第2节宏观经济学数据.pptVIP

* Since constant-price GDP is easier to understand and compute, and because the two measures of real GDP are so highly correlated, the chapter (and indeed the textbook) emphasizes the constant-price version of real GDP. However, if this topic is important to you and your students, you should have them carefully read page 23, and give them one or two exercises requiring students to computer or compare constant-price and chain-weighted real GDP. * Regarding the comparison of dollar figures from different years: If we want to know whether the average college graduate today is better off than the average college graduate of 1975, we can’t simply compare the nominal salaries, because the cost of living is so much higher now than in 1975. We can use the CPI to express the 1975 in “current dollars”, i.e. see what it would be worth at today’s prices. Also: when the price of oil (and hence gasoline) shot up in 2000, some in the news reported that oil prices were even higher than in the 1970s. This was true, but only in nominal terms. If you use the CPI to adjust for inflation, the highest oil price in 2000 is still substantially less than the highest oil prices of the 1970s. * * From 2002 to 2003, it’s not obvious that the inflation rate will be positive (that the basket’s cost will increase): the price of pizza rises by $1, the price of CDs falls by $1. However, since the basket contains twice as many pizzas as CDs, a given change in the price of pizza will have a bigger impact on the basket’s cost (and CPI) than the same sized price change in CDs. * * Each number is the percent of the “typical” household’s total expenditure. source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, /cpihome.htm Ask students for examples of how the breakdown of their own expenditure differs from that of the typical household shown here. Then, ask students how the typical elderly person’s expenditure might differ from that shown here. (This is relevant because the CPI is used to give Soc