Economics Chapter 13 Flashcards
Measuring the performance of the economy
What are the 5 key objectives?
Economic growth
Full Employment(or low employment)
Price Stability(or low inflation)
Balance of Payments(or external stability)
Socially acceptable(or Equitable)distribution of income
Economic growth
Most important criterion concerned with measuring total production of goods and services. If the population is growing and there is no economic growth, average living standards cannot increase, and it will also not be possible to create enough
jobs for the growing population
Full unemployment
Ideally all the country’s factors of production, particularly labor ,
should be fully employed .At the macro level unemployment poses a serious threat to social and political stability
Price Stability
Price stability does not mean that all prices should always stay constant. The objective of keeping inflation as low as possible
Balance Of Payments
Some balance between
exports and imports is therefore required. the balance of payments and exchange rates should be fairly stable. This is what the objective of balance of payments stability (or external stability)
is all about
Equitable (or socially acceptable) distribution of income
a highly unequal distribution of income tends to generate social and political conflict. It can also have important effects on the structure and development of the economy
Gross Domestic Product
The value of all the final goods and services provided within the boundaries of a country in a particular period
Measuring the level of economic activity
The first step is to determine the total production of goods and services. The production of all the different goods and services must be combined into one measure of total production or output
Who combines all different production of goods and services under one measure of total production/output
StatsSA and SARB
But how do the national accountants succeed in adding up all the different types of economic activity in the country during a particular period
Value.The solution is to use the prices of the various goods and services to
obtain the value of production.Final.we distinguished between final goods and intermediate
goods and we mentioned that this distinction is very important as far as the measurement of economic activity is concerned
How can double counting be avoided?
the national accountants
use a concept which became familiar to most South Africans
with the introduction of value-added tax
Intermediate good or service
any good or service that is purchased for reselling or processing
How else can double counting be avoided
Double counting can also be avoided by only counting the value of those sales where a good or service reaches
its final destination. Such sales involve final goods and services which have to be distinguished from intermediate
goods and services
Final Goods and services
Goods and services sold for final consumption
Another way in which double counting can be avoided
The incomes earned
during the various stages of the production process by the owners of the factors of production. Income is earned by producing, that is, by adding value to goods
and services
What does adding value mean?
Increasing production which also means increasing income.
What happens when we don’t distinguish?
Failure to distinguish may lead to double counting(counting certain items’ value more than once)
What is GDP measured as?
Gross value added
3 methods of calculating GDP
production method (value added)
expenditure method (final goods and services)
income method (incomes of the factors of production)
What is production(adding value)
It is the source of income earned by different factors of production. It equals spending on final goods and services.
Value of total sales=
Total primary income+value of intermediate goods and services
Value of final goods and services =
Total Income
Within the boundaries of a country
GDP is a geographic concept, include all the production within the geographic area of a country. This is signified by the term domestic
During a particular period
GDP is concerned with the production of new goods and services also called current production during a specific period.. Goods produced during earlier periods and sold during the period under consideration are not included in GDP for the latter period. Moreover, the resale of existing goods such as houses or motorcars is also not part of GDP
What is GDP?
A flow which can be measured over a period of time
Gross meaning
Means that no provision has been made for that part of a country’s capital equipment (buildings, roads, machinery, tools, etc) which is “used up” in the production process.
Net Total
Gross Total-Consumption of fixed capital(depreciation)=net total.
The net amount is a more correct measure of economic performance
since it adjusts gross production for the decrease in the value of capital goods. In practice, however, the gross
measure is used more often than the net measure
Three sets of prices that can be used to calculate GDP
market prices,
basic prices and factor cost (or factor income)
Market Prices
Used in practice when calculating GDP using expenditure method
Basic Prices
GDP determined by applying value added(production) method.