Suppose that Americans decide to increase their saving. a. If the elasticity of U.S. net capital outflow with respect to the real interest rate is very high, willthis increase in private saving have a large or small effect on U.S. domestic investment? b. If the elasticity of U.S. exports with respect to the real exchange rate is very low, will this increase in private saving have a large or small effect on the U.S. real exchange rate?
> Use the theory of liquidity preference to explain how a decrease in the money supply affects the equilibrium interest rate. How does this change in monetary policy affect the aggregate-demand curve?
> Suppose a wave of negative “animal spirits” overruns the economy, and people become pessimistic about the future. What happens to aggregate demand? If the Fed wants to stabilize aggregate demand, how should it alter the money supply? If it does this, wha
> Suppose that the government reduces spending on highway construction by $10 billion. Which way does the aggregate-demand curve shift? Explain why the shift might be larger than $10 billion. Explain why the shift might be smaller than $10 billion.
> What is the theory of liquidity preference? How does it help explain the downward slope of the aggregatedemand curve?
> Give an example of a government policy that acts as an automatic stabilizer. Explain why the policy has this effect.
> Suppose that survey measures of consumer confidence indicate a wave of pessimism is sweeping the country. If policymakers do nothing, what will happen to aggregate demand? What should the Fed do if it wants to stabilize aggregate demand? If the Fed does
> Suppose a computer virus disables the nation’s automatic teller machines, making withdrawals from bank accounts less convenient. As a result, people want to keep more cash on hand, increasing the demand for money. a. Assume the Fed does not change the mo
> The Federal Reserve expands the money supply by 5 percent. a. Use the theory of liquidity preference to illustrate in a graph the impact of this policy on the interest rate. b. Use the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply to illustrate the impa
> Explain how each of the following developments would affect the supply of money, the demand for money, and the interest rate. Illustrate your answers with diagrams. a. The Fed’s bond traders buy bonds in open-market operations. b. An increase in credit-c
> A person who consumes wine and cheese gets a raise, so her income increases from $3,000 to $4,000. Show what happens if both wine and cheese are normalgoods. Now show what happens if cheese is an inferior good.
> In which of the following circumstances is expansionary fiscal policy more likely to lead to a short-run increase in investment? Explain. a. When the investment accelerator is large or when it is small? b. When the interest sensitivity of investment is l
> Suppose government spending increases. Would the effect on aggregate demand be larger if the Federal Reserve held the money supply constant in responseor if the Fed were committed to maintaining a fixed interest rate? Explain.
> Suppose the government reduces taxes by $20 billion, that there is no crowding out, and that the marginal propensity to consume is ¾. a. What is the initial effect of the tax reduction on aggregate demand? b. What additional effects follow this initial e
> Suppose economists observe that an increase in government spending of $10 billion raises the total demand for goods and services by $30 billion. a. If these economists ignore the possibility of crowding out, what would they estimate the marginal propensi
> In the early 1980s, new legislation allowed banks to pay interest on checking deposits, which they could not do previously. a. If we define money to include checking deposits, what effect did this legislation have on money demand? Explain. b. If the Fede
> The economy is in a recession with high unemployment and low output. a. Draw a graph of aggregate demand and aggregate supply to illustrate the current situation. Be sure to include the aggregate-demand curve, the short-run aggregate-supply curve, and th
> Consider two policies—a tax cut that will last for only one year and a tax cut that is expected to be permanent. Which policy will stimulate greater spending by consumers? Which policy will have the greater impact on aggregate demand? Explain.
> List and discuss three key facts about economic fluctuations.
> Suppose that the election of a popular presidential candidate suddenly increases people’s confidence in the future. Use the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply to analyze the effect on the economy
> Explain why the long-run aggregate-supply curve is vertical. Explain three theories for why the short-run aggregate-supply curve slopes upward. What variables shift both the long-run and short-run aggregate-supply curves? What variable shifts the short-r
> Show a consumer’s budget constraint and indifference curves for wine and cheese. Show the optimal consumption choice. If the price of wine is $3 per glass and the price of cheese is $6 per pound, what is the marginal rate of substitution at this optimum?
> Explain the three reasons the aggregate-demand curve slopes downward. Give an example of an event that would shift the aggregate-demand curve. Which way would this event shift the curve?
> How does the economy’s behavior in the short run differ from its behavior in the long run? Draw the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply. What variables are on the two axes?
> List and explain the three reasons the aggregatedemand curve slopes downward.
> Draw a diagram with aggregate demand, short-run aggregate supply, and long-run aggregate supply. Be careful to label the axes correctly.
> What might shift the aggregate-supply curve to the left? Use the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply to trace through the short-run and long-run effects of such a shift on output and the price level.
> What might shift the aggregate-demand curve to the left? Use the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply to trace through the short-run and long-run effects of such a shift on output and the price level.
> List and explain the three theories for why the shortrun aggregate-supply curve slopes upward.
> Explain why the long-run aggregate-supply curve is vertical.
> Suppose an economy is in long-run equilibrium. a. Use the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply to illustrate the initial equilibrium (call it point A). Be sure to include both short-run and long-run aggregate supply. b. The central bank raises
> Explain whether each of the following events will increase, decrease, or have no effect on long-run aggregate supply. a. The United States experiences a wave of immigration. b. Congress raises the minimum wage to $10 per hour. c. Intel invents a new and
> Mario consumes only cheese and crackers. a. Could cheese and crackers both be inferior goods for Mario? Explain. b. Suppose that cheese is a normal good for Mario while crackers are an inferior good. If the price of cheese falls, what happens to Mario’s
> Suppose the economy is in a long-run equilibrium. a. Draw a diagram to illustrate the state of the economy.Be sure to show aggregate demand, short-run aggregate supply, and long-run aggregate supply. b. Now suppose that a stock market crash causes aggreg
> Suppose firms become very optimistic about future business conditions and invest heavily in new capital equipment. a. Draw an aggregate-demand/aggregate-supply diagram to show the short-run effect of this optimism on the economy. Label the new levels of
> For each of the following events, explain the short-run and long-run effects on output and the price level, assuming policymakers take no action. a. The stock market declines sharply, reducing consumers’ wealth. b. The federal government increases spendi
> Explain whether each of the following events shifts the short-run aggregate-supply curve, the aggregatedemand curve, both, or neither. For each event that does shift a curve, draw a diagram to illustrate the effect on the economy. a. Households decide to
> The economy begins in long-run equilibrium. Then one day, the president appoints a new chairman of the Fed. This new chairman is well known for her view that inflation is not a major problem for an economy. a. How would this news affect the price level t
> For each of the three theories for the upward slope of the short-run aggregate-supply curve, carefully explain the following: a. how the economy recovers from a recession andreturns to its long-run equilibrium without any policy intervention b. what dete
> Explain why the following statements are false. a. “The aggregate-demand curve slopes downward because it is the horizontal sum of the demand curves for individual goods.” b. “The long-run aggregate-supply curve is vertical because economic forces do not
> In 1939, with the U.S. economy not yet fully recovered from the Great Depression, President Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving would fall a week earlier than usual so that the shopping period before Christmas would be longer. Explain what President R
> Suppose that Americans decided to spend a smaller fraction of their incomes. What would be the effect on saving, investment, interest rates, the real exchange rate, and the trade balance?
> In the model of the open economy just developed, two markets determine two relative prices. What are the markets? What are the two relative prices?
> You consume only soda and pizza. One day, the price of soda goes up, the price of pizza goes down, and you are just as happy as you were before the price changes. a. Illustrate this situation on a graph. b. How does your consumption of the two goods chan
> Describe the sources of supply and demand in the market for loanable funds and the market for foreign-currency exchange.
> Describe supply and demand in the market for loanable funds and the market for foreign-currency exchange. How are these markets linked?
> Suppose that a textile workers’ union encourages people to buy only American-made clothes What would this policy do to the trade balance and the real exchange rate? What is the impact on the textile industry? What is the impact on the auto industry?
> Why are budget deficits and trade deficits sometimes called the twin deficits?
> Suppose that Congress is considering an investment tax credit, which subsidizes domestic investment. a. How does this policy affect national saving, domestic investment, net capital outflow, the interest rate, the exchange rate, and the trade balance? b.
> Japan generally runs a significant trade surplus. Do you think this is most related to high foreign demand for Japanese goods, low Japanese demand for foreign goods, a high Japanese saving rate relative to Japanese investment, or structural barriers agai
> Suppose that real interest rates increase across Europe. Explain how this development will affect U.S. net capital outflow. Then explain how it will affect U.S. net exports by using a formula from the chapter and by drawing a diagram. What will happen to
> Suppose the United States decides to subsidize the export of U.S. agricultural products, but it does not increase taxes or decrease any other government spending to offset this expenditure. Using a threepanel diagram, show what happens to national saving
> A senator renounces his past support for protectionism: “The U.S. trade deficit must be reduced, but import quotas only annoy our trading partners. If we subsidize U.S. exports instead, we can reduce the deficit by increasing our competitiveness.” Using
> Compare the following two pairs of goods: • Coke and Pepsi • Skis and ski bindings a. In which case are the two goods complements? In which case are they substitutes? b. In which case do you expect the indifference curves to be fairly straight? In which
> Suppose the French suddenly develop a strong taste for California wines. Answer the following questions in words and with a diagram. a. What happens to the demand for dollars in the market for foreign-currency exchange? b. What happens to the value of do
> An economist discussing trade policy in The New Republic wrote: “One of the benefits of the United States removing its trade restrictions [is] the gain to U.S. industries that produce goods for export. Export industries would find it easier to sell their
> The chapter notes that the rise in the U.S. trade deficit during the 1980s was due largely to the rise in the U.S. budget deficit. On the other hand, the popular press sometimes claims that the increased trade deficit resulted from a decline in the quali
> Define nominal exchange rate and real exchange rate, and explain how they are related. If the nominal exchange rate goes from 100 to 120 yen per dollar, has the dollar appreciated or depreciated?
> If the Fed started printing large quantities of U.S. dollars, what would happen to the number of Japanese yen a dollar could buy? Why?
> If a Japanese car costs 500,000 yen, a similar American car costs $10,000, and a dollar can buy 100 yen, what are the nominal and real exchange rates?
> Define net exports and net capital outflow. Explain how and why they are related.
> Describe the difference between foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment. Who is more likely to engage in foreign direct investment—a corporation or an individual investor? Who is more likely to engage in foreign portfolio investment?
> Would each of the following transactions be included in net exports or net capital outflow? Be sure to say whether it would represent an increase or a decrease in that variable. a. An American buys a Sony TV. b. An American buys a share of Sony stock. c.
> How would the following transactions affect U.S. exports, imports, and net exports? a. An American art professor spends the summer touring museums in Europe. b. Students in Paris flock to see the latest movie from Hollywood. c. Your uncle buys a new Volv
> Jennifer divides her income between coffee and croissants (both of which are normal goods). An early frost in Brazil causes a large increase in the price of coffee in the United States. a. Show the effect of the frost on Jennifer’s budget constraint. b.
> Purchasing-power parity holds between the nations of Ectenia and Wiknam, where the only commodity is Spam. a. In 2000 a can of Spam costs 2 dollars in Ectenia and 6 pesos in Wiknam. What is the exchange rate between Ectenian dollars and Wiknamian pesos?
> A case study in the chapter analyzed purchasingpower parity for several countries using the price of Big Macs. Here are data for a few more countries: a. For each country, compute the predicted exchange rate of the local currency per U.S. dollar. (Reca
> Assume that American rice sells for $100 per bushel, Japanese rice sells for 16,000 yen per bushel, and the nominal exchange rate is 80 yen per dollar. a. Explain how you could make a profit from this situation. What would be your profit per bushel of ri
> What is happening to the U.S. real exchange rate in each of the following situations? Explain. a. The U.S. nominal exchange rate is unchanged, but prices rise faster in the United States than abroad. b. The U.S. nominal exchange rate is unchanged, but pr
> Would each of the following groups be happy or unhappy if the U.S. dollar appreciated? Explain. a. Dutch pension funds holding U.S. government bonds b. U.S. manufacturing industries c. Australian tourists planning a trip to the United States d. an Americ
> How would the following transactions affect U.S. net capital outflow? Also, state whether each involves direct investment or portfolio investment. a. An American cellular phone company establishes an office in the Czech Republic. b. Harrods of London sel
> List and describe six costs of inflation.
> The government of a country increases the growth rate of the money supply from 5 percent per year to 50 percent per year. What happens to prices? What happens to nominal interest rates? Why might the government be doing this?
> What are the costs of inflation? Which of these costs do you think are most important for the U.S. economy?
> Explain the difference between nominal and real variables and give two examples of each. According to the principle of monetary neutrality, which variables are affected by changes in the quantity of money?
> A current debate in education is whether teachers should be paid on a standard pay scale based solely upon their years of training and teaching experience, or whether part of their salary should be based upon their performance (called “merit pay”). a. Wh
> Suppose that a country’s inflation rate increases sharply. What happens to the inflation tax on the holders of money? Why is wealth that is held in savings accounts not subject to a change in the inflation tax? Can you think of any way holders of savings
> Suppose that changes in bank regulations expand the availability of credit cards so that people need to hold less cash. a. How does this event affect the demand for money? b. If the Fed does not respond to this event, what will happen to the price level?
> Suppose that this year’s money supply is $500 billion, nominal GDP is $10 trillion, and real GDP is $5 trillion. a. What is the price level? What is the velocity of money? b. Suppose that velocity is constant and the economy’s output of goods and service
> Explain whether the following statements are true, false, or uncertain. a. “Inflation hurts borrowers and helps lenders, because borrowers must pay a higher rate of interest.” b. “If prices change in a way that leaves the overall price level unchanged, t
> Suppose that people expect inflation to equal 3 percent, but in fact, prices rise by 5 percent. Describe how this unexpectedly high inflation rate would help or hurt the following: a. the government b. a homeowner with a fixed-rate mortgage c. a union wo
> Recall that money serves three functions in the economy. What are those functions? How does inflation affect the ability of money to serve each of these functions?
> If the tax rate is 40 percent, compute the before-tax real interest rate and the after-tax real interest rate in each of the following cases. a. The nominal interest rate is 10 percent, and the inflation rate is 5 percent. b. The nominal interest rate is
> Let’s consider the effects of inflation in an economy composed of only two people: Bob, a bean farmer, and Rita, a rice farmer. Bob and Rita both always consume equal amounts of rice and beans. In 2013, the price of beans was $1 and the price of rice was
> List and describe the three functions of money
> Describe how banks create money. • If the Fed wanted to use all of its policy tools to decrease the money supply, what would it do?
> Why is it hard to establish whether a group of workers is being discriminated against? Explain how profit-maximizing firms tend to eliminate discriminatory wage differentials. How might a discriminatory wage differential persist?
> What are the primary responsibilities of the Federal Reserve? If the Fed wants to increase the supply of money, how does it usually do so?
> What is commodity money? What is fiat money? Which kind do we use?
> Why can’t the Fed control the money supply perfectly?
> Bank A has a leverage ratio of 10, while Bank B has a leverage ratio of 20. Similar losses on bank loans at the two banks cause the value of their assets to fall by 7 percent. Which bank shows a larger change in bank capital? Does either bank remain solv
> Why don’t banks hold 100 percent reserves? How is the amount of reserves banks hold related to the amount of money the banking system creates?
> Who is responsible for setting monetary policy in the United States? How is this group chosen?
> The Fed conducts a $10 million open-market purchase of government bonds. If the required reserve ratio is 10 percent, what is the largest possible increase in the money supply that could result? Explain. What is the smallest possible increase? Explain.
> Happy Bank starts with $200 in bank capital. It then takes in $800 in deposits. It keeps 12.5 percent (1/8th) of deposits in reserve. It uses the rest of its assets to make bank loans. a. Show the balance sheet of Happy Bank. b. What is Happy Bank’s leve
> You take $100 you had kept under your mattress and deposit it in your bank account. If this $100 stays in the banking system as reserves and if banks hold reserves equal to 10 percent of deposits, by how much does the total amount of deposits in the bank
> Beleaguered State Bank (BSB) holds $250 million in deposits and maintains a reserve ratio of 10 percent. a. Show a T-account for BSB. b. Now suppose that BSB’s largest depositor withdraws $10 million in cash from her account. If BSB decides to restore it
> Five consumers have the following marginal utility ofapples and pears: The price of an apple is $1, and the price of a pear is $2. Which, if any, of these consumers are optimizing over their choice of fruit? For those who are not, how should they chang
> Your uncle repays a $100 loan from Tenth National Bank (TNB) by writing a $100 check from his TNB checking account. Use T-accounts to show the effect of this transaction on your uncle and on TNB. Has your uncle’s wealth changed? Explain.
> Which of the following are considered money in the U.S. economy? Which are not? Explain your answers by discussing each of the three functions of money. a. a U.S. penny b. a Mexican peso c. a Picasso painting d. a plastic credit card
> The economy of Elmendyn contains 2,000 $1 bills. a. If people hold all money as currency, what is the quantity of money? b. If people hold all money as demand deposits and banks maintain 100 percent reserves, what is the quantity of money? c. If people h
