Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Macro-economics - How the economy works
- Inflation
- Problems
- Hyperinflation
- Inflation rates increase by
1000+% per annum
- Measured with the
Consumer Price Index
(CPI)
- Best inflation rate is about 2-3% per annum
- The rise in the general price level
- Unemployment
- Measured with
- Claimont Count
- Measures number of
people claiming Job
Seekers Allowance (JSA)
- Labour Force Survey
- Survey of a sample of households,
counting people as unemployed if they are
actively seeking work but don't have a job
- Types and causes of unemployment
- Voluntary
- People choose not to work
- Seasonal
- Types of workers not needed at certain times of the year
- Frictional
- Workers moving between jobs
- Structural
- Long-term changes in the structural industry.
Workers will have wrong skills to do certain jobs
- Technological
- Capital takes the place of labour.
Workers lose their jobs to robots
- Cyclical
- Fall in total (aggregate) demand in the economy
- Problems
- Labour resources wasted
- Lower living standards
- Excluded workers
- Costs to taxpayers
- Budget defecit
- Regional problems
- Government Objectives
- Economic Growth
- Growth of the country's output over time
- Value of output = Value
of incomes for workers
- Government want to achieve
steady rate of growth
- Avoid cyclical changes in GDP
- Output measured as GDP
- The value of all goods and
services produced within the
country in a year
- GDP per Capita
- GDP Divided by the population
- Average output (income) which each person in the country has
- If GDP grows faster than the population
growth, GDP per capita will rise
- Causes of economic growth
- Factors of production
- Investment
- Spending on capital goods eg.
premises, machinery, equipment
- More investment means the economy has the
capacity to produces more goods in the future
- Changes in technology
- Technical improvements means
quality of capital goods increases
- Meaning a given quantity of capital can
now produce more output than before
- A larger workforce
- Economy make produce more if there are more workers
- Maybe due to immigration
or population increase
- Education and training
- The more educated, trained and skilled the workers
are, the higher the output of the country's likely to be
- Natural Resources
- If a country discovers or develops natural resources, potential
stimulus for economic growth eg. the middle east and their oil
- Government policies
- Government takes responsibility for
macro-economic management for the economy
- Benefits of economic growth
- Rise in material living standards
- If GDP rises at a faster rate thanthe population,
GDP per capita rises. Everyone on average has
more output available to consume than before
- People are materially better off
- Rise in welfare of the population
- AS the capacity of the economy grows
- As the capacity of the economy to produce
more grows, the government can devote more
resources to health and education services.
- This can increase life expectancy
and a higher rate of literacy
- Rise in employment and fall in unemployment
- As output rises, more workers
are needed to produce it
- Reduction in poverty
- As output and incomes rise, government
can take more in taxes from higher-income
groups and use revenue to raise living
standards for those with lower incomes
- Costs of economic growth
- Environmental costs
- More output and consumption
can lead to more pollution
- Congestion
- Economic growth often concentrated in urban
areas which may cause them to be overcrowded
- Loss of non-renewable sources
- Economic growth uses non-renewable
sources eg. coal, oil, natural gas
- Lower quality of life
- People become materially
better off but their, lifestyles
may change in a bad way
- Inequalities of income and wealth
- Benefits of growth are unevenly
spread, meaning some people get
better off and others left behind
- The gap between rich and
poor becomes wider
- Inflation
- Sometimes, the rate of
economic growth is too
fast for economy to
respond without a rise in
general price level
- Price Stability
- Keeping inflation low
- UK Government aims for
inflation rate of 2% not 0%
- Balance imports and exports
- Does NOT mean value of imports =
value of exports each year
- Government policies
- Fiscal Policy
- Aimed at changing the level of total
(aggregate) demand in the economy
- Can be done by
- Changes in taxation
- Changes in government's
own spending
- Used if government objectives are
- Increase employment and economic growth
- In order to increase total
(aggregate) demand
- Reduce imports and inflation
- In order to reduce total
(aggregate) demand
- Interest Rate Policy
- Aimed at changing the level of total
(aggregate) demand in the economy
- Can be done by
- Changes in interest rates
- Not operated by the government
but by the Bank of England
- Decrease rates if government objectives are
- Increase employment and economic growth
- Total (aggregate) demand increases
- Increase rates if government objectives are
- Reduce inflation and reduce imports
- Total (aggregate) demand decreases
- Supply-side Policies
- Aim is to increase the economy's capacity
to produce more goods and services