1. Contrast the ideas of nominal and real GDP. Why is one more reliable than the other for comparing changes in the standard of living over a series of years? Compare 1980 and 2020, using one of the methods I’ve explained below. Which do you think would be the better year and why? There are two ways to do the comparison, and I don’t care which you choose: One is to find the data for each year from a search engine and compare them. Another is to find the nominal GDP for each year and use the Price Index for the year according to BEA and multiply the index by the base for each year. This converts them to real GDP and then you can compare them.
2. Please explain Google’s market power. Why did the Justice Department sue it? Why do economists say that Google is in an oligopoly market while the Justice Department says its exercising monopoly power? Which side is correct in your opinion? How has the technology industry “tech” disrupted economics and politics recently?
3. Describe the Aggregate Expenditures model that John Maynard Keynes had theorized. You need to draw his model so feel free to base your explanation on that. What is on each axis of the Keynesian graph, and what relationship does the graph show? Be sure to comment on Keynes’s general theory about Demand. (Note: This is NOT the Aggregate Demand / Aggregate Supply Model, which is requirement 4 below, and is often considered the neoclassical model)
4. Draw the aggregate demand and aggregate supply graphs in a three-panel model: In the first graph, show aggregate demand on the graph and aggregate supply in the immediate short run. The second graph again shows aggregate demand, but this time shows aggregate supply in the short run. Finally, the last panel shows aggregate demand and aggregate supply in the long run. Be sure to label each axis and each curve in each graph.
Discuss the following by referring to your graphs: 1) What are the determinants of aggregate demand and aggregate supply? 2) Why do the aggregate demand, aggregate supply (immediate short run), aggregate supply (short run), and aggregate supply (long-run) curves slope the way they do? Finally answer the question: What does it mean that in the long run, producers will make (and supply) all consumers want at any reasonable price.
The graphs for aggregate expenditures and aggregate demand/aggregate supply may be hand-drawn and submitted as a separate attachment. It is important that you reference the graphs in your paper though. The paper should convey that you understand them:
