Measures of Economic Activity By Michael Donnelly, Matt Bundas, Andrew Wong and Neraj Bakshi.
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Transcript of Measures of Economic Activity By Michael Donnelly, Matt Bundas, Andrew Wong and Neraj Bakshi.
Chapter Focus
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the two approaches to calculating it
The components of GDP
Per capita GDP, and how it may be used to compare GDPs of different years or different countries
Chapter Focus Cont.
Some limitations of GDP as an economic indicator
Other economic measures developed from the national income accounts
Recall
Recall that businesses track revenues and expenditures in their accounts thereby allowing managers and owners to pinpoint ways improving a businesses performance
Statistics Canada keeps track of the Canadian economy via national income accounts
National Income Accounts
Accounts showing the levels of total income and spending in the Canadian economy
Allow us to evaluate the performance of the Canadian economy and to compare it with other nations’ economies
Help government policymakers find ways to improve the economy
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The total dollar value at current prices of all final goods and services produced in Canada over a given period (usually a year)
Used to measure economic activity and can be developed from the national income accounts
The dollar value is used when calculating GDP because it simplifies the calculations
Also because the dollar value is a way to quantify and combine a wide range of goods and services
How to Calculate GDP…
There are 2 ways to calculate GDP:
1. Income Approach: a method of calculating GDP by adding together all incomes in the economy
2. Expenditure Approach: a method of calculation GDP by adding together all spending in the economy
The GDP Identity
GDP calculated as total income is identical to GDP calculated as total spending
GDP expressed as total income ≡ GDP expressed as total spending
This applies to the entire Canadian economy, not just the simplified economy shown in Figure 10.2
Breakdown of Figure 10.2
In short, because all spending on final consumer products ends up as some form of household income, annual income equals annual spending
This explains the GDP Identity
Breakdown of the Income Approach
Made up of 7 categories
1. Wages and Salaries
2. Corporate Profits
3. Interest Income
4. Proprietors’ Incomes and Rents
These form the basis of GDP calculated using the income approach
Breakdown of the Income Approach Cont.1. Indirect Taxes
2. Depreciation
3. Statistical Discrepancy These are added on by Statistics Canada in order
to balance GDP calculated by the income approach with GDP calculated by the expenditure approach
Using the income approach, GDP is the sum of all 7 categories
Wages and Salaries
Largest income category
Represents close to 60% of GDP
Includes direct payments to workers in both businesses and government as well as employee benefits such as contributions to employee pension funds
Corporate Profits
Includes all of the profits declared to the government by corporate businesses such as the profits paid as corporate income tax, the profits paid out to corporate shareholders as dividends and retained earnings
Retained Earnings: profits kept by businesses for new investment
Interest Income
Includes interest paid on business loans and bonds and income such as royalty payments (the latter occurring less frequently)
Includes adjustments to the value of businesses’ unsold products
Does not include interest payments made by consumers and government because these are viewed as transfers of purchasing power
Proprietors’ Incomes and Rents
This includes the earnings made by sole proprietorships, partnerships, self-employed professionals, farmers as well as the income to landlords from renting property
Recall that incomes are received by owners of proprietorships for supplying various types of resources to their business
Indirect Taxes
Taxes that are charged on products rather then be applied to households or businesses (i.e.: P.S.T)
Not included in the GDP with the income approach, but rather with the expenditure approach
To balance the results from the 2 approaches, taxes -- subsidies that businesses receive are added to income-based GDP
Depreciation
Like indirect taxes, must also be added to the income approach
Includes durable assets such as buildings, equipment and tools that eventually wear out and need to be replaced
Considered a cost of business and shows up in the expenditure approach
Statistical Discrepancy
GDP figures are actually estimates due to businesses/persons records being faulty or missing
The discrepancy between the two approaches is known as the statistical discrepancy
This can be seen in Figure 10.3
Breakdown of Figure 10.3
To balance the two figures, Statistics Canada divides the difference between the two approaches
Discrepancy was $4.8 billion. Half the amount ($2.4 billion) is added to the lower figure (income-based estimate of GDP), and half is deducted from the higher figure (expenditure-based estimate of GDP)
The Expenditure Approach
GDP found using this approach is the sum of purchases in the product markets
Categories of Products
Final Products: products that will not be processed further and will not be resold
Intermediate Products: products that will be processed further or will be resold
Ex: Flour that is bought by a household for home baking is a final product. Flour that is bought by a bakery to make bread to be sold is an intermediate product
Double Counting
This occurs when the values of all products, both final and intermediate are included in the GDP calculations
Would cause estimates to be too high & not reflect the real activity in the economy
Value Added
In order to prevent double counting, the concept of value added is applied to the GDP
Value Added: the extra worth of product at each stage in its production; a concept used to avoid double counting in calculating GDP
Figure 10. 4 uses a pad of paper at each level of production, the results of double counting and how the concept of vales added deals with it
Categories of Purchases
Recall that expenditure -based GDP is calculated on the basis of almost all purchases in the Canadian economy
Few products are excluded
Those that are included, fall under 4 distinct categories
Excluded Purchases
There are two types of excluded purchases: financial exchanges and second-hand purchases
These are excluded because they are not related to current production
Financial Exchanges
This includes a gift of money between family members and is not included in the GDP
This is a transfer of of purchasing power from one party to another
Also excluded are bank deposits and purchases of stock
Second-Hand Purchases
A.K.A, used goods Excluded from GDP because they have been
accounted for previously in their very first transaction to their original owner (first consumer)
In brief, if they were included, GDP would double count and thus overestimate
Included Purchases
Included in the GDP calculations
1. Personal consumption (C)
2. Gross investment (I)
3. Government purchases (G)
4. Net exports (X-M)
Each contribute to the the economy
Personal Consumption
Household spending on goods and services.
Make up 60% of the GDP
Goods include: nondurable and durable
Nondurable: goods that are consumed just once. Ex: food
Durable: goods that are consumed repeatedly over time. Ex: bikes and CD’s
Gross Investment
Purchases of assets that are intended to produce revenue.
Makes up 15-25% of the GDP year-year Most important spending in this category is on
capital goods (machines etc) used by businesses
Also included are expenditures by government agencies into capital goods
Gross Investment Cont.
Related to the economy’s capital stock The total value of productive assets that provide a flow of
revenue Recall that capital such as machinery depreciate in value Net investment is the gross investment minus
depreciation Represents the yearly change in the economy’s stock of
capital Capital stock is the total value of productive assets that
provide a flow of revenue
Breakdown of Fig. 10.5
An economy has $200 billion of capital stock at the beginning of the year
It depreciates by $40 billion during the year Gross investment during the same period is $100
billion thus the net investment is $60 billion (100-40) The $60 billion represents the amount that the
capital stock expanded during the year Thus by the end of the year, the economy’s capital
stock is $260 billion (200+60)
Gross Investment Cont.
Also includes: inventories of different companies stocks of
unsold goods and materials Building construction with owner-occupied
housing Included here instead of personal
consumption because the owner could rent it out for a profit
Government Purchases
Include current spending by all levels of government on goods and services
Make up 20% of GDP Ex: The federal government buying a
battleship for the Navy, or a municipality hiring a paving company to repair roads
Fig. 10.7 shows the role of government in the economy’s circular flow of money
Net Exports
Final category of purchase and includes the purchases of Canadian goods and services by foreigners, or exports
This is calculated via the exports -- imports This is done because while exports include an American
furniture store buying Canadian softwood, imports include a Canadian paintball player buying an American paintball gun
Represented as net exports, they make up a small % of GDP, yet viewed independently of each other, they each make up about 25% of the GDP
Breakdown of Fig. 10.8
Shows the roles of exports and imports in the economy
Foreigners also play a part in the economy by lending/borrowing from financial markets
Foreign involvement tends to create a net increase in the economy
Foreign loans to the Canadian economy > Canadian loans to foreigners
GDP and Living Standards
GDP can be used to determine our standard of living via per capita GDP
This is the GDP per person and is calculated as GDP/population
In short, per capita GDP is the total $ value of output per person
Ex: in 1993 our GDP was $710 723 million and our population was 28.753 million. our per capita GDP was $24, 718 per person
Adjustments to Per Capita GDP
Adjusted depending on how it is to be used
Inflation adjustments
Exchange-Rate Adjustments
Inflation Adjustments
Takes into account the effects of inflation when analyzing the economic well-being within a country
Done by using real GDP GDP expressed in constant $ from a given
year Per capita real GDP is calculated the same
way as per capita GDP but using the real GDP
Exchange Rate Adjustments
Used to help better compare per capita GDP between countries where currencies differ
To counter this, all countries GDP’s are expressed in one currency; American $
Limitations of GDP
Recall: GDP is a measure of the total $ value of all final goods and services produced in an economy over a given period
Indicates economic activity and living standards (to some extent)
Has quantitative and qualitative limitations Does not tell us about what is purchased or
produced
Excluded Activities
GDP does not include some types of productive activities meaning that the GDP can actually understate economic activity and living standards
Non-market activities: productive activities that take place outside the market place such as housework, unpaid child care and the work of “do-it-yourselfers”
Have vital impact on our living standards
Excluded Activities Cont.
Underground economy: all the productive transactions that go unreported
Include things such as smuggling or “under-the-table” transactions
These are transactions paid for in cash so as to avoid applicable taxes
Product Quality
With the introduction of new technology and an increase of living standards, the quality of our goods has increased dramatically over the years
GDP can only add up selling prices, cannot fully capture these quality improvements
Composition of Output
Refers to the different uses of GDP between countries
A country that dedicates its GDP towards to health care and education would have a much higher standard of living than a country that dedicated its GDP towards military uses
Income Distribution
Recall that incomes may be distributed differently throughout the population
“the richest 1 per cent alone owned 40 per cent of global assets in the year 2000.”
Income Distribution Cont.
“The world's total household wealth amounted to $125 trillion in the year 2000, a sum which, averaged out, should give every adult $20,500. But in some countries, average per capita wealth was below $2,000, while the richest ranked many times higher.”
Source: World's assets tightly held: Study by Olivia Ward. Excerpt from the Toronto Star
Leisure
Many people consider this important to living standards
Despite the fact that we are able to work every hour of the day, people do not
The hours worked per week has decreased dramatically over the past century
Leisure Cont.
GDP has no way of representing this change in working hours per week
This would indicate in increase in the standard of living
Furthermore, leisure is not a commodity and thus cannot be bought or sold on the market
The Environment
GDP does not differ between economic activities that harm the environment, and those that don’t
May not accurately represent spillover costs and benefits
Ex: the cleaning up of an oil spill would be added to GDP, the creation of a new nature preserve would likely not be added
Gross National Product (GNP)
The total income acquired by Canadians both within Canada and elsewhere
Recall that GDP focuses on the incomes made in Canada while GNP focuses on earnings of Canadians
In order to calculate GNP, 2 adjustments must be made to GDP
Calculating GNP
1. Income earned from Canadian investments by foreigners is deducted from GDP
i.e.: interest payments on a Canadian government bond held in Japan
2. Income earned from foreign investments by Canadians is added to GDP
i.e.: a stock dividend from an American company paid to a Canadian sharholder
Calculating GNP Cont.
The 2 adjustments can be made in an investment income account
Foreign investment in Canada is higher than Canadian investment in foreign countries
GDP -- the account shows net investment income to foreigners = GNP
Net Domestic Income (NDI)
Recall from CH. 8 that NDI represents what is earned by households supplying resources in Canada
NDI = GDP -- amounts that are not earning from current production
i.e.: indirect taxes, depreciation allowances, statistical discrepancy
Personal Income
The income actually received by households
Calculated via adjustments made to net domestic income
(Refer to 10.10)
Transfer Payments
Government payments to net domestic income
Unrelated to earned income
Received by households
Excluded from net domestic income, but are part of households’ personal income
Other Payments to Persons
Primarily from governments to households
Most important of which are interest payments paid by governments on the debt they owe
Not part of resource earnings but are received by households
they must be included in personal income
Earnings Not Paid Out to Persons
Include taxes on corporate profits and retained earnings
These items must be subtracted from net domestic income to find personal income because they are earned, not received by households
Net Investment Income to Foreigners
Recall how foreigners invest into Canada and is represented by a net investment account
This net investment income must be subtracted to give personal income
The income payments are post of GDP and net domestic income
They are not received by households
Disposable and Discretionary Income
Disposable Income: household income minus personal taxes and other personal transfers to government
Used to buy necessities such as food, housing and clothing
Discretionary Income: disposable income -- purchases of necessities