宏观经济学HUBBARD_MACRO_SG_07的.pdfVIP

Chapter7(19)

GDP:MeasuringTotal

ProductionandIncome

ChapterSummary

Whilemicroeconomicsisthestudyofhowhouseholdsandfirmsmakechoices,howtheyinteractin

markets,andhowthegovernmentattemptstoinfluencetheirchoices,macroeconomicsisthestudyofthe

economyasawhole.Thisincludessuchtopicsaseconomicgrowth,businesscycles,theinflationrate,

employment,unemployment,andtradewithothernations.Inordertotalkaboutthesetopics,itis

necessarytobeabletomeasurehowtheeconomyisperformingandmakecomparisonsbetweentime

periodsandcountries.

Tomeasuretheperformanceoftheeconomy,economistsuseameasureofeconomicactivitycalledgross

domesticproduct(GDP).Inthischapter,youwilllearnaboutGDP:howitisconstructed,whatits

componentsare,anditsstrengthsandweaknessesasameasureofproduction.Alsocoveredinthechapter

istheconceptofrealandnominalvariablesandapriceindexreferredtoastheGDPdeflator.

LearningObjectives

Whenyoufinishthischapter,youshouldbeableto:

1.Explainhowtotalproductionismeasured.Totalproductionismeasuredbygrossdomestic

product(GDP),whichisthevalueofallfinalgoodsandservicesproducedinaneconomyduringa

periodoftime.WhenwemeasurethevalueoftotalproductionintheeconomybycalculatingGDP,

wearesimultaneouslymeasuringthevalueoftotalincome.GDPisdividedintofourmajorcategories

ofexpenditures:consumption,investment,governmentpurchases,andnetexports.Wecanalso

calculateGDPbyaddingupthevalueaddedofeveryfirminvolvedinproducingfinalgoodsand

services.

2.DiscusswhetherGDPisagoodmeasureofwell-being.GDPdoesnotincl