ECON 305 Chapter Notes -Ricardian Equivalence, Real Interest Rate

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emeraldcrab303

11 Mar 2014

School

University of Maryland

Department

Economics

Course

ECON 305

Professor

Dr.Neri

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Document Summary

Ricardian equivalence: consumers are forward looking and therefore base their spending decisions not only on their current income but also on their expected future income. Traditional view says when taxes are cut people spend more. Government borrowing today (reduce taxes) means higher taxes in the future so people do not spend more: value of the bond is offset by the value of the future tax liability. Financing the government by debt is equivalent to financing it by taxes: the increase in private savings offsets the decrease in public saving, national saving remains the same. Would make a difference if the reduction in taxes is offset by a decrease in government spending. According to ricardian equivalence, a debt-financed tax cut, holding g constant, has no effect on consumption, national saving, the real interest rate, investment, net exports, or real gdp, even in the short run. People are short sighted and do not fully understand the implications of government budget deficits.

Related Questions

1. Menu costs are:

A) the costs of materials.

B) the cost of changing prices.

C) particularly low when inflation is high.

D) a reason that the inflation rate typically underestimates true price level changes.

2. A market basket costs $150 to buy in the base year and $60 to buy in year X.

A. the price index for year X is 250.

B. Year X probably occurred after the base year.

C. Year X is the base year.

D. the price index for year X is .4 or 40%.

3. A traditional expansionary gap is created when the aggregate demand curve moves to the:

A. right of the natural rate of output; inflation rises and unemployment falls.

B. left of the natural rate of output; inflation falls and unemployment rises.

C. right of the natural rate of output; inflation falls and unemployment rises.

D. left of the natural rate of output; inflation rises and unemployment falls.

4. Consumers change their purchases and move ALONG the same consumption function when:

A) Their income changes

B) Their tastes change

C) The price level changes

D) All of the above.

5. If MPC is .75 then if consumer income rises by $10,000 we would predict that consumption will:

A. rise by $7500 while savings fall by $2500.

B. fall by $2500 while savings rise by $7500.

C. rise by $7500 while savings rise by $2500.

D. fall by $2500 while savings fall by $7500.

6. Autonomous consumption is

A. that part of consumption that rises or falls with changes in disposable income.
B. the minimum that people will spend even if disposable income is zero.
C. the amount people will spend when the C line crosses the 45-degree line.
D. the amount people will spend when income is equal to consumption.

7. A low rate of investment could be explained by a

A. low rate of saving and low-interest rates.
B. low rate of saving and high-interest rates.
C. high rate of saving and low-interest rates.
D. high rate of saving and high-interest rates.

8. Mr. A makes $40,000 a year; Ms. B makes $20,000 a year. Mr. A pays $6,000 in taxes while Ms. B pays $4,000 in taxes. Which of the following is true?

A. Taxes are progressive because Mr. A pays a higher dollar amount in taxes than Ms. B

B. Taxes are neutral because Mr. A makes more money before and after taxes than Ms. B.

C. Taxes are regressive because Mr. A pays a lower tax rate than Ms. B.

D. Taxes are progressive because Ms. B pays a lower dollar amount in tax.

9. The 45 degree line in the full AE model represents

A. all points where C = Y.

B. all points where AE = Y

C. all points where C + I = G + Xn

D. all points where C = I + G + Xn

10. International trade:

A. Allows countries to specialize in the goods at which they are best at producing.

B. can increase the goods and services both trading partners have.

C. can be unbalanced where one partner exports more to the other than the other way around.

D. all of the above.

11. If AD rises in the short run:

A. it pushes up the price level.

B. it decreases national output.

C. increases full employment.

D. all of the above.

12. We cut down trees and sell the timber for $8000. The timber is sawn up into lumber that sells for $18,000. The lumber is used to build furniture that sells to consumers for $30,000.

A. $30,000 goes into GDP.

B. $4000 goes into GDP.

C. $56,000 goes into GDP.

D. $22,000 goes into GDP.

13. The long-run annual growth rate of the U.S. economy tends to be about:

A. 1% or less.

B. 2%

C. 5%

D. 10% or more.

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Market Analysis Market Participants Market participants act as if they are rational, self-interested, and forward-looking. For example, financial managers try to maximize the present value of profits for their particular companies, rather than ignore future values. Companies pursue many goals, but it is a financial mistake for managers to pursue any goal that conflicts with the primary goal of maximizing their firm's profits. Decentralized decision making by individual market participants is more economically efficient that centralized decision making by government policymakers. For example, it is more economically efficient to have financial managers obtain financing for their particular companies than to have government obtain it. A high degree of competition among market participants is the most economically efficient disciplining mechanism. For example, highly competitive financial markets discipline financial managers to pay fair market interest rates on the debt securities issued by their particular companies. The market system of prices is the most economically efficient allocative mechanism. For example, it is more economically efficient to distribute a firm's corporate stock to those buyers who are willing and able to pay the market price of the stock than to have the government distribute the stock. It is economically efficient for market participants to buy low and sell high globally. For example, it is economically efficient for U.S. firms to sell their financial securities to the highest bidders, no matter where they live in the world economy. Market imperfections can create considerable risk to market participants. For example, because of market imperfections, firms operating in the international financial markets encounter foreign exchange rate risk, political risk, interest rate risk, and default risk. Consumer Sovereignty The principle of consumer sovereignty tells us that by making their dollar votes, consumers indirectly determine the quantity and quality of products that firms will produce. For example, it is not economically efficient for financial managers to obtain more financing for their particular firms than is needed for their firms to produce the profit-maximizing level of output demanded by consumers. Market Economy A highly competitive market economy is largely self-regulating, in the absence of substantial market imperfections, in that economic conditions cannot be substantially improved by government regulation or other types of government intervention beyond laissez-faire policies. For example, if a firm's corporate stock is overvalued by a market economy, market forces will tend to drive down the value of the stock to a market price at which it is neither overvalued nor undervalued. As if by an invisible hand, highly competitive market forces will tend to create a harmony of interests among individual market participants, in the absence of substantial market imperfections. Consequently, the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders are compatible. For example, in trying to maximize profits, firms produce employment, income, consumer products, and wealth for households, as well as tax revenue for government, which helps maximize consumer utility and maximize social welfare. In a market economy, resources, products, and assets flow to their highest valued uses among alternative uses. For example, the shares of firms' corporate stocks will be acquired by those market participants who most highly value them, as indicated by the fact that they are willing to pay the most to acquire them. The efficient economic role of government is limited to Laissez-Faire ("hands off") policies, which create very little intervention in a market economy. For example, government regulations of banking and securities industries to maintain healthy, reasonably profitable, consumer-oriented financial markets would not be needed in a highly competitive market economy in the absence of substantial market imperfections. In a market economy, it is economically efficient for each market participant to specialize according to comparative advantage in producing what they can produce relatively better than other market participants, rather than produce all the outputs they can produce absolutely better than others. For example, it is economically efficient for people who are relatively better at being financial managers than others, to specialize in financial management even if they are absolutely better than others in doing many other types of work. If all labor were allocated to its comparative advantage, then no possible reallocation of labor would exist that could increase the rate of return to labor (i.e., the wage). There is no such thing as a free lunch, because all resources, products, and assets in a market economy are scarce. For example, current federal government budget deficits are not free to current market participants in that the deficits must be financed by future tax increases and/or future decreases in government spending and/or future inflation. For additional information on the Market Economy click here. Marks, R. E. (2006, December). There Is No Such Thing As Free Lunch. Australian Journal of Management. 31(2). 1-7. Financial Decisions An efficient financial decision, practice, transaction, or condition is one that is optimal -- meaning best; it cannot be improved, from society's perspective. If there is some profitable way to improve some business practice that would benefit society, that practice is somewhat inefficient. Any change in a financial decision, practice, transaction, or condition that improves society is an efficiency improvement. For example, it is an efficiency improvement for a business to cut production costs by reducing waste (e.g., by reducing spending on unprofitable activity. A financial decision, practice, transaction, or condition is fair-- meaning just or equitable, if the financial benefits are distributed to those involved in proportion to how much they each voluntarily contributed to produce those benefits. For example, a financial practice that discriminates against some people on the basis of race, age, gender, nationality, or religion is unfair. For example, an unethical business practice is unfair. For additional information relating to Market Analysis and fair financial decisions, click on the following: Teaching Ethical Economic Practices to Business Managers. Johnston, C. (2009, October). The Proceedings of the Annual Conference of The International Academy of Business and Economics. Fairness is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition, for efficiency. All efficient financial practices are fair, but some fair practices may still fail to be efficient. For example, embezzling company funds is an unfair and inefficient, criminal financial activity. As another example, an ethical business practice that could be improved is fair but not efficient. Opportunity Cost Principle Opportunity cost principle: The efficient measure of the cost of any allocation of resources, products, money income, wealth, or time is its opportunity cost -- the value of the next best use. The opportunity cost of how one uses his or her resources is the value of the highest valued alternative use. The opportunity cost of one investment is the expected return on the next best investment available to the firm. For example, the opportunity cost of a firm using some of its profits to pay dividends to its stockholders would be the present value of future income those profits could have earned if invested in the firm's highest valued investment project.

Discussion Questions These questions stem from the Class Discussion Questions you will be anwering in the Discussion Board. Think about the questions and how they relate to the financial management principles above.

2. Applications: State the financial management principle that appears to be violated in each of the following cases and explain how it is violated:

(a) A corporation is maximizing sales growth and the price of its corporate stock is falling.

(b) A highly paid financial manager in the auto industry quit his job to set up his own small auto repair shop, which is expected to incur a loss for the first three years then earn normal profits.

31. A country's tax system influences the attractiveness of investing in that country and affects the relative level of profitability for an MNC.

a. True

b. False

32. Points inside a production possibilities frontier represent

a. unattainable production combinations

b. efficiency

c. situations where supply exceeds demand

d. unemployment of resources

33. Firms in a high-wage nation like the U.S. can compete effectively with imports from low-wage nations if

a. the U.S. reduces tariffs on imports

b. low-wage nations impose tariffs on U.S. made goods

c. labor productivity is higher in the low-wage nation

d. labor productivity is higher in the U.S.

34. Assume that production in the United States is valued at $100,000. National income is therefore $100,000. Of their income, workers save $2000, pay $6,000 in taxes, spend $89,000 on consumer goods, and spend $2000 on imports. Businesses spend $5,000 in new investment spending. And, foreigners spend $1000 on exports. To avoid any problems of inflation or unemployment, the government should have a budget deficit or surplus of:

a. $2,000 surplus

b. $1,000 deficit

c. $2,000 deficit

d. $1000 surplus

e. $0 deficit

35. Autarky means-----------------------------------------------------------------

a. the absence of government

b. lack of agriculture

c. self-sufficient, in the absence of international trade

d. short of exchange rates

36. The more people there are----------------------, the less the public as a whole will spend on goods and services.

a. unemployed

b. underemployed

c. employed

d. as discouraged workers

37, Which of the following theories holds that countries will produce and export products that use large amounts of production factors that they have in abundance?

a. Mercantilism

b. The theory of absolute advantage

c. The factor endowment theory

d. None of the above.

38. Suppose that a consumer has a marginal propensity to consume of 0.79. If this consumer earns an extra $1220, her saving would be expected to increase by-----------------------------

39. Many countries in Asia, Africa, and South America-----------------------

a. Are developing countries

b. Are industrialized nations

c. Have a high demand for nonessential products

d. Do not trade

40. Which two of the following are regarded as the main aims of the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

a) To eliminate discrimination in world trade

b) To provide financial assistance to countries with debt

c) To reduce tariff barriers

d) To make infant industry protection illegal

e) To help give preferences to smaller economies

b) and e) a) and c) a) and d) c) and e) b) and d)

41. Last year Sophia's nominal income increased by 12% while the price level rose by 5.5%. Consequently, Sophia's real income:

a. rose by approximately 7%

b. fell by approximately 1%

c. rose by approximately 2%

d. ------------------------------------

42. Consumer surplus

a. is always positive.

b. for a particular unit of consumption is computed by taking the difference between quantity demand and quantity supplied.

c. for all units consumed is the area below demand and below market price over all the units consumed.

d. added to producer surplus provides a measure of the net gain to society from the production and consumption of the good.

43. A decline in Real GDP for six or more consecutive months is called-------------------------------

a. A trough

b. A recession

c. An expansion

d. A recovery

44. What do we call the situation where capital grows faster than the labor force?

a. economic growth

b. technological change

c. productivity growth

d. capital deepening

45. The terms of trade are-------------------------------------------

a. the cost of transportation between countries

b. the ratio of wages in two countries

c. the terms which are used in the trade negotiations

d. the rate at which two products can be exchanged

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ECON 305 Chapter Notes -Ricardian Equivalence, Real Interest Rate

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