史蒂芬 威廉森 宏观经济学 第四版 课后题答案 最新Solution_CH1
Chapter 1
Introduction
Textbook Question Solutions
Questions for Review
1. Macroeconomics focuses on questions that affect large numbers of individuals, including those in
other nations.
2. Microeconomists study the behavior of individual households and firms. Because the economy as a
whole is comprised of a large number of households and firms, interactions at the aggregate level are the results of decisions of individual households and firms.
3. The average American was nine times as rich.
4. The Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II.
5. What causes sustained economic growth?
Could economic growth continue indefinitely, or is there some limit to growth?
Is there anything that governments can or should do to alter the rate of economic growth?
What causes business cycles?
Could the dramatic decreases and increases in economic growth that occurred during the Great
Depression and World War II be repeated?
Should government act to smooth business cycles?
6. The slope represents the exponential growth rate.
7. The trend in a series is a smooth curve fit to the data.
The business cycle component is equal to the actual series values minus the trend values.
8. Experimentation may cause irreparable harm to a large number of people.
9. A model must be simple to capture the essential features of the world that are relevant to problems
at hand.
10. No. Exact descriptions of reality are too complicated to provide useful results.
11. The consumers and firms that interact in the economy.
2 Williamson ? Macroeconomics, Fourth Edition
The set of goods that consumers wish to consume.
Consumers’ preferences over goods.
The technology available to firms for producing goods.
The resources available.
12. Macroeconomic models help us answer questions about how the economy behaves.
Models are useful if they reasonably and accurately explain the phenomenon of interest.
13. Macroeconomic behavior is the result of many microeconomic decisions. To answer policy questions,
we need to know whether a proposed policy change is likely to affect the behavior of the individual decision makers.
14. Real Business Cycle theory
Market segmentation theory
Keynesian coordination failure theory
New Keynesian model
15. True productivity continued to rise, but was imprecisely measured.
Time was required for the economy to adjust to new technology.
16. An increase in government spending consumes resources that might otherwise be used by the private
sector.
17. Holding government spending fixed, a cut in taxes today must be offset by a tax increase in the future.
Such a policy change should not affect private decisions to purchase goods and services.
18. The cause of inflation in the long run is excessive growth in the money supply.
19. The nominal interest rate expresses dollar interest payments as a percentage of the amount borrowed.
The real interest rate measures that amount of purchasing power that will be required to repay a
loan. The (expected) real interest rate is approximately equal to the nominal interest rate minus the (expected) rate of inflation.
20. 1974–1975, 1981–1982, 1990–1991, 2001, 2008–2009.
21. A large perceived average risk in credit markets led to a sharp increase in credit rate spreads. Also, a
significant decrease in house prices led to a devaluation of collateral used for credit, constraining new credit.
22. For given amounts of domestic production and spending, government deficits must be financed
by borrowing from abroad. Total borrowing from abroad is equal to the current account deficit.
Therefore, if the government budget deficit increases, the current account budget deficit automatically increases by the same amount, unless there is some offset due to changes in domestic production or spending.
23. Long-run inflation is explained by the long-run rate of growth of money supply.
24. The level of aggregate economic activity
Chapter 1 Introduction 3 The structure of the population
Government intervention
Sectoral shifts
Problems
1. Calculating Growth Rates Data:
Year Real Per Capita GNP
1950 $11,745
1960 $13,951
1970 $18,561
1980 $22,784
1990 $28,598
1998 $33,544
1999 $34,367
2000 $34,785
2001 $34,677
2002 $34,876
2003 $35,423
2004 $36,357
2005 $37,063
2006 $37,725
2007 $38,116
2008 $38,189
(a) Actual Percentage Growth Rates, 1999–2008.
Year Real Per Capita GNP% Growth
1998 $33,544
2.45
1999 $34,367
1.22
2000 $34,785
?0.31
2001 $34,677
0.57
2002 $34,876
2003 $35,423
1.57
2.64
2004 $36,357
1.94
2005 $37,063
2006 $37,725
1.79
1.04
2007 $38,116
4 Williamson ? Macroeconomics, Fourth Edition
0.19
2008 $38,189
(b) Approximate Percentage Growth Rates, 1999–2008.
Year Real Per Capita GNP% Growth
1998 $33,544
1999 $34,367 2.42
2000 $34,785 1.21
?0.31
2001 $34,677
2002 $34,876 0.57
2003 $35,423 1.56
2004 $36,357 2.60
2005 $37,063 1.92
2006 $37,725 1.77
2007 $38,116 1.03
2008 $38,189 0.19
The approximation is extremely close. The approximation works well for small percentage
changes.
(c) Actual Percentage Growth Rates for Decades, 1950–2000.
Year Real Per Capita GNP% Growth
1950 $11,745
1960 $13,951 18.78
1970 $18,561 33.04
1980 $22,784 22.75
1990 $28,598 25.52
2000 $34,785 21.63
Approximate Percentage Growth Rates.
Year Real Per Capita GNP% Growth
1950 $11,745
1960 $13,951 17.21
1970 $18,561 28.55
1980 $22,784 20.50
1990 $28,598 22.73
2000 $34,785 19.58
The approximation is still relatively close, but the approximation errors are larger because the
growth rates are larger. Note that the approximation formula actually calculates the continuously compounded growth rate.
Chapter 1 Introduction 5 2. Some obvious possibilities include Federal Reserve open market purchases to keep the money supply
from shrinking, instituting bank reforms before the Depression started, avoiding high tariff rates, etc.
3. Newton’s model of falling bodies.
Ignores air resistance.
Works well for most dense objects, doesn’t work well for feathers.
Diagrams of plays in football and basketball.
Ignores the characteristics of individual players, and opponent reactions.
Works well for evenly matched teams.
Scale models of new aircraft designs.
Ignores working engines and interior contents.
Wind tunnel testing approximates aerodynamics of actual aircraft.
4. Income taxes are collected as a percentage of income. Sales taxes are collected as a percentage of
sales. Collections therefore fall if there is a reduction in the level of economic activity.
5. Taxes as a percentage of GDP rose, and at the same time, spending as a percentage of GDP fell.
6. In the early 1980s, inflation and money growth were moving in the opposite directions. Also, since
the mid-1980s, fluctuations in the money growth rate occur in the absence of fluctuations in the rate of inflation. However, the relationship between money growth and inflation is consistently confirmed over longer time spans. The period of time from the late 1960s through the early 1980s was
characterized by higher inflation and higher money growth relative to the periods before and after.
7. As one possibility, fundamental changes in the supply and demand for lending may explain changes
in the real rate of interest. Alternatively, the mid-1970s was a period of rising inflation. Borrowers’ willingness to pay interest depends on their expectations of future inflation. If higher inflation was expected to be temporary, the low observed real interest rates of the period would be consistent with somewhat higher expected real interest rates.
8. Throughout the 1990s, imports rose dramatically. Although exports also increased, exports grew less
rapidly than imports.
9. At the end of the 1960s the work force was relatively old, and older workers are generally unemployed
less than younger workers. This period predates the entrance of the baby boom generation. When a large number of young workers enter the labor force, the average age of the workforce declines, and unemployment may be expected to rise. The end of the 1960s also coincided with the peak years of the Vietnam War. Many young men who might otherwise have been unemployed were drafted into the armed forces.