Question.3091 - Discussion Question 1: Go to the Bureau of Economic Analysis website, www.bea.gov, and access the BEA interactively by selecting "National Accounts" and then "National Income and Product Account Tables." Select "Frequently Requested NIPA Tables," and find Table 1.1.1 on GDP. What is the current GDP growth rate for the U.S.? Examine the trend over the past few years. What trends interest you? What stage of the Business Cycle would the U.S. economy be in currently given the trends? Why might GDP not be considered an accurate measure of economic well-being of a country? Identify at least three limitations of GDP as a measure of economic well-being. Discussion Question 2: Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm, and click on "Employment Situation Summary" to get the most up-to-date summary of unemployment in the U.S. or the "Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted." What interests or surprises you about the summary table? How does that rate compare with the rate in the previous month or quarter? Discuss the differences in unemployment rates by gender, age, education, etc.
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Discussion Question 1: Go to the Bureau of Economic Analysis website, www.bea.gov, and access the BEA interactively by selecting "National Accounts" and then "National Income and Product Account Tables." Select "Frequently Requested NIPA Tables," and find Table 1.1.1 on GDP. What is the current GDP growth rate for the U.S.? Examine the trend over the past few years. What trends interest you? What stage of the Business Cycle would the U.S. economy be in currently given the trends? Why might GDP not be considered an accurate measure of economic well-being of a country? Identify at least three limitations of GDP as a measure of economic well-being. Answer 1: The current growth rate is mentioned for Quarter 2013, and stands at 2.5%. This is the per cent change from preceding period in real gross domestic product. When we track the growth rate for the past few quarters (say a period of Q12011 to Q1 2013), we actually could not make a trend out of it. Like the GDP grew in Q2 2011, declined again in Q3 2011, grew substantially in Q4 2011 but the trends were not at all similar in the next year quarters. However, looking at the growth number of Q1 2013, the US GDP seems to have grown substantially as compared to the last quarter and quarter on quarter as well. So we believe few more quarters of similar growth could mark a trend of reversal. GDP shall not necessarily be an accurate measure of how well an economy is doing. Primary reason behind this being GDP measures only output but it makes no claims on the quality of that output. It surely measures the quantitative value of marketed goods and services produced in a country in a given time frame but not necessarily are related to qualitative betterment of the society as a whole. GDP also does not capture the non-paid sector: volunteer work, the informal sector (and black market), raising children, and household duties. GDP also includes 'Regrettables' such as police protection, health care, insurance, and military spending. These fields are considered regrettable because if otherwise the general public were honest, healthier, less prone to accidents and more peaceful, the money spent on them could be spent in ways that lead to greater well-being. Another lacuna is that GDP does not take into account assets. Discussion Question 2: Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm, and click on "Employment Situation Summary" to get the most up-to-date summary of unemployment in the U.S. or the "Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted." What interests or surprises you about the summary table? How does that rate compare with the rate in the previous month or quarter? Discuss the differences in unemployment rates by gender, age, education, etc. Answer: The unemployment rate for this month (Apr 2013) stood at 7.5 per cent for 16 years and over and 6.1 per cent for 25 years and over. Rates for last month (Mar 2013) stood at 7.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent for 16 years and over and for 25 years and over respectively. Similarly rates for last year same month (Apr 2012) stood at 8.1 per cent and 6.8 per cent for 16 years and over and for 25 years and over respectively. As compared to the last month (Mar 2013), the rates have slightly improved, whereas compared to the same month of last year (Apr 2012), the rates have improved substantially. Comparing on an annual basis (Apr 2013 to Apr 2012), among the 16 years and above, for the 20 years and above, the rate of improvement was much better in the “Adult Women” segment than in the “Adult Men” segment. The unemployment rates for Adult Women have declined from 7.4 per cent to 6.7 per cent while for Adult Men the same has declined from 7.5 to 7.1 per cent. For teenagers, the rate of decline was also credential – declined from 24.9 per cent to 24.1 per cent. Among others, the rate has increased only among the Black or African American (thought very slight increase), from 13.1 per cent to 13.2 per cent while substantial improvement was recorded among the Hispanic ethnicity where unemployment rate decreased from 10.3 per cent to 9.3 per cent this year. Also, among the 25 years and above, the unemployment rate has witnessed maximum decline in the category of “less than a high school diploma” where the rate has declined from 12.5 per cent to 11.6 per cent. While the next close one was “Some college or associate degree” with a decline form 7.5 per cent to 6.4 per cent.More Articles From Economics
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