ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Automatic Stabilizer, Thomas More, Balanced Budget

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22 Nov 2016

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Discretionary expansionary fiscal policy - a choice of congress to make the economy bigger. Increase g and/or tr, decrease t and/or t. Pull the economy back down in the long run. Decrease g (spend less) and/or tr, increase t and/or t. Automatic stabilizer - income taxation behaves in a non-discretionary manner. The deficit becomes smaller and the governmental spending grows. When we are in a recession insurance policies pay off. It"s in the law that we hand out more money when the economy is good and less when the economy is good - counter ciprocal. Regressive tax - hurts the poor more than the rich. Lump-sum tax does not change with income - it is a set value. Poll tax - jim crow era - you could not vote if you did not have the money. An important distinction - the budget surplus/deficit vs the national debt.

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You hear on the nightly news that the president has vowed to decrease the nation's debt. Both the government and private citizens will have to buckle down and learn to do without, he says.

In order to reduce its debt, a nation must:

A.	run lower deficits.
B.	decrease tax rates.
C.	run lower surpluses.
D.	increase in government spending.

Debt reduction will result in:

A.	more public works projects, higher transfer payments, and more money available for households to spend.
B.	fewer public works projects, higher transfer payments, and more money available for households to spend.
C.	more public works projects, lower transfer payments, and less money available for households to spend.
D.	fewer public works projects, lower transfer payments, and less money available for households to spend.

A friend of yours looks at the state of the U.S. debt in 2011 and tells you, Since the debt is so high, we must be running an incredibly large deficit every year. Your friend's analysis is:

A.	not valid, because the debt is always changing even when deficits are the same.
B.	not valid, because the debt can be high even when the deficit for an individual year is small.
C.	valid, because the debt is always changing even when deficits are the same.
D.	valid, because the public debt is the sum of all deficits and surpluses run by the government over time and can be high even when the deficit for an individual year is small.

Assume that the government in some nations intended to respond to low employment via fiscal policy.

a. What type of policy would this require?

A.	A contractionary fiscal policy designed to decrease the aggregate demand curve.
B.	An expansionary fiscal policy designed to decrease the aggregate demand curve.
C.	An expansionary fiscal policy designed to increase the aggregate demand curve.
D.	A contractionary fiscal policy designed to increase the aggregate demand curve.

b. Assume that this policy ended up having an undesirable outcome. How could this happen in terms of formulation and implementation lags?

A.	This could happen if the implementation lag exceeded the formulation lag.
B.	This could happen if the formulation lag exceeded the implementation lag.
C.	This could happen if the formulation lag and the implementation lag exceeded the expansion.
D.	This could happen if the formulation lag and the implementation lag exceeded the recession.

Econo Nation started 2008 with no national budget debt or surplus. By the end of 2008, it had a budget surplus of $286 million; in 2009, it had a budget deficit of $-425 million; in 2010, it had a budget surplus of $100 million, and the amount of its budget deficit or surplus in 2011 is unknown. If at the end of 2011 Econo Nation's national debt totalled $52 million, determine the deficit or surplus in 2011.

Instructions: Enter your answer as a whole number and include a negative sign if there is a deficit.

Period	Deficit (-) or surplus (+)
Beginning of 2008	$0
End of 2008	$286 million
2009	$-425 million
2010	$100 million
End of 2011	_______ million

sapphiresalmon584

5. Fiscal policy is enacted through changes in

A. interest rates and the price level.

B. the supply of money and foreign exchange.

C. unemployment and inflation

D. taxation and government spending.

6. In an economy, the government wants to decrease aggregate demand by $48 billion at each price level to decrease real GDP and control demand-pull inflation. If the MPS is 0.25, then it could

A. increase taxes by $16 billion.

B. increase taxes by $24 billion.

C. decrease government spending by $10 billion.

D. decrease government spending by $16 billion.

7. If there is a constitutional requirement to maintain a balanced budget, then during a recession when tax revenues are shrinking, the government will have to implement

A. contractionary fiscal policy.

B. no change in fiscal policy.

C. expansionary fiscal policy.

D. countercyclical fiscal policy.

8. Most economists believe that fiscal policy is:

A. better than the monetary policy for "fine-tuning" the economy.

B. better than the monetary policy for month-to-month stabilization.

C. not as good as the monetary policy for month-to-month stabilization.

D. not very good at pushing the economy in a particular direction.

9. An increase in the legal reserve ratio

A. increases the money supply by increasing excess reserves

B. decreases the money supply by decreasing excess reserves

C. increases the money supply by decreasing excess reserves

D. decreases the money supply by increasing excess reserves

10. The discount rate is the rate of interest at which

A. Federal Reserve Banks lend to commercial banks

B. savings and loan associations lend to some builders

C. Federal Reserve Banks lend to large corporations.

D. commercial banks lend to large corporations

11. Which of the following actions by the Fed most likely increase commercial bank lending?

A. raising the reserve ratio

B. increasing the federal funds rate target

C. reducing the interest paid on excess reserves held at the Fed

D. selling bonds to commercial banks and the public

12. Assume the economy is operating at less than full employment. An expansionary monetary policy will cause interest rates to ______, which will ______ investment spending.

A. decrease; decrease

B. decrease; increase

C. increase; increase

D. increase; decrease

sapphirecrow883

1. The primary tool used by supply-side economists to eliminate macroeconomic problems is

A. the discount rate.

B. corporate tax rates.

C. government spending.

D. open market operations.

E. the reserve requirement.

2. When the Federal Reserve System buys government securities on the open market,

A. the money supply will decrease.

B. excess reserves at commercial banks will decrease.

C. excess reserves at commercial banks will increase.

D. interest rates will increase

3. One of the advantages of automatic stabilizers over discretionary fiscal policy is that automatic stabilizers

A. has a greater multiplier effect than discretionary policy.

B. is not subject to the time lag problems of discretionary policy.

C. does not produce a deficit during recessions as a discretionary policy does.

D. makes the actual budget a better reflection of the condition of the economy than the full-employment budget.

4. "I have promised to do everything in my power to reduce the federal deficit. That means reducing federal expenditures and, if necessary, increasing taxes. Under present conditions of full employment and steady prices, we can afford to bear the burden of this debt (i.e., pay off the debt) now instead of passing it on to our children and grandchildren."

If the policies of the Senator quoted above were adopted, what effects would be expected while these policies were being implemented?

A. higher inflation

B. increases imports

C. higher rates of economic growth

D. increased unemployment and idle capacity

5. An inflationary gap can be reduced or completely closed by

A. decreasing taxes while leaving government spending on goods and services unchanged.

B. decreasing government spending on goods and services while leaving taxes unchanged.

C. increasing government spending on goods and services while leaving taxes unchanged.

D. increasing both government spending on goods and services and taxes by the same amount.

6. Compared to fiscal policy, an advantage of monetary policy is its

A. greater flexibility.

B. highly selective impact on segments of the economy.

C. ability to eliminate cost-push inflation.

D. need for approval by Congress.

E. need for approval by the President.

7. An increase in government spending on goods and services which causes a budget deficit to exist

A. is always inflationary.

B. is more inflationary than equal increases in private spending.

C. is usually not inflationary when the economy is operating at its full-employment level of output.

D. will not necessarily cause serious inflation as long as there are unemployed resources in the economy.

8. Some analysts believe the tax cuts enacted during the President H.W. Bush administration represented a supply-side economic policy rather than a Keynesian fiscal policy because

A. the tax cuts were accompanied by decreases in interest rates.

B. the tax cuts were accompanied by increases in government spending.

C. the tax cuts were primarily aimed at upper-income groups and businesses.

D. the tax cuts were primarily aimed at middle income and lower-income groups.

9. When the federal government is stabilizing the economy by increasing taxes, monetary authorities should

A. take actions to decrease interest rates.

B. increase the supply of money.

C. buy government securities in the open market.

D. follow an expansionary money policy.

E. follow a contractionary money policy.

10. Suppose a commercial bank has demand deposits (checking accounts) of $400,000, actual reserves of $170,000, and a reserve requirement of 20%. This single commercial bank can lend a maximum of ______ and the banking system can increase loans by a maximum of ______

A. $90,000 and $450,000.
B. $90,000 and $360,000.
C. $90,000 and $170,000.
D. $170,000 and $450,000.

E. both can lend an unlimited amount.

11. Which of the following would most likely result if the federal government increased its spending without changing tax revenues during a period of full employment?

A. inflation

B. a recession

C. lower interest rates

D. a larger net exports deficit

12. Fiscal policy that emphasizes cutting taxes as a means of improving incentives to work, and invest would be characterized in aggregate demand - aggregate supply framework primarily a shift

A. left in the aggregate demand curve.

B. left in the aggregate supply curve.

C. right in the aggregate supply curve.

D. no shift in either the aggregate demand curve or the aggregate supply curve.

13. Which of the following will result in the greatest increase in aggregate expenditures/demand?

A. A $100 decrease in personal income taxes

B. A $100 increase in personal income taxes

C. A $100 increase in government expenditures

D. A $100 increase in government expenditures which is accompanied by a $100 increase in personal income taxes

E. Both A and C will have the same effect on aggregate expenditures

14. You are given the following information about aggregate demand for an economy: (1)consumption = $600 billion; (2) investment = $50 billion; (3) government purchases = $100 billion; and (4) net export = $20 billion. If the full-employment level of GDP for this economy is $720 billion, then what combination of actions would be most consistent to achieve full employment and stable prices?

A. an increase in government spending and taxes

B. decrease government spending and taxes

C. decrease government spending and increase taxes

D. increase government spending and decrease taxes

15. Advocates of fiscal policy agree that discretionary fiscal policy will stabilize the business cycle most when the federal government

A. continuously incurs budget deficits.

B. continuously runs budget surpluses.

C. balances its budget every year.

D. incurs budget deficits during recessions and budget surpluses during demand-pull inflations.

E. incurs budget surpluses during recessions and budget deficits during demand-pull inflations.

16. Discretionary fiscal policy that increases the government budget deficit has the same effect on equilibrium as

A. an increase in personal saving.

B. an increase in business investment.

C. a decrease in government spending.

D. a decrease in personal consumption expenditures

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ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Automatic Stabilizer, Thomas More, Balanced Budget

ECON 102 Full Course Notes

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