Unit 10 Exercise Due By 11:00 PM Sunday
Unit 10unit 10 Exercisedue No Later Than 1100 Pm On Sunday Of Unit
Complete the questions below that are based on your chapter readings. Submit your answers in a Microsoft Word document (no PDFs) by 11:00 p.m. on Sunday of Unit 10. Objectives The purpose of the Unit Exercises is to assess the student’s ability to apply the economics concepts learned in the unit to practical problem-solving scenarios.
Paper For Above instruction
Economic policy tools such as fiscal and monetary policies play a vital role in managing macroeconomic challenges like unemployment and inflation. Understanding these policies is essential for analyzing government responses to economic issues and assessing their implications on the economy.
1. Fiscal Policy and Its Role in Reducing Unemployment
Fiscal policy involves the use of government spending and taxation to influence economic activity. During periods of high unemployment, expansionary fiscal policy is typically employed to stimulate demand and job creation. This approach includes increasing government expenditure, decreasing taxes, or a combination of both, aimed at boosting aggregate demand (Barro, 2020). For example, increasing infrastructure spending can provide immediate employment opportunities, thus reducing unemployment rates effectively (Mankiw, 2020). Conversely, contractionary fiscal policy, involving spending cuts or tax hikes, is used to cool down an overheated economy or control inflation (Blanchard & Johnson, 2019).
2. Monetary Policy and Combating Inflation
Monetary policy refers to the control of the money supply and interest rates by a country's central bank to influence economic activity. To fight inflation, central banks often implement contractionary monetary policy, which entails raising interest rates, reducing the money supply, and decreasing credit availability (Mishkin, 2019). Higher interest rates discourage borrowing and spending by households and firms, thereby reducing demand-pull inflation (Clarida, Galí, & Gertler, 2020). This strategy aims to stabilize prices and maintain the purchasing power of money in the economy.
3. Debt and Deficit
A budget deficit occurs when a government's expenditures exceed its revenues within a fiscal year. Persistent deficits often lead to increased government borrowing, resulting in rising government debt— the accumulation of past deficits minus surpluses (Alesina & Perotti, 2020). The relationship between deficit and debt is direct: continuous deficits increase total debt, which must be financed through borrowing (Caggiano & Perotti, 2020). Understanding the cyclical adjustment to deficits is crucial, as it accounts for temporary economic fluctuations—deficits tend to be higher during recessions due to automatic stabilizers like unemployment benefits and lower during booms—thus providing a clearer picture of the fiscal stance (Blanchard & Perotti, 2020).
4. Crowding Out and Its Effects
Crowding out refers to the reduction in private investment resulting from an increase in government borrowing. When the government runs a budget deficit, it competes for limited financial resources in the credit markets, leading to higher interest rates, which discourage private investment (Barro, 2020). This phenomenon can diminish the growth-enhancing effects of fiscal expansion, as reduced investment hampers productivity and long-term economic expansion (Auerbach & Gorodnichenko, 2020). Excessive government debt levels raise concerns about fiscal sustainability, potential default, and the crowding out of productive private sector activities (Perotti, 2019).
References
- Alesina, A., & Perotti, R. (2020). Fiscal policy and debt sustainability. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 34(3), 123-146.
- Auerbach, A. J., & Gorodnichenko, Y. (2020). Fiscal multipliers in recession and expansion. NBER Working Paper No. 27194.
- Blanchard, O., & Johnson, D. R. (2019). Macroeconomics. Pearson.
- Blanchard, O., & Perotti, R. (2020). Fiscal Policy in Recession. American Economic Review, 110(3), 707-739.
- Caggiano, G., & Perotti, R. (2020). Fiscal policy, macroeconomic conditions, and debt sustainability. Economic Policy, 35(106), 445-489.
- Clarida, R., Galí, J., & Gertler, M. (2020). The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 34(4), 115-134.
- Mankiw, N. G. (2020). Principles of Economics (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.
- Mishkin, F. S. (2019). The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets (12th ed.). Pearson.
- Perotti, R. (2019). The Future of Fiscal Policy: Sustainability and Growth. European Economy, 1, 1-16.
- Barro, R. J. (2020). Economic Growth and the Role of Fiscal Policy. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 34(2), 115-132.