Contents

FOREWORD
? iii

1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Emergence of Macroeconomics 4
1.2 Context of the Present Book of Macroeconomics 5

2. NATIONAL INCOME ACCOUNTING 8

2.1 Some Basic Concepts of Macroeconomics 8
2.2 Circular Flow of Income and Methods of
Calculating National Income 14
2.2.1 The Product or Value Added Method 17
2.2.2 Expenditure Method 20
2.2.3 Income Method 22
2.3 Some Macroeconomic Identities 23
2.4 Goods and Prices 25
2.5 GDP and Welfare 27

3. MONEY AND BANKING 33

3.1 Functions of Money 33
3.2 Demand for Money 34
3.2.1 The Transaction Motive 34
3.2.2 The Speculative Motive 36
3.3 The Supply of Money 38
3.3.1 Legal Definitions: Narrow and Broad Money 38
3.3.2 Money Creation by the Banking System 39
3.3.3 Instruments of Monetary Policy and the
Reserve Bank of India 43

4. INCOME DETERMINATION 49
4.1 Ex Ante and Ex Post 49
4.2 Movement Along a Curve Versus Shift of a Curve 52
4.3 The Short Run Fixed Price Analysis of the Product Market 53
4.3.1 A Point on the Aggregate Demand Curve 54
4.3.2 Effects of an Autonomous Change on Equilibrium
Demand in the Product Market 54
4.3.3 The Multiplier Mechanism 56
5. THE GOVERNMENT: FUNCTIONS AND SCOPE 60
5.1 Components of the Government Budget 61
5.1.1 The Revenue Account 61
5.1.2 The Capital Account 63
5.1.3 Measures of Government Deficit 64
5.2 Fiscal Policy 65
5.2.1 Changes in Government Expenditure 66
5.2.2 Changes in Taxes 67
5.2.3 Debt 71

6. OPEN ECONOMY MACROECONOMICS 76

6.1 The Balance of Payments 77
6.1.1 BoP Surplus and Deficit 77
6.2 The Foreign Exchange Market 78
6.2.1 Determination of the Exchange Rate 79
6.2.2 Flexible Exchange Rates 80
6.2.3 Fixed Exchange Rates 83
6.2.4 Managed Floating 84
6.2.5 Exchange Rate Management:
The International Experience 84
6.3 The Determination of Income in an Open Economy 87
6.3.1 National Income Identity for an Open Economy 88
6.3.2 Equilibrium Output and the Trade Balance 90
6.4 Trade Deficits, Savings and Investment 93

GLOSSARY 98
 Chapter 1
Introduction
You must have already been introduced to a study of basic
microeconomics. This chapter begins by giving you a simplified
account of how macroeconomics differs from the microeconomics
that you have known.
Those of you who will choose later to specialise in economics,
for your higher studies, will know about the more complex
analyses that are used by economists to study macroeconomics
today. But the basic questions of the study of macroeconomics
would remain the same and you will find that these are actually
the broad economic questions that concern all citizens – Will the
prices as a whole rise or come down? Is the employment condition
of the country as a whole, or of some sectors of the economy,
getting better or is it worsening? What would be reasonable
indicators to show that the economy is better or worse? What
steps, if any, can the State take, or the people ask for, in order to
improve the state of the economy? These are the kind of questions
that make us think about the health of the country’s economy
as a whole. These questions are dealt with in macroeconomics at
different levels of complexity.
In this book you will be introduced to some of the basic
principles of macroeconomic analysis. The principles will be
stated, as far as possible, in simple language. Sometimes
elementary algebra will be used in the treatment for introducing
the reader to some rigour.
If we observe the economy of a country as a whole it will appear
that the output levels of all the goods and services in the economy
have a tendency to move together. For example, if output of food
grain is experiencing a growth, it is generally accompanied by a
rise in the output level of industrial goods. Within the category of
industrial goods also output of different kinds of goods tend to
rise or fall simultaneously. Similarly, prices of different goods and
services generally have a tendency to rise or fall simultaneously.
We can also observe that the employment level in different
production units also goes up or down together.
If aggregate output level, price level, or employment level, in
the different production units of an economy, bear close
relationship to each other then the task of analysing the entire
economy becomes relatively easy. Instead of dealing with the
above mentioned variables at individual (disaggregated) levels,
we can think of a single good as the representative of all the
 goods and services produced within the economy. This representative good
will have a level of production which will correspond to the average production
level of all the goods and services. Similarly, the price or employment level of
this representative good will reflect the general price and employment level of
the economy.
In macroeconomics we usually simplify the analysis of how the country’s
total production and the level of employment are related to attributes (called
‘variables’) like prices, rate of interest, wage rates, profits and so on, by focusing
on a single imaginary commodity and what happens to it. We are able to afford
this simplification and thus usefully abstain from studying what happens to
the many real commodities that actually are bought and sold in the market
because we generally see that what happens to the prices, interests, wages and
profits etc. for one commodity more or less also happens for the others.
Particularly, when these attributes start changing fast, like when prices are going
up (in what is called an inflation), or employment and production levels are
going down (heading for a depression), the general directions of the movements
of these variables for all the individual commodities are usually of the same
kind as are seen for the aggregates for the economy as a whole.
We will see below why, sometimes, we also depart from this useful
simplification when we realise that the country’s economy as a whole may best
be seen as composed of distinct sectors. For certain purposes the
interdependence of (or even rivalry between) two sectors of the economy
(agriculture and industry, for example) or the relationships between sectors (like
the household sector, the business sector and government in a democratic set-
up) help us understand some things happening to the country’s economy much
better, than by only looking at the economy as a whole.
While moving away from different goods and focusing on a representative
good may be convenient, in the process, we may be overlooking some vital
distinctive characteristics of individual goods. For example, production
conditions of agricultural and industrial commodities are of a different nature.
2 Or, if we treat a single category of labour as a representative of all kinds of labours,
we may be unable to distinguish the labour of the manager of a firm from the
Introductory Macroeconomics

labour of the accountant of the firm. So, in many cases, instead of a single
representative category of good (or labour, or production technology), we may
take a handful of different kinds of goods. For example, three general kinds of
commodities may be taken as a representative of all commodities being produced
within the economy: agricultural goods, industrial goods and services. These
goods may have different production technology and different prices.
Macroeconomics also tries to analyse how the individual output levels, prices,
and employment levels of these different goods gets determined.
From this discussion here, and your earlier reading of microeconomics, you
may have already begun to understand in what way macroeconomics differs
from microeconomics. To recapitulate briefly, in microeconomics, you came across
individual ‘economic agents’ (see box) and the nature of the motivations that
drive them. They were ‘micro’ (meaning ‘small’) agents – consumers choosing
their respective optimum combinations of goods to buy, given their tastes and
incomes; and producers trying to make maximum profit out of producing their
goods keeping their costs as low as possible and selling at a price as high as
they could get in the markets. In other words, microeconomics was a study of
individual markets of demand and supply and the ‘players’, or the decision-
makers, were also individuals (buyers or sellers, even companies) who were seen
as trying to maximise their profits (as producers or sellers) and their personal
satisfaction or welfare levels (as consumers). Even a large company was ‘micro’
in the sense that it had to act in the interest of its own shareholders which was
not necessarily the interest of the country as a whole. For microeconomics the
‘macro’ (meaning ‘large’) phenomena affecting the economy as a whole, like
inflation or unemployment, were either not mentioned or were taken as given.
These were not variables that individual buyers or sellers could change. The
nearest that microeconomics got to macroeconomics was when it looked at
General Equilibrium, meaning the equilibrium of supply and demand in each
market in the economy.
Economic Agents
By economic units or economic agents, we mean those individuals or
institutions which take economic decisions. They can be consumers who
decide what and how much to consume. They may be producers of goods
and services who decide what and how much to produce. They may be
entities like the government, corporation, banks which also take different
economic decisions like how much to spend, what interest rate to charge on
the credits, how much to tax, etc.

Macroeconomics tries to address situations facing the economy as a whole.

Adam Smith, the founding father of modern economics, had suggested that if
the buyers and sellers in each market take their decisions following only their
own self-interest, economists will not need to think of the wealth and welfare of
the country as a whole separately. But economists gradually discovered that
they had to look further.
Economists found that first, in some cases, the markets did not or could
not exist. Secondly, in some other cases, the markets existed but failed to
produce equilibrium of demand and supply. Thirdly, and most importantly,
in a large number of situations society (or the State, or the people as a whole)
3
had decided to pursue certain important social goals unselfishly (in areas like

Introduction
employment, administration, defence, education and health) for which some
of the aggregate effects of the microeconomic decisions made by the individual
economic agents needed to be modified. For these purposes macroeconomists
had to study the effects in the markets of taxation and other budgetary policies,
and policies for bringing about changes in money supply, the rate of interest,
wages, employment, and output. Macroeconomics has, therefore, deep roots
in microeconomics because it has to study the aggregate effects of the forces of
demand and supply in the markets. However, in addition, it has to deal with
policies aimed at also modifying these forces, if necessary, to follow choices
made by society outside the markets. In a developing country like India such
choices have to be made to remove or reduce unemployment, to improve access
to education and primary health care for all, to provide for good administration,
to provide sufficiently for the defence of the country and so on. Macroeconomics
shows two simple characteristics that are evident in dealing with the situations
we have just listed. These are briefly mentioned below.
First, who are the macroeconomic decision makers (or ‘players’)?
Macroeconomic policies are pursued by the State itself or statutory bodies like
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
and similar institutions. Typically, each such body will have one or more public
goals to pursue as defined by law or the Constitution of India itself. These goals
 are not those of individual economic agents maximising their private profit or
welfare. Thus the macroeconomic agents are basically different from the
individual decision-makers.
Secondly, what do the macroeconomic decision-makers try to do? Obviously
they often have to go beyond economic objectives and try to direct the deployment
of economic resources for such public needs as we have listed above. Such
activities are not aimed at serving individual self-interests. They are pursued for
the welfare of the country and its people as a whole.

1.1 EMERGENCE OF MACROECONOMICS

Macroeconomics, as a separate branch of economics, emerged after the British
economist John Maynard Keynes published his celebrated book The General
Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in 1936. The dominant thinking in
economics before Keynes was that all the labourers who are ready to work will
find employment and all the factories will be working at their full capacity. This
school of thought is known as the classical tradition. However, the Great
Depression of 1929 and the subsequent years saw the output and employment
levels in the countries of Europe and North America fall by huge amounts.
It affected other countries of the world as well. Demand for goods in the market
was low, many factories were lying idle, workers were thrown out of jobs.
In USA, from 1929 to 1933, unemployment rate rose from 3 per cent to
25 per cent (unemployment rate may be defined as the number of people who
are not working and are looking for jobs divided by the total number of people
who are working or looking for jobs). Over the same period aggregate output in
USA fell by about 33 per cent. These events made economists think about the
functioning of the economy in a new way. The fact that the economy may have
long lasting unemployment had to be theorised about and explained. Keynes’
book was an attempt in this direction. Unlike his predecessors, his approach was
to examine the working of the economy in its entirety and examine the
4 interdependence of the different sectors. The subject of macroeconomics was born.
Introductory Macroeconomics
1.2 CONTEXT OF THE PRESENT BOOK OF MACROECONOMICS
We must remember that the subject under study has a particular historical
context. We shall examine the working of the economy of a capitalist country in
this book. In a capitalist country production activities are mainly carried out
by capitalist enterprises. A typical capitalist enterprise has one or several
entrepreneurs (people who exercise control over major decisions and bear a
large part of the risk associated with the firm/enterprise). They may themselves
supply the capital needed to run the enterprise, or they may borrow the capital.
To carry out production they also need natural resources – a part consumed in
the process of production (e.g. raw materials) and a part fixed (e.g. plots of land).
And they need the most important element of human labour to carry out
production. This we shall refer to as labour. After producing output with the
help of these three factors of production, namely capital, land and labour, the
entrepreneur sells the product in the market. The money that is earned is called
revenue. Part of the revenue is paid out as rent for the service rendered by land,
part of it is paid to capital as interest and part of it goes to labour as wages. The
rest of the revenue is the earning of the entrepreneurs and it is called profit.
Profits are often used by the producers in the next period to buy new machinery
or to build new factories, so that production can be expanded. These expenses
which raise productive capacity are examples of investment expenditure.
In short, a capitalist economy can be defined as an economy in which most
of the economic activities have the following characteristics (a) there is private
ownership of means of production (b) production takes place for selling the
output in the market (c) there is sale and purchase of labour services at a price
which is called the wage rate (the labour which is sold and purchased against
wages is referred to as wage labour).
If we apply the above mentioned three criteria to the countries of the world
we would find that capitalist countries have come into being only during the
last three to four hundred years. Moreover, strictly speaking, even at present, a
handful of countries in North America, Europe and Asia will qualify as capitalist 5
countries. In many underdeveloped countries production (in agriculture

Introduction
especially) is carried out by peasant families. Wage labour is seldom used and
most of the labour is performed by the family members themselves. Production
is not solely for the market; a great part of it is consumed by the family. Neither
do many peasant farms experience significant rise in capital stock over time. In
many tribal societies the ownership of land does not exist; the land may belong
to the whole tribe. In such societies the analysis that we shall present in this
book will not be applicable. It is, however, true that many developing countries
have a significant presence of production units which are organised according
to capitalist principles. The production units will be called firms in this book. In
a firm the entrepreneur (or entrepreneurs) is at the helm of affairs. She hires
wage labour from the market, she employs the services of capital and land as
well. After hiring these inputs she undertakes the task of production. Her motive
for producing goods and services (referred to as output) is to sell them in the
market and earn profits. In the process she undertakes risks and uncertainties.
For example, she may not get a high enough price for the goods she is producing;
this may lead to fall in the profits that she earns. It is to be noted that in a
capitalist country the factors of production earn their incomes through the
process of production and sale of the resultant output in the market.
In both the developed and developing countries, apart from the private
capitalist sector, there is the institution of State. The role of the state includes
 framing laws, enforcing them and delivering justice. The state, in many instances,
undertakes production – apart from imposing taxes and spending money on
building public infrastructure, running schools, colleges, providing health
services etc. These economic functions of the state have to be taken into account
when we want to describe the economy of the country. For convenience we shall
use the term government to denote state.
Apart from the firms and the government, there is another major sector in an
economy which is called the household sector. By a household we mean a single
individual who takes decisions relating to her own consumption, or a group of
individuals for whom decisions relating to consumption are jointly determined.
Households also save and pay taxes. How do they get the money for these
activities? We must remember that the households consist of people. These people
work in firms as workers and earn wages. They are the ones who work in the
government departments and earn salaries, or they are the owners of firms and
earn profits. Indeed the market in which the firms sell their products could not
have been functioning without the demand coming from the households.
So far we have described the major players in the domestic economy. But all
the countries of the world are also engaged in external trade. The external sector
is the fourth important sector in our study. Trade with the external sector can
be of two kinds
1. The domestic country may sell goods to the rest of the world. These are
called exports.
2. The economy may also buy goods from the rest of the world. These are called
imports. Besides exports and imports, the rest of the world affects the
domestic economy in other ways as well.
3. Capital from foreign countries may flow into the domestic country, or the
domestic country may be exporting capital to foreign countries.

6
Summary

Macroeconomics deals with the aggregate economic variables of an economy.

It also takes into account various interlinkages which may exist between the
Introductory Macroeconomics

different sectors of an economy. This is what distinguishes it from

microeconomics; which mostly examines the functioning of the particular sectors
of the economy, assuming that the rest of the economy remains the same.
Macroeconomics emerged as a separate subject in the 1930s due to Keynes.
The Great Depression, which dealt a blow to the economies of developed
countries, had provided Keynes with the inspiration for his writings. In this
book we shall mostly deal with the working of a capitalist economy. Hence it
may not be entirely able to capture the functioning of a developing country.
Macroeconomics sees an economy as a combination of four sectors, namely
households, firms, government and external sector.

Rate of interest Wage rate

Key Concepts

Profits Economic agents or units

Great Depression Unemployment rate
Four factors of production Means of production
Inputs Land
Labour Capital
Entrepreneurship Investment expenditure
 Wage labour Capitalist country or capitalist economy
Firms Capitalist firms
Output Households
Government External sector
Exports Imports

?
Exercises

1. What is the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics?

2. What are the important features of a capitalist economy?

?
3. Describe the four major sectors in an economy according to the macroeconomic
point of view.
4. Describe the Great Depression of 1929.

Suggested Readings
1. Bhaduri, A., 1990. Macroeconomics: The Dynamics of Commodity Production,
pages 1 – 27, Macmillan India Limited, New Delhi.
2. Mankiw, N. G., 2000. Macroeconomics, pages 2 – 14, Macmillan Worth Publishers,
New York.

Introduction
Chapter 2
National Income Accounting
In this chapter we will introduce the fundamental functioning of a
simple economy. In section 2.1 we describe some primary ideas
we shall work with. In section 2.2 we describe how we can view
the aggregate income of the entire economy going through the
sectors of the economy in a circular way. The same section also
deals with the three ways to calculate the national income; namely
product method, expenditure method and income method. The
last section 2.3 describes the various sub-categories of national
income. It also defines different price indices like GDP deflator,
Consumer Price Index, Wholesale Price Indices and discusses the
problems associated with taking GDP of a country as an indicator
of the aggregate welfare of the people of the country.

2.1 SOME BASIC CONCEPTS OF MACROECONOMICS

One of the pioneers of the subject we call economics today, Adam
Smith, named his most influential work – An Enquiry into the
Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations. What generates the
economic wealth of a nation? What makes countries rich or poor?
These are some of the central questions of economics. It is not
that countries which are endowed with a bounty of natural wealth
– minerals or forests or the most fertile lands – are naturally the
richest countries. In fact the resource rich Africa and Latin
America have some of the poorest countries in the world, whereas
many prosperous countries have scarcely any natural wealth.
There was a time when possession of natural resources was the
most important consideration but even then the resource had to
be transformed through a production process.
The economic wealth, or well-being, of a country thus does
not necessarily depend on the mere possession of resources; the
point is how these resources are used in generating a flow of
production and how, as a consequence, income and wealth are
generated from that process.
Let us now dwell upon this flow of production. How does this
flow of production arise? People combine their energies with
natural and manmade environment within a certain social and
technological structure to generate a flow of production.
In our modern economic setting this flow of production arises
out of production of commodities – goods and services by millions
of enterprises large and small. These enterprises range from giant
corporations employing a large number of people to single entrepreneur
enterprises. But what happens to these commodities after being produced? Each
producer of commodities intends to sell her output. So from the smallest items
like pins or buttons to the largest ones like aeroplanes, automobiles, giant
machinery or any saleable service like that of the doctor, the lawyer or the financial
consultant – the goods and services produced are to be sold to the
consumers. The consumer may, in turn, be an individual or an enterprise and
the good or service purchased by that entity might be for final use or for use in
further production. When it is used in further production it often loses its
characteristic as that specific good and is transformed through a productive
process into another good. Thus a farmer producing cotton sells it to a spinning
mill where the raw cotton undergoes transformation to yarn; the yarn is, in
turn, sold to a textile mill where, through the productive process, it is transformed
into cloth; the cloth is, in turn, transformed through another productive process
into an article of clothing which is then ready to be sold finally to the consumers
for final use. Such an item that is meant for final use and will not pass through
any more stages of production or transformations is called a final good.
Why do we call this a final good? Because once it has been sold it passes out
of the active economic flow. It will not undergo any further transformation at the
hands of any producer. It may, however, undergo transformation by the action
of the ultimate purchaser. In fact many such final goods are transformed during
their consumption. Thus the tea leaves purchased by the consumer are not
consumed in that form – they are used to make drinkable tea, which is consumed.
Similarly most of the items that enter our kitchen are transformed through the
process of cooking. But cooking at home is not an economic activity, even though
the product involved undergoes transformation. Home cooked food is not sold
to the market. However, if the same cooking or tea brewing was done in a
restaurant where the cooked product would be sold to customers, then the
same items, such as tea leaves, would cease to be final goods and would be
counted as inputs to which economic value addition can take place. Thus it is 9
not in the nature of the good but in the economic nature of its use that a good

National Income Accounting

becomes a final good.
Of the final goods, we can distinguish between consumption goods and
capital goods. Goods like food and clothing, and services like recreation that
are consumed when purchased by their ultimate consumers are called
consumption goods or consumer goods. (This also includes services which are
consumed but for convenience we may refer to them as consumer goods.)
Then there are other goods that are of durable character which are used in
the production process. These are tools, implements and machines. While they
make production of other commodities feasible, they themselves don’t get
transformed in the production process. They are also final goods yet they are
not final goods to be ultimately consumed. Unlike the final goods that we have
considered above, they are the crucial backbone of any production process, in
aiding and enabling the production to take place. These goods form a part of
capital, one of the crucial factors of production in which a productive enterprise
has invested, and they continue to enable the production process to go on for
continuous cycles of production. These are capital goods and they gradually
undergo wear and tear, and thus are repaired or gradually replaced over time.
The stock of capital that an economy possesses is thus preserved, maintained
and renewed partially or wholly over time and this is of some importance in the
discussion that will follow.
 We may note here that some commodities like television sets, automobiles
or home computers, although they are for ultimate consumption, have one
characteristic in common with capital goods – they are also durable. That is,
they are not extinguished by immediate or even short period consumption;
they have a relatively long life as compared to articles such as food or even
clothing. They also undergo wear and tear with gradual use and often need
repairs and replacements of parts, i.e., like machines they also need to be
preserved, maintained and renewed. That is why we call these goods
consumer durables.
Thus if we consider all the final goods and services produced in an economy
in a given period of time they are either in the form of consumption goods (both
durable and non-durable) or capital goods. As final goods they do not undergo
any further transformation in the economic process.
Of the total production taking place in the economy a large number of
products don’t end up in final consumption and are not capital goods either.
Such goods may be used by other producers as material inputs. Examples are
steel sheets used for making automobiles and copper used for making utensils.
These are intermediate goods, mostly used as raw material or inputs for
production of other commodities. These are not final goods.
Now, to have a comprehensive idea of the total flow of production in the
economy, we need to have a quantitative measure of the aggregate level of final
goods produced in the economy. However, in order to get a quantitative
assessment – a measure of the total final goods and services produced in the
economy – it is obvious that we need a common measuring rod. We cannot
add metres of cloth produced to tonnes of rice or number of automobiles or
machines. Our common measuring rod is money. Since each of these
commodities is produced for sale, the sum total of the monetary value of
these diverse commodities gives us a measure of final output. But why are
we to measure final goods only? Surely intermediate goods are crucial inputs
to any production process and a significant part of our manpower and capital
10 stock are engaged in production of these goods. However, since we are dealing
with value of output, we should realise that the value of the final goods already
Introductory Macroeconomics

includes the value of the intermediate goods that have entered into their
production as inputs. Counting them separately will lead to the error of double
counting. Whereas considering intermediate goods may give a fuller description
of total economic activity, counting them will highly exaggerate the final value
of our economic activity.
At this stage it is important to introduce the concepts of stocks and flows.
Often we hear statements like the average salary of someone is Rs 10,000 or the
output of the steel industry is so many tonnes or so many rupees in value. But
these are incomplete statements because it is not clear whether the income which
is being referred to is yearly or monthly or daily income and surely that makes
a huge difference. Sometimes, when the context is familiar, we assume that the
time period is known and therefore do not mention it. But inherent in all such
statements is a definite period of time. Otherwise such statements are
meaningless. Thus income, or output, or profits are concepts that make sense
only when a time period is specified. These are called flows because they occur
in a period of time. Therefore we need to delineate a time period to get a
quantitative measure of these. Since a lot of accounting is done annually in an
economy, many of these are expressed annually like annual profits or production.
Flows are defined over a period of time.
 In contrast, capital goods or consumer durables once produced do not wear
out or get consumed in a delineated time period. In fact capital goods continue
to serve us through different cycles of production. The buildings or machines in
a factory are there irrespective of the specific time period. There can be addition
to, or deduction from, these if a new machine is added or a machine falls in
disuse and is not replaced. These are called stocks. Stocks are defined at a
particular point of time. However we can measure a change in stock over a
specific period of time like how many machines were added this year. Such
changes in stocks are thus flows, which can be measured over specific time
periods. A particular machine can be part of the capital stock for many years
(unless it wears out); but that machine can be part of the flow of new machines
added to the capital stock only for a single year.
To further understand the difference between stock variables and flow
variables, let us take the following example. Suppose a tank is being filled with
water coming from a tap. The amount of water which is flowing into the tank
from the tap per minute is a flow. But how much water there is in the tank at a
particular point of time is a stock concept.
To come back to our discussion on the measure of final output, that part
of our final output that comprises of capital goods constitutes gross
investment of an economy1. These may be machines, tools and implements;
buildings, office spaces, storehouses or infrastructure like roads, bridges,
airports or jetties. But all the capital goods produced in a year do not
constitute an addition to the capital stock already existing. A significant part
of current output of capital goods goes in maintaining or replacing part of
the existing stock of capital goods. This is because the already existing capital
stock suffers wear and tear and needs maintenance and replacement. A part
of the capital goods produced this year goes for replacement of existing capital
goods and is not an addition to the stock of capital goods already existing
and its value needs to be subtracted from gross investment for arriving at the
measure for net investment. This deletion, which is made from the value of
11
gross investment in order to accommodate regular wear and tear of capital,
is called depreciation.

National Income Accounting

So new addition to capital stock in an economy is measured by net investment
or new capital formation, which is expressed as
Net Investment = Gross investment – Depreciation
Let us examine this concept called depreciation a little more in detail. Let us
consider a new machine that a firm invests in. This machine may be in service for
the next twenty years after which it falls into disrepair and needs to be replaced.
We can now imagine as if the machine is being gradually used up in each year’s
production process and each year one twentieth of its original value is getting
depreciated. So, instead of considering a bulk investment for replacement after
twenty years, we consider an annual depreciation cost every year. This is the
usual sense in which the term depreciation is used and inherent in its conception
is the expected life of a particular capital good, like twenty years in our example of
the machine. Depreciation is thus an annual allowance for wear and tear of a

1
This is how economists define investment. This must not be confused with the commonplace
notion of investment which implies using money to buy physical or financial assets. Thus use of
the term investment to denote purchase of shares or property or even having an insurance policy
has nothing to do with how economists define investment. Investment for us is always capital
formation, a gross or net addition to capital stock.
 capital good.2 In other words it is the cost of the good divided by number of years
of its useful life.3
Notice here that depreciation is an accounting concept. No real expenditure
may have actually been incurred each year yet depreciation is annually
accounted for. In an economy with thousands of enterprises with widely varying
periods of life of their equipment, in any particular year, some enterprises are
actually making the bulk replacement spending. Thus, we can realistically
assume that there will be a steady flow of actual replacement spending which
will more or less match the amount of annual depreciation being accounted
for in that economy.
Now if we go back to our discussion of total final output produced in an
economy, we see that there is output of consumer goods and services and output
of capital goods. The consumer goods sustain the consumption of the entire
population of the economy. Purchase of consumer goods depends on the capacity
of the people to spend on these goods which, in turn, depends on their income.
The other part of the final goods, the capital goods, are purchased by business
enterprises either for maintenance or addition to their capital stock so that they
can continue to maintain or expand the flow of their production. In a specific
time period, say in a year, the total production of final goods can thus be either
in the form of consumption or investment and there is thus a trade-off. If an
economy, out of its current production of final goods, produces more of consumer
goods, it is producing less of investment goods and vice-versa.
We will soon see, however, that this simple additive relation is more complex
in more than one way.
The relation, in fact, is that of a basic circularity expressing the self-feeding
nature of the production process. Consumption goods sustain the basic objective
of any economy – the need to consume. Consumption may range from basic life
sustenance to luxurious lifestyles. Human beings must consume to survive and
work and it is consumption of the basic necessities of life – food, clothing, shelter
that make us function. But as human societies advance and progress, their
12 consumption needs become much more wide ranging and complex. Not only
are newer consumption needs perceived and correspondingly new consumer
Introductory Macroeconomics

goods and services produced, but also the meaning of basic necessities may
now include not only food and clothing but such essentials like basic education
and health care. If consumption is the ultimate objective, these consumables –
goods and services – are to be both produced and purchased. Whereas it is
possible, in different social or economic arrangements, for goods to be produced
and distributed to members of the society without being purchased or sold, we
are not considering an economy like that. In the economy under consideration
all goods and services are produced by the entrepreneur for sale and the
enterprise intends to make a profit through the act of selling.
So the act of production makes this consumption feasible in two ways – by
producing these consumption goods and simultaneously generating the income
for those who are involved in the production process. The entrepreneur buys
machines and employs people to make this production feasible. The objective of
the entrepreneur is to sell the commodities produced and earn profits. The act
2
Depreciation does not take into account unexpected or sudden destruction or disuse of capital
as can happen with accidents, natural calamities or other such extraneous circumstances.
3
We are making a rather simple assumption here that there is a constant rate of depreciation
based on the original value of the asset. There can be other methods to calculate depreciation in
actual practice.
of employment, in turn, generates income for those who are employed. The income
that the employed earn and the profit that the entrepreneur earns become the
basis for purchase of consumption goods that are being produced for sale.
But the production of consumption goods would not be feasible without
capital goods. Human labour is combined or applied on the stock of capital
goods to produce the consumables and the capital goods. More sophisticated
the capital goods are, more will be the productivity of labour. The traditional
weaver would take months to weave a sari but with modern machinery
thousands of pieces of clothing are produced in a day. Decades were taken to
construct the great historical monuments like the Pyramids or the Taj Mahal
but with modern construction machinery one can build a skyscraper in a few
years. One of the signs of progress in our modern society is both the qualitative
and quantitative enhancement that has happened to capital stock. The larger
and more sophisticated the capital stock, the more numerous and more varied
will be the output of commodities and, consequently, more numerous and varied
will be the production of consumption goods.
But aren’t we contradicting ourselves? Earlier we have seen how, of the total
output of final goods in an economy, if a larger share goes for production of
capital goods, a smaller share is available for production of consumer goods.
Here we have to bring in the relevance of the time period in our discussion.
Given a stock of capital goods with which production commences in a year, of
the total output produced at the end of the year, if more of capital goods are
produced then less of consumption goods are produced. But the more the capital
goods produced now, more will be the productive capacity of the system in the
future. Hence a larger volume of consumption goods can be produced in the
future. If, at present, the economy sets aside a greater fraction of its output for
investment purpose, its capacity to produce more output in the future rises.
This phenomenon becomes possible because capital goods, unlike non-durable
consumer goods, do not get immediately exhausted with their use – they add to
the stock of capital in quantitative terms. The new stock may also be qualitatively
13
superior to the existing stock (just as a modern textile mill is more productive
than the old handlooms). In both cases the capacity of the economy to produce

National Income Accounting

more output in the future rises.
Now if we concentrate on production in a given time period, say a year, we
can observe the basic circularity.
Total output of final goods and services produced in an economy in a year
has two different parts – the consumer goods and services, and the capital goods.
The consumer goods and services sustain the consumption of the total population
of the economy. From the population of the economy is derived its workforce,
people who contribute to production either by providing their labour and skill
or by supplying their capital or entrepreneurship. Such human effort is combined
with existing stock of capital goods – tools, machines, infrastructure etc. to form
the basis for production of output. Of this a part of the final output comprises of
this year’s capital goods production, which replaces or adds to the existing capital
stock, and the resultant capital stock, in interaction with human labour and
entrepreneurship, will be the basis for production of output in the next cycle of
production i.e. next year. Thus the economic cycle rolls on, making a continuous
process of consumption and production possible.
We can also observe here that unless the current production of capital goods
is entirely used up for replacement of old capital stock, which in most instances
is rather unlikely, i.e. if there is a net addition to capital stock at the end of this
 year’s production cycle, next year’s production commences with a larger stock
of capital. This can thus become the basis for larger production of output. Thus
the economic cycle not only rolls on, it also has a strong tendency to expand.
We can also locate another view of the circular flow inherent in the discussion
we have made had so far.
Since we are dealing with all goods and services that are produced for the
market, i.e. to be sold, the crucial factor enabling such sale is demand for such
products backed by purchasing power. One must have the necessary ability to
purchase commodities. Otherwise one’s need for commodities does not get
recognised by the market.
We have already discussed above that one’s ability to buy commodities
comes from the income one earns as labourer (earning wages), or as
entrepreneur (earning profits), or as landlord (earning rents), or as owner of
capital (earning interests). In short, the incomes that people earn as owners
of factors of production are used by them to meet their demand for goods
and services.
So we can see a circular flow here which is facilitated through the market.
Simply put, the firms’ demand for factors of production to run the production
process creates payments to the public. In turn, the public’s demand for goods
and services creates payments to the firms and enables the sale of the products
they produce.
So the social act of consumption and production are intricately linked and,
in fact, there is a circular causation here. The process of production in an economy
generates factor payments for those involved in production and generates goods
and services as the outcome of the production process. The incomes so generated
create the capacity to purchase the final consumption goods and thus enable
their sale by the business enterprises, the basic object of their production. The
capital goods which are also generated in the production process also enable
their producers to earn income – wages, profits etc. in a similar manner. The
capital goods add to, or maintain, the capital stock of an economy and thus
14 make production of other commodities possible.
Introductory Macroeconomics

2.2 CIRCULAR FLOW OF INCOME AND METHODS

OF CALCULATING NATIONAL INCOME

The description of the economy in the previous section enables us to have a

rough idea of how a simple economy – without a government, external trade or
any savings – may function. The households receive their payments from the
firms for productive activities they perform for the latter. As we have mentioned
before, there may fundamentally be four kinds of contributions that can be
made during the production of goods and services (a) contribution made by
human labour, remuneration for which is called wage (b) contribution made by
capital, remuneration for which is called interest (c) contribution made by
entrepreneurship, remuneration of which is profit (d) contribution made by fixed
natural resources (called ‘land’), remuneration for which is called rent.
In this simplified economy, there is only one way in which the households
may dispose off their earnings – by spending their entire income on the goods
and services produced by the domestic firms. The other channels of disposing
their income are closed: we have assumed that the households do not save, they
do not pay taxes to the government – since there is no government, and neither
do they buy imported goods since there is no external trade in this simple
economy. In other words, factors of production use their remunerations to buy
the goods and services which they assisted in producing. The aggregate
consumption by the households of the economy is equal to the aggregate
expenditure on goods and services produced by the firms in the economy. The
entire income of the economy, therefore, comes back to the producers in the
form of sales revenue. There is no leakage from the system – there is no difference
between the amount that the firms had distributed in the form of factor payments
(which is the sum total of remunerations earned by the four factors of production)
and the aggregate consumption expenditure that they receive as sales revenue.
In the next period the firms will once again produce goods and services
and pay remunerations to the factors of production. These remunerations will
once again be used to buy the goods and services. Hence year after year we
can imagine the aggregate income of the economy going through the two sectors,
firms and households, in a circular way. This is represented in Fig. 2.1. When
the income is being spent on the goods and services produced by the firms, it
takes the form of aggregate expenditure received by the firms. Since the value
of expenditure must be equal to the value of goods and services, we can
equivalently measure the aggregate income by calculating the aggregate value
of goods and services produced by the firms. When the aggregate revenue
received by the firms is paid out to the factors of production it takes the form
of aggregate income.
In Fig. 2.1, the uppermost A
arrow, going from the Spending
households to the firms,
represents the spending the Goods and Services
B
households undertake to buy
goods and services produced
by the firms. The second arrow Firms Households
going from the firms to the
households is the counterpart
of the arrow above. It stands for Factor Payments 15
C
the goods and services which

National Income Accounting

are flowing from the firms to the
Factor Services
households. In other words,
this flow is what the Fig. 2.1: Circular Flow of Income in a Simple Economy
households are getting from
the firms, for which they are
making the expenditures. In short, the two arrows on the top represent the
goods and services market – the arrow above represents the flow of payments
for the goods and services, the arrow below represents the flow of goods and
services. The two arrows at the bottom of the diagram similarly represent the
factors of production market. The lower most arrow going from the households
to the firms symbolises the services that the households are rendering to the
firms. Using these services the firms are manufacturing the output. The arrow
above this, going from the firms to the households, represents the payments
made by the firms to the households for the services provided by the latter.
Since the same amount of money, representing the aggregate value of goods
and services, is moving in a circular way, if we want to estimate the aggregate
value of goods and services produced during a year we can measure the annual
value of the flows at any of the dotted lines indicated in the diagram. We can
measure the uppermost flow (at point A) by measuring the aggregate value of
spending that the firms receive for the final goods and services which they produce.
 This method will be called the expenditure method. If we measure the flow at
B by measuring the aggregate value of final goods and services produced by all
the firms, it will be called product method. At C, measuring the sum total of all
factor payments will be called income method.
Observe that the aggregate spending of the economy must be equal to the
aggregate income earned by the factors of production (the flows are equal at A
and C). Now let us suppose that at a particular period of time the households
decide to spend more on the goods and services produced by the firms. For the
time being let us ignore the question where they would find the money to finance
that extra spending since they are already spending all of their income (they
may have borrowed the money to finance the additional spending). Now if they
spend more on the goods and services, the firms will produce more goods and
services to meet this extra demand. Since they will produce more, the firms
must also pay the factors of production extra remunerations. How much extra
amount of money will the firms pay? The additional factor payments must be
equal to the value of the additional goods and services that are being produced.
Thus the households will eventually get the extra earnings required to support
the initial additional spending that they had undertaken. In other words, the
households can decide to spend more – spend beyond their means. And in the
end their income will rise exactly by the amount which is necessary to carry out
the extra spending. Putting it differently, an economy may decide to spend more
than the present level of income. But by doing so, its income will eventually rise
to a level consistent with the higher spending level. This may seem a little
paradoxical at first. But since income is moving in a circular fashion, it is not
difficult to figure out that a rise in the flow at one point must eventually lead to
a rise in the flow at all levels. This is one more example of how the functioning of
a single economic agent (say, a household) may differ from the functioning of
the economy as a whole. In the former the spending gets restricted by the
individual income of a household. It can never happen that a single worker
decides to spend more and this leads to an equivalent rise in her income. We
16 shall spend more time on how higher aggregate spending leads to change in
aggregate income in a later chapter.
Introductory Macroeconomics

The above mentioned sketchy illustration of an economy is admittedly a

simplified one. Such a story which describes the functioning of an imaginary
economy is called a macroeconomic model. It is clear that a model does
not describe an actual economy in detail. For example, our model assumes
that households do not save, there is no government, no trade with other
countries. However models do not want to capture an economy in its every
minute detail – their purpose is to highlight some essential features of the
functioning of an economic system. But one has to be cautious not to simplify
the matters in such a way that misrepresents the essential nature of the
economy. The subject of economics is full of models, many of which will be
presented in this book. One task of an economist is to figure out which model
is applicable to which real life situation.
If we change our simple model described above and introduce savings,
will it change the principal conclusion that the aggregate estimate of the
income of the economy will remain the same whether we decide to calculate it
at A, B or C? It turns out that this conclusion does not change in a
fundamental way. No matter how complicated an economic system may be,
the annual production of goods and services estimated through each of the
three methods is the same.
 We have seen that the aggregate value of goods and services produced in an
economy can be calculated by three methods. We now discuss the detailed steps
of these calculations.

2.2.1 The Product or Value Added Method

In product method we calculate the aggregate annual value of goods and services
produced (if a year is the unit of time). How to go about doing this? Do we add
up the value of all goods and services produced by all the firms in an economy?
The following example will help us to understand.
Let us suppose that there are only two kinds of producers in the economy.
They are the wheat producers (or the farmers) and the bread makers (the bakers).
The wheat producers grow wheat and they do not need any input other than
human labour. They sell a part of the wheat to the bakers. The bakers do not
need any other raw materials besides wheat to produce bread. Let us suppose
that in a year the total value of wheat that the farmers have produced is Rs 100.
Out of this they have sold Rs 50 worth of wheat to the bakers. The bakers have
used this amount of wheat completely during the year and have produced
Rs 200 worth of bread. What is the value of total production in the economy? If
we follow the simple way of aggregating the values of production of the sectors,
we would add Rs 200 (value of production of the bakers) to Rs 100 (value of
production of farmers). The result will be Rs 300.
A little reflection will tell us that the value of aggregate production is not
Rs 300. The farmers had produced Rs 100 worth of wheat for which it did not
need assistance of any inputs. Therefore the entire Rs 100 is rightfully the
contribution of the farmers. But the same is not true for the bakers. The bakers
had to buy Rs 50 worth of wheat to produce their bread. The Rs 200 worth of
bread that they have produced is not entirely their own contribution. To calculate
the net contribution of the bakers, we need to subtract the value of the wheat
that they have bought from the farmers. If we do not do this we shall commit the
mistake of ‘double counting’. This is because Rs 50 worth of wheat will be 17
counted twice. First it will be counted as part of the output produced by the

National Income Accounting

farmers. Second time, it will be counted as the imputed value of wheat in the
bread produced by the bakers.
Therefore, the net contribution made by the bakers is, Rs 200 – Rs 50 = Rs 150.
Hence, aggregate value of goods produced by this simple economy is Rs 100 (net
contribution by the farmers) + Rs 150 (net contribution by the bakers) = Rs 250.
The term that is used to denote the net contribution made by a firm is
called its value added. We have seen that the raw materials that a firm buys
from another firm which are completely used up in the process of production
are called ‘intermediate goods’. Therefore the value added of a firm is, value of
production of the firm – value of intermediate goods used by the firm. The
value added of a firm is distributed among its four factors of production,
namely, labour, capital, entrepreneurship and land. Therefore wages, interest,
profits and rents paid out by the firm must add up to the value added of the
firm. Value added is Table 2.1: Production, Intermediate Goods and Value Added
a flow variable.
We can represent Farmer Baker
the example given Total production 100 200
above in terms of Intermediate goods used 0 50
Table 2.1. Value added 100 200 – 50 =150
 Here all the variables are expressed in terms of money. We can think of the
market prices of the goods being used to evaluate the different variables listed
here. And we can introduce more players in the chain of production in the
example and make it more realistic and complicated. For example, the farmer
may be using fertilisers or pesticides to produce wheat. The value of these inputs
will have to be deducted from the value of output of wheat. Or the bakers may
be selling the bread to a restaurant whose value added will have to be calculated
by subtracting the value of intermediate goods (bread in this case).
We have already introduced the concept of depreciation, which is also known
as consumption of fixed capital. Since the capital which is used to carry out
production undergoes wear and tear, the producer has to undertake replacement
investments to keep the value of capital constant. The replacement investment
is same as depreciation of capital. If we include depreciation in value added
then the measure of value added that we obtain is called Gross Value Added. If
we deduct the value of depreciation from gross value added we obtain Net Value
Added. Unlike gross value added, net value added does not include wear and
tear that capital has undergone. For example, let us say a firm produces Rs 100
worth of goods per year, Rs 20 is the value of intermediate goods used by it
during the year and Rs 10 is the value of capital consumption. The gross value
added of the firm will be, Rs 100 – Rs 20 = Rs 80 per year. The net value added
will be, Rs 100 – Rs 20 – Rs 10 = Rs 70 per year.
It is to be noted that while calculating the value added we are taking the
value of production of firm. But a firm may be unable to sell all of its produce. In
such a case it will have some unsold stock at the end of the year. Conversely, it
may so happen that a firm had some initial unsold stock to begin with. During
the year that follows it has produced very little. But it has met the demand in the
market by selling from the stock it had at the beginning of the year. How shall
we treat these stocks which a firm may intentionally or unintentionally carry
with itself? Also, let us remember that a firm buys raw materials from other
firms. The part of raw material which gets used up is categorised as an
18 intermediate good. What happens to the part which does not get used up?
In economics, the stock of unsold finished goods, or semi-finished goods,
Introductory Macroeconomics

or raw materials which a firm carries from one year to the next is called
inventory. Inventory is a stock variable. It may have a value at the beginning
of the year; it may have a higher value at the end of the year. In such a case
inventories have increased (or accumulated). If the value of inventories is less
at the end of the year compared to the beginning of the year, inventories have
decreased (decumulated). We can therefore infer that the change of inventories
of a firm during a year ≡ production of the firm during the year – sale of the
firm during the year.
The sign ‘≡’ stands for identity. Unlike equality (‘=’), an identity always holds
irrespective of what variables we have on the left hand and right hand sides of it.
For example, we can write 2 + 2 ≡ 4, because this is always true. But we must
write 2 × x = 4. This is because two times x equals to 4 for a particular value of
x, (namely when x = 2) and not always. We cannot write 2 × x ≡ 4.
Observe that since production of the firm ≡ value added + intermediate
goods used by the firm, we get, change of inventories of a firm during a
year ≡ value added + intermediate goods used by the firm – sale of the firm
during a year.
For example, let us suppose that a firm had an unsold stock worth of
Rs 100 at the beginning of a year. During the year it had produced Rs 1,000
worth of goods and managed to sell Rs 800 worth of goods. Therefore the
Rs 200 is the difference between production and sales. This Rs 200 worth of
goods is the change in inventories. This will add to the Rs 100 worth of
inventories the firm started with. Hence the inventories at the end of the year
is, Rs 100 + Rs 200 = Rs 300. Notice that change in inventories takes place
over a period of time. Therefore it is a flow variable.
Inventories are treated as capital. Addition to the stock of capital of a firm
is known as investment. Therefore change in the inventory of a firm is treated
as investment. There can be three major categories of investment. First is the
rise in the value of inventories of a firm over a year which is treated as
investment expenditure undertaken by the firm. The second category of
investment is the fixed business investment, which is defined as the addition
to the machinery, factory buildings, and equipments employed by the firms.
The last category of investment is the residential investment, which refers to
the addition of housing facilities.
Change in inventories may be planned or unplanned. In case of an unexpected
fall in sales, the firm will have unsold stock of goods which it had not anticipated.
Hence there will be unplanned accumulation of inventories. In the opposite
case where there is unexpected rise in the sales there will be unplanned
decumulation of inventories.
This can be illustrated with the help of the following example. Suppose a
firm manufactures shirts. It starts the year with an inventory of 100 shirts.
During the coming year it expects to sell 1,000 shirts. Hence it produces
1,000 shirts, expecting to keep an inventory of 100 at the end of the year.
However, during the year, the sales of shirts turn out to be unexpectedly low.
The firm is able to sell only 600 shirts. This means that the firm is left with
400 unsold shirts. The firm ends the year with 400 + 100 = 500 shirts. The
unexpected rise of inventories by 400 will be an example of unplanned
accumulation of inventories. If, on the other hand, the sales had been more 19
than 1,000 we would have unplanned decumulation of inventories. For

National Income Accounting

example, if the sales had been 1,050, then not only the production of 1,000
shirts will be sold, the firm will have to sell 50 shirts out of the inventory.
This 50 unexpected reduction in inventories is an example of unexpected
decumulation of inventories.
What can be the examples of planned accumulation or decumulation of
inventories? Suppose the firm wants to raise the inventories from 100 shirts
to 200 shirts during the year. Expecting sales of 1,000 shirts during the year
(as before), the firm produces 1000 + 100 = 1,100 shirts. If the sales are actually
1,000 shirts, then the firm indeed ends up with a rise of inventories. The new
stock of inventories is 200 shirts, which was indeed planned by the firm. This
rise is an example of planned accumulation of inventories. On the other hand
if the firm had wanted to reduce the inventories from 100 to 25 (say), then it
would produce 1000 – 75 = 925 shirts. This is because it plans to sell 75
shirts out of the inventory of 100 shirts it started with (so that the inventory at
the end of the year becomes 100 – 75 = 25 shirts, which the firm wants). If the
sales indeed turn out to be 1000 as expected by the firm, the firm will be left
with the planned, reduced inventory of 25 shirts.
We shall have more to say on the distinction between unplanned and
planned change in inventories in the chapters which follow.
 Taking cognizance of change of inventories we may write
Gross value added of firm, i (GV Ai) ≡ Gross value of the output produced by
the firm i (Qi) – Value of intermediate goods used by the firm (Zi)
GV Ai ≡ Value of sales by the firm (Vi ) + Value of change in inventories (Ai )
– Value of intermediate goods used by the firm (Zi) (2.1)
Equation (2.1) has been derived by using: Change in inventories of a firm
during a year ≡ Production of the firm during the year – Sale of the firm
during the year.
It is worth noting that the sales by the firm includes sales not only to
domestic buyers but also to buyers abroad (the latter is termed as exports).
It is also to be noted that all the above mentioned variables are flow variables.
Generally these are measured on an annual basis. Hence they measure value
of the flows per year.
Net value added of the firm i ≡ GVAi – Depreciation of the firm i (Di)
If we sum the gross value added of all the firms of the economy in a year, we
get a measure of the value of aggregate amount of goods and services produced
by the economy in a year (just as we had done in the wheat-bread example).
Such an estimate is called Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Thus GDP ≡ Sum
total of gross value added of all the firms in the economy.
If there are N firms in the economy, each assigned with a serial number
from 1 to N, then GDP ≡ Sum total of the gross value added of all the firms in
the economy
≡ GVA1 + GVA2 + · · · + GVAN
Therefore

∑
N
GDP ≡ i =1
GVAi (2.2)

The symbol ∑ is a shorthand – it is used to denote summation. For example,

∑ X i will be equal to X1 + X2 + ... + XN. In this case, ∑ i =1 GVAi stands for the
N N
20 i =1
sum total of gross value added of all the N firms. We know that the net value
Introductory Macroeconomics

added of the i-th firm (NV Ai ) is the gross value added minus the wear and tear
of the capital employed by the firm.
Thus, NVAi ≡ GVAi – Di
Therefore, GVAi ≡ NVAi + Di
This is for the i-th firm. There are N such firms. Therefore the GDP of the entire
economy, which is the sum total of the value added of all the N firms
(by (2.2)), will be the sum total of the net value added and depreciation of the N firms.
∑ ∑
N N
In other words, GDP ≡ i =1
NVAi + i =1
Di
This implies that the gross domestic product of the economy is the sum total
of the net value added and depreciation of all the firms of the economy. Summation
of net value added of all firms is called Net Domestic Product (NDP).
∑
N
Symbolically, NDP ≡ i =1
NVAi

2.2.2 Expenditure Method

An alternative way to calculate the GDP is by looking at the demand side of the
products. This method is referred to as the expenditure method. In the farmer-
baker example that we have described before, the aggregate value of the output
in the economy by expenditure method will be calculated in the following way.
In this method we add the final expenditures that each firm makes. Final
expenditure is that part of expenditure which is undertaken not for intermediate
purposes. The Rs 50 worth of wheat which the bakers buy from the farmers
counts as intermediate goods, hence it does not fall under the category of final
expenditure. Therefore the aggregate value of output of the economy is Rs 200
(final expenditure received by the baker) + Rs 50 (final expenditure received by
the farmer) = Rs 250 per year.
Firm i can make the final expenditure on the following accounts (a) the final
consumption expenditure on the goods and services produced by the firm.
We shall denote this by Ci. We may note that mostly it is the households which
undertake consumption expenditure. There may be exceptions when the firms
buy consumables to treat their guests or for their employees (b) the final
investment expenditure, Ii , incurred by other firms on the capital goods produced
by firm i. Observe that unlike the expenditure on intermediate goods which is
not included in the calculation of GDP, expenditure on investments is included.
The reason is that investment goods remain with the firm, whereas intermediate
goods are consumed in the process of production (c) the expenditure that the
government makes on the final goods and services produced by firm i. We shall
denote this by Gi . We may point out that the final expenditure incurred by the
government includes both the consumption and investment expenditure (d) the
export revenues that firm i earns by selling its goods and services abroad. This
will be denoted by Xi .
Thus the sum total of the revenues that the firm i earns is given by
RVi ≡ Sum total of final consumption, investment, government and exports
expenditures received by the firm i
≡ Ci + Ii + Gi + Xi
If there are N firms then summing over N firms we get
21
∑
N
RVi ≡ Sum total of final consumption, investment, government and
i =1

National Income Accounting

exports expenditures received by all the firms in the economy

∑ ∑ ∑ ∑
N N N N
≡ i =1
Ci + I +
i =1 i i =1
Gi + i =1
Xi (2.3)

Let C be the aggregate final consumption expenditure of the entire economy.

Notice that a part of C is spent on imports of consumption goods. Let Cm denote
expenditure on the imports of consumption goods. Therefore C – Cm denotes
that part of aggregate final consumption expenditure that is spent on the
domestic firms. Similarly, let I – Im stand for that part of aggregate final
investment expenditure that is spent on domestic firms, where I is the value of
the aggregate final investment expenditure of the economy and out of this Im is
spent on foreign investment goods. Similarly G – Gm stands for that part of
aggregate final government expenditure that is spent on the domestic firms,
where G is the aggregate expenditure of the government of the economy and
Gm is the part of G which is spent on imports.
∑
N
Therefore, i =1
Ci ≡ Sum total of final consumption expenditures
received by all the firms in the economy ≡ C – Cm; ∑ i =1 I i ≡ Sum total of final
N

investment expenditures received by all the firms in the economy ≡ I – Im;

 ∑
N
Gi ≡ Sum total of final government expenditures received by all the firms
i =1
in the economy ≡ G – Gm. Substituting these in equation (2.3) we get

∑ ∑
N N
i =1
RVi ≡ C – Cm + I – Im + G – Gm + i =1
Xi

∑
N
≡C+I+G+ i =1
X i – (Cm + Im + Gm)

≡C+I+G+X–M
Here X ≡ ∑ i = 1 X i denotes aggregate expenditure by the foreigners on the
N

exports of the economy. M ≡ Cm + Im + Gm is the aggregate imports expenditure

incurred by the economy.
We know, GDP ≡ Sum total of all the final expenditure received by the firms
in the economy.
In other words

∑
N
GDP ≡ i =1
RVi ≡ X + Ι + G + X – M (2.4)

Equation (2.4) expresses GDP according to the expenditure method.

2.2.3 Income Method

As we mentioned in the beginning, the sum of final expenditures in the economy
must be equal to the incomes received by all the factors of production taken
together (final expenditure is the spending on final goods, it does not include
spending on intermediate goods). This follows from the simple idea that the
revenues earned by all the firms put together must be distributed among the
factors of production as salaries, wages, profits, interest earnings and rents. Let
there be M number of households in the economy. Let Wi be the wages and
salaries received by the i-th household in a particular year. Similarly, Pi, Ini, Ri
be the gross profits, interest payments and rents received by the i-th household
in a particular year. Therefore GDP is given by
22
∑ ∑ ∑ ∑
M M M M
GDP ≡ i =1
Wi + i =1
Pi + i =1
In i + i =1
Ri ≡ W + P + In + R (2.5)
Introductory Macroeconomics

∑ ∑ ∑ ∑
M M M M
Here, i =1
Wi ≡ W, i =1
Pi ≡ P, i =1
In i ≡ In, i =1
Ri ≡ R. Taking
equations (2.2), (2.4) and (2.5) together we get

∑
N
GDP ≡ i =1
GV Ai ≡ C + I + G + X – M ≡ W + P + In + R (2.6)

It is to be noted that in identity (2.6), I stands for sum total of both planned
and unplanned investments undertaken by the firms.
Since the identities
(2.2), (2.4) and (2.6) are X–M
åi =1GVA i
N
P
different expressions of G In
the same variable, I R
namely GDP, we may
C W
represent the equivalence GDP
by Fig. 2.2.
It may be worth
examining how the
households dispose off Expenditure Income Product
their earnings. There Method Method Method
are three major ways Fig. 2.2: Diagramtic Representation of GDP by the Three Methods
in which they may do so. Either they consume it, or they save it, or pay taxes
with it (assuming that no aid or donation, ‘transfer payment’ in general, is
being sent abroad, which is another way to spend their incomes). Let S stand
for the aggregate savings made by them and T be the sum total of taxes paid
by them. Therefore
GDP ≡ C + S + T (2.7)
Comparing (2.4) with (2.7) we find
C+I+G+X–M≡C+S+T
Cancelling final consumption expenditure C from both sides we get
I+G+X–M≡S+T
In other words
(I – S) + (G – T) ≡ M – X (2.8)
In (2.8), G – T measures by what amount the government expenditure
exceeds the tax revenue earned by it. This is referred to as budget deficit.
M – X is known as the trade deficit – it measures the excess of import
expenditure over the export revenue earned by the economy (M is the outflow
from the country, X is the inflow into the country).
If there is no government, no foreign trade then G = T = M = X = 0.
Hence (2.8) yields
I≡S (2.9)
(2.9) is simply an accounting identity. Out of the GDP, a part is consumed
and a part is saved (from the recipient side of the incomes). On the other
hand, from the side of the firms, the aggregate final expenditure received by
them ( ≡ GDP) must be equal to consumption expenditure and investment
expenditure. The aggregate of incomes received by the households is equal
to the expenditure received by the firms because the income method and
expenditure method would give us the same figure of GDP. Since consumption 23
expenditure cancels out from both sides, we are left with aggregate savings

National Income Accounting

equal to the aggregate gross investment expenditure.

2.3 SOME MACROECONOMIC IDENTITIES

Gross Domestic Product measures the aggregate production of final goods and
services taking place within the domestic economy during a year. But the whole
of it may not accrue to the citizens of the country. For example, a citizen of India
working in Saudi Arabia may be earning her wage and it will be included in the
Saudi Arabian GDP. But legally speaking, she is an Indian. Is there a way to
take into account the earnings made by Indians abroad or by the factors of
production owned by
Indians? When we try
to do this, in order to
maintain symmetry,
we must deduct the
earnings of the
foreigners who are
working within our
domestic economy, or
The foreigner is to have a share in your domestic economy.
the payments to the Discuss this in the classroom.
 factors of production owned by the foreigners. For example, the profits earned
by the Korean-owned Hyundai car factory will have to be subtracted from the
GDP of India. The macroeconomic variable which takes into account such
additions and subtractions is known as Gross National Product (GNP). It is,
therefore, defined as follows
GNP ≡ GDP + Factor income earned by the domestic factors of production
employed in the rest of the world – Factor income earned by the factors of
production of the rest of the world employed in the domestic economy
Hence, GNP ≡ GDP + Net factor income from abroad
(Net factor income from abroad = Factor income earned by the domestic factors
of production employed in the rest of the world – Factor income earned by the
factors of production of the rest of the world employed in the domestic economy).
We have already noted that a part of the capital gets consumed during the
year due to wear and tear. This wear and tear is called depreciation. Naturally,
depreciation does not become part of anybody’s income. If we deduct
depreciation from GNP the measure of aggregate income that we obtain is called
Net National Product (NNP). Thus
NNP ≡ GNP – Depreciation
It is to be noted that all these variables are evaluated at market prices.
Through the expression given above, we get the value of NNP evaluated at
market prices. But market price includes indirect taxes. When indirect taxes
are imposed on goods and services, their prices go up. Indirect taxes accrue to
the government. We have to deduct them from NNP evaluated at market prices
in order to calculate that part of NNP which actually accrues to the factors of
production. Similarly, there may be subsidies granted by the government on
the prices of some commodities (in India petrol is heavily taxed by the
government, whereas cooking gas is subsidised). So we need to add subsidies
to the NNP evaluated at market prices. The measure that we obtain by doing
so is called Net National Product at factor cost or National Income.
24 Thus, NNP at factor cost ≡ National Income (NI ) ≡ NNP at market prices –
(Indirect taxes – Subsidies) ≡ NNP at market prices – Net indirect taxes (Net
Introductory Macroeconomics

indirect taxes ≡ Indirect taxes – Subsidies)

We can further subdivide the National Income into smaller categories. Let us
try to find the expression for the part of NI which is received by households. We
shall call this Personal Income (PI). First, let us note that out of NI, which is
earned by the firms and government enterprises, a part of profit is not distributed
among the factors of production. This is called Undistributed Profits (UP). We
have to deduct UP from NI to arrive at PI, since UP does not accrue to the
households. Similarly, Corporate Tax, which is imposed on the earnings made
by the firms, will also have to be deducted from the NI, since it does not accrue
to the households. On the other hand, the households do receive interest
payments from private firms or the government on past loans advanced by them.
And households may have to pay interests to the firms and the government as
well, in case they had borrowed money from either. So we have to deduct the net
interests paid by the households to the firms and government. The households
receive transfer payments from government and firms (pensions, scholarship,
prizes, for example) which have to be added to calculate the Personal Income of
the households.
Thus, Personal income (PI) ≡ NI – Undistributed profits – Net interest
payments made by households – Corporate tax + Transfer payments to
the households from the government and firms.
 However, even PI is not the income over which the households have complete
say. They have to pay taxes from PI. If we deduct the Personal Tax Payments
(income tax, for example) and Non-tax Payments (such as fines) from PI, we
obtain what is known as the Personal Disposable Income. Thus
Personal Disposable Income (PDI ) ≡ PI – Personal tax payments – Non-tax
payments.
Personal Disposable Income is the part of the aggregate income which
belongs to the households. They may decide to consume a part of it, and
save the rest. In Fig. 2.3 we present a diagrammatic representation of the
relations between these major macroeconomic variables.
A table of some of the principal macroeconomic variables of India (at current
prices, for the years 1990-91 to 2004-05) has been provided at the end of the
chapter, to give the reader a rough idea of their actual values.

NFIA D

GDP GNP NNP ID - Sub

(at
Market NI UP + NIH
Price) (NNP at + CT –
FC) TrH
PI PTP +
NP
PDI

Fig. 2.3: Diagrammatic representation of the subcategories of aggregate income. NFIA: Net
Factor Income from Abroad, D: Depreciation, ID: Indirect Taxes, Sub: Subsidies, UP: Undistributed
Profits, NIH: Net Interest Payments by Households, CT: Corporate Taxes, TrH: Transfers recived
by Households, PTP: Personal Tax Payments, NP: Non-Tax Payments.

National Disposable Income and Private Income 25

Apart from these categories of aggregate macroeconomic variables, in India,

National Income Accounting

a few other aggregate income categories are also used in National Income
accounting
• National Disposable Income = Net National Product at market prices
+ Other current transfers from the rest of the world
The idea behind National Disposable Income is that it gives an idea of
what is the maximum amount of goods and services the domestic economy
has at its disposal. Current transfers from the rest of the world include items
such as gifts, aids, etc.
• Private Income = Factor income from net domestic product accruing
to the private sector + National debt interest + Net factor income from
abroad + Current transfers from government + Other net transfers
from the rest of the world

2.4 GOODS AND PRICES

One implicit assumption in all this discussion is that the prices of goods and
services do not change during the period of our study. If prices change, then
there may be difficulties in comparing GDPs. If we measure the GDP of a country
 in two consecutive years and see that the figure for GDP of the latter year is
twice that of the previous year, we may conclude that the volume of production
of the country has doubled. But it is possible that only prices of all goods and
services have doubled between the two years whereas the production has
remained constant.
Therefore, in order to compare the GDP figures (and other macroeconomic
variables) of different countries or to compare the GDP figures of the same country
at different points of time, we cannot rely on GDPs evaluated at current market
prices. For comparison we take the help of real GDP. Real GDP is calculated in
a way such that the goods and services are evaluated at some constant set of
prices (or constant prices). Since these prices remain fixed, if the Real GDP
changes we can be sure that it is the volume of production which is undergoing
changes. Nominal GDP, on the other hand, is simply the value of GDP at the
current prevailing prices. For example, suppose a country only produces bread.
In the year 2000 it had produced 100 units of bread, price was Rs 10 per bread.
GDP at current price was Rs 1,000. In 2001 the same country produced
110 units of bread at price Rs 15 per bread. Therefore nominal GDP in 2001
was Rs 1,650 (=110 × Rs 15). Real GDP in 2001 calculated at the price of the
year 2000 (2000 will be called the base year) will be 110 × Rs 10 = Rs 1,100.
Notice that the ratio of nominal GDP to real GDP gives us an idea of how the
prices have moved from the base year (the year whose prices are being used to
calculate the real GDP) to the current year. In the calculation of real and nominal
GDP of the current year, the volume of production is fixed. Therefore, if these
measures differ it is only due to change in the price level between the base year
and the current year. The ratio of nominal to real GDP is a well known index of
prices. This is called GDP Deflator. Thus if GDP stands for nominal GDP and
GDP
gdp stands for real GDP then, GDP deflator = gdp .
Sometimes the deflator is also denoted in percentage terms. In such a case
GDP
26 deflator = gdp × 100 per cent. In the previous example, the GDP deflator is
1,650
Introductory Macroeconomics

1,100 = 1.50 (in percentage terms this is 150 per cent). This implies that the
price of bread produced in 2001 was 1.5 times the price in 2000. Which is true
because price of bread has indeed gone up from Rs 10 to Rs 15. Like GDP
deflator, we can have GNP deflator as well.
There is another way to measure change of prices in an economy which is
known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This is the index of prices of a
given basket of commodities which are bought by the representative consumer.
CPI is generally expressed in percentage terms. We have two years under
consideration – one is the base year, the other is the current year. We calculate
the cost of purchase of a given basket of commodities in the base year. We also
calculate the cost of purchase of the same basket in the current year. Then we
express the latter as a percentage of the former. This gives us the Consumer
Price Index of the current year vis-´a-vis the base year. For example let us take
an economy which produces two goods, rice and cloth. A representative
consumer buys 90 kg of rice and 5 pieces of cloth in a year. Suppose in the
year 2000 the price of a kg of rice was Rs 10 and a piece of cloth was Rs 100.
So the consumer had to spend a total sum of Rs 10 × 90 = Rs 900 on rice in
2000. Similarly, she spent Rs 100 × 5 = Rs 500 per year on cloth. Summation
of the two items is, Rs 900 + Rs 500 = Rs 1,400.
 Now suppose the prices of a kg of rice and a piece of cloth has gone up to
Rs 15 and Rs 120 in the year 2005. To buy the same quantity of rice and clothes
the representative will have to spend Rs 1,350 and Rs 600 respectively (calculated
in a similar way as before). Their sum will be, Rs 1,350 + Rs 600 = Rs 1,950.
1,950
The CPI therefore will be
1,400 × 100 = 139.29 (approximately).
It is worth noting that many commodities have two sets of prices. One is
the retail price which the consumer actually pays. The other is the wholesale
price, the price at which goods are traded in bulk. These two may differ in
value because of the margin kept by traders. Goods which are traded in
bulk (such as raw materials or semi-finished goods) are not purchased by
ordinary consumers. Like CPI, the index for wholesale prices is called
Wholesale Price Index (WPI). In countries like USA it is referred to as
Producer Price Index (PPI). Notice CPI (and analogously WPI) may differ
from GDP deflator because
1. The goods purchased by consumers do not represent all the goods which
are produced in a country. GDP deflator takes into account all such goods
and services.
2. CPI includes prices of goods consumed by the representative consumer, hence
it includes prices of imported goods. GDP deflator does not include prices of
imported goods.
3. The weights are constant in CPI – but they differ according to production
level of each good in GDP deflator.

2.5 GDP AND WELFARE

Can the GDP of a country be taken
as an index of the welfare of the
people of that country? If a person
has more income he or she can buy 27
more goods and services and his or

National Income Accounting

her material well-being improves. So
it may seem reasonable to treat his
or her income level as his or her level
of well-being. GDP is the sum total
of value of goods and services
created within the geographical
boundary of a country in a
particular year. It gets distributed
among the people as incomes
(except for retained earnings). So we
may be tempted to treat higher level
of GDP of a country as an index of
How uniform is the distribution of GDP? It still
greater well-being of the people of
seems that a majority of the people are poor
that country (to account for price and only some have benefited.
changes, we may take the value of
real GDP instead of nominal GDP). But there are at least three reasons why this
may not be correct
1. Distribution of GDP – how uniform is it: If the GDP of the country is rising,
the welfare may not rise as a consequence. This is because the rise in GDP may
 be concentrated in the hands of very few individuals or firms. For the rest, the
income may in fact have fallen. In such a case the welfare of the entire country
cannot be said to have increased. For example, suppose in year 2000, an
imaginary country had 100 individuals each earning Rs 10. Therefore the GDP
of the country was Rs 1,000 (by income method). In 2001, let us suppose the
same country had 90 individuals earning Rs 9 each, and the rest 10 individual
earning Rs 20 each. Suppose there had been no change in the prices of goods
and services between these two periods. The GDP of the country in the year 2001
was 90 × (Rs 9) + 10 × (Rs 20) = Rs 810 + Rs 200 = Rs 1,010. Observe that
compared to 2000, the GDP of the country in 2001 was higher by Rs10. But
this has happened when 90 per cent of people of the country have seen a drop in
their real income by 10 per cent (from Rs 10 to Rs 9), whereas only 10 per cent
have benefited by a rise in their income by 100 per cent (from Rs 10 to Rs 20).
90 per cent of the people are worse off though the GDP of the country has gone
up. If we relate welfare improvement in the country to the percentage of people
who are better off, then surely GDP is not a good index.
2. Non-monetary exchanges: Many activities in an economy are not evaluated
in monetary terms. For example, the domestic services women perform at
home are not paid for. The exchanges which take place in the informal
sector without the help of money are called barter exchanges. In barter
exchanges goods (or services) are directly exchanged against each other.
But since money is not being used here, these exchanges are not registered
as part of economic activity. In developing countries, where many remote
regions are underdeveloped, these kinds of exchanges do take place, but
they are generally not counted in the GDPs of these countries. This is a
case of underestimation of GDP. Hence GDP calculated in the standard
manner may not give us a clear indication of the productive activity and
well-being of a country.
3. Externalities: Externalities refer to the benefits (or harms) a firm or an
individual causes to another for which they are not paid (or penalised).
28 Externalities do not have any market in which they can be bought and
sold. For example, let us suppose there is an oil refinery which refines
Introductory Macroeconomics

crude petroleum and sells it in the market. The output of the refinery is
the amount of oil it refines. We can estimate the value added of the refinery
by deducting the value of intermediate goods used by the refinery (crude
oil in this case) from the value of its output. The value added of the refinery
will be counted as part of the GDP of the economy. But in carrying out
the production the refinery may also be polluting the nearby river. This
may cause harm to the people who use the water of the river. Hence their
utility will fall. Pollution may also kill fish or other organisms of the river
on which fish survive. As a result the fishermen of the river may be losing
their income and utility. Such harmful effects that the refinery is inflicting
on others, for which it does not have to bear any cost, are called
externalities. In this case, the GDP is not taking into account such negative
externalities. Therefore, if we take GDP as a measure of welfare of the
economy we shall be overestimating the actual welfare. This was an
example of negative externality. There can be cases of positive externalities
as well. In such cases GDP will underestimate the actual welfare of
the economy.
Summary

At a very fundamental level, the macroeconomy (it refers to the economy that we
study in macroeconomics) can be seen as working in a circular way. The firms
employ inputs supplied by households and produce goods and services to be sold to
households. Households get the remuneration from the firms for the services
rendered by them and buy goods and services produced by the firms. So we can
calculate the aggregate value of goods and services produced in the economy by
any of the three methods (a) measuring the aggregate value of factor payments
(income method) (b) measuring the aggregate value of goods and services produced
by the firms (product method) (c) measuring the aggregate value of spending received
by the firms (expenditure method). In the product method, to avoid double counting,
we need to deduct the value of intermediate goods and take into account only the
aggregate value of final goods and services. We derive the formulae for calculating
the aggregate income of an economy by each of these methods. We also take note
that goods can also be bought for making investments and these add to the productive
capacity of the investing firms. There may be different categories of aggregate income
depending on whom these are accruing to. We have pointed out the difference between
GDP, GNP, NNP at market price, NNP at factor cost, PI and PDI. Since prices of goods
and services may vary, we have discussed how to calculate the three important
price indices (GDP deflator, CPI, WPI). Finally we have noted that it may be incorrect
to treat GDP as an index of the welfare of the country.
Key Concepts

Final goods Consumption goods

Consumer durables Capital goods
Intermediate goods Stocks
Flows Gross investment
Net investment Depreciation
Wage Interest
Profit Rent
Circular flow of income Product method of calculating
National Income 29
Expenditure method of calculating Income method of calculating

National Income Accounting

National Income National Income
Macroeconomic model Input
Value added Inventories
Planned change in inventories Unplanned change in inventories
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Net Domestic Product (NDP)
Gross National Product (GNP) Net National Product (NNP)
(at market price)
NNP (at factor cost) or Undistributed profits
National Income (NI)
Net interest payments made Corporate tax
by households
Transfer payments to the Personal Income (PI)
households from the government
and firms
Personal tax payments Non-tax payments
Personal Disposable Income (PDI) National Disposable Income
 Private Income Nominal GDP
Real GDP Base year
GDP Deflator Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Wholesale Price Index (WPI) Externalities

? 1. What are the four factors of production and what are the remunerations to
Exercises

each of these called?

2. Why should the aggregate final expenditure of an economy be equal to the
aggregate factor payments? Explain.
3. Distinguish between stock and flow. Between net investment and capital which
is a stock and which is a flow? Compare net investment and capital with flow of
water into a tank.
4. What is the difference between planned and unplanned inventory
accumulation? Write down the relation between change in inventories and value
added of a firm.
5. Write down the three identities of calculating the GDP of a country by the
three methods. Also briefly explain why each of these should give us the same
value of GDP.
6. Define budget deficit and trade deficit. The excess of private investment over saving
of a country in a particular year was Rs 2,000 crores. The amount of budget deficit
was ( – ) Rs 1,500 crores. What was the volume of trade deficit of that country?
7. Suppose the GDP at market price of a country in a particular year was Rs 1,100 crores.
Net Factor Income from Abroad was Rs 100 crores. The value of Indirect taxes –
Subsidies was Rs 150 crores and National Income was Rs 850 crores. Calculate
the aggregate value of depreciation.
8. Net National Product at Factor Cost of a particular country in a year is
Rs 1,900 crores. There are no interest payments made by the households to the
firms/government, or by the firms/government to the households. The Personal
30 Disposable Income of the households is Rs 1,200 crores. The personal income
taxes paid by them is Rs 600 crores and the value of retained earnings of the
Introductory Macroeconomics

firms and government is valued at Rs 200 crores. What is the value of transfer
payments made by the government and firms to the households?
9. From the following data, calculate Personal Income and Personal Disposable
Income.
Rs (crore)
(a) Net Domestic Product at factor cost 8,000
(b) Net Factor Income from abroad 200
(c) Undisbursed Profit 1,000
(d) Corporate Tax 500
(e) Interest Received by Households 1,500
(f) Interest Paid by Households 1,200
(g) Transfer Income 300
(h) Personal Tax 500
10. In a single day Raju, the barber, collects Rs 500 from haircuts; over this day,
his equipment depreciates in value by Rs 50. Of the remaining Rs 450, Raju
pays sales tax worth Rs 30, takes home Rs 200 and retains Rs 220 for
improvement and buying of new equipment. He further pays Rs 20 as income
tax from his income. Based on this information, complete Raju’s contribution
 to the following measures of income (a) Gross Domestic Product (b) NNP
at market price (c) NNP at factor cost (d) Personal income (e) Personal
disposable income.
11. The value of the nominal GNP of an economy was Rs 2,500 crores in a particular
year. The value of GNP of that country during the same year, evaluated at the
prices of same base year, was Rs 3,000 crores. Calculate the value of the GNP
deflator of the year in percentage terms. Has the price level risen between the
base year and the year under consideration?

? 12. Write down some of the limitations of using GDP as an index of welfare of a
country.

Suggested Readings
1. Bhaduri, A., 1990. Macroeconomics: The Dynamics of Commodity Production,
pages 1 – 27, Macmillan India Limited, New Delhi.
2. Branson, W. H., 1992. Macroeconomic Theory and Policy, (third edition), pages
15 – 34, Harper Collins Publishers India Pvt Ltd., New Delhi.
3. Dornbusch, R and S. Fischer. 1988. Macroeconomics, (fourth edition) pages 29 –
62, McGraw Hill, Paris.
4. Mankiw, N. G., 2000. Macroeconomics, (fourth edition) pages 15 – 76, Macmillan
Worth Publishers, New York.

Table 2.2: Various Macroeconomic Aggregates of India at Current Prices

Appendix 2.1

(old series; unit: Rs crores); Source: Reserve Bank of India: Handbook of

Indian Economy.

GDP at Net Factor GNP at Consumption NNP at

Market Income Market of Fixed capital Market
Price from Abroad Price (depreciation) Price
31
1990-91 5,68,674 –7,545 5,61,129 53,264 5,07,865

National Income Accounting

1991-92 6,53,117 –10,077 6,43,040 64,402 5,78,638
1992-93 7,48,367 –11,645 7,36,722 74,512 6,62,210
1993-94 8,59,220 –12,080 8,47,140 83,353 7,63,787
1994-95 10,12,770 –13,083 9,99,687 97,994 9,01,693
1995-96 11,88,012 –13,484 11,74,528 1,17,926 10,56,602
1996-97 13,68,209 –13,082 13,55,127 1,36,503 12,18,624
1997-98 15,22,547 –13,205 15,09,342 1,51,997 13,57,345
1998-99 17,40,985 –14,968 17,26,017 1,68,066 15,57,951
1999-00 19,36,831 –15,431 19,21,400 1,82,359 17,39,041
2000-01 20,89,500 –18,109 20,71,391 1,97,895 18,73,696
2001-02 22,71,984 –15,566 22,56,418 2,17,679 20,38,739
2002-03 24,63,324 –13,166 24,50,158 2,32,952 22,17,206
2003-04 27,60,025 –14,078 27,45,947 2,53,637 24,92,310
2004-05 31,05,512 –17,707 30,87,805 2,77,131 28,17,968
 Table 2.3: Various Macroeconomic Aggregates of India at Current Prices
(old series; unit: Rs crores); Source: Reserve Bank of India: Handbook
of Indian Economy.

Indirect Taxes NNP at Factor Personal

– Subsidy Factor Cost Disposable
(National Income) Income
1990-91 57,720 4,50,145 4,61,192
1991-92 64,031 5,14,607 5,27,018
1992-93 75,146 5,87,064 6,11,390
1993-94 77,875 6,85,912 7,07,692
1994-95 95,712 8,05,981 8,34,764
1995-96 1,14,741 9,41,861 9,49,191
1996-97 1,24,662 10,93,962 11,27,542
1997-98 1,32,399 12,24,946 12,53,142
1998-99 1,42,858 14,15,093 14,61,827
1999-00 1,74,993 15,64,048 16,11,834
2000-01 1,86,501 16,86,995 17,76,381
2001-02 1,90,510 18,48,229 19,67,770
2002-03 2,08,436 20,08,770 21,06,551
2003-04 2,40,240 22,52,070 23,58,503
2004-05 2,75,047 25,35,627 N. A.

Table 2.4: Various Macroeconomic Aggregates of India at Current Prices

(old series; unit: Rs crores); Source: Reserve Bank of India: Handbook
of Indian Economy.

Private Final Gross Domestic Government Final

32 Consumption Capital Formation Consumption
Expenditure (Investments made Expenditure
Introductory Macroeconomics

by both private and

public sectors)
1990-91 3,81,157 1,49,536 66,030
1991-92 4,40,594 1,47,285 74,285
1992-93 4,96,310 1,76,722 83,957
1993-94 5,69,225 1,98,412 97,725
1994-95 6,59,239 1,63,356 1,08,639
1995-96 7,60,138 3,19,527 1,28,816
1996-97 8,96,470 3,34,999 1,45,725
1997-98 9,76,131 3,74,480 1,72,189
1998-99 11,34,134 3,93,021 2,14,033
1999-00 12,67,658 4,90,669 2,51,108
2000-01 13,53,709 4,98,179 2,64,237
2001-02 14,85,675 5,13,543 2,83,351
2002-03 15,83,879 6,10,228 2,91,547
2003-04 17,61,788 7,26,868 3,12,109
2004-05 N. A. N. A. N. A.
 Chapter 3
Money and Banking
Money is the commonly accepted medium of exchange. In an
economy which consists of only one individual there cannot be
any exchange of commodities and hence there is no role for
money. Even if there are more than one individual but they do
not take part in market transactions, such as a family living on
an isolated island, money has no function for them. However, as
soon as there are more than one economic agent who engage
themselves in transactions through the market, money becomes
an important instrument for facilitating these exchanges.
Economic exchanges without the mediation of money are referred
to as barter exchanges. However, they presume the rather
improbable double coincidence of wants. Consider, for example,
an individual who has a surplus of rice which she wishes to
exchange for clothing. If she is not lucky enough she may not be
able to find another person who has the diametrically opposite
demand for rice with a surplus of clothing to offer in exchange.
The search costs may become prohibitive as the number of
individuals increases. Thus, to smoothen the transaction, an
intermediate good is necessary which is acceptable to both
parties. Such a good is called money. The individuals can then
sell their produces for money and use this money to purchase
the commodities they need. Though facilitation of exchanges is
considered to be the principal role of money, it serves other
purposes as well. Following are the main functions of money in a
modern economy.

3.1 FUNCTIONS OF MONEY

As explained above, the first and foremost role of money is that
it acts as a medium of exchange. Barter exchanges become
extremely difficult in a large economy because of the high costs
people would have to incur looking for suitable persons to
exchange their surpluses.
Money also acts as a convenient unit of account. The value of
all goods and services can be expressed in monetary units. When
we say that the value of a certain wristwatch is Rs 500 we mean
that the wristwatch can be exchanged for 500 units of money,
where a unit of money is rupee in this case. If the price of a pencil
is Rs 2 and that of a pen is Rs 10 we can calculate the relative
price of a pen with respect to a pencil, viz. a pen is worth
 10 ÷ 2 = 5 pencils. The same notion can be used to calculate the value of
money itself with respect to other commodities. In the above example, a rupee
is worth 1 ÷ 2 = 0.5 pencil or 1 ÷ 10 = 0.1 pen. Thus if prices of all commodities
increase in terms of money which, in other words, can be regarded as a general
increase in the price level, the value of money in terms of any commodity must
have decreased – in the sense that a unit of money can now purchase less of
any commodity. We call it a deterioration in the purchasing power of money.
A barter system has other deficiencies. It is difficult to carry forward one’s
wealth under the barter system. Suppose you have an endowment of rice which
you do not wish to consume today entirely. You may regard this stock of
surplus rice as an asset which you may wish to consume, or even sell off, for
acquiring other commodities at some future date. But rice is a perishable item
and cannot be stored beyond a certain period. Also, holding the stock of rice
requires a lot of space. You may have to spend considerable time and resources
looking for people with a demand for rice when you wish to exchange your
stock for buying other commodities. This problem can be solved if you sell
your rice for money. Money is not perishable and its storage costs are also
considerably lower. It is also acceptable to anyone at any point of time. Thus
money can act as a store of value for individuals. Wealth can be stored in the
form of money for future use. However, to perform this function well, the value
of money must be sufficiently stable. A rising price level may erode the
purchasing power of money. It may be noted that any asset other than money
can also act as a store of value, e.g. gold, landed property, houses or even
bonds (to be introduced shortly). However, they may not be easily convertible
to other commodities and do not have universal acceptability.

3.2 DEMAND FOR MONEY

Money is the most liquid of all assets in the sense that it is universally acceptable
and hence can be exchanged for other commodities very easily. On the other
hand, it has an opportunity cost. If, instead of holding on to a certain cash
34 balance, you put the money in a savings account in some bank you can earn
interest on that money. While deciding on how much money to hold at a certain
Introductory Macroeconomics

point of time one has to consider the trade off between the advantage of liquidity
and the disadvantage of the foregone interest. Demand for money balance is
thus often referred to as liquidity preference. People desire to hold money balance
broadly from two motives.

3.2.1 The Transaction Motive

The principal motive for holding money is to carry out transactions. If you
receive your income weekly and pay your bills on the first day of every week,
you need not hold any cash balance throughout the rest of the week; you may
as well ask your employer to deduct your expenses directly from your weekly
salary and deposit the balance in your bank account. But our expenditure
patterns do not normally match our receipts. People earn incomes at discrete
points in time and spend it continuously throughout the interval. Suppose
you earn Rs 100 on the first day of every month and run down this balance
evenly over the rest of the month. Thus your cash balance at the beginning
and end of the month are Rs 100 and 0, respectively. Your average cash holding
can then be calculated as (Rs 100 + Rs 0) ÷ 2 = Rs 50, with which you are
making transactions worth Rs 100 per month. Hence your average transaction
demand for money is equal to half your monthly income, or, in other words,
half the value of your monthly transactions.
 Consider, next, a two-person economy consisting of two entities – a firm (owned
by one person) and a worker. The firm pays the worker a salary of Rs 100 at the
beginning of every month. The worker, in turn, spends this income over the
month on the output produced by the firm – the only good available in this
economy! Thus, at the beginning of each month the worker has a money balance
of Rs 100 and the firm a balance of Rs 0. On the last day of the month the
picture is reversed – the firm has gathered a balance of Rs 100 through its sales
to the worker. The average money holding of the firm as well as the worker is
equal to Rs 50 each. Thus the total transaction demand for money in this
economy is equal to Rs 100. The total volume of monthly transactions in this
economy is Rs 200 – the firm has sold its output worth Rs 100 to the worker
and the latter has sold her services worth Rs 100 to the firm. The transaction
demand for money of the economy is again a fraction of the total volume of
transactions in the economy over the unit period of time.
d
In general, therefore, the transaction demand for money in an economy, M T ,
can be written in the following form
d
M T = k.T (3.1)
where T is the total value of (nominal) transactions in the economy over unit
period and k is a positive fraction.
The two-person economy described above can be looked at from another
angle. You may perhaps find it surprising that the economy uses money balance
worth only Rs 100 for making transactions worth Rs 200 per month. The answer
to this riddle is simple – each rupee is changing hands twice a month. On the
first day, it is being transferred from the employer’s pocket to that of the worker
and sometime during the month, it is passing from the worker’s hand to the
employer’s. The number of times a unit of money changes hands during the
unit period is called the velocity of circulation of money. In the above example
it is 2, inverse of half – the ratio of money balance and the value of transactions.
Thus, in general, we may rewrite equation (3.1) in the following form
1 d d
35
.M T = T, or, v.M T = T (3.2)
k

Money and Banking

where, v = 1/k is the velocity of circulation. Note that the term on the right
hand side of the above equation, T, is a flow variable whereas money demand,
d
M T , is a stock concept – it refers to the stock of money people are willing to hold
at a particular point of time. The velocity of money, v, however, has a time
dimension. It refers to the number of times every unit of stock changes hand
during a unit period of time, say, a month or a year. Thus, the left hand side,
d
v.M T , measures the total value of monetary transactions that has been made
with this stock in the unit period of time. This is a flow variable and is, therefore,
equal to the right hand side.
We are ultimately interested in learning the relationship between the aggregate
transaction demand for money of an economy and the (nominal) GDP in a given
year. The total value of annual transactions in an economy includes transactions
in all intermediate goods and services and is clearly much greater than the
nominal GDP. However, normally, there exists a stable, positive relationship
between value of transactions and the nominal GDP. An increase in nominal
GDP implies an increase in the total value of transactions and hence a greater
transaction demand for money from equation (3.1). Thus, in general, equation
(3.1) can be modified in the following way
d
M T = kPY (3.3)
 where Y is the real GDP and P is the general price level or the GDP deflator.
The above equation tells us that transaction demand for money is positively
related to the real income of an economy and also to its average price level.

3.2.2 The Speculative Motive

An individual may hold her wealth in the form of landed property, bullion,
bonds, money etc. For simplicity, let us club all forms of assets other than
money together into a single category called ‘bonds’. Typically, bonds are
papers bearing the promise of a future stream of monetary returns over a
certain period of time. These papers are issued by governments or firms for
borrowing money from the public and they are tradable in the market. Consider
the following two-period bond. A firm wishes to raise a loan of Rs 100 from the
public. It issues a bond that assures Rs 10 at the end of the first year and Rs 10
plus the principal of Rs 100 at the end of the second year. Such a bond is said
to have a face value of Rs 100, a maturity period of two years and a coupon
rate of 10 per cent. Assume that the rate of interest prevailing in your savings
bank account is equal to 5 per cent. Naturally you would like to compare the
earning from this bond with the interest earning of your savings bank
account. The exact question that you would ask is as follows: How much
money, if kept in my savings bank account, will generate Rs 10 at the end of
one year? Let this amount be X. Therefore
5
X (1 + ) = 10
100
In other words
X= 10
(1 + 5 )
100
This amount, Rs X, is called the present value of Rs 10 discounted at the
market rate of interest. Similarly, let Y be the amount of money which if kept in
36 the savings bank account will generate Rs 110 at the end of two years. Thus, the
present value of the stream of returns from the bond should be equal to
Introductory Macroeconomics

10 (10 + 100)
PV = X + Y = +
5
(1 + ) (1 + 5 )2
100 100
Calculation reveals that it is Rs 109.29 (approx.). It means that if you put
Rs 109.29 in your savings bank account it will fetch the same return as the
bond. But the seller of the bond is offering the same at a face value of only
Rs 100. Clearly the bond is more attractive than the savings bank account and
people will rush to get hold of the bond. Competitive bidding will raise the price
of the bond above its face value, till price of the bond is equal to its PV. If price
rises above the PV the bond becomes less attractive compared to the savings
bank account and people would like to get rid of it. The bond will be in excess
supply and there will be downward pressure on the bond-price which will bring
it back to the PV. It is clear that under competitive assets market condition the
price of a bond must always be equal to its present value in equilibrium.
Now consider an increase in the market rate of interest from 5 per cent to
6 per cent. The present value, and hence the price of the same bond, will become
10 (10 + 100)
+ = 107.33 (approx.)
(1 + 6 ) (1 + 6 )2
100 100
 It follows that the price of a bond is inversely related to the market rate
of interest.
Different people have different expectations regarding the future movements
in the market rate of interest based on their private information regarding the
economy. If you think that the market rate of interest should eventually settle
down to 8 per cent per annum, then you may consider the current rate of
5 per cent too low to be sustainable over time. You expect interest rate to rise
and consequently bond prices to fall. If you are a bond holder a decrease in
bond price means a loss to you – similar to a loss you would suffer if the value of
a property held by you suddenly depreciates in the market. Such a loss occurring
from a falling bond price is called a capital loss to the bond holder. Under such
circumstances, you will try to sell your bond and hold money instead. Thus
speculations regarding future movements in interest rate and bond prices give
rise to the speculative demand for money.
When the interest rate is very high everyone expects it to fall in future and
hence anticipates capital gains from bond-holding. Hence people convert their
money into bonds. Thus, speculative demand for money is low. When interest
rate comes down, more and more people expect it to rise in the future and
anticipate capital loss. Thus they convert their bonds into money giving rise to a
high speculative demand for money. Hence speculative demand for money is
inversely related to the rate of interest. Assuming a simple form, the speculative
demand for money can be written as
d
rmax – r
MS = r – r (3.4)
min

where r is the market rate of interest and rmax and rmin are the upper and
lower limits of r, both positive constants. It is evident from equation (3.4) that as
r decreases from rmax to rmin, the value of M S increases from 0 to ∞.
d

As mentioned earlier, interest rate can be thought of as an opportunity cost

or ‘price’ of holding money balance. If supply of money in the economy increases
and people purchase bonds with this extra money, demand for bonds will go 37
up, bond prices will rise and rate of interest will decline. In other words, with an

Money and Banking

increased supply of money in the economy the price you have to pay for holding
money balance, viz. the rate of interest, should come down. However, if the market
rate of interest is already low enough so that everybody expects it to rise in
future, causing capital losses, nobody will wish to hold bonds. Everyone in the
economy will hold their wealth in
money balance and if additional
money is injected within the r
economy it will be used up to
satiate people’s craving for money
rmax
balances without increasing the
demand for bonds and without
further lowering the rate of rmax – r
interest below the floor rmin. Such MSd = r – r
min
a situation is called a liquidity
trap. The speculative money rmin ¥
demand function is infinitely
O
elastic here. MS
d

In Fig. 3.1 the speculative

Fig. 3.1
demand for money is plotted on
the horizontal axis and the rate The Speculative Demand for Money
 of interest on the vertical axis. When r = rmax, speculative demand for money is
zero. The rate of interest is so high that everyone expects it to fall in future and
hence is sure about a future capital gain. Thus everyone has converted the
speculative money balance into bonds. When r = rmin, the economy is in the
liquidity trap. Everyone is sure of a future rise in interest rate and a fall in
bond prices. Everyone puts whatever wealth they acquire in the form of money
and the speculative demand for money is infinite.
Total demand for money in an economy is, therefore, composed of
transaction demand and speculative demand. The former is directly
proportional to real GDP and price level, whereas the latter is inversely related
to the market rate of interest. The aggregate money demand in an economy
can be summarised by the following equation
d d
Md = M T + M S
rmax – r
or, Md = kPY + (3.5)
r – rmin

3.3 THE SUPPLY OF MONEY

In a modern economy money consists mainly of currency notes and coins issued
by the monetary authority of the country. In India currency notes are issued by
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is the monetary authority in India.
However, coins are issued by the Government of India. Apart from currency
notes and coins, the balance in savings, or current account deposits, held by
the public in commercial banks is also considered money since cheques drawn
on these accounts are used to settle transactions. Such deposits are called
demand deposits as they are payable by the bank on demand from the account-
holder. Other deposits, e.g. fixed deposits, have a fixed period to maturity and
are referred to as time deposits.
Though a hundred-rupee note can be used to obtain commodities worth
38 Rs 100 from a shop, the value of the paper itself is negligible – certainly less
than Rs 100. Similarly, the value of the metal in a five-rupee coin is probably
Introductory Macroeconomics

not worth Rs 5. Why then do people accept such notes and coins in exchange of
goods which are apparently more valuable than these? The value of the currency
notes and coins is derived from the guarantee provided by the issuing authority
of these items. Every currency note bears on its face a promise from the Governor
of RBI that if someone produces the note to RBI, or any other commercial bank,
RBI will be responsible for giving the person purchasing power equal to the
value printed on the note. The same is also true of coins. Currency notes and
coins are therefore called fiat money. They do not have intrinsic value like a
gold or silver coin. They are also called legal tenders as they cannot be refused
by any citizen of the country for settlement of any kind of transaction. Cheques
drawn on savings or current accounts, however, can be refused by anyone as a
mode of payment. Hence, demand deposits are not legal tenders.

3.3.1 Legal Definitions: Narrow and Broad Money

Money supply, like money demand, is a stock variable. The total stock of money
in circulation among the public at a particular point of time is called money
supply. RBI publishes figures for four alternative measures of money supply,
viz. M1, M2, M3 and M4. They are defined as follows
M1 = CU + DD
M2 = M1 + Savings deposits with Post Office savings banks
 M3 = M1 + Net time deposits of commercial banks
M4 = M3 + Total deposits with Post Office savings organisations (excluding
National Savings Certificates)
where, CU is currency (notes plus coins) held by the public and DD is net
demand deposits held by commercial banks. The word ‘net’ implies that only
deposits of the public held by the banks are to be included in money supply.
The interbank deposits, which a commercial bank holds in other commercial
banks, are not to be regarded as part of money supply.
M1 and M2 are known as narrow money. M3 and M4 are known as broad
money. These gradations are in decreasing order of liquidity. M1 is most liquid
and easiest for transactions whereas M4 is least liquid of all. M3 is the most
commonly used measure of money supply. It is also known as aggregate
monetary resources1.

3.3.2 Money Creation by the Banking System

In this section we shall explore the determinants of money supply. Money
supply will change if the value of any of its components such as CU, DD or
Time Deposits changes. In what follows we shall, for simplicity, use the most
liquid definition of money, viz. M1 = CU + DD, as the measure of money supply
in the economy. Various actions of the monetary authority, RBI, and commercial
banks are responsible for changes in the values of these items. The preference
of the public for holding cash balances vis-´a-vis deposits in banks also affect
the money supply. These influences on money supply can be summarised by
the following key ratios.
The Currency Deposit Ratio: The currency deposit ratio (cdr) is the ratio
of money held by the public in currency to that they hold in bank deposits.
cdr = CU/DD. If a person gets Re 1 she will put Rs 1/(1 + cdr) in her bank
account and keep Rs cdr/(1 + cdr) in cash. It reflects people’s preference for
liquidity. It is a purely behavioural parameter which depends, among other 39
things, on the seasonal pattern of expenditure. For example, cdr increases

Money and Banking

during the festive season as people convert deposits to cash balance for
meeting extra expenditure during such periods.
The Reserve Deposit Ratio: Banks hold a part of the money people keep in
their bank deposits as reserve money and loan out the rest to various investment
projects. Reserve money consists of two things – vault cash in banks and deposits
of commercial banks with RBI. Banks use this reserve to meet the demand for
cash by account holders. Reserve deposit ratio (rdr) is the proportion of the total
deposits commercial banks keep as reserves.
Keeping reserves is costly for banks, as, otherwise, they could lend this
balance to interest earning investment projects. However, RBI requires
commercial banks to keep reserves in order to ensure that banks have a safe
cushion of assets to draw on when account holders want to be paid. RBI
uses various policy instruments to bring forth a healthy rdr in commercial
banks. The first instrument is the Cash Reserve Ratio which specifies the
fraction of their deposits that banks must keep with RBI. There is another
tool called Statutory Liquidity Ratio which requires the banks to maintain

1
See Appendix 3.2 for an estimate of the variations in M1 and M3 over time.
 a given fraction of their total demand and time deposits in the form of specified
liquid assets. Apart from these ratios RBI uses a certain interest rate called
the Bank Rate to control the value of rdr. Commercial banks can borrow
money from RBI at the bank rate when they run short of reserves. A high
bank rate makes such borrowing from RBI costly and, in effect, encourages
the commercial banks to maintain a healthy rdr.

Table 3.1: Sample Balance Sheet of a Commercial Bank

Assets – Rs Liability – Rs
• Reserves Deposits 100
– Vault Cash 15
– Deposits with RBI 5

• Bank Credit
– Loans 30
– Investments 50

rdr = 0.2

Commercial Banks
Commercial Banks accept deposits from the public and lend out this
money to interest earning investment projects. The rate of interest offered
by the bank to deposit holders is called the ‘borrowing rate’ and the rate
at which banks lend out their reserves to investors is called the ‘lending
rate’. The difference between the two rates, called ‘spread’, is the profit
40 that is appropriated by the banks. Deposits are broadly of two types –
demand deposits, payable by the banks on demand from the account
Introductory Macroeconomics

holder, e.g. current and savings account deposits, and time deposits,
which have a fixed period to maturity, e.g. fixed deposits. Lending by
commercial banks consists mainly of cash credit, demand and short-
term loans to private investors and banks’ investments in government
securities and other approved bonds. The creditworthiness of a person
is judged by her current assets or the collateral (a security pledged for
the repayment of a loan) she can offer.

Table 3.2: Sample Balance Sheet of RBI

Assets (sources) – Rs Liability (uses) – Rs

Gold 10 Currency
Foreign Exchange 20 Currency held by Public 200
Govt. Securities (Loan to GOI) 230 Vault Cash held by Commercial Banks 10
Loan to Commercial Banks 5 Deposits of Commercial Banks with RBI 40
Treasury Deposits of GOI 15

Monetary Base (sources) 265 Monetary Base (uses) 265

High Powered Money: The total liability of the monetary authority of the
country, RBI, is called the monetary base or high powered money. It consists
of currency (notes and coins in circulation with the public and vault cash of
commercial banks) and deposits held by the Government of India and commercial
banks with RBI. If a member of the public produces a currency note to RBI the
latter must pay her value equal to the figure printed on the note. Similarly, the
deposits are also refundable by RBI on demand from deposit-holders. These
items are claims which the general public, government or banks have on RBI
and hence are considered to be the liability of RBI.
RBI acquires assets against these liabilities. The process can be understood
easily if we consider a simple stylised example. Suppose RBI purchases gold or
dollars worth Rs 5. It pays for the gold or foreign exchange by issuing currency
to the seller. The currency in circulation in the economy thus goes up by Rs 5,
an item that shows up on the liability side of the balance sheet. The value of the
acquired assets, also equal to Rs 5, is entered under the appropriate head on
the Assets side. Similarly, RBI acquires debt bonds or securities issued by the
government and pays the government by issuing currency in return. It issues
loans to commercial banks in a similar fashion2.
We are now ready to explain the mechanism of money creation by the
monetary authority, RBI. Suppose RBI wishes to increase the money supply. It
will then inject additional high powered money into the economy in the following
way. Let us assume that RBI purchases some asset, say, government bonds or
gold worth Rs H from the market. It will issue a cheque of Rs H on itself to the
seller of the bond. Assume also that the values of cdr and rdr for this economy
are 1 and 0.2, respectively. The seller encashes the cheque at her account in
H H
Bank A, keeping Rs in her account and taking Rs away as cash. Currency
2 2
H H
held by the public thus goes up by . Bank A’s liability goes up by Rs
2 2
because of this increment in deposits. But its assets also go up by the same
amount through the possession of this cheque, which is nothing but a claim of 41
the same amount on RBI. The liability of RBI goes up by Rs H, which is the sum

Money and Banking

H H
total of the claims of Bank A and its client, the seller, worth Rs and Rs ,
2 2
respectively. Thus, by definition, high powered money increases by Rs H.
0.2H
The process does not end here. Bank A will keep Rs of the extra deposit
2
(1 – 0.2)H 0.8H
as reserve and loan out the rest, i.e. Rs = Rs to another
2 2
3
borrower . The borrower will presumably use this loan on some investment
project and spend the money as factor payment. Suppose a worker of that project
0.8H 0.8H
gets the payment. The worker will then keep Rs as cash and put Rs
4 4
0.64 H
in her account in Bank B. Bank B, in turn, will lend Rs . Someone who
4
0.64 H 0.64 H
receives that money will keep in cash and put in some other
8 8
Bank C. The process continues ad infinitum.

2
See Appendix 3.2 for an estimate of changes in the sources of monetary base over time.
3
We are implicitly assuming that the demand for bank loans at the existing lending rate is infinite,
i.e. banks can loan out any amount they wish.
 Let us now look at Table 3.3 to get an idea of how the money supply in the
economy is changing round after round.
Table 3.3: The Multiplier Process

Currency Deposits Money Supply

H H
Round 1 (Bank A) H
2 2
0.8H 0.8H 0.8H
Round 2 (Bank B)
4 4 2
0.64 H 0.64 H 0.64 H
Round 3 (Bank C)
8 8 4
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . etc.

The second column shows the increment in the value of currency holding
among the public in each round. The third column measures the value of the
increment in bank deposits in the economy in a similar way. The last column is
the sum total of these two, which, by definition, is the increase in money supply
in the economy in each round (presumably the simplest and the most liquid
measure of money, viz. M1). Note that the amount of increments in money supply
in successive rounds are gradually diminishing. After a large number of rounds,
therefore, the size of the increments will be virtually indistinguishable from zero
and subsequent round effects will not practically contribute anything to the
total volume of money supply. We say that the round effects on money supply
represent a convergent process. In order to find out the total increase in money
supply we must add up the infinite geometric series4 in the last column, i.e.
42 0.8H 0.64 H
H+ + +······∞
2 4
Introductory Macroeconomics

{ 0.8 0.8 2
H 1 + ( 2 ) + ( 2 ) + ...... ∞ = } H
1 – 0.4
=
5H
3
The increment in total money supply exceeds the amount of high powered
money initially injected by RBI into the economy. We define money multiplier
as the ratio of the stock of money to the stock of high powered money in an
economy, viz. M/H. Clearly, its value is greater than 1.
We need not always go through the round effects in order to compute the
value of the money multiplier. We did it here just to demonstrate the process of
money creation in which the commercial banks have an important role to play.
However, there exists a simpler way of deriving the multiplier. By definition,
money supply is equal to currency plus deposits
M = CU + DD = (1 + cdr )DD
where, cdr = CU/DD. Assume, for simplicity, that treasury deposit of the
Government with RBI is zero. High powered money then consists of currency
held by the public and reserves of the commercial banks, which include vault
cash and banks’ deposits with RBI. Thus
H = CU + R = cdr.DD + rdr.DD = (cdr + rdr)DD
4
See Appendix 3.1 for a brief discussion on such series.
 Thus the ratio of money supply to high powered money
M 1 + cdr
= cdr + rdr > 1, as rdr < 1
H
This is precisely the measure of the money multiplier.

3.3.3 Instruments of Monetary Policy and the Reserve Bank of India

It is clear from the above discussion that the total amount of money stock in
the economy is much greater than the volume of high powered money.
Commercial banks create this extra amount of money by giving out a part of
their deposits as loans or investment credits. It is also evident from Table 3.1
that the total amount of deposits held by all commercial banks in the country
is much larger than the total size of their reserves. If all the account-holders of
all commercial banks in the country want their deposits back at the same
time, the banks will not have enough means to satisfy the need of every account-
holder and there will be bank failures.

High Powered Money

Currency Reserves

Currency Deposits
Total Money Supply

Fig. 3.2: High Powered Money in Relation to Total Money Supply

43

Money and Banking

All this is common knowledge to every informed individual in the economy.
Why do they still keep their money in bank deposits when they are aware of the
possibility of default by their banks in case of a bank run (a situation where
everybody wants to take money out of one’s bank account before the bank runs
out of reserves)?
The Reserve Bank of India plays a crucial role here. In case of a crisis like the
above it stands by the commercial banks as a guarantor and extends loans to
ensure the solvency of the latter. This system of guarantee assures individual
account-holders that their banks will be able to pay their money back in case of
a crisis and there is no need to panic thus avoiding bank runs. This role of the
monetary authority is known as the lender of last resort.
Apart from acting as a banker to the commercial banks, RBI also acts as a
banker to the Government of India, and also, to the state governments. It is
commonly held that the government, sometimes, ‘prints money’ in case of a
budget deficit, i.e., when it cannot meet its expenses (e.g. salaries to the
government employees, purchase of defense equipment from a manufacturer of
such goods etc.) from the tax revenue it has earned. The government, however,
has no legal authority to issue currency in this fashion. So it borrows money by
selling treasury bills or government securities to RBI, which issues currency to
the government in return. The government then pays for its expenses with this
 money. The money thus ultimately comes into the hands of the general public
(in the form of salary or sales proceeds of defense items etc.) and becomes a part
of the money supply. Financing of budget deficits by the governments in this
fashion is called Deficit Financing through Central Bank Borrowing.
However, the most important role of RBI is as the controller of money supply
and credit creation in the economy. RBI is the independent authority for
conducting monetary policy in the best interests of the economy – it increases
or decreases the supply of high powered money in the economy and creates
incentives or disincentives for the commercial banks to give loans or credits to
investors. The instruments which RBI uses for conducting monetary policy
are as follows.
Open Market Operations: RBI purchases (or sells) government securities to
the general public in a bid to increase (or decrease) the stock of high powered
money in the economy. Suppose RBI purchases Rs 100 worth government
securities from the bond market. It will issue a cheque of Rs 100 on itself to the
seller of the bond. The seller will deposit the cheque in her bank, which, in turn,
will credit the seller’s account with a balance of Rs 100. The bank’s deposits go
up by Rs 100 which is a liability to the bank. However, its assets also go up by
Rs 100 by the possession of this cheque, which is a claim on RBI. The bank will
deposit this cheque to RBI which, in turn, will credit the bank’s account with
RBI with Rs 100. The changes in RBI’s balance sheet are shown in Table 3.4.
Total liability of RBI, or, by definition, the supply of high powered money in
the economy has gone up by Rs 100. If RBI wishes to reduce the supply of high
powered money it undertakes an open market sale of government securities of
its own holding in just the reverse fashion, thereby reducing the monetary base.

Table 3.4: Effects of Open Market Purchase on the Balance Sheet of RBI
Assets (sources) – Rs Liability (uses) – Rs

44 All Other Assets 0 Currency 0

Government Securities + 100 Deposits of Commercial Banks with RBI + 100
Introductory Macroeconomics

Monetary Base (sources) + 100 Monetary Base (uses) + 100

Bank Rate Policy : As mentioned earlier, RBI can affect the reserve deposit
ratio of commercial banks by adjusting the value of the bank rate – which is the
rate of interest commercial banks have to pay RBI – if they borrow money from
it in case of shortage of reserves. A low (or high) bank rate encourages banks to
keep smaller (or greater) proportion of their deposits as reserves, since borrowing
from RBI is now less (or more) costly than before. As a result banks use a greater
(or smaller) proportion of their resources for giving out loans to borrowers or
investors, thereby enhancing (or depressing) the multiplier process via assisting
(or resisting) secondary money creation. In short, a low (or high) bank rate reduces
(or increases) rdr and hence increases (or decreases) the value of the money
multiplier, which is (1 + cdr)/(cdr + rdr). Thus, for any given amount of high
powered money, H, total money supply goes up.
Varying Reserve Requirements: Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory
Liquidity Ratio (SLR) also work through the rdr-route. A high (or low) value of
CRR or SLR helps increase (or decrease) the value of reserve deposit ratio, thus
diminishing (or increasing) the value of the money multiplier and money supply
in the economy in a similar fashion.
 Sterilisation by RBI: RBI often uses its instruments of money creation for
stabilising the stock of money in the economy from external shocks. Suppose
due to future growth prospects in India investors from across the world increase
their investments in Indian bonds which under such circumstances, are likely
to yield a high rate of return. They will buy these bonds with foreign currency.
Since one cannot purchase goods in the domestic market with foreign currency,
a person who sells these bonds to foreign investors will exchange her foreign
currency holding into rupee at a commercial bank. The bank, in turn, will submit
this foreign currency to RBI and its deposits with RBI will be credited with
equivalent sum of money. What kind of adjustments take place from this entire
transaction? The commercial bank’s total reserves and deposits remain
unchanged (it has purchased the foreign currency from the seller using its vault
cash, which, therefore, goes down; but the bank’s deposit with RBI goes up by
an equivalent amount – leaving its total reserves unchanged). There will, however,
be increments in the assets and liabilities on the RBI balance sheet. RBI’s foreign
exchange holding goes up. On the other hand, the deposits of commercial banks
with RBI also increase by an equal amount. But that means an increase in the
stock of high powered money – which, by definition, is equal to the total liability
of RBI. With money multiplier in operation, this, in turn, will result in increased
money supply in the economy.
This increased money supply may not altogether be good for the economy’s
health. If the volume of goods and services produced in the economy remains
unchanged, the extra money will lead to increase in prices of all commodities.
People have more money in their hands with which they compete each other in
the commodities market for buying the same old stock of goods. As too much
money is now chasing the same old quantities of output, the process ends up in
bidding up prices of every commodity – an increase in the general price level,
which is also known as inflation.
RBI often intervenes with its instruments to prevent such an outcome. In the
above example, RBI will undertake an open market sale of government securities
45
of an amount equal to the amount of foreign exchange inflow in the economy,
thereby keeping the stock of high powered money and total money supply

Money and Banking

unchanged. Thus it sterilises the economy against adverse external shocks. This
operation of RBI is known as sterilisation.
Money supply is, therefore, an important macroeconomic variable. Its overall
influence on the values of the equilibrium rate of interest, price level and output
of an economy is of great significance. We take up these issues in the next chapter.

Exchange of commodities without the mediation of money is called Barter Exchange.

Summary

It suffers from lack of double coincidence of wants. Money facilitates exchanges by

acting as a commonly acceptable medium of exchange. In a modern economy, people
hold money broadly from two motives – transaction motive and speculative motive.
Supply of money, on the other hand, consists of currency notes and coins, demand
and time deposits held by commercial banks, etc. It is classified as narrow and
broad money according to the decreasing order of liquidity. In India, the supply of
money is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which acts as the monetary
authority of the country. Various actions of the public, the commercial banks of the
country and RBI are responsible for changes in the supply of money in the economy.
RBI regulates money supply by controlling the stock of high powered money, the
bank rate and reserve requirements of the commercial banks. It also sterilises the
money supply in the economy against external shocks.
 Key Concepts
Barter exchange Double coincidence of wants
Money Medium of exchange
Unit of account Store of value
Transaction demand Speculative demand
Bonds Present value
Rate of interest Capital gain or loss
Liquidity trap Fiat money
Legal tender Narrow money
Broad money Aggregate monetary resources
Currency deposit ratio Reserve deposit ratio
High powered money Money multiplier
Lender of last resort Deficit financing through central bank borrowing
Open market operation Bank Rate
Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR)
Sterilisation

? 1. What is a barter system? What are its drawbacks?

Exercises

2. What are the main functions of money? How does money overcome the
shortcomings of a barter system?
3. What is transaction demand for money? How is it related to the value of
transactions over a specified period of time?
4. Suppose a bond promises Rs 500 at the end of two years with no intermediate
return. If the rate of interest is 5 per cent per annum what is the price of the bond?
5. Why is speculative demand for money inversely related to the rate of interest?
6. What is ‘liquidity trap’?
7. What are the alternative definitions of money supply in India?
46
8. What is a ‘legal tender’? What is ‘fiat money’?
Introductory Macroeconomics

9. What is High Powered Money?

10. Explain the functions of a commercial bank.
11. What is money multiplier? How will you determine its value? What ratios play

?
an important role in the determination of the value of the money multiplier?
12. What are the instruments of monetary policy of RBI? How does RBI stabilize
money supply against exogenous shocks?
13. Do you consider a commercial bank ‘creator of money’ in the economy?
14. What role of RBI is known as ‘lender of last resort’?

Suggested Readings
1. Dornbusch, R. and S. Fischer. 1990. Macroeconomics, (fifth edition) pages 345 –
427, McGraw Hill, Paris.
2. Branson, W. H., 1992. Macroeconomic Theory and Policy, (second edition), pages
243 – 280, Harper Collins Publishers India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
3. Sikdar, S., 2006. Principles of Macroeconomics, pages 77 – 89, Oxford University
Press, New Delhi.
Appendix 3.1

The Sum of an Infinite Geometric Series

We want to find out the sum of an infinite geometric series of the following form
S = a + a.r + a.r2 + a.r3 + · · · + a.rn · · ·∞
where a and r are real numbers and 0 < r < 1. To compute the sum, multiply the
above equation by r to obtain
r.S = a.r + a.r2 + a.r3 + · · · + a.r n + 1 · · · ∞
Subtract the second equation from the first to get
S – r.S = a
or, (1 – r)S = a
which yields
a
S=
1–r
In the example used for the derivation of the money multiplier, a = 1 and r = 0.4.
Hence the value of the infinite series is
1 5
1 – 0.4 = 3
Appendix 3.2

Money Supply in India

Table 3.5: Change in M1 and M3 Over Time

Year M1 M3

1989-90 81,060 2,30,950

1990-91 92,892 2,65,828
1991-92 1,14,406 3,17,049
1992-93 1,24,066 3,64,016
1993-94 1,50,778 4,31,084 47
1994-95 1,92,257 5,27,496

Money and Banking

1995-96 2,14,844 5,99,191
1996-97 2,40,615 6,96,012
1997-98 2,67,844 8,21,332
1998-99 3,09,128 9,81,020
1999-00 3,41,796 11,24,174
2000-01 3,79,450 13,13,220
2001-02 4,22,843 14,98,355
2002-03 4,72,827 17,25,222

Source: S. Sikdar, Principles of Macroeconomics, OUP, 2006. Unit: Rs crore.

The difference in values between the two columns is attributable to the time deposits
held by commercial banks.
 Changes in the Composition of the Sources of Monetary Base Over Time

Appendix 3.3
Table 3.6: Sources of Changes in the Monetary Base
Percentage Changes in
Year Loan to GOI Loan to Banks Foreign Assets

1984-90 105.50 13.60 7.60

1991-92 44.00 – 34.00 92.50
1992-93 38.80 32.72 33.30
1993-94 3.10 14.90 103.90
1994-95 7.10 26.30 76.10
1995-96 79.30 34.90 – 2.50
1996-97 50.10 – 275.40 366.90
1997-98 41.80 7.70 80.30
1998-99 52.40 30.80 66.60
1999-00 – 20.20 31.00 131.80
2000-01 24.70 – 25.50 137.50
2001-02 1.70 – 27.70 193.50
Source: S. Sikdar, Principles of Macroeconomics, OUP, 2006.

Note that RBI has been tightening domestic credit to Government of India and
commercial banks as part of sterilisation exercise whenever the inflow of foreign
assets to the Indian economy has been on the rise.

48
Introductory Macroeconomics
 Chapter 4
Income Determination
We have so far talked about the national income, price level, rate
of interest etc. in an ad hoc manner – without investigating the
forces that govern their values. The basic objective of
macroeconomics is to develop theoretical tools, called models,
capable of describing the processes which determine the values of
these variables. Specifically, the models attempt to provide
theoretical explanation to questions such as what causes periods
of slow growth or recessions in the economy, or increment in the
price level, or a rise in unemployment. It is difficult to account for
all the variables at the same time. Thus, when we concentrate on
the determination of a particular variable, we must hold the values
of all other variables constant. This is a stylisation typical of almost
any theoretical exercise and is called the assumption of ceteris
paribus, which literally means ‘other things remaining equal’. You
can think of the procedure as follows – in order to solve for the
values of two variables x and y from two equations, we solve for
one variable, say x, in terms of y from one equation first, and then
substitute this value into the other equation to obtain the complete
solution. We apply the same method in the analysis of the
macroeconomic system.

4.1 EX ANTE AND EX POST

In the chapter on National Income Accounting, we have come across
terms like consumption, investment, or the total output of final
goods and services in an economy (GDP). These terms have dual
connotations. In Chapter 2 they were used in the accounting sense
– denoting actual values of these items as measured by the
activities within the economy in a certain year. We call these actual
or accounting values ex post measures of these items.
These terms, however, can be used with a different
connotation. Consumption may denote not what people have
actually consumed in a given year, but what they had planned
to consume during the same period. Similarly, investment can
mean the amount a producer plans to add to her inventory. It
may be different from what she ends up doing. Suppose the
producer plans to add Rs 100 worth goods to her stock by the
end of the year. Her planned investment is, therefore, Rs 100 in
that year. However, due to an unforeseen upsurge of demand for
her goods in the market the volume of her sales exceeds what
 she had planned to sell and, to meet this extra demand, she has to sell goods
worth Rs 30 from her stock. Therefore, at the end of the year, her inventory
goes up by Rs (100 – 30) = Rs 70 only. Her planned investment is Rs 100
whereas her actual, or ex post, investment is Rs 70 only. We call the planned
values of the variables – consumption, investment or output of final goods –
their ex ante measures.
In a theoretical model of the economy the ex ante values of these variables
should be our primary concern. If anybody wants to predict what the equilibrium
value of the final goods, output or GDP will be it is important for her to know
what quantities of the final goods people plan to demand or supply. We must,
therefore, learn about the determinants of the ex ante values of consumption,
investment or aggregate output of the economy.
Ex Ante Consumption: What does planned consumption depend on? People
spend a part of their income on consumption and save the rest. Suppose your
income increases by Rs 100. You will not use up this entire extra income but
save a certain fraction, say 20 per cent, of it to build up a cushion of savings for
the period when you cease to earn income, or for meeting large expenses in
future. Different people plan to save different fractions of their additional incomes
(with the rich typically saving a greater proportion of their income than the poor),
and if we average these we may arrive at a fraction which will give us an idea of
what proportion of the total additional income of the economy people wish to
save as a whole. We call this fraction the marginal propensity to save (mps). It
gives us the ratio of total additional planned savings in an economy to the total
additional income of the economy. Since consumption is the complement of
savings (additional income of the economy is either put into additional savings
or used for extra consumption by the people), if we subtract the mps from 1, we
get the marginal propensity to consume (mpc), which, in a similar way, is the
fraction of total additional income that people use for consumption. Suppose,
mpc of an economy is c, where 0 < c < 1. If the total income of the economy
50 increases from 0 to Y , then total consumption of the economy should be
C = c (Y – 0) = c.Y
Introductory Macroeconomics

However, it is not precisely so. We have forgotten something here. If the income
of the economy in a certain year is zero, the above equation tells us that the
economy has to starve for an entire year, which is, obviously, an outrageous
idea. If your income is zero in a certain period you use your past savings to buy
certain minimum consumption items in order to survive. Hence we must add
the minimum or subsistence level of consumption of the economy in the above
equation, which, therefore, becomes
C = C + c.Y (4.1)
where C > 0 is the minimum consumption level and is a given or
exogenous item to our model, which, therefore, is treated as a constant. The
equation tells us that as the income of the economy increases above zero, the
economy uses c proportion of this extra income to increase its consumption
above the minimum level.
Ex Ante Investment: Investment is defined as addition to the stock of physical
capital (such as machines, buildings, roads etc., i.e. anything that adds to the
future productive capacity of the economy) and changes in the inventory (or the
stock of finished goods) of a producer. Note that ‘investment goods’ (such as
machines) are also part of the final goods – they are not intermediate goods like
raw materials. Machines produced in an economy in a given year are not ‘used
up’ to produce other goods but yield their services over a number of years.
Investment decisions by producers, such as whether to buy a new machine,
depend, to a large extent, on the market rate of interest. However, for simplicity,
we assume here that firms plan to invest the same amount every year. We can
write the ex ante investment demand as
I= I (4.2)
where I is a positive constant which represents the autonomous (given or
exogenous) investment in the economy in a given year.
Ex Ante Aggregate Demand for Final Goods: In an economy without a
government, the ex ante aggregate demand for final goods is the sum total of the
ex ante consumption expenditure and ex ante investment expenditure on such
goods, viz. AD = C + I. Substituting the values of C and I from equations (4.1)
and (4.2), aggregate demand for final goods can be written as
AD = C + I + c.Y
If the final goods market is in equilibrium this can be written as
Y = C + I + c.Y
where Y is the ex ante, or planned, supply of final goods. This equation can be
further simplified by adding up the two autonomous terms, C and I , making it
Y = A + c.Y (4.3)
where A = C + I is the total autonomous expenditure in the economy. In
reality, these two components of autonomous expenditure behave in different ways.
C , representing subsistence consumption level of an economy, remains more or
less stable over time. However, I has been observed to undergo periodic fluctuations.
A word of caution is in order. The term Y on the left hand side of equation (4.3)
represents the ex ante output or the planned supply of final goods. On the other
51
hand, the expression on the right hand side denotes ex ante or planned aggregate

Income Determination
demand for final goods in the economy. Ex ante supply is equal to ex ante
demand only when the final goods market, and hence the economy, is in
equilibrium. Equation (4.3) should not, therefore, be confused with the
accounting identity of Chapter 2, which states that the ex post value of total
output must always be equal to the sum total of ex post consumption and ex
post investment in the economy. If ex ante demand for final goods falls short of
the output of final goods that the producers have planned to produce in a
given year, equation (4.3) will not hold. Stocks will be piling up in the warehouses
which we may consider as unintended accumulation of inventories. It is not a
part of planned or ex ante investment. However, it is definitely a part of the
actual addition to inventories at the end of the year or, in other words, an ex
post investment. Thus even though planned Y is greater than planned C + I,
actual Y will be equal to actual C + I, with the extra output showing up as
unintended accumulation of inventories in the ex post I on the right hand side
of the accounting identity.
At this point, we can introduce a government in this economy. The major
economic activities of the government that affect the aggregate demand for final
goods and services can be summarized by the fiscal variables Tax (T) and
Government Expenditure (G), both autonomous to our analysis. Government,
through its expenditure G on final goods and services, adds to the aggregate
 demand like other firms and households. On the other hand, taxes imposed by
the government take a part of the income away from the household, whose
disposable income, therefore, becomes Yd = Y – T. Households spend only a fraction
of this disposable income for consumption purpose. Hence, equation (4.3) has to
be modified in the following way to incorporate the government
Y = C + I + G + c (Y – T )
Note that G – c.T , like C or I , just adds to the autonomous term A . It does
not significantly change the analysis in any qualitative way. We shall, for the
sake of simplicity, ignore the government sector for the rest of this chapter.
Observe also, that without the government imposing indirect taxes and subsidies,
the total value of final goods and services produced in the economy, GDP, becomes
identically equal to the National Income. Henceforth, throughout the rest of the
chapter, we shall refer to Y as GDP or National Income interchangeably.

4.2 MOVEMENT ALONG A CURVE VERSUS SHIFT OF A CURVE

We shall be using graphical techniques to analyse the model of the economy. It
is, therefore, important for us to learn how to read a graph. Let us now plot two
variables a and b on the horizontal
b
and vertical axes on a graph 25 b=a+2
depicting the equation of a
straight line of the form 20 b = 0.5a + 2
b = ma + ε, where m > 0 is called
15
the slope of the straight line and 14
ε > 0 is the intercept on the vertical
10
(i.e. b) axis (Fig. 4.1). When a 8
increases by 1 unit the value of b 5
increases by m units. These are
2
called movements of the variables 0
a
5 1012 15 20 25 30 35
52 along the graph.
Consider a fixed value for Fig. 4.1
Introductory Macroeconomics

ε equal to 2. Let m take two values A Positively Sloping Straight Line Swings Upwards
m = 0.5 and m = 1, respectively. as its Slope is Doubled
Corresponding to these values of
m we have two straight lines, one steeper than the other. The entities ε and m are
called the parameters of the graph. They do not appear as variables on the axes,
but act in the background to
b
regulate the position of the graph. 25
As m increases in the above
b = 0.5a + 3
example the straight line swings 20
upwards. This is called a
15 b = 0.5a + 2
parametric shift of a graph.
Since a straight line of the
10
above form has another 9
8
parameter ε , we can observe
5
another type of parametric shift of 3
2
this line. To see this hold m a
0 5 1012 15 20 25 30 35
constant at 0.5 and increase the
intercept term ε from 2 to 3. The Fig. 4.2
straight line now shifts in parallel A Positively Sloping Straight Line Shifts Upwards in
upwards as shown in Fig. 4.2. Parallel as its Intercept is Increased
 Consider, next, the following
y
two equations representing a z = z4
downward and an upward y=1+x
z = z3
sloping straight line, respectively
y = z – x, and, y = 1 + x, z ≥ 0 z = z2

In the first equation z appears y=z–x

as an intercept parameter. Hence z = z1
for increasing values of z starting
from zero, the first straight line will
undergo parallel upward shifts
0 x* x 2* x 3* x 4* . . . x
as depicted in Fig. 4.3. 1

Consequently, its points of

Fig. 4.3
intersection with the second
straight line will move up along the Parametric Shift of z and Changing Equilibrium
second line as shown in Fig. 4.3. Values of x
Suppose we want to find out
the relationship between z and equilibrium values of x. This can be obtained by
plotting the points (x*1, z1), (x *2, z2), (x *3, z3) etc. on a figure depicting the variables
x and z on the horizontal and
vertical axes, respectively, as
shown in Fig. 4.4.
Note that in the (x, y) plane z z z = 1 + 2x
was being treated as a parameter. z3
But in the (x, z) plane z is a variable
in its own right. What we have z2
essentially done is the following –
we have kept z constant while z1
dealing with x and y in the second
equation and solved for y in terms
of x. Then we have plugged this 53
solution in the first equation to

Income Determination
0 x 1* x 2* x 3* x
derive the relationship between
x and z. We shall be making use Fig. 4.4
of this technique throughout
this chapter. Relationship between x and z

4.3 THE SHORT RUN FIXED PRICE ANALYSIS OF THE PRODUCT MARKET
We now turn to the derivation of aggregate demand under fixed
price of final goods and constant rate of interest in the economy.
In order to hold price constant at any particular
level, however, one must assume that the
suppliers are willing to supply whatever
amount consumers will demand at
that price. If quantity supplied is either
in excess of or falls short of quantity
demanded at this price, price will
change because of excess supply or
demand. To avoid this problem, we
How will the producer try to update his
assume that the elasticity of supply is production plans in order to avoid excess supply
infinite – i.e., supply schedule is or demand? Discuss this in the classroom.
 horizontal – at the fixed price. Under such circumstances, equilibrium output
will be solely determined by the aggregate amount of demand at this price in the
economy. We call it effective demand principle.
Note also the word short run. We assume that prices in the economy take
some time to respond to the forces of excess supply or demand. In the mean
time, producers try to update their production plans in order to avoid excess
supply or demand. For instance, if they face an excess supply in the current
production cycle they will plan to produce less in the next cycle so as to avoid
accumulation of stocks in their warehouses. Note also that an individual producer
is very small compared to the size of the national market and, therefore, she
cannot affect market price on her own. An individual producer has to accept the
price that prevails in the market. The aggregate price level in the economy changes
only when adjustments in all markets of the economy fail to eliminate the excess
demand or supply. Prices are, therefore, assumed to vary only in the long run.

4.3.1 A Point on the Aggregate Demand Curve

At a fixed price, the value of ex ante aggregate demand for final goods, AD, is
equal to the sum total of ex ante consumption expenditure and
ex ante investment expenditure. Under the effective demand principle, the
equilibrium output of the final goods is equal to ex ante aggregate demand,
as represented by equation 4.3
Y = A + c.Y
where A is the total value of autonomous expenditure in the economy.
Let us consider a numerical example to derive the value of the aggregate demand
and hence equilibrium output in the economy at a fixed price. Suppose the
values of the autonomous expenditures are C = 40, I = 10 and the value of
mpc, c = 0.8. What will be the equilibrium value of Y ?
Consider Y = 200, as a trial solution. At this output, the value of the
ex ante consumption expenditure is C = C + 0.8.Y = 40 + (0.8)200 = 200,
54
ex ante investment expenditure is I = I = 10 and ex ante aggregate demand
Introductory Macroeconomics

is AD = C + I = 200 + 10 = 210. At the level of output Y = 200 the value of

ex ante aggregate demand is 210, which denotes a situation of excess demand.
Clearly, Y = 200 is not the equilibrium level of output in the economy.
Consider, next, the output level Y = 300. Calculations similar to the above
case shows that the value of ex ante aggregate demand will be
A + cY = C + I + cY = 50 + (0.8)300 = 290.
The ex ante aggregate demand falls short of the output and there is excess
supply. Hence, Y = 300 is also not the equilibrium level of output in the economy.
Finally, consider Y = 250. At this output, AD = 50 + (0.8)250 = 250. We have
ultimately hit the correct value of Y, at which aggregate demand equals aggregate
supply. Y = 250 is, therefore, the equilibrium output of the economy at the fixed
price-interest rate combination.

4.3.2 Effects of an Autonomous Change on Equilibrium Demand in the

Product Market
What are the determinants of the equilibrium value of aggregate demand at
fixed price? In other words, what governs whether the equilibrium aggregate
demand would be 250 or 210 or 290 in the above example? The equilibrium
output and aggregate demand at the fixed price-interest rate is derived by solving
the equation Y = AD = A + cY . It is an equation involving only one variable, Y .
The solution of the equation is
A
Y= (4.4)
1– c
The value of Y will, therefore, depend on the values of the parameters on the
right hand side, which are A and c in this case. In the above example, the
equilibrium value of aggregate demand, 250, and hence the position of the single
point on the aggregate demand schedule that we have derived so far, will depend
on the values of these parameters. Compare the equation AD = A + cY with the
equation of a straight line of the standard form: b = ε + ma, as discussed in
section 4.2. A is the intercept parameter and c is the slope parameter of this
equation. When c increases, the straight line representing the equation of
aggregate demand will swing upwards. On the other hand, as A increases,
the straight line will shift in parallel upwards. However, A is only a composite
term, representing the sum of C and I , which are, therefore, the truly shifted
parameters of the AD line. Suppose I increases from 10 to 20. What will happen
to equilibrium output and aggregate demand?
Figure 4.5 above depicts the
situation. The lines AD1 and AD2
correspond to the two values of
A , viz. A 1 and A 2, respectively.
These values differ by Δ I = 10,
the increment in the autonomous
investment. Slope of the AD lines
is 0 < c < 1 and their intercepts
on the vertical axis are A 1 and
A 2, respectively. Note that, AD
lines are flatter than the 45° line
since the slope of the latter line is
55
equal to 1 (tan 45° = 1). The 45°

Income Determination
line represents points at which
aggregate demand and output Equilibrium Output and Aggregate Demand in the
are equal. Thus, when the level Fixed Price Model
of autonomous expenditure in
the economy is A1, the AD1 line intersects the 45° line at E1, which is, therefore,
the equilibrium point. The equilibrium values of output and aggregate demand
are Y 1* and AD *1 (= 250), respectively.
When autonomous investment increases, the AD1 line shifts in parallel
upwards and assumes the position AD2. The value of aggregate demand at
output Y1* is Y1* F, which is greater than the value of output 0Y 1* = Y1* E1 by an
amount E1F. E1F measures the amount of excess demand that emerges in the
economy as a result of the increase in autonomous expenditure. Thus, E1 no
longer represents the equilibrium. To find the new equilibrium in the final
goods market we must look for the point where the new aggregate demand
line, AD2, intersects the 45° line. That occurs at point E2, which is, therefore,
the new equilibrium point. The new equilibrium values of output and
aggregate demand are Y2* and AD*2, respectively.
Note that in the new equilibrium, output and aggregate demand have
increased by an amount E1G = E2G, which is greater than the initial increment
in autonomous expenditure, Δ I = E1F = E2 J. Thus an initial increment in the
 autonomous expenditure seems to have a spill-over effect on the equilibrium
values of aggregate demand and output. What causes aggregate demand and
output to increase by an amount larger than the size of the initial increment in
autonomous expenditure? We discuss it in section 4.3.3.

4.3.3 The Multiplier Mechanism

Clearly, 250 is no longer the equilibrium value of output or aggregate demand. With
I = 20, aggregate demand in the economy will be equal to 40 + 20 + (0.8) 250 = 260
from equation (4.4), which is greater than the output Y = 250 by the amount of
the increment in the autonomous investment (Δ I = 10). There is excess demand
in the economy and producers will have to run down their inventory to meet this
extra demand. Thus, in the next production cycle, they revise their production
plan upwards, i.e. increase the value of their planned supply of output by 10 to
restore equilibrium in the final goods market.
In the absence of a government imposing indirect taxes or disbursing
subsidies, the value of the total output of final goods or GDP is equal to National
Income. The production of final goods employs factors such as labour, capital,
land and entrepreneurship. In the absence of indirect taxes or subsidies, the
total value of the final goods output is disbursed among different factors of
production – wages to labour, interest to capital, rent to land etc. Whatever is
left over is appropriated by the entrepreneur and is called profit. Thus the sum
total of aggregate factor payments in the economy, National Income, is equal to
the aggregate value of the output of final goods, GDP. In the above example the
value of the extra output, 10, is distributed among various factors as factor
payments and hence the income of the economy goes up by 10. When income
increases by 10, consumption expenditure goes up by (0.8)10, since people
spend 0.8 (= mpc) fraction of their additional income on consumption. Hence, in
the next round, aggregate demand in the economy goes up by (0.8)10 and there
again emerges an excess demand equal to (0.8)10. Therefore, in the next
production cycle, producers increase their planned output further by (0.8)10 to
56 restore equilibrium. When this extra output is distributed among factors, the
income of the economy goes up by (0.8)10 and consumption demand increases
Introductory Macroeconomics

further by (0.8)210, once again creating excess demand of the same amount.
This process goes on, round after round, with producers increasing their output
to clear the excess demand in each round and consumers spending a part of
their additional income from this extra production on consumption items – thereby
creating further excess demand in the next round.
Let us register the changes in the values of aggregate demand and output at
each round in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1: The Multiplier Mechanism in the Final Goods Market

Consumption Aggregate Demand Output/Income

Round 1 0 10 (Autonomous Increment) 10
Round 2 (0.8)10 (0.8)10 (0.8)10
Round 3 (0.8)210 (0.8)210 (0.8)210
Round 4 (0.8)310 (0.8)310 (0.8)310
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . etc.
 The last column measures the increments in the value of the output of
final goods (and hence the income of the economy) in each round. The second
and third columns measure the increments in total consumption expenditure
in the economy and increments in the value of aggregate demand in a similar
way. Note that the increments in final goods output in successive rounds are
gradually diminishing. After a large number of rounds, therefore, the size of
the increments will be virtually indistinguishable from zero and subsequent
round effects will not practically contribute anything in the total volume of
output. We say that the round effects on final goods output represent a
convergent process. In order to find out the total increase in output of the final
goods, we must add up the infinite geometric series in the last column, i.e.
10 + (0.8)10 + (0.8)2 10 + · · · · · ·∞
10
= 10 {1 + (0.8) + (0.8)2 + · · · · · ·∞} = = 50
1 – 0.8
The increment in equilibrium value of total output thus exceeds the initial
increment in autonomous expenditure. The ratio of the total increment in
equilibrium value of final goods output to the initial increment in autonomous
expenditure is called the output multiplier of the economy. Recalling that 10
and 0.8 represent the values of Δ I = Δ A and mpc, respectively, the expression
for the multiplier can be written as
ΔY 1
The output multiplier = = (4.5)
ΔA 1 –c
where ΔY is the total increment in final goods output and c = mpc. Observe
that the size of the multiplier depends on the value of c. As c becomes larger the
multiplier increases.
Referring back to our example, an increment in autonomous expenditure
by 10 increases total output and aggregate demand in the economy by 50. The
value of the multiplier is 5. To cross check our calculation, let us compute the
value of aggregate demand and output at the new equilibrium with I = 20. 57
From equation (4.4) the value of output in the new equilibrium will be equal to

Income Determination
40 + 20
Y2* = = 300
1 – 0.8
This shows that our computation of the multiplier is indeed correct.
We shall conclude the fixed price-interest rate analysis of the final goods
market with an interesting counter-intuitive fact – or a ‘paradox’. If all the
people of the economy increase the proportion of income they save (i.e. if the
mps of the economy increases) the total value of savings in the economy will
not increase – it will either decline or remain unchanged. This result is known
as the Paradox of Thrift – which states that as people become more thrifty
they end up saving less or same as before. This result, though sounds apparently
impossible, is actually a simple application of the model we have learnt.
Let us continue with the example. Suppose at the initial equilibrium of
Y = 250, there is an exogenous or autonomous shift in peoples’ expenditure
pattern – they suddenly become more thrifty. This may happen due to a new
information regarding an imminent war or some other impending disaster,
which makes people more circumspect and conservative about their
expenditures. Hence the mps of the economy increases, or, alternatively, the
mpc decreases from 0.8 to 0.5. At the initial income level of AD *1 = Y 1* = 250,
this sudden decline in mpc will imply a decrease in aggregate consumption
 spending and hence in aggregate demand, AD = A + cY , by an amount
equal to (0.8 – 0.5) 250 = 75. This can be regarded as an autonomous
reduction in consumption expenditure, to the extent that the change in mpc
is occurring from some exogenous cause and is not a consequence of changes
in the variables of the model. But as aggregate demand decreases by 75, it
falls short of the output Y *1 = 250 and there emerges an excess supply equal
to 75 in the economy. Stocks are piling up in warehouses and producers
decide to cut the value of production by 75 in the next round to restore
equilibrium in the market. But that would mean a reduction in factor
payments in the next round and hence a reduction in income by 75. As income
decreases people reduce consumption proportionately but, this time,
according to the new value of mpc which is 0.5. Consumption expenditure,
and hence aggregate demand, decreases by (0.5)75, which creates again an
excess supply in the market. In the next round, therefore, producers reduce
output further by (0.5)75. Income of the people decreases accordingly and
consumption expenditure and aggregate demand goes down again by
(0.5)2 75. The process goes on. However, as can be inferred from the dwindling
values of the successive round effects, the process is convergent. What is the
total decrease in the value of output and aggregate demand? Add up the
infinite series 75 + (0.5) 75 + (0.5)2 75 + · · · ∞ and the total reduction in
output turns out to be
75
= 150
1 – 0.5
But that means the new equilibrium output of the economy is only Y 2* = 100.
People are now saving S *2 = Y 2* – C *2 = Y 2* – ( C + c2.Y2* ) = 100 – (40 + 0.5 × 100) = 10
in aggregate, whereas under the previous equilibrium they were saving
S *1 = Y 1* – C *1 = Y 1* – ( C + c1.Y 1* ) = 250 – (40 + 0.8 × 250) = 10 at the previous
mpc, c1 = 0.8. Total value of savings in the economy has, therefore, remained
58 unchanged.
In section 4.3.2, we had
Introductory Macroeconomics

talked about two types of AD

parametric changes in the position
of the AD line. When A changes AD1 = A + c1Y
the line shifts upwards or AD1* E1
downwards in parallel. When c *
AD2 = A + c2Y
AD2
changes, however, the line swings E2
–
up or down. An increase in mps, A
or a decline in mpc, reduces the
slope of the AD line and it swings 45°
downwards. We depict the
0 Y2* Y1*
situation in Fig. 4.6. Y
At the initial values of the
Fig. 4.6
parameters, A = 50 and c = 0.8,
the equilibrium value of the Paradox of Thrift – Downward Swing of AD Line
output and aggregate demand
from equation (4.4) was
50
Y1* = = 250
1 – 0.8
 Under the changed value of the parameter c = 0.5, the new equilibrium value
of output and aggregate demand is
50
Y 2* = = 100
1 – 0.5
The equilibrium output and aggregate demand have declined by 150.
As explained above, this, in turn, implies that there is no change in the total
value of savings.
Summary

When, at a particular price level, aggregate demand for final goods equals aggregate
supply of final goods, the final goods or product market reaches its equilibrium.
Aggregate demand for final goods consists of ex ante consumption, ex ante
investment, government spending etc. The rate of increase in ex ante consumption
due to a unit increment in income is called marginal propensity to consume. For
simplicity we assume a constant final goods price and constant rate of interest
over short run to determine the level of aggregate demand for final goods in the
economy. We also assume that the aggregate supply is perfectly elastic at this price.
Under such circumstances, aggregate output is determined solely by the level of
aggregate demand. This is known as effective demand principle. An increase
(decrease) in autonomous spending causes aggregate output of final goods to
increase (decrease) by a larger amount through the multiplier process.
Key Concepts

Aggregate demand Aggregate supply

Equilibrium Ex ante
Ex post Ex ante consumption
Marginal propensity to consume Ex ante investment
Unintended changes in inventories Autonomous change
Parametric shift Effective demand principle
59
Paradox of thrift Autonomous expenditure multiplier

Income Determination
?
Exercises

1. What is marginal propensity to consume? How is it related to marginal

propensity to save?
2. What is the difference between ex ante investment and ex post investment?
3. What do you understand by ‘parametric shift of a line’? How does a line shift
when its (i) slope decreases, and (ii) its intercept increases?
4. What is ‘effective demand’? How will you derive the autonomous expenditure
multiplier when price of final goods and the rate of interest are given?
5. Measure the level of ex-ante aggregate demand when autonomous investment
and consumption expenditure (A) is Rs 50 crores, and MPS is 0.2 and level of
income (Y) is Rs 4000 crores. State whether the economy is in equilibrium or

?
not (cite reasons).
6. Explain ‘Paradox of Thrift’.

Suggested Readings
1. Dornbusch, R. and S. Fischer. 1990. Macroeconomics, (fifth edition) pages
63 – 105, McGraw Hill, Paris.
Chapter 5
The Governmen
Governmentt :
Functions and Scope

In a mixed economy, apart from the private sector, there is the

government which plays a very important role. In this chapter,
we shall not deal with the myriad ways in which it influences
economic life but limit ourselves to three distinct functions that
operate through the revenue and expenditure measures of the
government budget.
First, certain goods, referred to as public goods (such as
national defence, roads, government administration), as distinct
from private goods (like clothes, cars, food items), cannot be
provided through the market mechanism, i.e. by transactions
between individual consumers and producers and must be
provided by the government. This is the allocation function.
Second, through its tax and expenditure policy, the
government attempts to bring about a distribution of income that
is considered ‘fair’ by society. The government affects the personal
disposable income of households by making transfer payments
and collecting taxes and, therefore, can alter the income
distribution. This is the distribution function.
Third, the economy tends to be subject to substantial
fluctuations and may suffer from prolonged periods of
unemployment or inflation. The overall level of employment and
prices in the economy depends upon the level of aggregate demand
which is a function of the spending decisions of millions of private
economic agents apart from the government. These decisions, in
turn, depend on many factors such as income and credit
availability. In any period, the level of expenditures may not be
sufficient for full utilisation of labour and other resources of the
economy. Since wages and prices are generally rigid downwards
(they do not fall below a level), employment cannot be restored
automatically. Hence, policy measures are needed to raise
aggregate demand. On the other hand, there may be times when
expenditures exceed the available output under conditions of high
employment and thus may cause inflation. In such situations,
restrictive conditions are needed to reduce demand. These
constitute the stabilisation requirements of the domestic economy.
To understand the need for governmental provision of public
goods, we must consider what distinguishes them from private
goods. There are two major differences. One, the benefits of public
goods are not limited to one particular consumer, as in the case
of private goods, but become available to all. For instance, if a
person consumes a chocolate or wears a shirt, these will not be available to
other individuals. This person’s consumption stands in a rival relationship to
the consumption of others. However, if we consider a public park or measures
to reduce air pollution, the benefits will be available to all. The consumption of
such products by several individuals is not ‘rivalrous’ in the sense that a person
can enjoy the benefits without reducing their availablity to others. Two, in
case of private goods anyone who does not pay for the good can be excluded
from enjoying its benefits. If you do not buy a ticket, you are excluded from
watching a film at a local theatre. However, in case of public goods, there is no
feasible way of excluding anyone from enjoying the benefits of the good (they
are non-excludable). Since non-paying users usually cannot be excluded, it
becomes difficult or impossible to collect fees for the public good. This is what
is called the ‘free-rider’ problem. Consumers will not voluntarily pay for what
they can get for free and for which there is no exclusive title to the property
being enjoyed. The link between the producer and the consumer is broken
and the government must step in to provide for such goods. Public provision,
however, is not the same as public production. Public provision means that
they are financed through the budget and made available free of any direct
payment. These goods may be produced directly under government
management or by the private sector.
The chapter proceeds as follows. In section 5.1, we present the components
of the government budget to bring out the sources of government revenue and
the avenues of government spending. In section 5.2, we discuss the issue of
government deficit, when expenditures exceed revenue collection. Section 5.3
deals with fiscal policy and the multiplier process within the income expenditure
approach described earlier. Government borrowing to cover deficits leads to debt
accumulation – what the government owes. The chapter concludes with an
analysis of the debt issue.

5.1 COMPONENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT BUDGET 61

There is a constitutional requirement in India (Article 112) to present before the

Function and Scope

The Government:
Parliament a statement of estimated receipts and expenditures of the government
in respect of every financial year which runs from 1 April to 31 March. This
‘Annual Financial Statement’ constitutes the main budget document. Further,
the budget must distinguish expenditure on the revenue account from other
expenditures. Therefore, the budget comprises of the (a) Revenue Budget and
the (b) Capital Budget (Refer Chart 1).

5.1.1 The Revenue Account

The Revenue Budget shows the current receipts of the government and the
expenditure that can be met from these receipts.
Revenue Receipts: Revenue receipts are divided into tax and non-tax revenues.
Tax revenues consist of the proceeds of taxes and other duties levied by the
central government. Tax revenues, an important component of revenue receipts,
comprise of direct taxes – which fall directly on individuals (personal income
tax) and firms (corporation tax), and indirect taxes like excise taxes (duties
levied on goods produced within the country), customs duties (taxes imposed
on goods imported into and exported out of India) and service tax. Excise
taxes are the single largest revenue earner contributing 35.7 per cent of total
tax revenue in 2003-04. Other direct taxes like wealth tax, gift tax and estate
 duty (now abolished) have never been of much significance in terms of revenue
yield and have thus been referred to as ‘paper taxes’. Two new
taxes – the fringe benefits tax (on those benefits enjoyed collectively by the
employees) and on cash withdrawals from banks over a certain threshold in a
day – were introduced in the budget for 2005-06. The share of direct taxes in
gross tax revenue has increased from 19.1 per cent in 1990-91 to 41.3 per cent
in 2003-04. There has been a reduction in the share of indirect tax revenue,
falling from 78.4 per cent in 1990-91 to 57.9 per cent in 2003-04.
The redistribution objective is sought to be achieved through progressive
income taxation, in which higher the income, higher is the tax rate. Firms are
taxed on a proportional basis, where the tax rate is a particular proportion of
profits. With respect to excise taxes, necessities of life are exempted or taxed at
low rates, comforts and semi-luxuries are moderately taxed, and luxuries,
tobacco and petroleum products are taxed heavily.
Non-tax revenue of the central government mainly consists of interest
receipts (on account of loans by the central government which constitutes the
single largest item of non-tax revenue), dividends and profits on investments
made by the government, fees and other receipts for services rendered by the
government. Cash grants-in-aid from foreign countries and international
organisations are also included.
The estimates of revenue receipts take into account the effects of tax proposals
made in the Finance Bill1.

Government Budget

Revenue Capital
Budget Budget
62
Introductory Macroeconomics

Revenue Capital Capital Capital

Receipts Expenditure Receipts Expenditure

Tax Non-tax Plan Revenue Non-plan Revenue Plan Capital Non-plan Capital
Revenue Revenue Expenditure Expenditure Expenditure Expenditure

Chart 1: The Components of the Government Budget

Revenue Expenditure: Broadly speaking, revenue expenditure consists of all

those expenditures of the government which do not result in creation of physical
or financial assets. It relates to those expenses incurred for the normal functioning
of the government departments and various services, interest payments on debt
incurred by the government, and grants given to state governments and other
parties (even though some of the grants may be meant for creation of assets).

1
A Finance Bill, presented along with the Annual Financial Statement, provides details of the
imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of taxes proposed in the Budget.
 Budget documents classify total revenue expenditure into plan and
non-plan expenditure. Plan revenue expenditure relates to central Plans
(the Five-Year Plans) and central assistance for State and Union Territory Plans.
Non-plan expenditure, the more important component of revenue expenditure,
covers a vast range of general, economic and social services of the government.
The main items of non-plan expenditure are interest payments, defence services,
subsidies, salaries and pensions.
Interest payments on market loans, external loans and from various reserve
funds constitute the single largest component of non-plan revenue
expenditure. They used up 41.5 per cent of revenue receipts in 2004-05.
Defence expenditure, the second largest component of non-plan expenditure,
is committed expenditure in the sense that given the national security
concerns, there exists little scope for drastic reduction. Subsidies are an
important policy instrument which aim at increasing welfare. Apart from
providing implicit subsidies through under-pricing of public goods and
services like education and health, the government also extends subsidies
explicitly on items such as exports, interest on loans, food and fertilisers.
The amount of subsidies as a per cent of GDP has been falling from 1.7 per
cent in 1990-91 to 1.66 per cent in 2002-03 to 1.45 per cent in 2004-05.

5.1.2 The Capital Account

The Capital Budget is an account of the assets as well as liabilities of the central
government, which takes into consideration changes in capital. It consists of
capital receipts and capital expenditure of the government. This shows the capital
requirements of the government and the pattern of their financing.
Capital Receipts: The main items of capital receipts are loans raised by the
government from the public which are called market borrowings, borrowing by
the government from the Reserve Bank and commercial banks and other financial
institutions through the sale of treasury bills, loans received from foreign
governments and international organisations, and recoveries of loans granted 63
by the central government. Other items include small savings (Post-Office Savings

Functions and Scope

The Government:
Accounts, National Savings Certificates, etc), provident funds and net receipts
obtained from the sale of shares in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
Capital Expenditure: This includes expenditure on the acquisition of land,
building, machinery, equipment, investment in shares, and loans and advances
by the central government to state and union territory governments, PSUs and
other parties. Capital expenditure is also categorised as plan and non-plan in
the budget documents. Plan capital expenditure, like its revenue counterpart,
relates to central plan and central assistance for state and union territory plans.
Non-plan capital expenditure covers various general, social and economic services
provided by the government.
The budget is not merely a statement of receipts and expenditures.
Since Independence, with the launching of the Five-Year Plans, it has also become
a significant national policy statement. The budget, it has been argued, reflects
and shapes, and is, in turn, shaped by the country’s economic life. Along with
the budget, three policy statements are mandated by the Fiscal Responsibility
and Budget Management Act, 2003 (FRBMA). The Medium-term Fiscal Policy
Statement sets a three-year rolling target for specific fiscal indicators and
examines whether revenue expenditure can be financed through revenue receipts
on a sustainable basis and how productively capital receipts including market
 borrowings are being utilised. The Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement sets the
priorities of the government in the fiscal area, examining current policies and
justifying any deviation in important fiscal measures. The Macroeconomic
Framework Statement assesses the prospects of the economy with respect to
the GDP growth rate, fiscal balance of the central government and external balance2.

5.1.3 Measures of Government Deficit

When a government spends more than it collects by way of revenue, it incurs a
budget deficit3. There are various measures that capture government deficit and
they have their own implications for the economy.
Revenue Deficit: The revenue deficit refers to the excess of government’s revenue
expenditure over revenue receipts
Revenue deficit = Revenue expenditure – Revenue receipts
The revenue deficit includes only such transactions that affect the current
income and expenditure of the government. When the government incurs a
revenue deficit, it implies that the government is dissaving and is using up the
savings of the other sectors of the economy to finance a part of its consumption
expenditure. This situation means that the government will have to borrow not
only to finance its investment but also its consumption requirements. This will
lead to a build up of stock of debt and interest liabilities and force the government,
eventually, to cut expenditure. Since a major part of revenue expenditure is
committed expenditure, it cannot be reduced. Often the government reduces
productive capital expenditure or welfare expenditure. This would mean lower
growth and adverse welfare implications.
Fiscal Deficit: Fiscal deficit is the difference between the government’s total
expenditure and its total receipts excluding borrowing
Gross fiscal deficit = Total expenditure – (Revenue receipts + Non-debt
creating capital receipts)
64
Non-debt creating capital receipts are those receipts which are not borrowings
Introductory Macroeconomics

and, therefore, do not give rise to debt. Examples are recovery of loans and the
proceeds from the sale of PSUs. The fiscal deficit will have to be financed through
borrowing. Thus, it indicates the total borrowing requirements of the government
from all sources. From the financing side
Gross fiscal deficit = Net borrowing at home + Borrowing from RBI +
Borrowing from abroad
Net borrowing at home includes that directly borrowed from the public
through debt instruments (for example, the various small savings schemes)
and indirectly from commercial banks through Statutory Liquidity Ratio
(SLR). The fiscal deficit of the central government, after declining from
6.6 per cent of GDP in 1990-91 to 4.1 per cent in 1996-97 rose to 6.2 per cent

2
The 2005-06 Indian Budget introduced a statement highlighting the gender sensitivities of the
budgetary allocations. Gender budgeting is an exercise to translate the stated gender commitments of
the government into budgetary commitments, involving special initiatives for empowering women and
examination of the utilisation of resources allocated for women and the impact of public expenditure
and policies of the government on women. The 2006-07 budget enlarged the earlier statement.
3
More formally, it refers to the excess of total expenditure (both revenue and capital) over total
receipts (both revenue and capital). From the 1997-98 budget, the practice of showing budget
deficit has been discontinued in India.
in 2001-02 (Table 5.1). Under the constraint imposed by the FRBMA, the fiscal
deficit as well as the revenue deficit have fallen to 4.1 per cent and 2.5 per cent
respectively in 2004-05 (provisional figures). The increasing share of the
revenue deficit as a proportion of the fiscal deficit (which was 49.4 per cent in
1990-91 but has increased to 79.7 in 2003-04) indicates the rapid decline in
the quality of the deficit.
Table 5.1: Receipts and Expenditures of the Central Government
(As per cent of GDP) 1990 2000 2001 2002 2003
-91 -01 -02 -03 -04
1. Revenue Receipts(a+b) 9.7 9.1 8.8 9.4 9.6
(a) Tax revenue(net of 7.6 6.5 5.9 6.5 6.8
states’ share)
(b) Non-tax revenue 2.1 2.7 3.0 3.0 2.8
2. Revenue Expenditure 12.9 13.2 13.2 13.8 13.1
(a) Interest payments 3.8 4.7 4.7 4.8 4.5
(b) Major subsidies 1.7 1.2 1.3 1.7 1.6
(c) Defence expenditure 1.9 1.8 1.7 1.7 1.6
3. Revenue Deficit(2–1) 3.3 4.0 4.4 4.4 3.6
4. Capital Receipts(a+b+c) 5.6 6.3 7.1 7.4 7.5
(a) Recovery of loans 1.0 0.6 0.7 1.4 2.4
(b) Other receipts(mainly PSU 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.6
disinvestment)
(c) Borrowings and other liabilities 4.6 5.6 6.2 5.9 4.5
5. Capital Expenditure 4.4 2.3 2.7 3.0 4.0
6. Total Expenditure [(2+5=6(a)+6(b)] 17.3 15.4 15.9 16.9 17.1
(a) Plan expenditure 5.0 3.9 4.4 4.6 4.4
(b) Non-plan expenditure 12.3 11.5 11.4 12.3 12.6
7. Fiscal Deficit [6–1–4(a)–4(b)] 6.6 5.6 6.2 5.9 4.5 65
8. Primary Deficit [7–2(a)] 2.8 0.9 1.5 1.1 0.0

Functions and Scope

The Government:
Source: Economic Survey, 2005-06

Primary Deficit: We must note that the borrowing requirement of the

government includes interest obligations on accumulated debt. To obtain an
estimate of borrowing on account of current expenditures exceeding revenues,
we need to calculate what has been called the primary deficit. It is simply the
fiscal deficit minus the interest payments
Gross primary deficit = Gross fiscal deficit – net interest liabilities
Net interest liabilities consist of interest payments minus interest receipts by
the government on net domestic lending.

5.2 FISCAL POLICY

One of Keynes’s main ideas in The General Theory of Employment, Interest
and Money was that government fiscal policy should be used to stabilise the
level of output and employment. Through changes in its expenditure and taxes,
the government attempts to increase output and income and seeks to stabilise
the ups and downs in the economy. In the process, fiscal policy creates a surplus
(when total receipts exceed expenditure) or a deficit budget (when total
 expenditure exceed receipts) rather than
a balanced budget (when expenditure
equals receipts). In what follows, we
study the effects of introducing
the government sector in our earlier
analysis of the determination
of income.
The government directly affects the
level of equilibrium income in two
specific ways – government purchases
of goods and services (G) increase
How does the Fiscal Policy try to achieve its
three basic objectives?
aggregate demand and taxes, and
transfers affect the relation between
income (Y) and disposable income (YD) – the income available for consumption
and saving with the households.
We take taxes first. We assume that the government imposes taxes that do
not depend on income, called lump-sum taxes equal to T. We assume
throughout the analysis that government makes a constant amount of transfers,
—
TR . The consumption function is now
—
C = C + cYD = C + c(Y – T + TR ) (5.1)
where YD = disposable income.
We note that taxes lower disposable income and consumption. For instance, if
one earns Rs 1 lakh and has to pay Rs 10,000 in taxes, she has the same disposable
income as someone who earns Rs 90,000 but pays no taxes. The definition of
aggregate demand augmented to include the government will be
—
AD = C + c(Y – T + TR ) + I + G (5.2)
Graphically, we find that the lump-sum tax shifts the consumption schedule
66 downward in a parallel way and hence the aggregate demand curve shifts in a
similar fashion. The income determination condition in the product market will
Introductory Macroeconomics

be Y = AD, which can be written as

—
Y = C + c (Y – T + TR ) + I + G (5.3)
Solving for the equilibrium level of income, we get
1 —
Y* = ( C – cT + c TR + I + G) (5.4)
1– c

5.2.1 Changes in Government Expenditure

We consider the effects of increasing government purchases (G) keeping taxes
constant. When G exceeds T, the government runs a deficit. Because G is a
component of aggregate spending, planned aggregate expenditure will increase.
The aggregate demand schedule shifts up to AD′ . At the initial level of output,
demand exceeds supply and firms expand production. The new equilibrium is
at E ′ . The multiplier mechanism (described in Chapter 4) is in operation. The
government spending multiplier is given by
1
ΔY = ΔG (5.5)
1– c
or
ΔY 1
= (5.6)
ΔG 1– c
 In Fig. 5.1, government
expenditure increases from G to AD
Y = AD
G′ and causes equilibrium income E'
to increase from Y to Y′ . C + I + G' – cT

5.2.2 Changes in Taxes E C + I + G – cT

We find that a cut in taxes
increases disposable income
(Y – T ) at each level of income. This
shifts the aggregate expenditure
schedule upwards by a fraction c
of the decrease in taxes. This is Y
Y* Y'
shown in Fig 5.2. Fig. 5.1
From equation 5.3, we have
1 Effect of Higher Government Expenditure
ΔY * = (–c)ΔT (5.7)
1– c
The tax multiplier
AD
ΔY –c E'
Y = AD
= = (5.8)
ΔT 1– c C + I + G – cT'
Because a tax cut (increase)
will cause an increase (reduction)
in consumption and output, the E C + I + G – cT
tax multiplier is a negative
multiplier. Comparing equation
(5.6) and (5.8), we find that the tax
multiplier is smaller in absolute
value compared to the
government spending multiplier. Y* Y' Y
This is because an increase in Fig. 5.2
government spending directly
Effect of a Reduction in Taxes 67
affects total spending whereas

Functions and Scope

The Government:
taxes enter the multiplier process through their impact on disposable income,
which influences household consumption (which is a part of total spending).
Thus, with a ΔT reduction in taxes, consumption, and hence total spending,
increases in the first instance by cΔT. To understand how the two multipliers
differ, we consider the following example.

EXAMPLE 5.1
Assume that the marginal propensity to
consume is 0.8. The government
expenditure multiplier will then be
1 1 1
= = = 5. For an increase
1 – c 1 – 0.8 0.2
in government spending by 100, the
equilibrium income will increase by 500
1
( ΔG = 5 × 100). The tax multiplier is
1–c
–c –0.8 –0.8
given by = = = –4.
Why is the poor man crying? Suggest 1– c 1 – 0.8 0.2
measures to wipe off his tears. A tax cut of 100 (ΔT= –100) will increase
 –c
equilibrium income by 400 ( ΔT = – 4 × –100). Thus, the equilibrium income
1– c
increases in this case by less than the amount by which it increased under a G
increase.

Within the present framework, if we take different values of the marginal

propensity to consume and calculate the values of the two multipliers, we find
that the tax multiplier is always one less in absolute value than the government
expenditure multiplier. This has an interesting implication. If an increase in
government spending is matched by an equal increase in taxes, so that the budget
remains balanced, output will rise by the amount of the increase in government
spending. Adding the two policy multipliers gives
ΔY * 1 –c 1–c
The balanced budget multiplier = = + = =1 (5.9)
ΔG 1–c 1–c 1–c
A balanced budget multiplier of unity implies that a 100 increase in G
financed by 100 increase in taxes increases income by just 100. This can be
seen from Example 1 where an increase in G by 100 increases output by 500. A
tax increase would reduce income by 400 with the net increase of income equal
to 100. The equilibrium income refers to the final income that one arrives at in a
period sufficiently long for all the rounds of the multipliers to work themselves
out. We find that output increases by exactly the amount of increased G with no
induced consumption spending due to increase in taxes. To see what must be
at work, we examine the multiplier process. The increase in government spending
by a certain amount raises income by that amount directly and then indirectly
through the multiplier chain increasing income by
ΔY = ΔG + cΔG + c2ΔG + . . . = ΔG (1 + c + c2 + . . .) (5.10)
But the tax increase only enters the multiplier process when the cut in
disposable income reduces consumption by c times the reduction in taxes.
68 Thus the effect on income of the tax increase is given by
ΔY = – cΔT – c2ΔT + . . . = – ΔT(c + c2 + . . .) (5.11)
Introductory Macroeconomics

The difference between the two gives the net effect on income. Since ΔG = ΔT,
from 5.10 and 5.11, we get ΔY = ΔG, that is, income increases by the amount by
which government spending increases and the balanced budget multiplier is
unity. This multiplier can also be derived from equation 5.3 as follows
ΔY = Δ G + c (ΔY – ΔT) since investment does not change (ΔI = 0) (5.12)

Since Δ G = ΔT, we have

ΔY 1– c
= =1 (5.13)
ΔG 1– c

Case of Proportional Taxes: A more realistic assumption would be that the

government collects a constant fraction, t, of income in the form of taxes so that
T = tY. The consumption function with proportional taxes is given by
— —
C = C + c (Y – tY + TR ) = C + c (1 – t ) Y + c TR (5.14)
We note that proportional taxes not only lower consumption at each level of
income but also lower the slope of the consumption function. The mpc out of
income falls to c (1 – t ). The new aggregate demand schedule, AD ′ , has a larger
intercept but is flatter as shown in Fig. 5.3.
 Now we have AD
—
AD = C + c(1 – t)Y + c TR + I Y = AD
AD = C + cY + I + G
+ G = A + c(1 – t)Y (5.15)

Where A = autonomous AD' = C + c(1 – t)Y + I + G

—
expenditure and equals C + c TR
+ I + G. Income determination
condition in the product market
is, Y = AD, which can be written as
Y = A + c (1 – t )Y (5.16)
Y
Solving for the equilibrium
level of income Fig. 5.3
1
Y * = 1 – c(1 – t ) A (5.17) Government and Aggregate Demand (proportional
taxes make the AD schedule flatter)
so that the multiplier is given by
ΔY 1
= 1 – c (1 – t ) (5.18)
ΔA

Comparing this with the AD

value of the multiplier with lump- AD = Y
sum taxes case, we find that the
value has become smaller. When E'
income rose as a result of an AD' = C + c(1 – t) + I + G'
increase in government spending
in the case of lump-sum taxes, AD = C + c(1 – t)Y + I + G
E
consumption increased by
c times the increase in income.
With proportional taxes,
consumption will rise by less, 69
Y* Y' Y
(c – ct = c (1 – t)) times the

Functions and Scope

The Government:
increase in income. Fig. 5.4
For changes in G, the
Increase in Government Expenditure (with
multiplier will now be given by proportional taxes)
ΔY = Δ G + c (1 – t)ΔY (5.19)
1
ΔY = 1 – c (1 – t ) ΔG (5.20)
AD = Y
The income increases from AD
AD' = C + c(1 – t')Y
Y * to Y ′ as shown in Fig. 5.4. +I+G
The decrease in taxes works E'
in effect like an increase in
propensity to consume as AD = C + c(1 – t)Y + I + G
shown in Fig. 5.5. The AD curve E
shifts up to AD ′ . At the initial
level of income, aggregate
demand for goods exceeds
Y Y' Y
output because the tax
reduction causes increased Fig. 5.5
consumption. The new higher
Effects of a Reduction in the Proportional Tax Rate
level of income is Y ′ .
 EXAMPLE 5.2
In Example 5.1, if we take a tax rate of 0.25, we find consumption will now rise
by 0.60 (c (1 – t) = 0.8 × 0.75) for every unit increase in income instead of the
earlier 0.80. Thus, consumption will increase by less than before. The
1 1 1
government expenditure multiplier will be 1 – c (1 – t ) = = = 2.5
1 – 0.6 0.4
which is smaller than that obtained with lump-sum taxes. If government
expenditure rises by 100, output will rise by the multiplier times the rise in
government expenditure, that is, by 2.5 × 100 = 250. This is smaller than the
increase in output with lump-sum taxes.

The proportional income tax, thus, acts as an automatic stabiliser – a

shock absorber because it makes disposable income, and thus consumer
spending, less sensitive to fluctuations in GDP. When GDP rises, disposable
income also rises but by less than the rise in GDP because a part of it is
siphoned off as taxes. This helps limit the upward fluctuation in consumption
spending. During a recession when GDP falls, disposable income falls less
sharply, and consumption does not drop as much as it otherwise would
have fallen had the tax liability been fixed. This reduces the fall in aggregate
demand and stabilises the economy.
We note that these fiscal policy instruments can be varied to offset the
effects of undesirable shifts in investment demand. That is, if investment falls
from I0 to I1, government spending can be raised from G 0 to G 1 so that
autonomous expenditure (C + I0 + G0 = C + I1 + G 1) and equilibrium income
remain the same. This deliberate action to stabilise the economy is often
referred to as discretionary fiscal policy to distinguish it from the inherent
automatic stabilising properties of the fiscal system. As discussed earlier,
proportional taxes help to stabilise the economy against upward and
downward movements. Welfare transfers also help to stabilise income. During
70 boom years, when employment is high, tax receipts collected to finance such
expenditure increase exerting a stabilising pressure on high consumption
Introductory Macroeconomics

spending; conversely, during a slump, these welfare payments help sustain

consumption. Further, even the private sector has built-in stabilisers.
Corporations maintain their dividends in the face of a change in income in
the short run and households try to maintain their previous living standards.
All these work as shock absorbers without the need for any decision-maker
to take action. That is, they work automatically. The built-in stabilisers,
however, reduce only part of the fluctuation in the economy, the rest must be
taken care of by deliberate policy initiative.
Transfers: We suppose that instead of raising government spending in goods
—
and services, government increases transfer payments, TR . Autonomous
—
spending, A , will increase by cΔ TR , so output will rise by less than the amount
by which it increases when government expenditure increases because a part of
any increase in transfer payments is saved. The change in equilibrium income for
a change in transfers is given by
c
ΔY = ΔTR (5.21)
1–c
or
ΔY c
= (5.22)
ΔTR 1– c
EXAMPLE 5.3
We suppose that the marginal propensity to consume is 0.75 and we have
lump-sum taxes. The change in equilibrium income when government
1
purchases increase by 20 is given by ΔY = ΔG = 4 × 20 = 80.
1 – 0.75
When taxes increase by 30, equilibrium income will decrease by 90 because
–0.75
ΔY = ΔT = – 3 × 30 = – 90. An increase in transfers of 20 will raise
1 – 0.75
0.75
equilibrium income by ΔY = ΔTR = 3 × 20 = 60. Thus, we find that
1 – 0.75
income increases by less than it increased with a rise in government purchases.

5.2.3 Debt
Budgetary deficits must be financed by either taxation, borrowing or printing
money. Governments have mostly relied on borrowing, giving rise to what is
called government debt. The concepts of deficits and debt are closely related.
Deficits can be thought of as a flow which add to the stock of debt. If the
government continues to borrow year after year, it leads to the accumulation
of debt and the government has to pay more and more by way of interest. These
interest payments themselves contribute to the debt.
Perspectives on the Appropriate Amount of Government Debt: There
are two interlinked aspects of the issue. One is whether government debt is a
burden and two, the issue of financing the debt. The burden of debt must be
discussed keeping in mind that what is true of one small trader’s debt may
not be true for the government’s debt, and one must deal with the ‘whole’
differently from the ‘part’. Unlike any one trader, the government can raise
resources through taxation and printing money.
By borrowing, the government transfers the burden of reduced
consumption on future generations. This is because it borrows by issuing
bonds to the people living at present but may decide to pay off the bonds 71
some twenty years later by raising taxes. These may be levied on the young

Functions and Scope

The Government:
population that have just entered the work force, whose disposable income
will go down and hence consumption. Thus, national savings, it was argued,
would fall. Also, government borrowing from the people reduces the savings
available to the private sector. To the extent that this reduces capital formation
and growth, debt acts as a ‘burden’ on future generations.
Traditionally, it has been argued that when a government cuts taxes and
runs a budget deficit, consumers respond to their after-tax income by spending
more. It is possible that these people are short-sighted and do not understand
the implications of budget deficits. They may not realise that at some point in
the future, the government will have to raise taxes to pay off the debt and
accumulated interest. Even if they comprehend this, they may expect the future
taxes to fall not on them but on future generations.
A counter argument is that consumers are forward-looking and will base
their spending not only on their current income but also on their expected
future income. They will understand that borrowing today means higher taxes
in the future. Further, the consumer will be concerned about future
generations because they are the children and grandchildren of the present
generation and the family which is the relevant decision making unit,
continues living. They would increase savings now, which will fully offset the
increased government dissaving so that national savings do not change. This
 view is called Ricardian equivalence after one of the greatest nineteenth
century economists, David Ricardo, who first argued that in the face of high
deficits, people save more. It is called ‘equivalence’ because it argues that
taxation and borrowing are equivalent means of financing expenditure. When
the government increases spending by borrowing today, which will be repaid
by taxes in the future, it will have the same impact on the economy as an
increase in government expenditure that is financed by a tax increase today.
It has often been argued that ‘debt does not matter because we owe it to
ourselves’. This is because although there is a transfer of resources between
generations, purchasing power remains within the nation. However, any debt
that is owed to foreigners involves a burden since we have to send goods abroad
corresponding to the interest payments.
Other Perspectives on Deficits and Debt: One of the main criticisms of deficits
is that they are inflationary. This is because when government increases spending
or cuts taxes, aggregate demand increases. Firms may not be able to produce
higher quantities that are being demanded at the ongoing prices. Prices will,
therefore, have to rise. However, if there are unutilised resources, output is held
back by lack of demand. A high fiscal deficit is accompanied by higher demand
and greater output and, therefore, need not be inflationary.
It has been argued that there is a decrease in investment due to a reduction in
the amount of savings available to the private sector. This is because if the
government decides to borrow from private citizens by issuing bonds to finance
its deficits, these bonds will compete with corporate bonds and other financial
instruments for the available supply of funds. If some private savers decide to buy
bonds, the funds remaining to be invested in private hands will be smaller. Thus,
some private borrowers will get ‘crowded out’ of the financial markets as the
government claims an increasing share of the economy’s total savings. However,
one must note that the economy’s flow of savings is not really fixed unless we assume
that income cannot be augmented. If government deficits succeed in their goal of
72 raising production, there will be more income and, therefore, more saving.
In this case, both government and industry can borrow more.
Introductory Macroeconomics

Also, if the government invests in infrastructure, future generations may be

better off, provided the return on such investments is greater than the rate of
interest. The actual debt could be paid off by the growth in output. The debt should
not then be considered burdensome. The growth in debt will have to be judged by
the growth of the economy as a whole.
Deficit Reduction: Government deficit can be reduced by an increase in taxes
or reduction in expenditure. In India, the government has been trying to
increase tax revenue with greater reliance on direct taxes (indirect taxes are
regressive in nature – they impact all income groups equally). There has also
been an attempt to raise receipts through the sale of shares in PSUs. However,
the major thrust has been towards reduction in government expenditure. This
could be achieved through making government activities more efficient through
better planning of programmes and better administration. A recent study4 by
the Planning Commission has estimated that to transfer Re1 to the poor,
government spends Rs 3.65 in the form of food subsidy, showing that cash
transfers would lead to increase in welfare. The other way is to change the
scope of the government by withdrawing from some of the areas where it

4
“Performance Evaluation of the Targeted Public Distribution System” by the Programme Evaluation
Organisation, Planning Commission.
 operated before. Cutting back government programmes in vital areas like
agriculture, education, health, poverty alleviation, etc. would adversely affect
the economy. Governments in many countries run huge deficits forcing them
to eventually put in place self-imposed constraints of not increasing expenditure
over pre-determined levels (Box 5.1 gives the main features of the FRBMA in
India). These will have to be examined keeping in view the above factors. We
must note that larger deficits do not always signify a more expansionary fiscal
policy. The same fiscal measures can give rise to a large or small deficit,
depending on the state of the economy. For example, if an economy experiences
a recession and GDP falls, tax revenues fall because firms and households pay
lower taxes when they earn less. This means that the deficit increases in a
recession and falls in a boom, even with no change in fiscal policy.
Summary

1. Public goods, as distinct from private goods, are collectively consumed. Two
important features of public goods are – they are non-rivalrous in that one person
can increase her satisfaction from the good without reducing that obtained by
others and they are non-excludable, and there is no feasible way of excluding
anyone from enjoying the benefits of the good. These make it difficult to collect
fees for their use and private enterprise will in general not provide these goods.
Hence, they must be provided by the government.
2. The three functions of allocation, redistribution and stabilisation operate through
the expenditure and receipts of the government.
3. The budget, which gives a statement of the receipts and expenditure of the
government, is divided into the revenue budget and capital budget to distinguish
between current financial needs and investment in the country’s capital stock.
4. The growth of revenue deficit as a percentage of fiscal deficit points to a
deterioration in the quality of government expenditure involving lower capital
formation. 73
5. Proportional taxes reduce the autonomous expenditure multiplier because taxes

Functions and Scope

The Government:
reduce the marginal propensity to consume out of income.
6. Public debt is burdensome if it reduces future growth in output.
Key Concepts

Public goods
Automatic stabiliser
Discretionary fiscal policy
Ricardian equivalence

Box 5.1: Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 (FRBMA)
In a multi-party parliamentary system, electoral concerns play an important
role in determining expenditure policies. A legislative provision, it is argued,
that is applicable to all governments – present and future – is likely to be
effective in keeping deficits under control. The enactment of the FRBMA, in
August 2003, marked a turning point in fiscal reforms, binding the
 government through an institutional framework to pursue a prudent fiscal
policy. The central government must ensure inter-generational equity, long-
term macro-economic stability by achieving sufficient revenue surplus,
removing fiscal obstacles to monetary policy and effective debt management
by limiting deficits and borrowing. The rules under the Act were notified
with effect from July, 2004.
Main Features
1. The Act mandates the central government to take appropriate measures to
reduce fiscal deficit and revenue deficits so as to eliminate the revenue
deficit by March 31, 2009 and thereafter build up adequate revenue surplus.
2. It requires the reduction in fiscal deficit by 0.3 per cent of GDP each
year and the revenue deficit by 0.5 per cent. If this is not achieved through
tax revenues, the necessary adjustment has to come from a reduction
in expenditure.
3. The actual deficits may exceed the targets specified only on grounds of
national security or natural calamity or such other exceptional grounds
as the central government may specify.
4. The central government shall not borrow from the Reserve Bank of India
except by way of advances to meet temporary excess of cash disbursements
over cash receipts.
5. The Reserve Bank of India must not subscribe to the primary issues of
central government securities from the year 2006-07.
6. Measures to be taken to ensure greater transparency in fiscal operations.
7. The central government to lay before both Houses of Parliament three
statements – Medium-term Fiscal Policy Statement, The Fiscal Policy
Strategy Statement, The Macroeconomic Framework Statement along with
the Annual Financial Statement.
8. Quarterly review of the trends in receipts and expenditure in relation to
the budget be placed before both Houses of Parliament.
The Act applies only to the central government. Though few states like
Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have enacted
74 fiscal responsibility legislations, the objective of fiscal consolidation,
growth and macroeconomic stability will not be achieved if all the states
Introductory Macroeconomics

do not participate. However, though there has been an effort by the

government to widen the tax net and ensure better compliance, there
have been fears that welfare expenditure may get reduced to meet the
targets mandated by the Act.

?
Exercises

1. Explain why public goods must be provided by the government.

2. Distinguish between revenue expenditure and capital expenditure.
3. ‘The fiscal deficit gives the borrowing requirement of the government’. Elucidate.
4. Give the relationship between the revenue deficit and the fiscal deficit.
5. Suppose that for a particular economy, investment is equal to 200, government
purchases are 150, net taxes (that is lump-sum taxes minus transfers) is 100
and consumption is given by C = 100 + 0.75Y (a) What is the level of equilibrium
income? (b) Calculate the value of the government expenditure multiplier and
the tax multiplier. (c) If government expenditure increases by 200, find the
change in equilibrium income.
6. Consider an economy described by the following functions: C = 20 + 0.80Y,
I = 30, G = 50, TR = 100 (a) Find the equilibrium level of income and the
 autonomous expenditure multiplier in the model. (b) If government expenditure
increases by 30, what is the impact on equilibrium income? (c) If a lump-sum
tax of 30 is added to pay for the increase in government purchases, how will
equilibrium income change?
7. In the above question, calculate the effect on output of a 10 per cent increase in
transfers, and a 10 per cent increase in lump-sum taxes. Compare the effects
of the two.
8. We suppose that C = 70 + 0.70Y D, I = 90, G = 100, T = 0.10Y (a) Find the
equilibrium income. (b) What are tax revenues at equilibrium income? Does
the government have a balanced budget?
9. Suppose marginal propensity to consume is 0.75 and there is a 20 per cent
proportional income tax. Find the change in equilibrium income for the following
(a) Government purchases increase by 20 (b) Transfers decrease by 20.
10. Explain why the tax multiplier is smaller in absolute value than the government
expenditure multiplier.
11. Explain the relation between government deficit and government debt.
12. Does public debt impose a burden? Explain.

?
13. Are fiscal deficits necessarily inflationary?
14. Discuss the issue of deficit reduction.

Suggested Readings
1. Dornbusch, R. and S. Fischer, 1994. Macroeconomics, sixth edition,
McGraw-Hill, Paris.
2. Mankiw, N.G., 2000. Macroeconomics, fourth edition, Macmillan Worth
publishers, New York.
3. Economic Survey, Government of India, various issues.

75

Functions and Scope

The Government:
Chapter 6
Open Economy
Macroeconomics
So far, we have simplified the analysis of income determination by
assuming a closed economy. In reality, most modern economies
are open. Interaction with other economies of the world widens
choice in three broad ways
(i) Consumers and firms have the opportunity to choose between
domestic and foreign goods. This is the product market linkage
which occurs through international trade.
(ii) Investors have the opportunity to choose between domestic and
foreign assets. This constitutes the financial market linkage.
(iii) Firms can choose where to locate production and workers to
choose where to work. This is the factor market linkage. Labour
market linkages have been relatively less due to various
restrictions on the movement of people through immigration
laws. Movement of goods has traditionally been seen as a
substitute for the movement of labour. We focus here on the
first two linkages.
An open economy is one that trades with other nations in
goods and services and, most often, also in financial assets.
Indians, for instance, enjoy using products produced around the
world and some of our production is exported to foreign
countries. Foreign trade, therefore, influences Indian aggregate
demand in two ways. First, when Indians buy foreign goods, this
spending escapes as a leakage from the circular flow of income
decreasing aggregate demand. Second, our exports to foreigners
enter as an injection into the circular flow, increasing aggregate
demand for domestically produced goods. Total foreign trade
(exports + imports) as a proportion of GDP is a common measure
of the degree of openness of an economy. In 2004-2005, this
was 38.9 per cent for the Indian economy (imports constituted
17.1 per cent and exports 11.8 per cent of GDP). This is
substantially higher than a total of 16 per cent that prevailed in
1985-86. However, in comparison to other countries, India is
relatively less open. There are several countries whose foreign
trade proportions are above 50 per cent of GDP.
Now, when goods move across national borders, money must
move in the opposite direction. At the international level, there is
no single currency that is issued by a central authority. Foreign
economic agents will accept a national currency only if they are
convinced that the currency will maintain a stable purchasing
power. Without this confidence, a currency will not be used as an
international medium of exchange and unit of account since there is no
international authority with the power to force the use of a particular currency
in international transactions. Governments have tried to gain confidence of
potential users by announcing that the national currency will be freely convertible
at a fixed price into another asset, over whose value the issuing authority has
no control. This other asset most often has been gold, or other national currencies.
There are two aspects of this commitment that has affected its credibility – the
ability to convert freely in unlimited amounts and the price at which conversion
takes place. The international monetary system has been set up to handle
these issues and ensure stability in international transactions. A nation’s
commitment regarding the above two issues will affect its trade and financial
interactions with the rest of the world.
We begin section 6.1 with the accounting of international trade and financial
flows. The next section examines the determination of price at which national
currencies are exchanged for each other. In section 6.3, the closed economy
income-expenditure model is amended to include international effects.

6.1 THE BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

The balance of payments (BoP) record the transactions in goods, services and
assets between residents of a country with the rest of the world. There are two
main accounts in the BoP – the current account and the capital account.
The current account records exports and imports in goods and services
and transfer payments. Trade in services denoted as invisible trade (because
they are not seen to cross national borders) includes both factor income (payment
for inputs-investment income, that is, the interest, profits and dividends on our
assets abroad minus the income foreigners earn on assets they own in India)
and non-factor income (shipping, banking, insurance, tourism, software services,
etc.). Transfer payments are receipts which the residents of a country receive
‘for free’, without having to make any present or future payments in return.
They consist of remittances, gifts and grants. They could be official or private. 77
The balance of exports and imports of goods is referred to as the trade balance.

Macroeconomics
Open–economy
Adding trade in services and net transfers to the trade balance, we get the current
account balance. The capital account records all international purchases and
sales of assets such as money, stocks, bonds, etc. We note that any transaction
resulting in a payment to foreigners is entered as a debit and is given a negative
sign. Any transaction resulting in a receipt from foreigners is entered as a credit
and is given a positive sign.

6.1.1 BoP Surplus and Deficit

The essence of international payments is that just like an individual who
spends more than her income must finance the difference by selling assets or
by borrowing, a country that has a deficit in its current account (spending
more abroad than it receives from sales to the rest of the world) must finance
it by selling assets or by borrowing abroad. Thus, any current account deficit
is of necessity financed by a net capital inflow. Table 6.1 (given at the end of
chapter) shows that there has been a trade deficit throughout the period and
a surplus in invisibles except for 1990-91. The current account deficit (which
has been observed for 24 years from 1977-78) had started shrinking and turned
into surplus from 2001-02. The surplus continued till 2003-04, but turned
into a deficit in 2004-05. The large trade deficit could not be bridged by the
invisibles surplus. In April-September 2005-06, the current account deficit of
 US$13 billion was financed by a capital inflow of US$19.5 billion, the extra
capital inflow of US$ 6.5 billion being added to our stock of foreign exchange.
Alternatively, the country could engage in official reserve transactions,
running down its reserves of foreign exchange, in the case of a deficit by selling
foreign currency in the foreign exchange market. The decrease (increase) in official
reserves is called the overall balance of payments deficit (surplus). The basic
premise is that the monetary authorities are the ultimate financiers of any deficit
in the balance of payments (or the recipients of any surplus). A country is said
to be in balance of payments equilibrium when the sum of its current account
and its non-reserve capital account equals zero, so that the current account
balance is financed entirely by international lending without reserve movements.
We note that the official reserve transactions are more relevant under a regime of
pegged exchange rates than when exchange rates are floating.
Autonomous and Accommodating Transactions: International economic
transactions are called autonomous when transactions are made independently of
the state of the BoP (for instance due to profit motive). These items are called ‘above
the line’ items in the BoP. The balance of payments is said to be in surplus (deficit)
if autonomous receipts are greater (less) than autonomous payments.
Accommodating transactions (termed ‘below the line’ items), on the other hand,
are determined by the net consequences of the autonomous items, that is, whether
the BoP is in surplus or deficit. The official reserve transactions are seen as the
accommodating item in the BoP (all others being autonomous).
Errors and Omissions constitute the third element in the BoP (apart from
the current and capital accounts) which is the ‘balancing item’ reflecting our
inability to record all international transactions accurately.

6.2 THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET

Having considered accounting of
international transactions on the
78 whole, we will now take up a single
transaction. Let us assume that an
Introductory Macroeconomics

Indian resident wants to visit London

on a vacation (an import of tourist
services). She will have to pay in
pounds for her stay there. She will need
to know where to obtain the pounds
and at what price. Her demand for Your currency in exchange for the dollar?
pounds would constitute a demand for Should exchange rates between two currencies
continue like this? Discuss.
foreign exchange which would be
supplied in the foreign exchange market – the market in which national
currencies are traded for one another. The major participants in this market are
commercial banks, foreign exchange brokers and other authorised dealers and
the monetary authorities. It is important to note that, although the participants
themselves may have their own trading centres, the market itself is world-wide.
There is close and continuous contact between the trading centres and the
participants deal in more than one market.
The price of one currency in terms of the other is known as the exchange
rate. Since there is a symmetry between the two currencies, the exchange rate
may be defined in one of the two ways. First, as the amount of domestic currency
required to buy one unit of foreign currency, i.e. a rupee-dollar exchange rate of
Rs 50 means that it costs Rs 50 to buy one dollar, and second, as the cost in
foreign currency of purchasing one unit of domestic currency. In the above case,
we would say that it costs 2 cents to buy a rupee. The practice in economic
literature, however, is to use the former definition – as the price of foreign currency
in terms of domestic currency. This is the bilateral nominal exchange rate –
bilateral in the sense that they are exchange rates for one currency against
another and they are nominal because they quote the exchange rate in money
terms, i.e. so many rupees per dollar or per pound.
However, returning to our example, if one wants to plan a trip to London,
she needs to know how expensive British goods are relative to goods at home.
The measure that captures this is the real exchange rate – the ratio of foreign
to domestic prices, measured in the same currency. It is defined as
eP f
Real exchange rate = (6.1)
P
where P and Pf are the price levels here and abroad, respectively, and e is
the rupee price of foreign exchange (the nominal exchange rate). The numerator
expresses prices abroad measured in rupees, the denominator gives the
domestic price level measured in rupees, so the real exchange rate measures
prices abroad relative to those at home. If the real exchange rate is equal to
one, currencies are at purchasing power parity. This means that goods cost
the same in two countries when measured in the same currency. For instance,
if a pen costs $4 in the US and the nominal exchange rate is Rs 50 per US
dollar, then with a real exchange rate of 1, it should cost Rs 200 (ePf = 50 × 4)
in India. If the real exchange rises above one, this means that goods abroad
have become more expensive than goods at home. The real exchange rate is
often taken as a measure of a country’s international competitiveness.
Since a country interacts with many countries, we may want to see the
movement of the domestic currency relative to all other currencies in a single
number rather than by looking at bilateral rates. That is, we would want an
index for the exchange rate against other currencies, just as we use a price
79
index to show how the prices of goods in general have changed. This is calculated

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
as the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) which is a multilateral rate
representing the price of a representative basket of foreign currencies, each
weighted by its importance to the domestic country in international trade (the
average of export and import shares is taken as an indicator of this). The Real
Effective Exchange Rate (REER) is calculated as the weighted average of the
real exchange rates of all its trade partners, the weights being the shares of the
respective countries in its foreign trade. It is interpreted as the quantity of
domestic goods required to purchase one unit of a given basket of foreign goods.

6.2.1 Determination of the Exchange Rate

The question arises as to why the foreign exchange rate1 is at this level and what
causes its movements? To understand the economic principles that lie behind
exchange rate determination, we study the major exchange rate regimes2 that
have characterised the international monetary system. There has been a move
from a regime of commitment of fixed-price convertibility to one without
commitments where residents enjoy greater freedom to convert domestic currency
into foreign currencies but do not enjoy a price guarantee.
1
Between any two currencies
2
An exchange rate regime or system is a set of international rules governing the setting of
exchange rates.
 6.2.2 Flexible Exchange Rates
In a system of flexible exchange rates (also known as floating exchange
rates), the exchange rate is determined by the forces of market demand and
supply. In a completely flexible system, the central banks follow a simple set
of rules – they do nothing to directly affect the level of the exchange rate, in
other words they do not intervene in the foreign exchange market (and therefore,
there are no official reserve transactions). The link between the balance of
payments accounts and the transactions in the foreign exchange market is
evident when we recognise that all expenditures by domestic residents on
foreign goods, services and assets and all foreign transfer payments (debits in
the BoP accounts) also represent demand for foreign exchange. The Indian
resident buying a Japanese car pays for it in rupees but the Japanese exporter
will expect to be paid in yen. So rupees must be exchanged for yen in the
foreign exchange market. Conversely, all exports by domestic residents reflect
equal earnings of foreign exchange. For instance, Indian exporters will expect
to be paid in rupees and, to buy our goods, foreigners must sell their currency
and buy rupees. Total credits in the BoP accounts are then equal to the supply
of foreign exchange. Another reason for the demand for foreign exchange is for
speculative purposes.
Let us assume, for simplicity, that India and the United States are the only
countries in the world, so that there is only one exchange rate to be determined.
The demand curve (DD) is downward sloping because a rise in the price of
foreign exchange will increase the cost in terms of rupees of purchasing foreign
goods. Imports will therefore decline and less foreign exchange will be
demanded. For the supply of foreign exchange to increase as the exchange
rate rises, the foreign demand for our exports must be more than unit elastic,
meaning simply that a one per cent increase in the exchange rate (which results
in a one per cent decline in the price of the export good to the foreign country
buying our good) must result in an increase in demand of more than one per
80 cent. If this condition is met, the rupee volume of our exports will rise more
than proportionately to the rise in the exchange rate, and earnings in dollars
Introductory Macroeconomics

(the supply of foreign exchange) will increase as the exchange rate rises.
However, a vertical supply curve (with a unit elastic foreign demand for Indian
exports) would not change the analysis. We note that here we are holding all
prices other than the exchange rate constant.
In this case of flexible exchange rates without central bank intervention,
the exchange rate moves to clear
the market, to equate the demand
for and supply of foreign
exchange. In Fig.6.1, the
equilibrium exchange rate is e *.
If the demand for foreign
exchange goes up due to Indians
travelling abroad more often, or
increasingly showing a preference
for imported goods, the DD curve
will shift upward and rightward.
The resulting intersection would
be at a higher exchange rate.
Changes in the price of foreign
exchange under flexible exchange Equilibrium under Flexible Exchange Rates
rates are referred to as currency
depreciation or appreciation. In Rs/$ D
the above case, the domestic D
currency (rupee) has depreciated S
since it has become less expensive
in terms of foreign currency. For e1
instance, if the equilibrium rupee- e*
dollar exchange rate was Rs 45 D'
and now it has become Rs 50 per
dollar, the rupee has depreciated D
against the dollar. By contrast, S
the currency appreciates when it
$
becomes more expensive in terms Fig. 6.2
of foreign currency.
At the initial equilibrium Effect of an Increase in Demand for Imports in the
exchange rate e*, there is now an Foreign Exchange Market
excess demand for foreign exchange. To clear the market, the exchange rate
must rise to the equilibrium value e1 as shown in Fig. 6.2. The rise in exchange
rate (depreciation) will cause the quantity of import demand to fall since the
rupee price of imported goods rises with the exchange rate. Also, the quantity of
exports demanded will increase since the rise in the exchange rate makes exports
less expensive to foreigners. At the new equilibrium with e1, the supply and
demand for foreign exchange is again equal.
Speculation: Exchange rates in the market depend not only on the demand
and supply of exports and imports, and investment in assets, but also on
foreign exchange speculation where foreign exchange is demanded for the
possible gains from appreciation of the currency. Money in any country is an
asset. If Indians believe that the British pound is going to increase in value
relative to the rupee, they will want to hold pounds. For instance, if the current
exchange rate is Rs 80 to a pound and investors believe that the pound is 81
going to appreciate by the end of the month and will be worth Rs 85, investors

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
think if they took Rs 80,000 and bought 1,000 pounds, at the end of the
month, they would be able to exchange the pounds for Rs 85,000, thus
making a profit of Rs 5,000. This expectation would increase the demand for
pounds and cause the rupee-pound exchange rate to increase in the present,
making the beliefs self-fulfilling.
The above analysis assumes that interest rates, incomes and prices remain
constant. However, these may change and that will shift the demand and supply
curves for foreign exchange.
Interest Rates and the Exchange Rate: In the short run, another factor
that is important in determining exchange rate movements is the interest rate
differential i.e. the difference between interest rates between countries. There
are huge funds owned by banks, multinational corporations and wealthy
individuals which move around the world in search of the highest interest
rates. If we assume that government bonds in country A pay 8 per cent rate of
interest whereas equally safe bonds in country B yield 10 per cent, the interest
rate diferential is 2 per cent. Investors from country A will be attracted by the
high interest rates in country B and will buy the currency of country B selling
their own currency. At the same time investors in country B will also find
investing in their own country more attractive and will therefore demand less
 of country A’s currency. This means that the demand curve for country A’s
currency will shift to the left and the supply curve will shift to the right causing
a depreciation of country A’s currency and an appreciation of country B’s
currency. Thus, a rise in the interest rates at home often leads to an
appreciation of the domestic currency. Here, the implicit assumption is that
no restrictions exist in buying bonds issued by foreign governments.
Income and the Exchange Rate: When income increases, consumer spending
increases. Spending on imported goods is also likely to increase. When imports
increase, the demand curve for foreign exchange shifts to the right. There is a
depreciation of the domestic currency. If there is an increase in income abroad
as well, domestic exports will rise and the supply curve of foreign exchange
shifts outward. On balance, the domestic currency may or may not depreciate.
What happens will depend on whether exports are growing faster than imports.
In general, other things remaining equal, a country whose aggregate demand
grows faster than the rest of the world’s normally finds its currency depreciating
because its imports grow faster than its exports. Its demand curve for foreign
currency shifts faster than its supply curve.
Exchange Rates in the Long Run: The Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) theory
is used to make long-run predictions about exchange rates in a flexible exchange
rate system. According to the theory, as long as there are no barriers to trade
like tariffs (taxes on trade) and quotas (quantitative limits on imports), exchange
rates should eventually adjust so that the same product costs the same whether
measured in rupees in India, or dollars in the US, yen in Japan and so on,
except for differences in transportation. Over the long run, therefore, exchange
rates between any two national currencies adjust to reflect differences in the
price levels in the two countries.

EXAMPLE 6.1
If a shirt costs $8 in the US and Rs 400 in India, the rupee-dollar exchange rate
82
should be Rs 50. To see why, at any rate higher than Rs 50, say Rs 60, it costs
Introductory Macroeconomics

Rs 480 per shirt in the US but only Rs 400 in India. In that case, all foreign
customers would buy shirts from India. Similarly, any exchange rate below
Rs 50 per dollar will send all the shirt business to the US. Next, we suppose that
prices in India rise by 20 per cent while prices in the US rise by 50 per cent.
Indian shirts would now cost Rs 480 per shirt while American shirts cost $12
per shirt. For these two prices to be equivalent, $12 must be worth Rs 480, or
one dollar must be worth Rs 40. The dollar, therefore, has depreciated.

According to the PPP theory, differences in the domestic inflation and foreign
inflation are a major cause of adjustment in exchange rates. If one country
has higher inflation than another, its exchange rate should be depreciating.
However, we note that if American prices rise faster than Indian prices and,
at the same time, countries erect tariff barriers to keep Indian shirts out (but not
American ones), the dollar may not depreciate. Also, there are many goods that
are not tradeable and inflation rates for them will not matter. Further, few goods
that different countries produce and trade are uniform or identical. Most
economists contend that other factors are more important than relative prices
for exchange rate determination in the short run. However, in the long run,
purchasing power parity plays an important role.
6.2.3 Fixed Exchange Rates
Countries have had flexible exchange rate system ever since the breakdown of
the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s. Prior to that, most countries
had fixed or what is called pegged exchange rate system, in which the
exchange rate is pegged at a particular level. Sometimes, a distinction is made
between the fixed and pegged exchange rates. It is argued that while the former
is fixed, the latter is maintained by the monetary authorities, in that the value
at which the exchange rate is pegged (the par value) is a policy variable – it
may be changed. There is a common element between the two systems. Under
a fixed exchange rate system, such as the gold standard, adjustment to BoP
surpluses or deficits cannot be brought about through changes in the exchange
rate. Adjustment must either come about ‘automatically’ through the workings
of the economic system (through the mechanism explained by Hume, given
below) or be brought about by the government. A pegged exchange rate system
may, as long as the exchange rate is not changed, and is not expected to change,
display the same characteristics. However, there is another option open to the
government – it may change the exchange rate. A devaluation is said to occur
when the exchange rate is increased by social action under a pegged exchange
rate system. The opposite of devaluation is a revaluation. Or, the government
may choose to leave the exchange rate unchanged and deal with the BoP
problem by the use of monetary and fiscal policy. Most governments change
the exchange rate very infrequently. In our analysis, we use the terms fixed
and pegged exchange rates interchangeably to denote an exchange rate regime
where the exchange rate is set by government decisions and maintained by
government actions.
We examine the way in which Rs./$
a country can ‘peg’ or fix the level
of its exchange rate. We assume D
S
that Reserve bank of India (RBI)
wishes to fix an exact par value 83
for the rupee at Rs 45 per dollar E

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
(e1 in Fig. 6.3). Assuming that this e*
official exchange rate is below e1
A B
the equilibrium exchange rate
(here e* = Rs 50) of the flexible D
exchange rate system, the rupee S
will be overvalued and the dollar
undervalued. This means that if $
Fig. 6.3
the exchange rate were market
determined, the price of dollars in Foreign Exchange Market with Pegged Exchange
terms of rupees would have to rise Rate
to clear the market. At Rs 45 to a dollar, the rupee is more expensive than it
would be at Rs 50 to a dollar (thinking of the rate in dollar-rupee terms, now
each rupee costs 2.22 cents instead of 2 cents). At this rate, the demand for
dollars is higher than the supply of dollars. Since the demand and supply
schedules were constructed from the BoP accounts (measuring only
autonomous transactions), this excess demand implies a deficit in the BoP.
The deficit is bridged by central bank intervention. In this case, the RBI would
sell dollars for rupees in the foreign exchange market to meet this excess
demand AB, thus neutralising the upward pressure on the exchange rate. The
RBI stands ready to buy and sell dollars at that rate to prevent the exchange
 rate from rising (since no one would buy at more) or falling (since no one would
sell for less).
Now the RBI might decide to fix the exchange rate at a higher level – Rs 47
per dollar – to bridge part of the deficit in BoP. This devaluation of the domestic
currency would make imports expensive and our exports cheaper, leading to a
narrowing of the trade deficit. It is important to note that repeated central bank
intervention to finance deficits and keep the exchange rate fixed will eventually
exhaust the official reserves. This is the main flaw in the system of fixed exchange
rates. Once speculators believe that the exchange rate cannot be held for long
they would buy foreign exchange (say, dollars) in massive amounts. The demand
for dollars will rise sharply causing a BoP deficit. Without sufficient reserves,
the central bank will have to allow the exchange rate to reach its equilibrium
level. This might amount to an even larger devaluation than would have been
required before the speculative ‘attack’ on the domestic currency began.
International experience shows that it is precisely this that has led many
countries to abandon the system of fixed exchange rates. Fear of such an attack
induced the US to let its currency float in 1971, one of the major events which
precipitated the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system.

6.2.4 Managed Floating

Without any formal international agreement, the world has moved on to what
can be best described as a managed floating exchange rate system. It is a
mixture of a flexible exchange rate system (the float part) and a fixed rate system
(the managed part). Under this system, also called dirty floating, central banks
intervene to buy and sell foreign currencies in an attempt to moderate exchange
rate movements whenever they feel that such actions are appropriate. Official
reserve transactions are, therefore, not equal to zero.

6.2.5 Exchange Rate Management: The International Experience

The Gold Standard: From around 1870 to the outbreak of the First World
84
War in 1914, the prevailing system was the gold standard which was the
Introductory Macroeconomics

epitome of the fixed exchange rate system. All currencies were defined in
terms of gold; indeed some were actually made of gold. Each participant country
committed to guarantee the free convertibility of its currency into gold at a
fixed price. This meant that residents had, at their disposal, a domestic currency
which was freely convertible at a fixed price into another asset (gold) acceptable
in international payments. This also made it possible for each currency to be
convertible into all others at a fixed price. Exchange rates were determined by
its worth in terms of gold (where the currency was made of gold, its actual gold
content). For example, if one unit of say currency A was worth one gram of
gold, one unit of currency B was worth two grams of gold, currency B would
be worth twice as much as currency A. Economic agents could directly convert
one unit of currency B into two units of currency A, without having to first buy
gold and then sell it. The rates would fluctuate between an upper and a lower
limit, these limits being set by the costs of melting, shipping and recoining
between the two Currencies 3. To maintain the official parity each country needed
an adequate stock of gold reserves. All countries on the gold standard had
stable exchange rates.

3
If the difference in the rates were more than those transaction costs, profits could be made
through arbitrage, the process of buying a currency cheap and selling it dear.
 The question arose – would not a country lose all its stock of gold if it
imported too much (and had a BoP deficit)? The mercantilist4 explanation was
that unless the state intervened, through tariffs or quotas or subsidies, on
exports, a country would lose its gold and that was considered one of the
worst tragedies. David Hume, a noted philosopher writing in 1752, refuted
this view and pointed out that if the stock of gold went down, all prices and
costs would fall commensurately and no one in the country would be worse
off. Also, with cheaper goods at home, imports would fall and exports rise (it is
the real exchange rate which will determine competitiveness). The country from
which we were importing and making payments in gold would face an increase
in prices and costs, so their now expensive exports would fall and their imports
of the first country’s now cheap goods would go up. The result of this price-
specie-flow (precious metals were referred to as ‘specie’ in the eighteenth
century) mechanism is normally to improve the BoP of the country losing gold,
and worsen that of the country with the favourable trade balance, until
equilibrium in international trade is re-established at relative prices that keep
imports and exports in balance with no further net gold flow. The equilibrium
is stable and self-correcting, requiring no tariffs and state action. Thus, fixed
exchange rates were maintained by an automatic equilibrating mechanism.
Several crises caused the gold standard to break down periodically.
Moreover, world price levels were at the mercy of gold discoveries. This can be
explained by looking at the crude Quantity Theory of Money, M = kPY, according
to which, if output (GNP) increased at the rate of 4 per cent per year, the gold
supply would have to increase by 4 per cent per year to keep prices stable.
With mines not producing this much gold, price levels were falling all over the
world in the late nineteenth century, giving rise to social unrest. For a period,
silver supplemented gold introducing ‘bimetallism’. Also, fractional reserve
banking helped to economise on gold. Paper currency was not entirely backed
by gold; typically countries held one-fourth gold against its paper currency.
Another way of economising on gold was the gold exchange standard which
85
was adopted by many countries which kept their money exchangeable at fixed
prices with respect to gold but held little or no gold. Instead of gold, they held

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
the currency of some large country (the United States or the United Kingdom)
which was on the gold standard. All these and the discovery of gold in Klondike
and South Africa helped keep deflation at bay till 1929. Some economic
historians attribute the Great Depression to this shortage of liquidity. During
1914-45, there was no maintained universal system but this period saw both
a brief return to the gold standard and a period of flexible exchange rates.
The Bretton Woods System: The Bretton Woods Conference held in 1944 set
up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and reestablished
a system of fixed exchange rates. This was different from the international gold
standard in the choice of the asset in which national currencies would be
convertible. A two-tier system of convertibility was established at the centre of
which was the dollar. The US monetary authorities guaranteed the convertibility
of the dollar into gold at the fixed price of $35 per ounce of gold. The second-tier
of the system was the commitment of monetary authority of each IMF member
participating in the system to convert their currency into dollars at a fixed price.
The latter was called the official exchange rate. For instance, if French francs

4
Mercantilist thought was associated with the rise of the nation-state in Europe during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
 could be exchanged for dollars at roughly 5 francs per dollar, the dollars could
then be exchanged for gold at $35 per ounce, which fixed the value of the franc
at 175 francs per ounce of gold (5 francs per dollar times 35 dollars per ounce).
A change in exchange rates was to be permitted only in case of a ‘fundamental
disequilibrium’ in a nation’s BoP – which came to mean a chronic deficit in the
BoP of sizeable proportions.
Such an elaborate system of convertibility was necessary because the
distribution of gold reserves across countries was uneven with the US having
almost 70 per cent of the official world gold reserves. Thus, a credible gold
convertibility of the other currencies would have required a massive
redistribution of the gold stock. Further, it was believed that the existing gold
stock would be insufficient to sustain the growing demand for international
liquidity. One way to save on gold, then, was a two-tier convertible system,
where the key currency would be convertible into gold and the other currencies
into the key currency.
In the post-World War II scenario, countries devastated by the war needed
enormous resources for reconstruction. Imports went up and their deficits were
financed by drawing down their reserves. At that time, the US dollar was the
main component in the currency reserves of the rest of the world, and those
reserves had been expanding as a consequence of the US running a continued
balance of payments deficit (other countries were willing to hold those dollars as
a reserve asset because they were committed to maintain convertibility between
their currency and the dollar).
The problem was that if the short-run dollar liabilities of the US continued
to increase in relation to its holdings of gold, then the belief in the credibility of
the US commitment to convert dollars into gold at the fixed price would be
eroded. The central banks would thus have an overwhelming incentive to
convert the existing dollar holdings into gold, and that would, in turn, force
the US to give up its commitment. This was the Triffin Dilemma after Robert
Triffin, the main critic of the Bretton Woods system. Triffin suggested that the
86 IMF should be turned into a ‘deposit bank’ for central banks and a new ‘reserve
asset’ be created under the control of the IMF. In 1967, gold was displaced by
Introductory Macroeconomics

creating the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), also known as ‘paper gold’, in the
IMF with the intention of increasing the stock of international reserves.
Originally defined in terms of gold, with 35 SDRs being equal to one ounce of
gold (the dollar-gold rate of the Bretton Woods system), it has been redefined
several times since 1974. At present, it is calculated daily as the weighted sum
of the values in dollars of four currencies (euro, dollar, Japanese yen, pound
sterling) of the five countries (France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US). It
derives its strength from IMF members being willing to use it as a reserve
currency and use it as a means of payment between central banks to exchange
for national currencies. The original installments of SDRs were distributed to
member countries according to their quota in the Fund (the quota was broadly
related to the country’s economic importance as indicated by the value of its
international trade).
The breakdown of the Bretton Woods system was preceded by many events,
such as the devaluation of the pound in 1967, flight from dollars to gold in
1968 leading to the creation of a two-tiered gold market (with the official rate at
$35 per ounce and the private rate market determined), and finally in August
1971, the British demand that US guarantee the gold value of its dollar holdings.
This led to the US decision to give up the link between the dollar and gold.
 The ‘Smithsonian Agreement’ in 1971, which widened the permissible band
of movements of the exchange rates to 2.5 per cent above or below the new
‘central rates’ with the hope of reducing pressure on deficit countries, lasted
only 14 months. The developed market economies, led by the United Kingdom
and soon followed by Switzerland and then Japan, began to adopt floating
exchange rates in the early 1970s. In 1976, revision of IMF Articles allowed
countries to choose whether to float their currencies or to peg them (to a single
currency, a basket of currencies, or to the SDR). There are no rules governing
pegged rates and no de facto supervision of floating exchange rates.
The Current Scenario: Many countries currently have fixed exchange rates.
Some countries peg their currency to the dollar. The creation of the European
Monetary Union in January, 1999, involved permanently fixing the exchange
rates between the currencies of the members of the Union and the introduction
of a new common currency, the Euro, under the management of the European
Central Bank. From January, 2002, actual notes and coins were introduced.
So far, 12 of the 25 members of the European Union have adopted the euro.
Some countries pegged their currency to the French franc; most of these are
former French colonies in Africa. Others peg to a basket of currencies, with the
weights reflecting the composition of their trade. Often smaller countries also
decide to fix their exchange rates relative to an important trading partner.
Argentina, for example, adopted the currency board system in 1991. Under
this, the exchange rate between the local currency (the peso) and the dollar
was fixed by law. The central bank held enough foreign currency to back all
the domestic currency and reserves it had issued. In such an arrangement,
the country cannot expand the money supply at will. Also, if there is a
domestic banking crisis (when banks need to borrow domestic currency) the
central bank can no longer act as a lender of last resort. However, following a
crisis, Argentina abandoned the currency board and let its currency float in
January 2002.
Another arrangement adopted by Equador in 2000 was dollarisation when 87
it abandoned the domestic currency and adopted the US dollar. All prices are

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
quoted in dollar terms and the local currency is no longer used in transactions.
Although uncertainty and risk can be avoided, Equador has given the control
over its money supply to the Central Bank of the US – the Federal Reserve –
which will now be based on economic conditions in the US.
On the whole, the international system is now characterised by a multiple of
regimes. Most exchange rates change slightly on a day-to-day basis, and market
forces generally determine the basic trends. Even those advocating greater fixity
in exchange rates generally propose certain ranges within which governments
should keep rates, rather than literally fix them. Also, there has been a virtual
elimination of the role for gold. Instead, there is a free market in gold in which
the price of gold is determined by its demand and supply coming mainly from
jewellers, industrial users, dentists, speculators and ordinary citizens who view
gold as a good store of value.

6.3 THE DETERMINATION OF INCOME IN AN OPEN ECONOMY

With consumers and firms having an option to buy goods produced at home
and abroad, we now need to distinguish between domestic demand for goods
and the demand for domestic goods.
 6.3.1 National Income Identity for an Open Economy
In a closed economy, there are three sources of demand for domestic goods –
Consumption (C ), government spending (G ), and domestic investment (I ).
We can write
Y=C+I+G (6.2)
In an open economy, exports (X ) constitute an additional source of demand
for domestic goods and services that comes from abroad and therefore must be
added to aggregate demand. Imports (M ) supplement supplies in domestic
markets and constitute that part of domestic demand that falls on foreign goods
and services. Therefore, the national income identity for an open economy is
Y+M=C+I+G+X (6.3)
Rearranging, we get
Y=C+I+G+X–M (6.4)
or
Y = C + I + G + NX (6.5)
where, NX is net exports (exports – imports). A positive NX (with exports
greater than imports) implies a trade surplus and a negative NX (with imports
exceeding exports) implies a trade deficit.
To examine the roles of imports and exports in determining equilibrium
income in an open economy, we follow the same procedure as we did for the
closed economy case – we take investment and government spending as
autonomous. In addition, we need to specify the determinants of imports and
exports. The demand for imports depends on domestic income (Y) and the real
exchange rate (R ). Higher income leads to higher imports. Recall that the real
exchange rate is defined as the relative price of foreign goods in terms of domestic
goods. A higher R makes foreign goods relatively more expensive, thereby leading
to a decrease in the quantity of imports. Thus, imports depend positively on Y
88 and negatively on R. The export of one country is, by definition, the import of
another. Thus, our exports would constitute foreign imports. It would depend
Introductory Macroeconomics

on foreign income, Yf , and on R. A rise in Yf will increase foreign demand for our
goods, thus leading to higher exports. An increase in R, which makes domestic
goods cheaper, will increase our exports. Exports depend positively on foreign
income and the real exchange rate. Thus, exports and imports depend on
domestic income, foreign income and the real exchange rate. We assume price
levels and the nominal exchange rate to be constant, hence R will be fixed. From
the point of view of our country, foreign income, and therefore exports, are
considered exogenous (X = X ).
The demand for imports is thus assumed to depend on income and have an
autonomous component
M = M + mY, where M > 0 is the autonomous component, 0 < m < 1. (6.6)
Here m is the marginal propensity to import, the fraction of an extra
rupee of income spent on imports, a concept analogous to the marginal
propensity to consume.
The equilibrium income would be
Y = C + c(Y – T ) + I + G + X – M – mY (6.7)
Taking all the autonomous components together as A , we get
Y = A + cY – mY (6.8)
 or, (1 – c + m )Y = A (6.9)
1
or, Y* = A (6.10)
1 – c +m
In order to examine the effects of allowing for foreign trade in the income-
expenditure framework, we need to compare equation (6.10) with the equivalent
expression for the equilibrium income in a closed economy model. In both
equations, equilibrium income is expressed as a product of two terms, the
autonomous expenditure multiplier and the level of autonomous expenditures.
We consider how each of these change in the open economy context.
Since m, the marginal propensity to import, is greater than zero, we get a
smaller multiplier in an open economy. It is given by
ΔY 1
The open economy multiplier = = 1 – c +m (6.11)
ΔA
EXAMPLE 6.2
If c = 0.8 and m = 0.3, we would have the open and closed economy multiplier
respectively as
1 1 1
= = =5 (6.12)
1–c 1 – 0.8 0.2
and
1 1 1
1 – c + m = 1 – 0.8 + 0.3 = 0.5 = 2 (6.13)
If domestic autonomous demand increases by 100, in a closed economy output
increases by 500 whereas it increases by only 200 in an open economy.

The fall in the value of the autonomous expenditure multiplier with the
opening up of the economy can be explained with reference to our previous
discussion of the multiplier process (Chapter 4). A change in autonomous
89
expenditures, for instance a change in government spending, will have a direct

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
effect on income and an induced effect on consumption with a further effect on
income. With an mpc greater than zero, a proportion of the induced effect on
consumption will be a demand for foreign, not domestic goods. Therefore, the
induced effect on demand for domestic goods, and hence on domestic income,
will be smaller. The increase in imports per unit of income constitutes an additional
leakage from the circular flow of domestic income at each round of the multiplier
process and reduces the value of the autonomous expenditure multiplier.
The second term in equation (6.10) shows that, in addition to the elements
for a closed economy, autonomous expenditure for an open economy includes
the level of exports and the autonomous component of imports. Thus, the changes
in their levels are additional shocks that will change equilibrium income. From
equation (6.10) we can compute the multiplier effects of changes in X and M .

ΔY * 1
= (6.14)
ΔX 1 – c +m

ΔY * –1
= 1– c +m (6.15)
ΔM
An increase in demand for our exports is an increase in aggregate demand
for domestically produced output and will increase demand just as would an
 increase in government spending or an autonomous increase in investment. In
contrast, an autonomous rise in import demand is seen to cause a fall in demand
for domestic output and causes equilibrium income to decline.

6.3.2 Equilibrium Output and the Trade Balance

We shall provide a diagrammatic explanation of the above mechanisms and, in
addition, their impact on the trade balance. Net exports, (NX = X – M), as we saw
earlier, depend on Y, Yf and R. A rise in Y raises import spending and leads to
trade deficit (if initially we had trade balance, NX = 0). A rise in Yf , other things
being equal, raises our exports, creates a trade surplus and raises aggregate
income. A real depreciation would raise exports and reduce imports, thus
increasing our net exports.
In the upper panel of
Fig. 6.4, the line AD plots AD
AD
domestic demand, C+I+G,
as a function of income DD
(the familiar closed C
economy relation of
Chapter 5). Under our AA
B
standard assumptions,
its slope is positive but
less than one. To get the A
demand for domestic
goods, we first subtract
imports obtaining the
line AA. The distance Y Ytb Y
between AD and AA is + Trade
surplus
equal to the value of
imports, M. Because the Net
quantity of imports Export O
90 increases with income, NX
the distance between the Trade
Introductory Macroeconomics

two lines increases with Deficit

income. AA is flatter than –
AD because as income Fig. 6.4
increases, some of the
additional domestic Aggregate Demand in an Open Economy and the net
Export Schedule
demand falls on foreign
goods. Thus, with an increase in income, the domestic demand for domestic goods
increases less than total domestic demand. Second, we add exports and get the
line DD, which is above AA. The distance between DD and AA is equal to exports
and remains constant because exports do not depend on domestic income ( the
two lines are parallel). Now, the open economy aggregate demand curve, DD, is
flatter than the closed economy one (because AA is flatter than AD).
In lower panel of Fig. 6.4, we examine the behaviour of net exports, NX, as a
function of income. For example, at income level Y, exports are given by the
distance AC and imports by the distance AB, so that net exports are given by
the distance BC.
Net exports are a decreasing function of domestic income. As income
increases, imports increase and exports are unaffected leading to lower net
exports. At Ytb (‘tb’ for trade balance), the level of income at which the value of
imports is just equal to exports,
net exports are equal to zero. Y = AD
Levels of income above Ytb lead AD
to higher imports, and thus a
trade deficit. Levels of income DD
below Ytb lead to lower imports,
and thus to a trade surplus.
The goods market is in
equilibrium when the supply
of domestic output is equal to
the demand for domestic
output, at point E in Fig.6.5
Y
at the intersection of the line Y*
DD with the 45-degree line.
There is no reason for the Net
equilibrium level of output, Exports B
Y *, to be the same as the level NX O
Ytb Trade
of output at which trade is
balanced, Y tb. In Fig. 6.5, C deficit
equilibrium output is
associated with a trade deficit
equal to the distance BC. Fig. 6.5
To examine the effects of
Equilibrium Income and Net Exports
an increase in autonomous
expenditure (say, G), we
assume a situation when, at the equilibrium level of income, Y, trade is balanced,
so that Y and Ytb are the same. If the government increases spending, as shown
in Fig. 6.6, the aggregate
demand line moves up from
DD to DD ′ , and equilibrium
91
moves up from E to E ′ and
income increases from Y to Y′ .

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
The NX schedule as a function
of output does not shift as G
does not enter the X or M
relation directly. The increase
in output is clearly larger
than the increase in G, there
is a multiplier effect. This is
similar to the closed economy
case, only that the multiplier
is smaller. The DD curve is
flatter than the closed
economy AD curve.
However, the increase in
output from Y to Y ′ leads to a
trade deficit equal to BC. The
trade deficit and the smaller
multiplier both arise from the
same cause – an increase in
demand now falls not only on Effect of Higher Government Spending
 domestic goods but also on foreign goods. This, as explained earlier, leads to a
smaller multiplier. And because some of the increase falls on imports and exports
remain unchanged, the result is a trade deficit.
These two implications are important. The more open the economy, the smaller
the effect on income and the larger the adverse effect on the trade balance. For
example, suppose a country has a ratio of imports to GDP of around 70 per cent.
This implies that when demand increases, roughly 70 per cent of this increased
demand goes to higher imports and only 30 per cent to an increase in demand
for domestic goods. An increase in G is thus likely to result in a large increase in
the country’s trade deficit and a small increase in output and income, making
domestic demand expansion an unattractive policy for the country.
Interdependent Incomes – Increase in Foreign Demand: We have so far
assumed that foreign income, prices and exchange rate remain unchanged. First,
we consider an increase in foreign income, Yf , keeping prices and the exchange
rate fixed. The initial demand for domestic goods is given by DD in Fig. 6.7. The
equilibrium is at point E, with output level Y. We assume that initially trade is
balanced so that net exports associated with Y are equal to zero.
As was explained in Fig. 6.4., the line AD is steeper than DD, the difference is
equal to net exports so that if trade is balanced at E, DD intersects AD at E. The
direct effect of an increase in Yf is to increase exports. For a given level of domestic
income, this increases demand for domestic goods so that DD shifts up to DD ′ .
As exports increase at a given level of income the net exports line also increases
to NX ′ . The new equilibrium is at point E ′ , with net output level Y ′ . The increase
in Yf leads to an increase in domestic income through the multiplier.

AD DD'
E'

AD
92 C
DD
Introductory Macroeconomics

D
Y
Y Y'

Net Trade
Exports, surplus
NX
O
Ytb
NX'
NX

Fig. 6.7

The Effects of Higher Foreign Demand

 What happens to the trade balance? If the increase in Y leads to a large
increase in imports, the trade balance could deteriorate. But it does not. At the
new level of income, domestic demand is given by DE ′ . Net exports are thus
given by CE ′ – which, because AD is necessarily below DD ′ , is necessarily positive.
Thus, while imports increase, they do not offset the increase in exports, and
there is a trade surplus. Coversely, a recession abroad would reduce domestic
exports and cause a trade deficit. Thus, booms and recessions in one country
tend to be transmitted to other countries through international trade in goods
and services.
Change in Prices: Next we consider the effects of changes in prices, assuming
the exchange rate to be fixed. If prices of domestic products fall, while say foreign
prices remain constant, domestic exports will rise, adding to aggregate demand,
and hence will raise our output and income. Analogously, a rise in prices of a
country’s exports will decrease that country’s net exports and output and
income. Similarly, a price increase abroad will make foreign products more
expensive and hence again raise net exports and domestic output and income.
Price decreases abroad have the opposite effects.
Exchange Rate Changes: Changes in nominal exchange rates would change
the real exchange rate and hence international relative prices. A depreciation
of the rupee will raise the cost of buying foreign goods and make domestic
goods less costly. This will raise net exports and therefore increase aggregate
demand. Conversely, a currency appreciation would reduce net exports and,
therefore, decrease aggregate demand. However, we must note that
international trade patterns take time to respond to changes in exchange
rates. A considerable period of time may elapse before any improvement in
net exports is apparent.

6.4 TRADE DEFICITS, SAVINGS AND INVESTMENT

93
The question arises – are trade deficits a cause for alarm? We note that an essential

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
difference between a closed economy and an open economy is that while in a
closed economy saving and investment must always be equal, in an open
economy, they can differ. From equation (6.5) we get
Y – C – G = I + NX (6.16)
or
S = I + NX (6.17)
P
We distinguish between private saving, S , (that part of disposable income
that is saved rather than consumed — Y – T – C ) and government saving, S g,
(government’s ‘income’, its net tax revenue minus its ‘consumption’, government
purchases, T – G). The two together add up to national saving
p g
S = Y – C – G = (Y – T – C ) + (T – G) = S + S (6.18)
Thus, from (6.16) and (6.17), we get
p g
S = S + S = I + NX
or
p g p
NX = (S – I ) + S = (S – I ) + (T – G ) (6.19)
 When a country runs a trade deficit5, it is important to look at the right
side of equation (6.18) to see whether there has been a decrease in saving,
increase in investment, or an increase in the budget deficit. There is reason to
worry about a country’s long-run prospects if the trade deficit reflects smaller
saving or a larger budget deficit (when the economy has both trade deficit and
budget deficit, it is said to be facing twin deficits). The deficit could reflect
higher private or government consumption. In such cases, the country’s capital
stock will not rise rapidly enough to yield enough growth (called the ‘growth
dividend’) it needs to repay its debt. There is less cause to worry if the trade
deficit reflects a rise in investment, which will build the capital stock more
quickly and increase future output. However, we must note that since private
saving, investment and the trade deficit are jointly determined, other factors
too must be taken into account.

5
Here,to simplify the analysis, we take trade balance to be synonymous with the current account
balance, ignoring invisibles and transfer payments. As Table 6.1 shows, invisibles can help bridge
the trade deficit in an important way.
Summary

1. Openness in product and financial markets allows a choice between domestic

and foreign goods and between domestic and foreign assets.
2. The BoP records a country’s transactions with the rest of the world.
3. The current account balance is the sum of the balance of merchandise trade,
services and net transfers received from the rest of the world. The capital
account balance is equal to capital flows from the rest of the world, minus
capital flows to the rest of the world.
4. A current account deficit is financed by net capital flows from the rest of the
world, thus by a capital account surplus.
5. The nominal exchange rate is the price of one unit of foreign currency in terms
of domestic currency.
94 6. The real exchange rate is the relative price of foreign goods in terms of domestic
goods. It is equal to the nominal exchange rate times the foreign price level
Introductory Macroeconomics

divided by the domestic price level. It measures the international

competitiveness of a country in international trade. When the real exchange
rate is equal to one, the two countries are said to be in purchasing power
parity.
7. The epitome of the fixed exchange rate system was the gold standard in which
each participant country committed itself to convert freely its currency into
gold at a fixed price. The pegged exchange rate is a policy variable and may be
changed by official action (devaluation).
8. Under clean floating, the exchange rate is market-determined without any
central bank intervention. In case of managed floating, central banks intervene
to reduce fluctuations in the exchange rate.
9. In an open economy, the demand for domestic goods is equal to the domestic
demand for goods (consumption, investment and government spending) plus
exports minus imports.
10. The open economy multiplier is smaller than that in a closed economy because
a part of domestic demand falls on foreign goods. An increase in autonomous
demand thus leads to a smaller increase in output compared to a closed
economy. It also results in a deterioration of the trade balance.
11. An increase in foreign income leads to increased exports and increases domestic
output. It also improves the trade balance.
12. Trade deficits need not be alarming if the country invests the borrowed funds
yielding a rate of growth higher than the interest rate.
Key Concepts

Open economy Balance of payments

Current account deficit Official reserve transactions
Autonomous and accommodating Nominal and real exchange rate
transactions
Purchasing power parity Flexible exchange rate
Depreciation Interest rate differential
Fixed exchange rate Devaluation
Managed floating Demand for domestic goods
Marginal propensity to import Net exports
Open economy multiplier

Box 6.1: Exchange Rate Management: The Indian Experience

India’s exchange rate policy has evolved in line with international and
domestic developments. Post-independence, in view of the prevailing
Bretton Woods system, the Indian rupee was pegged to the pound sterling
due to its historic links with Britain. A major development was the
devaluation of the rupee by 36.5 per cent in June, 1966. With the
breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, and also the declining share
of UK in India’s trade, the rupee was delinked from the pound sterling
in September 1975. During the period between 1975 to 1992, the
exchange rate of the rupee was officially determined by the Reserve
Bank within a nominal band of plus or minus 5 per cent of the weighted
basket of currencies of India’s major trading partners. The Reserve Bank
intervened on a day-to-day basis which resulted in wide changes in the
size of reserves. The exchange rate regime of this period can be described
as an adjustable nominal peg with a band.
The beginning of 1990s saw significant rise in oil prices and
suspension of remittances from the Gulf region in the wake of the Gulf 95
crisis. This, and other domestic and international developments, led to

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
severe balance of payments problems in India. The drying up of access
to commercial banks and short-term credit made financing the current
account deficit difficult. India’s foreign currency reserves fell rapidly
from US $ 3.1 billion in August to US $ 975 million on July 12, 1991 (we
may contrast this with the present; as of January 27, 2006, India’s
foreign exchange reserves stand at US $ 139.2 billion). Apart from
measures like sending gold abroad, curtailing non-essential imports,
approaching the IMF and multilateral and bilateral sources, introducing
stabilisation and structural reforms, there was a two-step devaluation
of 18 –19 per cent of the rupee on July 1 and 3, 1991. In march 1992,
the Liberalised Exchange Rate Management System (LERMS) involving
dual exchange rates was introduced. Under this system, 40 per cent of
exchange earnings had to be surrendered at an official rate determined
by the Reserve Bank and 60 per cent was to be converted at the market-
determined rates.The dual rates were converged into one from March
1, 1993; this was an important step towards current account
convertibility, which was finally achieved in August 1994 by accepting
Article VIII of the Articles of Agreement of the IMF. The exchange rate of
the rupee thus became market determined, with the Reserve Bank
ensuring orderly conditions in the foreign exchange market through its
sales and purchases.
 ?
Exercises
1. Differentiate between balance of trade and current account balance.
2. What are official reserve transactions? Explain their importance in the balance
of payments.
3. Distinguish between the nominal exchange rate and the real exchange rate. If
you were to decide whether to buy domestic goods or foreign goods, which rate
would be more relevant? Explain.
4. Suppose it takes 1.25 yen to buy a rupee, and the price level in Japan is 3 and
the price level in India is 1.2. Calculate the real exchange rate between India
and Japan (the price of Japanese goods in terms of Indian goods). (Hint: First
find out the nominal exchange rate as a price of yen in rupees).
5. Explain the automatic mechanism by which BoP equilibrium was achieved
under the gold standard.
6. How is the exchange rate determined under a flexible exchange rate regime?
7. Differentiate between devaluation and depreciation.
8. Would the central bank need to intervene in a managed floating system? Explain
why.
9. Are the concepts of demand for domestic goods and domestic demand for goods
the same?
10. What is the marginal propensity to import when M = 60 + 0.06Y? What is the
relationship between the marginal propensity to import and the aggregate
demand function?
11. Why is the open economy autonomous expenditure multiplier smaller than
the closed economy one?
12. Calculate the open economy multiplier with proportional taxes, T = tY , instead
of lump-sum taxes as assumed in the text.
13. Suppose C = 40 + 0.8Y D, T = 50, I = 60, G = 40, X = 90, M = 50 + 0.05Y (a) Find
equilibrium income. (b) Find the net export balance at equilibrium income
(c) What happens to equilibrium income and the net export balance when the
government purchases increase from 40 and 50?
96 14. In the above example, if exports change to X = 100, find the change in
equilibrium income and the net export balance.
Introductory Macroeconomics

15. Explain why G – T = (Sg – I) – (X – M).

16. If inflation is higher in country A than in Country B, and the exchange rate
between the two countries is fixed, what is likely to happen to the trade balance
between the two countries?
17. Should a current account deficit be a cause for alarm? Explain.
18. Suppose C = 100 + 0.75Y D, I = 500, G = 750, taxes are 20 per cent of income,
X = 150, M = 100 + 0.2Y . Calculate equilibrium income, the budget deficit or
surplus and the trade deficit or surplus.

? 19. Discuss some of the exchange rate arrangements that countries have entered
into to bring about stability in their external accounts.

Suggested Readings
1. Dornbusch, R. and S. Fischer, 1994. Macroeconomics, sixth edition,
McGraw-Hill, Paris.
2. Economic Survey, Government of India, 2006-07.
3. Krugman, P.R. and M. Obstfeld, 2000. International Economics, Theory and Policy,
fifth edition, Pearson Education.
 Table 6.1: Balance of Payments : Summary # (in US $ million)

1990 1989 2000 2001 2002 2003

-91 -99 -01 -02 -03 -04

1. Exports 18,477 34,298 45,452 44,703 53,774 66,285

2. Imports 27,915 47,544 57,912 56,277 64,464 80,003
of which POL 6,028 6,399 15,650 14,000 17,640 20,569
3. Trade balance –9,438 –13,246 –12,460 –11,574 –10,690 –13,718
4. Invisibles (net) –242 9,208 9,794 14,974 17,035 27,801
Non-factor services 980 2,165 1,692 3,324 3,643 10,144
Income –3,752 –3,544 –5,004 –4,206 –3,446 –4,505
Pvt. transfers 2,069 10,280 12,854 15,398 16,387 21,608
Official transfers 461 307 252 458 451 554
5. Current Account Balance –9,680 –4,038 –2,666 3,400 6,345 14,083
6. External assistance (net) 2,204 799 410 1,117 –3,128 –2,858
7. Commercial borrowings (net) 2,254 4,367 4,303 –1,585 –1,692 –2,925
8. IMF (net) 1,214 –393 –26 0 0 0
9. NR deposits (net) 1,536 961 2,316 2,754 2,978 3,642
10. Rupee debt service –1,192 –802 –617 –519 –474 –376
11. Foreign investment (net) 101 2,312 5,862 6,686 4,161 13,744
of which
(i) FDI(net) 96 2,380 3,272 4,734 3,217 2,388
(ii) FIIs 0 –390 1,847 1,505 377 10,918
(iii) Euro equities & others 5 322 743 447 567 438
12. Other flows (net)+ 2,284 623 –3,739 –96 8,795 6,111
13. Capital account total (net) 8,401 7,867 8,509 8,357 10,640 17,338
14. Reserve use (–increase) 1,279 –3,829 –5,842 –11,757 –16,985 –31,421

Source: Economic Survey, 2005-06.

97

Macroeconomics
Open Economy
Glossary
Adam Smith (1723 – 1790) Regarded as the father of modern
Economics. Author of Wealth of Nations.
Aggregate monetary resources Broad money without time deposits
of post office savings organisation (M3).
Automatic stabilisers Under certain spending and tax rules,
expenditures that automatically increase or taxes that automatically
decrease when economic conditions worsen, therefore, stabilising
the economy automatically.
Autonomous change A change in the values of variables in a
macroeconomic model caused by a factor exogenous to the model.
Autonomous expenditure multiplier The ratio of increase (or
decrease) in aggregate output or income to an increase (or decrease)
in autonomous spending.
Balance of payments A set of accounts that summarise a country’s
transactions with the rest of the world.
Balanced budget A budget in which taxes are equal to government
spending.
Balanced budget multiplier The change in equilibrium output that
results from a unit increase or decrease in both taxes and government
spending.
Bank rate The rate of interest payable by commercial banks to RBI
if they borrow money from the latter in case of a shortage of reserves.
Barter exchange Exchange of commodities without the mediation
of money.
Base year The year whose prices are used to calculate the real GDP.
Bonds A paper bearing the promise of a stream of future monetary
returns over a specified period of time. Issued by firms or
governments for borrowing money from the public.
Broad money Narrow money + time deposits held by commercial
banks and post office savings organisation.
Capital Factor of production which has itself been produced and
which is not generally entirely consumed in the production process.
Capital gain/loss Increase or decrease in the value of wealth of a
bondholder due to an appreciation or reduction in the price of her
bonds in the bond market.
Capital goods Goods which are bought not for meeting immediate
need of the consumer but for producing other goods.
Capitalist country or economy A country in which most of the production is
carried out by capitalist firms.
Capitalist firms These are firms with the following features (a) private ownership
of means of production (b) production for the market (c) sale and purchase of labour
at a price which is called the wage rate (d) continuous accumulation of capital.
Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) The fraction of their deposits which the commercial
banks are required to keep with RBI.
Circular flow of income The concept that the aggregate value of goods and services
produced in an economy is going around in a circular way. Either as factor
payments, or as expenditures on goods and services, or as the value of aggregate
production.
Consumer durables Consumption goods which do not get exhausted immediately
but last over a period of time are consumer durables.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) Percentage change in the weighted average price
level. We take the prices of a given basket of consumption goods.
Consumption goods Goods which are consumed by the ultimate consumers or
meet the immediate need of the consumer are called consumption goods. It may
include services as well.
Corporate tax Taxes imposed on the income made by the corporations (or private
sector firms).
Currency deposit ratio The ratio of money held by the public in currency to that
held as deposits in commercial banks.
Deficit financing through central bank borrowing Financing of budget deficit
by the government through borrowing money from the central bank. Leads to
increase in money supply in an economy and may result in inflation.
Depreciation A decrease in the price of the domestic currency in terms of the
foreign currency under floating exchange rates. It corresponds to an increase in
the exchange rate.
Depreciation Wear and tear or depletion which capital stock undergoes over a
period of time. 99
Devaluation The decrease in the price of domestic currency under pegged exchange

Glossary
rates through official action.
Double coincidence of wants A situation where two economic agents have
complementary demand for each others’ surplus production.
Economic agents or units Economic units or economic agents are those individuals
or institutions which take economic decisions.
Effective demand principle If the supply of final goods is assumed to be infinitely
elastic at constant price over a short period of time, aggregate output is determined
solely by the value of aggregate demand. This is called effective demand principle.
Entrepreneurship The task of organising, coordinating and risk-taking during
production.
Ex ante consumption The value of planned consumption.
Ex ante investment The value of planned investment.
Ex ante The planned value of a variable as opposed to its actual value.
Ex post The actual or realised value of a variable as opposed to its planned value.
Expenditure method of calculating national income Method of calculating the
national income by measuring the aggregate value of final expenditure for the
goods and services produced in an economy over a period of time.
 Exports Sale of goods and services by the domestic country to the rest of the world.
External sector It refers to the economic transaction of the domestic country with
the rest of the world.
Externalities Those benefits or harms accruing to another person, firm or any
other entity which occur because some person, firm or any other entity may be
involved in an economic activity. If someone is causing benefits or good externality
to another, the latter does not pay the former. If someone is inflicting harm or bad
externality to another, the former does not compensate the latter.
Fiat money Money with no intrinsic value.
Final goods Those goods which do not undergo any further transformation in the
production process.
Firms Economic units which carry out production of goods and services and employ
factors of production.
Fiscal policy The policy of the government regarding the level of government
spending and transfers and the tax structure.
Fixed exchange rate An exchange rate between the currencies of two or more
countries that is fixed at some level and adjusted only infrequently.
Flexible/floating exchange rate An exchange rate determined by the forces of
demand and supply in the foreign exchange market without central bank
intervention.
Flows Variables which are defined over a period of time.
Foreign exchange Foreign currency, all currencies other than the domestic
currency of a given country.
Foreign exchange reserves Foreign assets held by the central bank of the country.
Four factors of production Land, Labour, Capital and Entrepreneurship. Together
these help in the production of goods and services.
GDP Deflator Ratio of nominal to real GDP.
Government expenditure multiplier The numerical coefficient showing the size
of the increase in output resulting from each unit increase in government spending.
100 Government The state, which maintains law and order in the country, imposes
taxes and fines, makes laws and promotes the economic wellbeing of the citizens.
Introductory Macroeconomics

Great Depression The time period of 1930s (started with the stock market crash
in New York in 1929) which saw the output in the developed countries fall and
unemployment rise by huge amounts.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Aggregate value of goods and services produced
within the domestic territory of a country. It includes the replacement investment
of the depreciation of capital stock.
Gross fiscal deficit The excess of total government expenditure over revenue
receipts and capital receipts that do not create debt.
Gross investment Addition to capital stock which also includes replacement for
the wear and tear which the capital stock undergoes.
Gross National Product (GNP) GDP + Net Factor Income from Abroad. In other
words GNP includes the aggregate income made by all citizens of the country,
whereas GDP includes incomes by foreigners within the domestic economy and
excludes incomes earned by the citizens in a foreign economy.
Gross primary deficit The fiscal deficit minus interest payments.
High powered money Money injected by the monetary authority in the economy.
Consists mainly of currency.
Households The families or individuals who supply factors of production to the
firms and which buy the goods and services from the firms.
Imports Purchase of goods and services by the domestic country to the rest of the
world.
Income method of calculating national income Method of calculating national
income by measuring the aggregate value of final factor payments made (= income)
in an economy over a period of time.
Interest Payment for services which are provided by capital.
Intermediate goods Goods which are used up during the process of production of
other goods.
Inventories The unsold goods, unused raw materials or semi-finished goods which
a firm carries from a year to the next.
John Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946) Arguably the founder of Macroeconomics as
a separate discipline.
Labour Human physical effort used in production.
Land Natural resources used in production – either fixed or consumed.
Legal tender Money issued by the monetary authority or the government which
cannot be refused by anyone.
Lender of last resort The function of the monetary authority of a country in which
it provides guarantee of solvency to commercial banks in a situation of liquidity
crisis or bank runs.
Liquidity trap A situation of very low rate of interest in the economy where every
economic agent expects the interest rate to rise in future and consequently bond
prices to fall, causing capital loss. Everybody holds her wealth in money and
speculative demand for money is infinite.
Macroeconomic model Presenting the simplified version of the functioning of a
macroeconomy through either analytical reasoning or mathematical, graphical
representation.
Managed floating A system in which the central bank allows the exchange rate to
be determined by market forces but intervene at times to influence the rate.
Marginal propensity to consume The ratio of additional consumption to additional
101
income.

Glossary
Medium of exchange The principal function of money for facilitating commodity
exchanges.
Money multiplier The ratio of total money supply to the stock of high powered
money in an economy.
Narrow money Currency notes, coins and demand deposits held by the public in
commercial banks.
National disposable income Net National Product at market prices + Other Current
Transfers from the rest of the World.
Net Domestic Product (NDP) Aggregate value of goods and services produced
within the domestic territory of a country which does not include the depreciation
of capital stock.
Net interest payments made by households Interest payment made by the
households to the firms – interest payments received by the households.
Net investment Addition to capital stock; unlike gross investment, it does not
include the replacement for the depletion of capital stock.
Net National Product (NNP) (at market price) GNP – depreciation.
NNP (at factor cost) or National Income (NI) NNP at market price – (Indirect
taxes – Subsidies).
Nominal exchange rate The number of units of domestic currency one must give
 up to get an unit of foreign currency; the price of foreign currency in terms of
domestic currency.
Nominal (GDP) GDP evaluated at current market prices.
Non-tax payments Payments made by households to the firms or the government
as non-tax obligations such as fines.
Open market operation Purchase or sales of government securities by the central
bank from the general public in the bond market in a bid to increase or decrease
the money supply in the economy.
Paradox of thrift As people become more thrifty they end up saving less or same
as before in aggregate.
Parametric shift Shift of a graph due to a change in the value of a parameter.
Personal Disposable Income (PDI) PI – Personal tax payments – Non-tax payments.
Personal Income (PI) NI – Undistributed profits – Net interest payments made by
households – Corporate tax + Transfer payments to the households from the
government and firms.
Personal tax payments Taxes which are imposed on individuals, such as income
tax.
Planned change in inventories Change in the stock of inventories which has
occurred in a planned way.
Present value (of a bond) That amount of money which, if kept today in an interest
earning project, would generate the same income as the sum promised by a bond
over its lifetime.
Private income Factor income from net domestic product accruing to the private
sector + National debt interest + Net factor income from abroad + Current transfers
from government + Other net transfers from the rest of the world.
Product method of calculating national income Method of calculating the
national income by measuring the aggregate value of production taking place in
an economy over a period of time.
Profit Payment for the services which are provided by entrepreneurship.
102 Public good Goods or services that are collectively consumed; it is not possible to
exclude anyone from enjoying their benefits and one person’s consumption does
Introductory Macroeconomics

not reduce that available to others.

Purchasing power parity A theory of international exchange which holds that the
price of similar goods in different countries is the same.
Real exchange rate The relative price of foreign goods in terms of domestic goods.
Real GDP GDP evaluated at a set of constant prices.
Rent Payment for services which are provided by land (natural resources).
Reserve deposit ratio The fraction of their total deposits which commercial banks
keep as reserves.
Revaluation A decrease in the exchange rate in a pegged exchange rate system
which makes the foreign currency cheaper in terms of the domestic currency.
Revenue deficit The excess of revenue expenditure over revenue receipts.
Ricardian equivalence The theory that consumers are forward looking and
anticipate that government borrowing today will mean a tax increase in the future
to repay the debt, and will adjust consumption accordingly so that it will have the
same effect on the economy as a tax increase today.
Speculative demand Demand for money as a store of wealth.
Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) The fraction of their total demand and time deposits
which the commercial banks are required by RBI to invest in specified liquid assets.
Sterilisation Intervention by the monetary authority of a country in the money
market to keep the money supply stable against exogenous or sometimes external
shocks such as an increase in foreign exchange inflow.
Stocks Those variables which are defined at a point of time.
Store of value Wealth can be stored in the form of money for future use. This
function of money is referred to as store of value.
Transaction demand Demand for money for carrying out transactions.
Transfer payments to households from the government and firms Transfer
payments are payments which are made without any counterpart of services
received by the payer. For examples, gifts, scholarships, pensions.
Undistributed profits That part of profits earned by the private and government
owned firms which are not distributed among the factors of production.
Unemployment rate This may be defined as the number of people who were unable
to find a job (though they were looking for jobs), as a ratio of total number of people
who were looking for jobs.
Unit of account The role of money as a yardstick for measuring and comparing
values of different commodities.
Unplanned change in inventories Change in the stock of inventories which has
occurred in an unexpected way.
Value added Net contribution made by a firm in the process of production. It is
defined as, Value of production – Value of intermediate goods used.
Wage Payment for the services which are rendered by labour.
Wholesale Price Index (WPI) Percentage change in the weighted average price
level. We take the prices of a given basket of goods which is traded in bulk.

103

Glossary