Listening audioscript

5. WHAT DOES THE PROFESSOR IMPLY ABOUT OPERANT CONDITIONING? 
6. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING REPRESENTS A CASE OFCLASSICAL 
CONDITIONING? 
 
 
PASSAGE FOUR 
 
Page 205
[ mp3 081-082] 
Questions 7 through 9.
Listen to part of a lecture in an economics class. 
(Professor)
OK, so I want to address some questions some of you have been having 
with the presentation that you have to do. I’ve asked you to apply an 
economic theory to a present-day situation, and many of you have asked 
me for an example, so I thought I could save some time and just give one 
example to the whole class. I’m going to do that next, and then I’m going 
to outline the presentation in more detail. Now, I don’t intend for this to be 
an example of the style of your presentation; let me make that clear. I 
just want to give you an example of the sort of topic you might choose. 
You’re still going to spend a little more time on expanding your 
explanations than I will in the example. 
OK. Let’s take the most basic economic law of all, the law of supply and 
demand. This law states that if prices, supplies, and demand for goods 
are free to fluctuate up and down, an equilibrium—a balance—price will 
eventually be found where the amount of a good that is being 
produced—the supply—meets the amount of it that people are buying, or 
the demand. I’m going to talk about the implications of this law for the 
policy of price ceilings. Now, you could talk about price ceilings on food 
or fuel, which are imposed in different countries around the world, but 
since we have a particular example at work in this very city, and most of 
you are affected by it, the example I’m going to use is rent control. In this 
case, the maximum amount that rent can be raised on a yearly basis for 
existing tenants is fixed by the city government...uh, fixed at a specific 
percentage of the rent that is quite a bit lower than a landlord could 
charge for units without rent control. This is often an attempt at helping 

---

LPREP IBT 3 E AudioScript 
60
low-income and elderly people afford housing. So, the amount that the 
price of rent can be raised each year is no longer flexible, and is set 
below the point of equilibrium…um, below a much higher market price. 
That means that the regulated price of the rent for people who occupy a 
rent-controlled apartment for a period of time is less than the price a 
landlord can charge if new tenants move in. And, by the way, new 
tenants who move into rental units that are not regulated…um, not 
controlled by rent control laws… are then making up for the loss of rent 
money on controlled units by having their rent levels increased by an 
excessive amount. Now, let’s think about this logically. If the rents people 
are paying under rent control are lower than the price of unregulated 
rents, they are going to be a lot less willing to move, and will hang on to 
their apartments for longer. I mean, think about it, if you are a tenant 
currently living in one of these rent-controlled places, you really don’t 
want to let that sort of deal go, so you tend to keep living there. So, given 
this situation, then what happens to demand? Well, it means there are 
fewer apartments to rent and fewer that can be rented at a good price, so 
the demand increases. On the other hand, if you are a construction or 
investment company thinking about building residences in a city that has 
rent control, then you’re going to look at the price ceiling and wonder 
whether it’s worth it. Maybe the amount of money you would make from 
rent just doesn’t justify building the units. So, then, with people holding 
on to their rent-controlled apartments and houses, and fewer people 
willing to invest in building more, the result is a smaller supply of 
residences on the market. With demand increasing, you end up with 
what? Yes, a shortage. Uh…we’ll discuss what a shortage means on the 
individual and systemic level in a minute, but now that you’ve got an 
example in mind, let me just go over the requirements for your 
presentation. Again, let me emphasize that what I just gave was merely 
an example of a topic. It was not an example of exactly how you should 
give your presentations. Oh, those of you who were asking about this, 
does this example answer your question on what kind of topic I’m looking 
for?...OK, I see some nodding, so I’m going to assume that’s enough to 
give most of you an idea of what I want. If you still have questions about 
it, you can ask later or during office hours. 
Alright then. Now I’m going to go over the presentations you’ll be giving 
and what I’m looking for in them. Remember, these presentations are a 
quarter of your grade… 20 percent is for the actual presentation and 5 
percent is for participation in the question and answer session, so please 
follow the instructions on the description of the assignment I passed out, 
and…well, pay attention now. This is a course about economic theory, so 
for your presentation I want you to choose one of the economic theories 
from the course and apply it to some present-day situation. This means 
that you need to include both the theory and the present-day situation 
and make it clear how the theory is applicable. And … you’ll need to 
include enough facts about the present-day situation to demonstrate that 
it provides a good example of the theory. 
OK, now the timing. You have exactly six minutes to give your 
presentation. You’ll be stopped at the end of six minutes whether you’re 
finished or not. Please, please, please give your presentation to yourself 

---

LPREP IBT 3 E AudioScript 
61
in the mirror and time it at least once to make sure that it fits into the time 
limit. I have to be strict about this because otherwise the presentations 
will take up extra class periods. So then, after you make your 
presentation, the other students will question you on your presentation. 
The question-and-answer period following the presentation will last for a 
maximum of five minutes, and the students in the audience are expected 
to be involved. Not after every single presentation…be considerate of 
others; turn-taking is evaluated…Um, but I will be noting who asks 
questions and I expect everyone to ask a few questions over the class 
periods you’ll be doing this. OK, are there any questions on that?...No? 
OK, then, I’m actually going to use my example to transition into another 
topic. So let’s talk about what a shortage of housing stemming from rent 
controls means for the people who live in a city, and what policies might 
make more sense.