2.5 Flashcards
What is economic growth?
Economic growth is a sustained rise in a country’s productive potential and real national output.
- expansion of productive potential if an economy
- can be depicted by outward shift of PPF or LRAS
what are the main drivers of long run economic growth?
higher productivity, gains from innovation and rising real incomes for households
Short-run economic growth
increase in real GDP i.e. an increase in actual output.
Economic growth and the production possibility frontier (PPF)
A rise in a country’s productive capacity causes the PPF to shift from PPF1 to PPF2. This then allows increased supply of consumer and capital goods
Factors which could cause economic growth (in the short run)
- interest rate changes
- fiscal policies
- commodity prices such as oil, gas and food
- currency changes
- consumer and firm confidence
Factors which could cause economic growth (in the long run)
- investment
- productivity/ efficiency
- quantity/ quality of factors of production
- r&d
- innovation
- enterprise
Advantages of export-led growth
- exports are injection = rise in AD and expansion of output, raises per capita incomes and reduce extreme poverty
- growing exports sales = profits = higher capital investment = increases country’s productive capacity
- Allows government to bring economic growth and high employment without a current account deficit
Potential risks and drawbacks from export-led growth
- over-dependence on economic cycles of trade countries
- unsustainable depending on resources
- rapid export led growth could lead to demand pull inflation and higher interest rates = make export industries less competitive in overseas markets
evaluation of export led growth
make sure that country is exporting a sufficiently diverse range of produces, and benefits from increased export and growth are widely dispersed across whole population
- means economy is unbalanced since there is a surplus on the current account on balance of payments, whilst this means there are net injections into the economy, it isn’t always sustainable. BUT, growth in economy could lead to increase in imports which can bring back balance.
What is the output gap?
The output gap is the difference between the actual level of GDP and its estimated potential level. It is usually expressed as a percentage of the level of potential output.
Positive and negative output gap
- Positive output gap – i.e. where actual GDP is above potential GDP – this is a sign of possible excess aggregate demand
- Negative output gap – i.e. where the economy has large margin of spare capacity of factor resources. Short run economic growth helps to reduce the amount of spare capacity and therefore reduce a negative output gap.
boom
A period when the rate of growth of real GDP is fast and higher than the (estimated) long-term trend.
Depression
A prolonged and persistent downturn and where a nation’s GDP falls by at least 10 per cent.
Recession
period of at least six months when an economy suffers a fall in aggregate output, employment, investment and a broader decline in business and household confidence. Real GDP contracts at least six months in a row
- gov likely to spend more on welfare benefits
recovery
A phase after a recession, during which real GDP starts to increase from the low point (the trough) and unemployment eventually begins to fall.
slowdown
weakening of rate of growth, gap is still rising but increasing at a slower rate
Spare capacity during a boom and recession
boom - Increasing use of scarce resources – taking an economy closer to their production possibility frontier
recession - Possibly less use of scarce resources and reduced environmental damage e.g. a reduction in CO2 emissions
External (trade) balance during a boom and recession
Rising trade deficit as demand for imported goods and services expands
Falling trade deficit as demand for imports contracts
Identifying Possible Causes of a Recession
External events or “shocks”
tightening of monetary and fiscal policy ( higher interest rates, rise in taxation)
fall in asset prices or supply of credit
drop in business and consumer confidence (more precautionary saving, less capital investment)
Recession caused by an inward shift of AS
recession can be caused by a supply shock = inward shift of SRAS
eg, higher import prices can lead to rise in GPL
- possibly could lead to a period of stagflation
Uncertainty is best described as
he lack of certainty, a state of limited knowledge where it is impossible to exactly describe the existing state, a future outcome, or more than one possible outcome.
what uncertainty do households have?
- job and income insecurity
- real value of savings
- future of house prices
- access to credit
effects of uncertainty on households
- low household confidence
- increase in precautionary saving
- fall in consumption
what uncertainty do businesses have?
- Highly uncertain revenue streams – will demand / sales recover?
- Uncertain access to finance from banks and investors
- Supply chain disruptions e.g. reliability of supply of raw materials
effects of uncertainty on businesses
- uncertain revenues
- low confidence
- cancelled/ postponed investment
what uncertainty do government have?
- Impact of the recession on unemployment and tax revenues
- Highly uncertain scale of government borrowing in 2020 & beyond
- Uncertainties over negotiations over final Brexit arrangements
Possible benefits from a fall in average UK property prices
- more affordable houses
- less mortgage debt = more disposable income
- improves geographical mobility of labour
- reduced demand pull and cost push inflationary risk