昆(经济学原理)第五版宏观经济学15.pptVIP

* This slide and the five that follow focus on the meaning of each part of this critically important definition. Note that transactions occurring in the so-called “underground economy” are also omitted from the official measure of GDP. In the textbook, near the end of this chapter, an “In the News” box contains an excellent article on the underground economy. * Each of the four components is defined and discussed in detail on the following slides. * Mostly, the term “consumption” refers to what students probably already think of as total consumer spending. The note about the treatment of owner-occupied housing is an exception, and some of the test bank questions are designed to see if students remember this exception. (For more on this issue, see the notes accompanying the following slide.) * More on the treatment of owner-occupied housing: In the national income and product accounts, a house is considered a piece of capital that is used to produce a flow of services – housing services. When a consumer (as a tenant) rents a house or apartment, the consumer is buying housing services. These services are considered consumption, so the price paid for these services – rent – is counted in the “consumption” component of GDP . When someone buys a new house to live in, she is both a producer and a consumer. As a producer, she has made an investment (the purchase of the house) that will produce a service. She is also the consumer of this service, which is valued at the market rental rate for that type of house. So, the accounting conventions treat this situation as if the person is her own landlord and rents the house to/from herself. When students begin to understand this, they may wonder why certain other goods (like cars) that produce a flow of consumer services are not also treated this way. There really is no good answer. It’s just a convention of the national income and product accounts. * You might tell your students that transfer pay