Chapter 24 GDP End of Chapter Questions
Chapter 24 GDP End of Chapter Questions
Chapter 24 GDP End of Chapter Questions
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
MEASURING DOMESTIC OUTPUT AND NATIONAL INCOME
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
News headlines frequently report the status of the nation’s economic conditions, but to many citizens the
information is confusing or incomprehensible. This chapter acquaints students with the basic language
of macroeconomics and national income accounting. GDP is defined and explained. Then, the
differences between the expenditure and income approaches to determining GDP are discussed and
analyzed in terms of their component parts. The income and expenditure approaches are developed
gradually from the basic expenditure-income identity, through tables and figures.
The importance of investment is given considerable emphasis, including the nature of investment, the
distinction between gross and net investment, the role of inventory changes, and the impact of net
investment on economic growth. On the income side, nonincome charges—consumption of fixed capital
(depreciation) and taxes on production and imports—are covered in detail because these usually give
students the most trouble.
Other measures of economic activity are defined and discussed, with special emphasis on using price
indexes. The purpose and procedure of deflating and inflating nominal GDP are carefully explained and
illustrated. Finally, the shortcomings of current GDP measurement techniques are examined. Global
comparisons are made with respect to size of national GDP and size of the underground economy.
The Last Word looks at the sources of data for the GDP accounts.
92
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
93
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
94
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
95
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
2. Once nominal GDP and the GDP price index are established, the relationship between them
and real GDP is clear (see Table 24.7).
3. The base year price index is always 100, since Nominal GDP and Real GDP use the same
prices. Because the long-term trend has been for prices to rise, adjusting Nominal GDP to
Real GDP involves inflating the lower prices before the base year and deflating the higher
prices after the base year.
4. Real GDP values allow more direct comparison of physical output from one year to the
next, because a “constant dollar” measuring device has been used. (The purchasing power
of the dollar has been standardized at the base year level -- currently 2000.)
VII. Shortcomings of GDP
A. GDP doesn’t measure some very useful output because it is unpaid (homemakers’ services,
parental child care, volunteer efforts, home improvement projects).
B. GDP doesn’t measure improved living conditions as a result of more leisure.
C. GDP does not measure improvements in product quality or make allowances for increased
leisure time.
D. The Underground Economy
1. Illegal activities are not counted in GDP (estimated to be around 8% of U.S. GDP).
2. Legal economic activity may also be part of the “underground,” usually in an effort to
avoid taxation.
E. GDP and the environment.
1. The harmful effects of pollution are not deducted from GDP (oil spills, increased incidence
of cancer, destruction of habitat for wildlife, the loss of a clear unobstructed view).
2. GDP does include payments made for cleaning up the oil spills, and the cost of health care
for the cancer victim.
F. GDP makes no value adjustments for changes in the composition of output or the distribution
of income.
1. Nominal GDP simply adds the dollar value of what is produced; it makes no difference if
the product is a semi-automatic rifle or a jar of baby food.
2. Per capita GDP may give some hint as to the relative standard of living in the economy;
but GDP figures do not provide information about how the income is distributed.
G. Noneconomic Sources of Well-Being like courtesy, crime reduction, etc., are not covered in
GDP.
VIII. LAST WORD: Magical Mystery Tour
A. GDP is compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in U.S. Commerce Department.
Where does it get its data? Explanation follows.
B. Consumption data comes from:
1. Census Bureau’s “Retain Trade Survey” from sample of 22,000 firms.
2. Census Bureau’s “Survey of Manufacturers,” which gets information on consumer goods
shipments from 50,000 firms.
3. Census Bureau’s “Service Survey” of 30,000 service businesses.
4. Industry trade sources like auto and aircraft sales.
96
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
97
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
Gross private domestic investment less depreciation is net private domestic investment.
Depreciation is the value of all the physical capital—machines, equipment, buildings—used up in
producing the year’s output.
Since net domestic product is gross domestic product less depreciation, in determining net domestic
product through the expenditures approach it would be appropriate to use the net investment
measure that excludes depreciation, that is, net private domestic investment.
24-5 Why are changes in inventories included as part of investment spending? Suppose inventories
declined by $1 billion during 2008. How would this affect the size of gross private domestic
investment and gross domestic product in 2008? Explain.
Anything produced by business that has not been sold during the accounting period is something in
which business has invested—even if the “investment” is involuntary, as often is the case with
inventories. But all inventories in the hands of business are expected eventually to be used by
business—for instance, a pile of bricks for extending a factory building—or to be sold—for
instance, a can of beans on the supermarket shelf. In the hands of business both the bricks and the
beans are equally assets to the business, something in which business has invested.
If inventories declined by $1 billion in 2008, $1 billion would be subtracted from both gross
private domestic investment and gross domestic product. A decline in inventories indicates that
goods produced in a previous year have been used up in this year’s production. If $1 billion is not
subtracted as stated, then $1 billion of goods produced in a previous year would be counted as
having been produced in 2008, leading to an overstatement of 2008’s production.
24-6 Use the concepts of gross and net investment to distinguish between an economy that has a rising
stock of capital and one that has a falling stock of capital. “In 1933 net private domestic
investment was minus $6 billion. This means that in that particular year the economy produced no
capital goods at all.” Do you agree? Why or why not? Explain: “Though net investment can be
positive, negative, or zero, it is quite impossible for gross investment to be less than zero.”
When gross investment exceeds depreciation, net investment is positive and production capacity
expands; the economy ends the year with more physical capital than it started with. When gross
investment equals depreciation, net investment is zero and production capacity is said to be static;
the economy ends the year with the same amount of physical capital. When depreciation exceeds
gross investment, net investment is negative and production capacity declines; the economy ends
the year with less physical capital.
The first statement in wrong. Just because net investment was a minus $6 billion in 1933 does not
mean the economy produced no new capital goods in that year. It simply means depreciation
exceeded gross investment by $6 billion. So the economy ended the year with $6 billion less
capital.
The second statement is correct. If only one $20 spade is bought by a construction firm in the
entire economy in a year and no other physical capital is bought, then gross investment is $20—a
positive amount. This is true even if net investment is highly negative because depreciation is well
above $20. If not even this $20 spade has been bought, then gross investment would have been
zero. But gross investment can never be less than zero.
24-7 Define net exports. Explain how the United States’ exports and imports each affects domestic
production. Suppose foreigners spend $7 billion on American exports in a given year and
Americans spend $5 billion on imports from abroad in the same year. What is the amount of
America’s net exports? Explain how net exports might be a negative amount.
Net exports are a country’s exports of goods and services less its imports of goods and services.
The United States’ exports are as much a part of the nation’s production as are the expenditures of
its own consumers on goods and services made in the United States. Therefore, the United States’
exports must be counted as part of GDP. On the other hand, imports, being produced in foreign
98
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
countries, are part of those countries’ GDPs. When Americans buy imports, these expenditures
must be subtracted from the United States’ GDP, for these expenditures are not made on the United
States’ production.
If American exports are $7 billion and imports are $5 billion, then American net exports are +$2
billion. If the figures are reversed, so that Americans export $5 billion and import $7 billion, then
net exports are -$2 billion—a negative amount. For this to come about, Americans must either
decrease their holdings of foreign currencies by $2 billion, or borrow $2 billion from foreigners—
or do a bit of both. (Another option is to sell back to foreigners some of the previous American
investments abroad.)
24-8 (Key Question) Below is a list of domestic output and national income figures for a given year.
All figures are in billions. The questions that follow ask you to determine the major national
income measures by both the expenditure and income methods. The results you obtain with the
different methods should be the same.
a. Using the above data, determine GDP by both the expenditure and the income approaches.
Then determine NDP.
b. Now determine NI: first, by making the required additions and subtractions from GDP; and
second, by adding up the types of income and taxes that make up NI.
99
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
10
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
24-10 Why do national income accountants compare the market value of the total outputs in various
years rather than actual physical volumes of production? What problem is posed by any
comparison over time of the market values of various total outputs? How is this problem resolved?
If it is impossible to summarize oranges and apples as one statistic, as the saying goes, it is surely
even more impossible to add oranges and, say, computers. If the production of oranges increases
by 100 percent and that of computers by 10 percent, it does not make any sense to add the 100
percent to the 10 percent, then divide by 2 to get the average and say total production has increased
by 55 percent.
Since oranges and computers have different values, the quantities of each commodity are multiplied
by their values or prices. Adding together all the results of the price times quantity figures leads to
the aggregate figure showing the total value of all the final goods and services produced in the
economy. Thus, to return to oranges and computers, if the value of orange production increases by
100 percent from $100 million to $200 million, while that of computers increases 10 percent from
$2 billion to $2.2 billion, we can see that total production has increased from $2.1 billion (= $100
million + $2 billion) to $2.4 billion (= $200 million + $2.2 billion). This is an increase of 14.29
percent [= ($2.4 billion - $2.1 billion)/$2.1 billion)]—and not the 55 percent incorrectly derived
earlier.
Comparing market values over time has the disadvantage that prices change. If the market value in
year 2 is 10 percent greater than in year 1, we cannot say the economy’s production has increased
10 percent. It depends on what has been happening to prices; on whether the economy has been
experiencing inflation or deflation.
To resolve this problem, statisticians deflate (in the case of inflation) or inflate (in the case of
deflation) the value figures for the total output so that only “real” changes in production are
recorded. To do this, each item is assigned a “weight” corresponding to its relative importance in
the economy. Housing, for example, is given a high weight because of its importance in the
average budget. A book of matches would be given a very low weight. Thus, the price of housing
increasing by 5 percent has a much greater effect on the price index used to compare prices from
one year to the next, than would the price of a book of matches increasing by 100 percent.
24-11 (Key Question) Suppose that in 1984 the total output in a single-good economy was 7,000 buckets
of chicken. Also suppose that in 1984 each bucket of chicken was priced at $10. Finally, assume
that in 2000 the price per bucket of chicken was $16 and that 22,000 buckets were purchased.
Determine the GDP price index for 1984, using 2000 as the base year. By what percentage did the
price level, as measured by this index, rise between 1984 and 2000? Use the two methods listed in
Table 24.6 to determine real GDP for 1984 and 2000.
10
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
X/100 = $10/$16 = .625 or 62.5 when put in percentage or index form (.625 x 100)
100 62.5 16 10 6
.60 or 60% (Easily calculated .6 60% )
62.5 10 10
Method 1: 2000 = (22,000 x $16) ÷ 1.0 = $352,000
1984 = (7,000 x $10) ÷ .625 = $112,000
Method 2: 2000 = 22,000 x $16 = $352,000
1984 = 7,000 x $16 = $112,000
24-12 (Key Question) The following table shows nominal GDP and an appropriate price index for a
group of selected years. Compute real GDP. Indicate in each calculation whether you are inflating
or deflating the nominal GDP data.
Values for real GDP, top to bottom of the column: $2,998.6 (inflating); $4,319.0 (inflating);
$5,813.2 (inflating); $7,835.4 (inflating); $10,755.5 (deflating).
24-13 Which of the following are included in this year’s GDP? Explain your answer in each case.
a. Interest on an AT&T corporate bond.
b. Social security payments received by a retired factory worker.
c. The unpaid services of a family member in painting the family home.
d. The income of a dentist.
e. The money received by Smith when she sells her economics textbook to a book buyer.
f. The monthly allowance a college student receives from home.
g. Rent received on a two-bedroom apartment.
h. The money received by Josh when he resells his current-year-model Honda automobile to Kim.
i. The publication of a college textbook.
j. A 2-hour decrease in the length of the workweek.
k. The purchase of an AT&T corporate bond.
l. A $2 billion increase in business inventories.
10
Chapter 24 - Measuring Domestic Output and National Income
10