Macroeconomics Theory Flashcards
Define full emp.
What does it always accept?
✅ Emp. level at market clearing wage rate
✅ no. workers firms want to hire = no. workers wanting to work.
✅ ~ 3%
✅ Accepts that always some unemp., e.g. frictional unemp.
What 2 Δ affect Government Spending?
✅ Pol. priorities
✅ Econ. priorities
Define deflation
✅ Sustained decrease in APL in an econ.
What economist advocated more government intervention? What was his justification?
✅ Keynes
✅ Argued gov could stabilise business cycle + regulate econ. output, esp. during a recession
How do Δ interest rates affect consumption?
✅ ⬇️ int/r => ⬇️ cost of borrowing + reward for saving => inventivises consumers to spend.
How does high inflation expectations => cost-push inflation?
✅ ⬆️ inflation expectations => workers push for a wage ⬆️ to incorporate inflation so real wage doesn’t ⬇️ => $ of prod ⬆️ => reflect in prices
✅ Self-fulfilling prophecy
Define Seasonal unemp.
✅ Unemployment arising in different seasons of the year, caused by weather /holidays
✅ e.g. end of the Christmas shopping period
Problems with measuring inflation with CPI
✅ Only considers a 'typical' household - regional / seasonal / ethnic / different class variations not taken in account. ✅ Errors in data collection ✅ Changes in the goods in the basket make comparisons over time + int. ⬆️ difficult / less accurate ✅ Needs to be considered alongside many other measurements of the econ - e.g. commodity $.
How to shift LRAS rightward (general)?
✅ Improve an econ’s prod. potential (outwards shift of PPC)
✅ ⬆️ factors of prod
✅ Existing factors of prod. ⬆️ efficient.
✅ ⬆️ mobility of factors of prod.
How do Δ in income affect consumption?
Expectation?
✅ ⬆️ income = ⬆️ purchasing power => ⬆️ C.
✅ ⬆️ confidence to spend + still feel financially secure.
✅ Sometimes even expectation of ⬆️ income => ⬆️ consumption.
3 criteria for someone to be unemp.
✅ Willing + able to work
✅ Jobless
✅ Actively looking for work
How is inflation measured?
✅ CPI
✅ Representative ‘basket of goods’ + services , $ tracked over time.
✅ Basket of goods is what a typical household in that country consumes.
✅ Basket of goods vary from country to country
What is AS?
✅ Total amt. of g/s that all industries in an econ. will produce at a given $ level.
What assumptions does the circular flow of income make?
✅ Households own all the factors of production + the env: sometimes firms can own land/capital, and nobody owns the env.
✅ Firms provide all g/s. Unpaid labour + care not a factor, even though help make paid labour more efficient.
✅ National Income = National Output = National Expenditure: but businesses will hike up prices and consumers will save some of their income.
2 Benefits of unemp. to firms?
✅ ⬆️ productivity (as only best workers remain)
✅ ⬇️ pressure on wages
How does fall in exchange rate => cost-push inflation?
✅ ⬇️ in exchange rate (home currency has lower value compared to other currencies) => ⬆️ price of imports => because many factors of prod. are imported, $ of prod ⬆️ => firms ⬆️ $ to avoid ⬇️ profit margins
How do in ⬇️ Business taxes affect Investment?
✅ ⬇️ business taxes =>⬇️ costs of production + ⬆️ amt. left for investment.
What are the two types of govermental policy?
✅ Expansionary
✅ Contractionary
Define inflation
✅ Sustained ⬆️ in APL in an econ.
2 key reasons which prevent workers who are laid off from immediately filling job vacancies
✅ Geographical Immobility of Labour
✅ Occupational Immobility of Labour
2 Advantages of using GNI to measure econ. welfare?
✅ Easy to calculate, just from income tax paid
✅ Quite accurate, but only if a vast majority of the economy is formal => more suitable for more dev. econ.
Disadvantages of using Monetary Policy?
✅ Time lag: Up to 18 months for full effect of int/r change to be take place
✅ Blunt instrument: difficult to target certain groups. Change in int/r will affect every actor in the economy, so there will be unwanted effects
✅ Technical limitations: 0 or -ve int/r create new problems, e.g. there will be no one buying government bonds because buyers of the bonds will get less money than they bought it for.
How to measure short term econ. growth?
✅ Annual % change in real GDP.
✅ Mostly from AD
Example of regional unemp.?
✅ N. UK, 1980s, coal mines shut down => regional unemployment
✅ Currently, UK steel industry decline, because climaate change policies increase prod. $, China int. comp + strength of the £ => large-scale layoffs in industry in Wales + N. England
What is geographical immobility of labour?
When workers are unwilling or unable to move from one place to another in search of work.
What do Keynesian economists believe about real wage unemp.?
✅ Involuntary - Workers willing to work but no jobs available
✅ Bc caused by wage stickiness over which workers have no control.
How does Income of Trading Partners affect Levels of Imports and Exports?
✅ Income of Trading Partners ⬆️ => foreign consumers ⬆️ disposable income to spend on g/s, ⬆️ demand for exports
✅ e.g. Large emerging consumer market like China as they became richer => more willing and able to buy g/s => provided ⬆️ exports for developed markets like the US.
6 Disadvantages of inflation?
✅ ⬇️ purchasing power
✅ ⬇️ value of savings
✅ int/r to ⬆️ to keep +ve.
✅ ⬇️ int. comp. bc currency depreciation, so ⬆️$ of prod.
✅ Uncertainty - ⬇️ likely to borrow or spend money
✅ Labour unrest - workers demand ⬆️ wages to keep pace => wage crisis spiral
5 Advantages of Deflation?
✅ Some kinds of deflation involves lower prices because of ⬆️ productivity/better technology. e.g. If AS curve shifts to right, ⬇️APL but ⬆️ GDP.
✅ Improved int. comp. bc currency strengthens, so imports become cheaper
✅ Benefits the lender as the value of the interest ⬆️ (fixed loans)
✅ Savings ⬆️ in value
✅ ⬆️ consumer purchasing power
What is int. unemp.?
✅ Unemployment due to firms carrying out their work abroad, or simply because firms + consumers to import rather than buy domestically.
1 Benefit of unemp. on econ/gov?
✅ Reduced inflationary pressure.
What 7 Δ affects consumption?
✅ Income ✅ Int/r ✅ Wealth effect ✅ Household Debt ✅ Expectations of future price level ✅ Personal Taxes ✅ Unemployment
What is expansionary policy?
✅ Tools that seek to stimulate an econ. by ⬆️D , to be used to prevent or moderate economic downturns and recessions.
5 Disadvantages of using GDP to measure econ. welfare?
✅ Income Distribution: Doesn’t take into account inequality, e.g. China has massive GDP but extremely high inequality.
✅ Externalities: Ignores the -ve externalities of g/s that contribute to GDP. Not a reliable indicator of social welfare. e.g. plastic bag production
✅ Informal economy transactions not counted: e.g. Roadside stalls, unpaid care, criminal activity.
✅ Service-driven econ value not fully realised: e.g. Google, doesn’t take into account the value added to the economy.
Communication / searching for information has immense value, but doesn’t directly contribute to the econ.
✅ Composition of Output - Doesn’t tell us what is being produced and who it benefits.
What is important when considering economic growth?
✅ Output gap
✅ Position of AD curve on LRAS. Continuous ⬆️ AD will yield smaller and smaller ⬆️ in the short-run econ. growth (unless accompanied by shifts in the LRAS curve).
✅ So for econ. growth to be sustainable, must have outwards shift of LRAS (⬆️ in productive potential of the econ.)
Causes of cost-push inflation
✅ ⬆️ $ of prod.
- ⬆️ $ of prod => firms ⬆️ $ of g/s to avoid falling profit margins => inflation
✅ ⬆️ Inflation expectations
✅ ⬇️ exchange rate
2 Disadvantages of fiscal policy?
✅ gov. spending > taxation (budget deficit) not sustainable in long run
✅ Neoclassical LRAS, any rightwards shift of AD is ⬆️ GDP) and inflationary
Pros / cons of using GDP / GNI per capita?
✅ Allows economists to compare the economies of various countries, relative to the size of their pop.
✅ Same disadvantages as normal GDP/GNI.
Advantages of Economic Growth
✅ ⬆️ real incomes => ⬆️ living standards
✅ ⬆️ wealth => can be used to ⬇️ poverty
✅ ⬆️ ‘fiscal dividend’ - Tax revenues for government, used to correct market failures, provide infrastructure, ⬆️ econ. welfare of the community.
✅ ⬆️ profits => ⬆️ investment
✅ Job creation => ⬆️ employment
✅ ⬆️ civilised communities, who take action to improve env.
✅ ⬆️Life span => ⬆️ productivity
✅ ‘Virtuous circle’ - ⬆️ business confidence => ⬆️ investment, ⬆️ int. competitiveness => ⬆️ profits and so on.
Define Induced Investment
✅ When firms spend on capital in order to ⬆️ their output to respond to higher demand in the econ.
✅ e.g. buy another new computer in addition to the other comp. to ⬆️ output.
Define disinflation
✅ The slowing of the rate of inflation in an econ. over time (still +ve)
Define Gov. Spending
✅ Spending by the public sector on g/s
✅ e.g. edu, health, defence
✅ Depends on the gov’s econ/pol priorities
How does the Labour Force Survey measure unemp.?
✅ Sample of pop. questioned about employment status.
✅ Gives figure of about 1/2 million more than claimant count
2 main reasons why an econ. grows.
✅ Physical Capital Improves
✅ Human (Labour) Capital Improves
✅ Either increase in the quantity/quality
Define economic growth
✅ Long-term expansions of a country’s productive potential
How do Δ levels of household debt affect consumption?
✅ ⬇️ debt => ⬆️ disposable income
✅ Borrowing $ to spend is good for GDP in the short term, but in the long term it deprives individuals of future consumption because they have to pay interest on top of that. So there will be a short run right-ward shift of AD which might result in a later leftward-shift as debt is repaid.
How does fiscal policy work?
✅ ⬆️ gov. spending => AD shifts right => ⬆️ APL
✅ ⬆️ gov. spending => ⬆️ AD more than the gov. spending because of multiplier effect
How do Δ consumer confidence affect consumption?
✅ ⬆️ consumer confidence => ⬆️ marginal propensity to consume.
Define emp.
✅ The situation where employable individuals are involved in the production of g/s, in return for a wage.
Human capital exchanged for $.
3 methods of measuring GDP and define each
✅ Output Method: add value of all domestically produced final g/s
✅ Income Method: add all incomes generated in the domestic production process
✅ Expenditure Method: add all expenditures made on domestically prodcued final g/s
How to shift AD curve?
✅ Δ any of the 5 components of AD:
✅ C + I + G + (X-M)
✅ demand - side policies
3 Disadvantages of deflation?
✅ Unemployment
✅ Decreased investment
1 benefit of unemployment on households?
✅ ⬆️ free time
What is real wage unemp.?
✅ When the minimum wage > market equilibrium => surplus of labour supply => unemployment
What is the LRAS curve always bounded by?
Why is this?
✅ A highest possible output.
✅ Infinite output not possible bc scarcity of resources.
Why do classical economists believe about emp. in the long run?
✅ Bc believe that wages are flexible.
✅ Any excess supply of labour (unemployment) eliminated in the long run by wage rates adjusting ⬇️ i.e. cyclical unemployment is only temporary.
What is the wealth effect?
✅ Wealth is NOT income. Refers to assets, e.g. ownership of property, bonds, shares, etc.
What causes shifts in SRAS?
✅ $ of costs of production (capital, labour, land, entrepreneurship)
✅ Indirect taxes (e.g. VAT)
✅ Subsidies
✅ Technical progress (improve quality + quantity of capital)
Disadvantage of using Claimant Count to measure unemp.?
✅ People won’t claim unemployment benefits, because e.g. frictional unemployment is very short-term, or hassle to sign all the forms.
How to use income method to measure GDP?
✅ Value of factors of prod. that are sold.
✅ Add all registered income earned by groups when factors of prod. are sold in resource markets.
What is an example of how Technology affects Investment?
✅ e.g. hydroponics
✅ can grow plants w/o soil + less water
✅ ⬇️ costs of production, AD shift rightward.
Define monetary policy.
✅ Policy carried out by the central bank to control $ supply + achieve sustainable econ. growth.
How do Exchange Rates affect Levels of Imports and Exports?
SPICED
✅ Strong Pound Imports Cheaper Exports Dearer
✅ Relative value of currencies determine relative prices of g/s.
✅ When exchange rates appreciate => home currency worth more than foreign currency => home goods relatively more expensive for foreign countries to buy => goods => exports are less competitive abroad, but also makes it cheaper to import g/s => AD shift depending on changes in the net exports level
✅ Only works ceteris paribus - no inflation in either country.
What is wage stickiness?
✅ When wages are not able to adjust freely to market forces.
✅ because e.g. wages are typically in long-term fixed contracts
Examples of hidden unemp.?
✅ People who have been looking for a job for a long time.
✅ Part-time workers who want to be full-time
✅ Workers who are overqualified for their jobs.
Define AD.
✅ Total spending on g/s in period of time at given average $ level.