand function before giving their relationships. A greater percentage of the text has calculations and clear steps to proof the relationships of the steps. The use of formulas and the clear workings makes the work easy to understand. The introduction and the abstract of the article depict the entire paper. Often, the readers find it easy to read the text with captivating introduction and a good abstract. There is a clear connection between different parts of the article, which makes the reading enjoyable and understandable.

The second article is Gender contribution to income equality. The article is about gender and wage inequality. The motivation of the research in the article is determining how gender contributes to the wage inequality. The approach in use in the article is that of Shapley approach. The author explained how the proposed approaches for determining the contributions of gender in the wage inequality use the 1970-2003 French data. In the introduction to the article, it is evident that the gender median wage trend has been declining. The downtrend in the income inequality results in the deterioration in the income inequality gap between the women and the men. The paper also contains the proposed framework to use in determining the cause of gender income inequality. In the text, the author chose the decomposition framework as the most attractive methods of appraising the gender (Chantreuil, & Lebon, 2015). The decomposition framework helps in determining the contribution of gender in wage inequality. The decomposition framework was proposed by Shapley is suitable because it allows finding out the contribution by the different sub- population and economic sources of the gender income inequality. Age, gender, and occupations are some of the factors considered in the gender decomposition framework. The formula for working out the inequality in the decomposition framework is comprehensive. It captures the individual characteristic of the gender that contributes to the wage inequality. The variable characteristic considered in the inequality include the age, career, and sex.

The author helps the reader to understand causes of wage inequality using French FQP inequality between the periods of 1970-2003. The French data helped the author demonstrate the trends in the wage inequality since the 1970s. For this French data, it is evident that wage inequality has been decreasing since the 70s to mid-80s (Chantreuil, & Lebon, 2015). The trends of wage equality began stagnating in the 2000s. It was apparent from the French data that the wage inequality is high in the private sectors.

Analysis

The general organization of the ideas in the article is impressive. The author divided the paper into the introduction, abstract, and the body. The organization of each idea into the subheadings makes the work easy to read and understand. The language in use in the paper depicts and deeper understating of terms used in economics. The formulas used in the article makes the work scholarly and help the reader understand how the inequality occurs. The use of French data to explain the trend of wage inequality makes the work understandable. Reading the work has helped me understand how the trends of income inequality have changed over the time.

However, the author provided many details, which make the work, looks a repetition. For example, in the introduction, the author explained about the decomposition framework and repeat similar information under the second sub-heading. The table containing the French data is congested. It is difficult for lazy readers to understand all the details in the tables. In this case, some of the sub headings in the tables are hard to understand. For example, a heading such as Thiel and residual requires explanation so that the reader can understand.

The article has strengths such as the backup from the references, the clear organization of the work and the clarity of message. The use of formula and clear steps for calculating various variables in population makes the work easy to read and understand. The use of percentages for each year since the 1970s makes the research real and believable for the reader.

Article 3

The article Fertility and unemployment in a social security system is an analysis of how social security system affects fertility and education. The main point that the author present is that wage and pension improve the fertility and causes a decline in employment. The relationship between the pensions, allowances, and employment gives a picture of the number of children that a family has. Some of the reasons for procreations as depicted in the article include, for investment and for future security. Parents procreate; give students good education to take good care of their parents in the future (Wang, 2015). However, it is expected that parents are willing to give birth to more children when their future is secure because of the available pension. The article contains explanations of overlapping generation model. The model contains the section of child allowances and a pay-as-you-go PAYG as incorporated in the economy.

The author examined how the two subsidies PAYG and OLG affect unemployment and endogenous fertility. The paper has different sections, which comprises of the model, the equilibria of the two variables, employment, and fertility. Besides, the fourth section contains the comparative statistics and lastly section five that is the conclusion. The introduction to the model explains gives an explanation to the different parts of the model. The OLG model takes into consideration the role of government, the consumptions, productions and the capital market (Wang, 2015). The government obtains revenue from people through taxation and uses it to employ the citizens and pay pensions. The equilibrium of the fertility, employment, and pensions depends on the following variables. The variables such as the per capita income, labor supply, labor demand, the unemployment and the productions. The sections of the comparative statistics contain the public pension effect and child allowance effect on the fertility rate. The parameter for measuring the fertility rate shows that when the pension is high, the fertility rate increases because of the increased child allowances.

Analysis

The article achieved the intended purpose. For example, after reading the text, I was convinced of the relationship between the fertility, pension and child allowance. The use of graphs to show the relationship between the pension, child allows and fertility makes the text more clear and understandable. It is easy to read the text because the author used friendly English language. The organization of the work from the introduction to the conclusion is cohesive in nature. In this case, it is easy to read the text because of the use of different sub headings and the chronology of the information used in the text. The author is brief and to the point. For example, he used few pages to present voluminous information to the reader. It is encouraging that the author acknowledges the people who contributed to the completion of the work.

However, the formulas and the calculation used in the text are too many. Readers may not like reading figures and looking at calculations. Some of the figures appear meaningless to the reader because the source of the data is anonymous. The use of too many graphs makes the analysis congested though helpful to the reader.

Reference

Chantreuil, F., & Lebon, I. (2015). Gender contribution to income inequality. Economics Letters, 133, 27-30.

Sproule, R. (2013). A systematic analysis of the links amongst the Marshallian, Hicksian, and Frischian demand functions: A note. Economics Letters, 121(3), 555-557.

Wang, L. (2015). Fertility and unemployment in a social security system. Economics Letters, 133, 19-23.