Macroeconomics: Policy and Practice, 2e (Mishkin)
Chapter 2 Measuring Macroeconomic Data
2.1 Measuring Economic Activity: National Income Accounting
1) The fundamental identity of national income accounting implies ________.
A) Expenditure = Production + Income
B) Expenditure = Production = Income
C) Income = Expenditure – Production
D) Income = Expenditure / Production
E) None of the above
2) Who helps calculate GDP in the United States?
A) the Bureau of Economic Analysis
B) the Census Bureau
C) the Bureau of Labor Statistics
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
3) Which government entity calculates GDP in the United States on a quarterly basis?
A) the Treasury Department
B) the Commerce Department
C) the Federal Reserve
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
4) The statistic most often used by economists to measure the value of economic activity is
________.
A) GDP
B) the CPI
C) labor-force participation rate
D) the nominal interest rate
E) the real interest rate
2.2 Measuring GDP: The Production Approach
1) The production approach to measuring GDP requires ________.
A) that the market value of a given good is a reasonable approximation of its economic value
B) that all goods and services be added up before assigning a market value
C) that no good or service rendered outside the market be included in GDP
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
2) Which of the following is typically not counted in GDP?
A) any nonmarket good and services
B) income generated from apartment rentals
C) illegal drug sales
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
3) The reason only newly produced goods and services are counted in GDP is that ________.
A) it is very difficult to impute a value to used goods
B) most expenditures on used goods and services take place outside the market
C) it does not help economists make better economic predictions because second-hand goods
rarely have any residual value
D) it allows economists to avoid double counting the production of goods and services
E) none of the above
4) To avoid double counting in the calculation of GDP, which types of goods are typically
excluded from the calculation?
A) intermediate goods
B) capital goods
C) inventory goods
D) nonmarket goods
E) value-added goods
5) Capital goods are typically purchased to ________. They get included in GDP ________.
A) replace raw materials; in the year they are produced
B) enable the investor to produce other goods and services; in each year they are utilized
C) enable the investor to consume less in the current period; as they are used up in the stages of
production
D) enable the investor to produce other goods and services; in the year they are produced
E) none of the above
6) The difference between inventories and inventory investment is that typically ________.
A) the first one is a stock of unfinished or unsold goods; the second one is a flow that indicates
productive activity
B) the first one denotes the change in holdings of capital; the second one includes most final
goods
C) the first one is measured at the beginning of the year; the second one is measured at the end of
the year
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
7) In a two-good economy, the price of video games is $40 and the price of energy drinks is $2.
If the annual output of this economy is 100 video games and 500 drinks, the GDP is ________.
A) $50,080
B) $25,200
C) $5,000
D) $20,200
E) none of the above
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8) Consider a firm whose final output (and sales) in a particular year has a value of $1,200. To
produce these goods, the firm used $500 worth of intermediate goods it had purchased in
previous years plus $200 worth of newly-purchased intermediate goods. In the subsequent year,
this same firm again sells $1,200 worth of final goods, but in this year has purchased $700 worth
of intermediate goods, of which $100 is not used in current production but, rather, added to the
firm’s inventory. For each of these two years, calculate the value added by this firm. For each of
these two years, calculate the contribution of this firm to the economy’s GDP.
9) State the fundamental identity of national income accounting. Why is it not possible for this
identity to be violated?
2.3 Measuring GDP: The Expenditure Approach
1) If C is consumption, I is investment, G is government purchases and NX is net exports,
according to the expenditure approach, Y would stand for ________; and the national income
identity could be written as ________.
A) transfers; Y = C + I + G – NX
B) CPI; Y = C + I + G + NX
C) GDP; Y – C – I = G + NX
D) income; Y = C – I – G + NX
E) the real interest rate; Y = C + I + G + NX
2) Which of the following will be counted as an expenditure in the measurement of GDP?
(Assume that none of the transactions is concealed from the relevant authorities.)
A) the value of a used automobile that remains unsold on the dealer’s lot
B) purchase of a lamp at a neighborhood garage sale
C) purchase, using foodstamps, of a loaf of bread
D) payment by a parent to her child for doing household laundry
E) purchase of flour by a bakery
3) Which of the following will be counted as an investment expenditure in the measurement of
GDP?
A) purchase of a tractor by a farmer from his neighbor
B) purchase of preferred stock in ABC Corporation
C) purchase of a newly built tractor by a college fraternity for hay rides at their charity fair
D) purchase of an apartment in a newly-built building
E) purchase of newly built computers by a municipal government
Table 2.1 GDP and its components, 2012
4) Assuming that the GDP breakdown shown in Table 2.1 is typical of a given year in the U.S.
we can say that ________.
A) we spend twice as much on goods consumption as we do on services
B) consumption of durable goods is twice that of nondurables
C) government purchases is the largest main component of GDP
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
5) Assuming that the GDP breakdown shown in Table 2.1 is typical of a given year in the U.S.
we can say that ________.
A) we spend twice as much on services as we do on goods consumption
B) consumption of nondurable goods is twice that of durables
C) private investment is the smallest of the main domestic components of GDP
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
6) Assuming that the GDP breakdown shown in Table 2.1 is typical of a given year in the U.S.
we can say that ________.
A) federal defense spending is twice that of non-defense spending
B) federal spending is twice as large as that of the states and local governments
C) government spending constitutes about 40% of GDP
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
7) Which of the following is a valid characteristic of the U.S. economy over the last sixty years?
A) Investment is more volatile than other components of GDP.
B) Government spending has remained around 20% of GDP over much of the postwar period.
C) The U.S. has, for the most part, been running a trade deficit which has trended upward to over
5% of GDP.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
8) Which of the following is a valid characteristic of the U.S. economy over the last sixty years?
A) Investment is smoother than most of the other components of GDP, especially consumption.
B) Government spending has remained around 20% of GDP over much of the postwar period.
C) The U.S. has, for the most part, been running a trade surplus which has trended upward to
over 5% of GDP.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
9) An international comparison of eight major industrialized countries reveals the following
about the components of GDP: ________.
A) the U.S. has one of the largest shares of GDP going to investment
B) the U.S. has one of the smallest government share of GDP
C) the U.S. runs one of the largest trade deficits
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
10) An international comparison of eight major industrialized countries reveals the following
about the components of GDP: ________.
A) China has the highest share of investment among the eight countries
B) India has the largest government share of output
C) the U.S. is the largest consumer as a share of GDP
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
11) Over the past half-century, government transfer payments have increased. As a result
________.
A) interest payments on government debt have declined
B) government expenditures have become a larger portion of GDP
C) the volatility of investment expenditures has declined
D) net exports have been positive in most years
E) none of the above
12) A few economies have the interesting characteristic that exports are more than 100 percent of
the economy’s GDP. How is this possible?
13) Describe how the investment component of GDP is distinct from the other components.
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2.4 Measuring GDP: The Income Approach
1) The income approach to measuring GDP involves adding up the following ________.
A) household income and income generated by firms
B) private spending, tax revenues and government spending
C) transfer payments and income taxes
D) interest income, profits and social security benefits
E) wages, benefits and interest income
2) Which of the following is included in the calculation of national income?
A) compensation of employees
B) rental income
C) indirect business taxes
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
3) In a country with unusually high tax rates, one might expect that ________.
A) GDP might be overstated because the government might avoid running surpluses
B) GDP might be understated because its citizens might avoid reporting some of their income
C) GDP might be overstated because the government might raise its outlays
D) GDP might be understated because its citizens might flee the country
E) after tax income should be much higher than that of countries with lower tax rates
4) Net national product + ________ = ________.
A) net interest; gross domestic product
B) depreciation; gross national product
C) depreciation; private disposable income
D) private disposable income; gross national product
5) Which of the following is included in net government income?
A) social security benefits
B) factor income
C) taxes
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
6) Which is the largest category of income in the United States?
A) self-employment income
B) corporate profits
C) employee compensation
D) net interest income
E) none of the above
7) Which component of employee compensation has grown most rapidly in recent decades?
A) net interest income
B) benefits
C) transfer payments
D) wages and salaries
E) net factor income
8) Private disposable income equals GDP ________.
A) minus corporate profits and net factor income
B) plus transfer payments and net exports
C) plus depreciation, transfer payments, and interest payments on government debt
D) plus net factor income minus net government income
E) none of the above
9) The total income earned by residents of an economy is known as
A) private disposable income
B) gross national product
C) gross domestic product
D) national income
E) none of the above
10) Subtraction of ________ from Gross National Product yields Gross Domestic Product.
A) net factor income
B) depreciation
C) factor income to the rest of the world
D) net government income
E) none of the above
11) According to the fundamental identity of national income accounting, income and output are
identical. Why, then, is national income not equal to GDP?
2.5 Real Versus Nominal GDP
1) All income, production, and expenditure variables that are measured at current market prices
are referred to as ________.
A) real variables
B) nominal variables
C) implicit variables
D) index variables
E) none of the above
2) An example of a nominal variable is ________.
A) income measured at current market prices
B) expenditures in terms of the quantities of actual goods
C) the chain weighted measure of GDP
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Real and Nominal GDP
video games
energy drinks
year 1 price
40
2
year 1 output
100
500
year 2 price
40
2.5
year 2 output
120
550
year 3 price
45
2.5
year 3 output
150
600
3) Based on the table “Real and Nominal GDP,” if year one is the base year, then the real GDP
in year two, is ________.
A) 5000
B) 5250
C) 5900
D) 6175
E) none of the above
4) Based on the table “Real and Nominal GDP,” if year one is the base year, then the real GDP
in year three, is ________.
A) 7200
B) 8250
C) 1050
D) 7500
E) none of the above
5) Based on the table “Real and Nominal GDP,” if year one is the base year, then the nominal
GDP in year two, is ________.
A) 8250
B) 5000
C) 7200
D) 7500
E) none of the above