Theme 2 Flashcards
What is the Phillips curve principle?
An inverse relationship between rates of unemployment and corresponding rates of inflation. (Wage inflation) as closer to full capacity.
What is economic growth?
Economic growth is defined as the increase in the real value of goods and services produced as measured by the annual percentage change in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
What is a monetary policy?
Monetary policy involves the use of interest rates, exchange rates and changes to the money supply to achieve relevant economic objectives.
What is fiscal policy?
A government’s policy regarding taxation and public spending. It can be loose (with the emphasis on increased spending and lower tax revenue to boost economic activity, with the acceptance of a wider fiscal deficit) or tight (with the emphasis on cutting spending and raising extra tax revenue, resulting in a slower-growing economy.
What factors you need to consider about high unemployment?
Not directly in exam
- Loss of income - The majority of the unemployed experience a decline in their living standards and are worse off out of work. This leads to a decline in spending power and the rise of falling into debt problems.
- Negative multipler effect
- Loss of national output
- Fiscal costs - The government loses out because of a fall in tax revenues and higher spending on welfare payments for families with people out of work. The result can be an increase in the budget deficit which then increases the risk that the government will have to raise taxation or scale back plans for public spending on public and merit goods.
The benefit of using GDP to make comparisons between countries?
is that it shows the size of and how an economy is performing
Why GDP per capita is a more suitable indicator to make comparison?
as its easier to compare as the population of a country is taken into account
What to consider if GDP is being used as a measure?
- Shadow Economy
- Quality (innovation and improvements)
- Value of unpaid work
- Regional variations in income and spending and employment
- Inequalities
- Life expectancy
What is purchasing power parity?
Is an economic theory that compares different currencies of different countries through a basket of goods approach.
What is the (Fiscal) Budget deficit?
The difference between what the government receives in revenue and what is spends.
What is a nominal number?
A current price or unadjusted rate, without taking inflation or other factors into account
What is a real number?
Data is adjusted for general price level changes over time (constant prices are real numbers)
What is GDP?
2 ways to calculate it…
GDP is the sum market value of all the goods and services produced in one economy in one year*. It can be calculated either by finding the sum value of the economy’s income, or the sum value of the economy’s expenditure
GDP per capita equation?
GDP / Total population
What is a weighted index?
example…
A weighted index is an ‘average’ index, made up of a combination of other indices.
price index
human development index
What is GNI?
Gross National Income (GNI): This is similar to GDP but includes the income received from abroad, for example from dividends from shares owned in foreign companies.
What is GNP?
Gross National Product (GNP): This is GNI but excludes the income non-nationals claim. It is also the statistic the World Bank uses.
What is purchasing power parity?
means we can…
Purchasing power parity means that when the ‘buying ability’ of different currencies is equal across countries (through basket of goods approach)
Generalise differences in living standards between nations.
Under or over-valued
Whats an index number?
What is it compared to and what is that thing that you compare it with?
A useful way of expressing economic data time series and comparing / contrasting information.
Is the figure reflecting price or quantity compared with a base value (always has an index number of 100) - Index number expressed as 100x the ratio to the base value.
Limitations of using GDP to compare living standards?
- accuracy of statistics… constantly changing population
- shadow economy not included
- negative externalities
What is unemployment?
the number of people looking for work but who cannot find a job at a point in time.
What is the labour force?
includes all those who are economically active. i.e. willing and able to work.
There are two ways to measure unemployment. What are they?
Not directly in exam
Claimant Court - number of people claiming job seekers allowance
Labour Force Survey - quarterly survey of approximately 60,000 households compiled by the office of national statistics.
The Gross National Happiness (GNH)?
The Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index attempts to steer policy objectives towards development and living standards by measuring happiness rather than production and incomes.
Why is Economic Growth a Measure of Economic Performance?
What a well-performing shows.
Brings…
Linked to…
A well-performing economy increases, expands and grows. Economic growth can bring with it more jobs, which will help to lower unemployment and provide an income for people. Economic growth is generally linked to higher living standards and brings greater opportunity to an economy, although this is not always the case.
What is underemployment?
Occurs when workers can not find a job that is suitable for their qualifications and experience or who cannot find enough hours to work.
What is inflation?
Not directly in exam
Inflation: a sustained rise in the general price level
What is deflation?
Not directly in exam
Deflation: a sustained fall in the general price level
What is disinflation?
Not directly in exam
Disinflation: a fall in inflation, i.e. a fall in the increase of the general price level
What is hyperinflation?
Not directly in exam
A period of very high rates of inflation, usually leading to a loss of confidence in an economy’s currency.
Why does a reduction in interest rates cause inflation?
- Households increases consumption as borrowing is cheaper and saving is less attractive.
- Firms struggle to match demand of close to full capacity, may lead to a positive output gap.
- Leads to an increase in the price of goods as firms raise prices to cope with increase cost of employing more workers and buying other imputs
What are the three causes of inflation?
- Reduction in interest rates
- Lack of suitably skilled staff
- Depreciation in the exchange rate
Why does a lack of suitably skilled staff cause inflation?
Not directly in exam
• Leads to an increase in costs, as staff are less productive and specialised. Causing cost-push inflation.
• Need to train staff - increase costs to the firm
- prices rise as firms maintain profit margins
• Competition to attract workers - offer higher wages
Why does a depreciation in the exchange rate cause inflation?
• Imports more expensive, increase of prices as imports are more expensive
- Costs to firms will rise if they import raw materials
- Prices rise from profit margins and AS shifts left.
- Exports cheaper, As shifts right, demand-pull inflation
How inflation is measured?
Not directly in exam
Consumer Price index - is an index of which includes products of the highest demand (700). Where you compare the average prices of all these products per annum. Sample of 1000 households on what they buy. Weighted.
Problem with CPI?
Not directly in exam
CPI doesn’t include quality or any description/in depth information on it. Aswell, can’t fully explain why there has been charges in the general price level or inflation.
What factors you need to consider about high inflation?
Not directly in exam
- Income redistribution - it has a regressive effect on lower-income families and older vulnerable citizens who might be living on a fixed income. If prices are rising faster than wages, then there will be a steep decline in real incomes.
- Negative real interest rates - If interest rates on savings accounts in banks are lower than the rate of inflation, then people who rely on interest from their savings will be poorer.
- Increased cost of borrowing - as financial markets seek to protect themselves against rising prices and increase the cost of borrowing on short and longer-term debt.
- Government spending - government to increase the value of the state pension and unemployment benefits and other welfare payments as the cost of living climbs higher.
- Business confidence
- Business competitiveness
Unit labour costs?
Reflect total labour costs, including social security and employers’ pension contributions, and including the costs of self-employed labour, incurred in the production of a unit of economic output.
What are the causes of deflation?
Not directly in exam
- Holding back on spending - consumers may postpone demand if they expect prices to fall in the future,
- Debt increases - the real value of debt rises it and higher real debts can be a big drag on consumer confidence.
- Real cost of borrowing increases - real interest rates will rise if nominal rates of interest do not fall in line with prices
- Lower profit margins - lower prices can mean reduced revenues and profits for businesses - this can the lead to higher unemployment as firms seek to reduce costs by shedding labour
…
The acronym for exhange rates?
SPICED Strong Pound Imports Cheap Exports Dear
What is aggregate supply?
Is the quantity of goods and services that producers in an economy are willing and able to supply at a given level of prices.
What is short run aggregate supply related to?
main factor causing a shift in SRAS
relationship between planned national output and the general price level
the resource cost of producing goods and services e.g. unit wage costs
Frictional Unemployment?
Not directly in exam
While people change from one job to another there is a period of unemployment; this is frictional unemployment. It refers to people who are ‘between jobs’
Seasonal Unemployment?
Not directly in exam
Workers in tourist-reliant industries tend to suffer from seasonal unemployment. Workers in seasonal jobs will find they are out of work during certain periods. Generally, seasonal unemployment is low in summer and high in winter.
Structural unemployment is?
Not directly in exam
Caused by a mismatch of skills between the unemployed and available jobs. Structural unemployed is caused by changes in the economy, such as deindustrialisation, which leaves some unemployed workers unable to find work in new industries with different skill requirements.
Cyclical unemployment?
Not directly in exam
In order to cut back on production and reduce costs, firms will reduce of resources they use; one of these resources is labour, i.e. people will lose their jobs and the level of unemployment will rise. This is likely to occur whenever demand falls, whether in a recession or not, because firms will restrict supply by making resources redundant (such as labour) in order to meet the lower demand levels.
Factor Immobility?
Factor Immobility: The inability of factors of production to change or move
Geographical Immobility?
Geographical Immobility: the inability of resources to move geographically
Occupation Immobility?
Occupation Immobility: the inability of resources to swap from one industry to another
What is the current account?
Not directly in exam
Trade in goods
Trade in services
Investment income
Transfers
What is the financial account ?
Not directly in exam
Transactions in financial assets
Investment flows
Government transactions
What is the capital account
Not directly in exam
Transfer of assets by individuals
What is the balance of payments?
Not directly in exam
A record of a country’s trade / transaction with the rest of the world. (three sections - current,financial,capital)
Whats a surplus?
A surplus is when the sum of exports of goods,services,investment income and transfers is greater than imports