Macroeconomics Test Bank
Macroeconomics Test Bank
Macroeconomics Test Bank
Table of Contents
GDP
The Wealth of Nations and Economic Growth
Growth, Capital Accumulation, and the Economics of Ideas
Savings, Investment, and the Financial System
Personal Finance
Unemployment and Labor Force Participation
Inflation and Quantity Theory of Money
Business Fluctuations
Business Cycle Theories
Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve
Fiscal Policy
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GDP
Video name: What is GDP?
1. GDP includes
d. b & c only
c. A new quilt made by Jane and given to her grandmother for her 80 th
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1. Real GDP controls for
a. changes in preferences.
b. changes in population.
c. changes in prices.
d. a & c only
e. a, b, & c
a. True
b. False
3. True or false: real GDP is always larger than real GDP per capita.
a. True
b. False
a. True
b. False
5. Real GDP per capita in the US ____________ during the great recession of 2009.
a. increased
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b. decreased
Video name: Real GDP Per Capita and the Standard of Living
1. Real GDP per capita is positively correlated with all of the following except
b. life expectancy.
c. happiness.
d. education.
e. b & d only
f. a, b, c, & d
2. Real GDP per capita is usually used to compare the standard of living of
d. a & c only.
1.True or False: Government purchases includes all of the following: social security
payments, government employee wages, and tanks purchased by the government.
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a. True
b. False
a. Consumption.
b. Net exports.
c. Government spending.
d. a & b only
e. a, b, c
a. Employee compensation.
b. Interest.
c. Profit.
d. b & c only
e. a, b, c
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The Wealth of Nations and Economic Growth
a. United States
2. Qatar has a higher GDP per capita than the United States. In fact, Qatar has a GDP per
capita that is roughly _______ times larger than Central African Republic’s GDP per capita.
a. 10
b. 50
c. 75
d. 250
a.
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b.
c.
d.
2. Since 1800, real GDP per capita in the United States has doubled roughly every
a. 20 years
b. 35 years
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c. 50 years
d. 70 years
3. Suppose two countries start with a real GDP per capita level of $2,000, but country A is
growing at 2% per year and country B is growing at 3% per year. After 140 years, country B
will have a real GDP per capita that is roughly ________ times higher than country A.
(Hint- you may want to review the “Rule of 70” to answer this question)
a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. 5
a. 3 times larger
b. 4 times larger
c. 6 times larger
d. 8 times larger
e. 10 times larger
2. Two countries start with the same real GDP per capita. Country A’s real GDP per
capita is growing at 4% and after 140 years, it is 16 times larger than country B’s.
What was country B’s growth rate?
a. 1%
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b. 2%
c. 3%
d. 3.5%
3. Two countries start with the same real GDP per capita. After 210 years, country B is
3 times larger than country A. What was country A’s growth rate?
a. 1%
b. 2%
c. 3%
d. 4%
4. Country A starts with a real GDP per capita that is 3 times larger than Country B.
Country A then grows at 2% per year and Country B grows at 4% per year. After 140
years, who is richer and by how much?
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1.To what rapid increase is the tale of “the hockey stick of human prosperity” referring?
d. B & C only
e. A,B,&C
2. When did the world begin to shift from the handle to the blade section of the hockey
stick (of human prosperity)?
a. 0 A.D.
b. 13th century
c. 18th century
d. 20th century
3. True or false: All countries shifted from the handle to the blade portion of the hockey
stick (of human prosperity) at about the same time.
a. True
b. False
4. In addition to improved access to education and reliable energy sources, what other
changes do scholars cite as a reason(s) why we experienced the recent, rapid increase
in human prosperity?
a. Improvements in institutions
b. Increase in religiosity
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c. Change in attitude
d. A & C only
e. A, B, & C
1. Which of the following countries’ economies fell further behind in the 20th century?
a. Japan
b. Niger
c. Argentina
d. South Korea
e. c & d only
f. b & c only
2. Between 1950 and 1970, Japan doubled its GDP per capita every 8.2 years. Using the
Rule of 70, calculate Japan’s approximate annual growth rate during that time period.
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3. We also learned that Argentina doubled its GDP per capita only once from 1950-2015. Using
the Rule of 70, calculate Argentina’s approximate annual growth rate during that time period.
a. Communism
b. Property rights
c. Price controls
d. Redistributive justice
e. b & d only
f. b, c, & d only
2. When Korea split into two countries in 1945, the northern and southern portions were
similar if not identical in all of the following except
a. Language
b. Human capital
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d. Institutions
3. Today, the main reason that North Korea has far fewer lights when viewed from
outer space than South Korea is that
d. North Koreans have different norms around using electricity than South Korea.
1.In 1967, the Suez Canal suddenly closed and remained closed for 8 years, temporarily
shutting down a major trade route for many countries. Based on the facts from the video,
this temporary canal closure
a. increased the GDP per capita of countries most reliant on the canal.
b. decreased the GDP per capita of countries most reliant on the canal.
c. increased international trade of countries most reliant on the canal without affecting their
GDP per capita.
c. decreased international trade of countries most reliant on the canal without affecting their
GDP per capita.
2. Adam Smith argued in 1776 that central Africa was resistant to growth because
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c. Central Africa’s tropical diseases were deadly.
1. Which of the following is a factor of production and best defined as ideas and inventions?
a. Human capital
b. Physical capital
c. Organization
d. Technical knowledge
a. Luck
b. Geography
c. Planning
d. Hard work
e. a & b only
f. b & c only
a. good incentives.
b. property rights.
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c. a just legal system.
d. a competitive market.
e. honest government.
f. political stability.
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Growth, Capital Accumulation, and the Economics of Ideas
1. Japan’s and Germany’s economic growth after World War II are both examples of
a. Catching-up growth.
b. Cutting-edge growth.
a. Economic growth.
b. Country differences.
c. Income inequality.
3. Select the order of symbols below that mimics the following order: human capital,
physical capital, ideas.
a. eL, eK, A
b. L, A, K
c. eK, L, A
d. L, K, eA
e. eL, K, A
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a. Capital accumulation
b. Function
c. Output
d. Input
a. Output
b. Knowledge
c. Factors of production
d. Inputs
e. A constant
f. A function
3. Which of the following graphs best represents the relationship between Y and K in
the Solow model?
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a.
b.
c.
d. a & b only
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Video name: The Solow Model and the Steady State
1.For the next two questions, consider the following: Country A has K=10,000 and produces
GDP according to the following equation: Y=5. If the country devotes 25% of its GDP to
making investment goods, how much is the country saving?
a. 12.5
b. 25
c. 125
d. 1,250
2. If 1% of all machines become worthless every year (they depreciate, in other words) in
Country A, GDP is
a. Increasing.
b. Decreasing.
c. In steady state.
c. Depreciation = investment.
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f. Depreciation = output.
a. 375
b. 400
c. 475
d. 500
a. K=13453
b. K=15625
c. D=13453
d. D=15625
e. A and C
f. B and D
3. Country B has the following economic conditions: GDP=2√K, initial capital stock (K)=2,500. If
this country is consuming 25, what percent of the country’s GDP is being invested?
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a. 20%
b. 30%
c. 40%
d. 50%
4. For the following two questions, suppose two countries have the following
economic conditions:
Once both countries achieve steady state, which country will consume a higher
proportion of its GDP?
a. Country A
b. Country C
5. Once both countries achieve steady state, which country will have higher consumption?
a. Country A
b. Country C
a. diminishing returns.
b. increasing returns.
c. Depreciation.
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d. a and c only
e. b and c only
2. Which countries will likely be growing faster: cutting-edge countries or catching-up countries?
a. Cutting edge
b. Catching up
3. The Solow model predicts that countries with similar _________ will eventually
converge to similar levels of output.
b. institutions
c. growth rates
d. consumption preferences
e. a and b only
4. The Solow model predicts ____ economic growth in the steady state.
a. 0%
b. 2%
c. 1-3%
d. 8%
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5. In the Solow model, the capital stock doesn’t change when
a. Investment = Depreciation.
d. Investment = Savings.
1.A country’s economic growth is given by the following equation: Y= and the country
invests 25% to making investment goods. Suddenly, through some invention, the country’s
new production function becomes Y=4. Which of the following equations represents the
country’s new investment function?
a. I=.25
b. I=.5
c. I=
d. I=2
a. Investment.
b. Ideas
c. Depreciation.
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d. Capital
e. a and b only.
f. a, b, and c only.
For the next three questions, consider the following two countries: Thrifty and Inventive. In
Thrifty, people devote 50% of GDP (Y) to making new investment goods, so =.5, and their
production function is Y=. In Inventive, people devote 25% of GDP to making new investment
goods, =.25, and their production function is Y=2. Both countries begin with K=100.
a. .5
b. 2.5
c. 5
d. 10
e. 25
4. What is the amount of consumption in Thrifty? (Hint: Anything that is not invested
of GDP is consumed)
a. .5
b. 2.5
c. 5
d. 10
e. 25
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5. In which country would you rather
live? a. Thrifty
b. Inventive
Video name: Office Hours: The Solow Model: Investments vs. Ideas
For questions 1 - 6, consider the following two countries: Inventive and Thrifty. In
Inventive, the country’s economy grows according to the following production function:
GDP= 2√K and it devotes 25% of GDP to making investment goods. Thrifty’s production
function is given by GDP=√K and it devotes 50% of its GDP to making new investment
goods. Both countries begin with 100 dollars worth of K and both countries have the
same capital depreciation rates and the same population. Additionally, assume that
depreciation for both countries is 3% of the capital stock.
a. 13
b. 100
c. 111
d. 192
e. 278
a. 13
b. 100
25
c. 111
d. 192
e. 278
a. 5
b. 8
c. 10
d. 19
e. 25
a. 5
b. 8
c. 10
d. 19
e. 25
a. Inventive
b. Thrifty
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c. Indifferent
6. In the steady state, Inventive citizens consume roughly _____ more times than
Thrifty. a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. 5
e. 6
1. In the United States, about ____ of all engineers and scientists work for private firms.
a. 10%
b. 30%
c. 50%
d. 70%
e. 90%
a. capital accumulation.
b. institutions.
c. incentives.
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d. the marginal product of capital.
e. a and b only
f. b and c only
3. True or false: John Kay invented the flying shuttle during the Industrial Revolution
and was financially rewarded for this innovation.
a. True
b. False
1. Ideas are
a. Rivalrous.
b. Nonrivalrous.
a. price floor
b. price ceiling
c. negative externality
d. positive externality
e. monopoly
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3. True or false: Patents have costs and benefits when it comes to encouraging idea
creation and adoption.
a. True
b. false
a. patents.
b. subsidies.
c. internet taxes.
d. a and b only.
e. a, b, and c only.
1.In the United States in 2012, the number of researchers, or idea creators, per 1000 people
was approximately
a. 2.5.
b. 4.0.
c. 8.0.
d. 20.0.
2. The number of countries investing heavily in research and development (i.e. idea creation) is
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a. Increasing
b. Decreasing
c. Relatively constant
3. True or false: Given that China has far fewer researchers per 1000 citizens than the United
States, they are not yet playing an important role in the world’s production of ideas.
a. True
b. False
a. Increasing returns.
b. Diminishing returns.
c. Constant returns.
d. Unknown.
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Savings, Investment, and the Financial System
Gwen is a real estate agent, and she knows that she will have some good years and some bad
years, but she wants to smoothe her consumption over time. She figures that half the time she’ll
earn $90,000 per year, and half the time she’ll earn $20,000 per year. These numbers are after
taxes and after saving for retirement, so these numbers are all she has to worry about.
1.If we ignore interest costs just to keep things simple, how much should Gwen consume
in an average year?
a. $20,000
b. $45,000
c. $55,000
d. $80,000
2. How many dollars will she save during the good years?
a. 0
b. $10,000
c. $35,000
d. $45,000
e. $70,000
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3. How many dollars will she borrow during the bad years? (Note: “Borrowing,” in this
context, is basically the same as “pulling money out of savings.”)
a. 0
b. $10,000
c. $35,000
d. $45,000
e. $70,000
4. The typical savings supply curve has a positive slope. If a nation’s saving supply
curve is perfectly vertical, what would that mean?
a. People in this country save the same amount no matter what the interest rate is.
b. People in this country are extremely sensitive to interest rates when deciding how much
to save.
5. Sometimes, in supply and demand models, it’s not clear who “supplies” and who “demands.”
For instance, in the labor market, it’s individual workers (not firms) who supply labor. In the
loanable funds market, who is usually the supplier and who is usually the demander?
b. Entrepreneurs supply loanable funds and savers also supply loanable funds.
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In this video, we focus on two big functions that banks perform:
None of these functions are unique to banks. In the following 4 anecdotes, which
function is the person performing?
1.Emmanuel donates a little money to five different charities, in the hopes that at least
one of them will do some good in the world.
a. Function i
b. Function ii
c. Functions i and ii
2. In Maria’s family, she’s the one who everyone asks for restaurant recommendations.
a. Function i
b. Function ii
c. Functions i and ii
a. Function i
b. Function ii
c. Functions i and ii
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a. Function i
b. Function ii
c. Functions i and ii
5. The financial analysts at Lexmark have evaluated three major projects. Each project, if
it actually goes forward, will be financed by going to a bank to borrow the money.
They’ve calculated a “break-even interest rate”: If they can borrow cash to pay for the
project at less than that rate, the project will likely be a success; if the rate is higher, then
it’s not worth it. If the interest rate is 11%, which projects will Lexmark take on?
A $100 million 8%
a. A only
b. B only
c. C only
d. A and C only
a. bank account
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b. stocks
2. Which one usually lets you “withdraw” part of your investment at any time, for any reason?
a. bank account
b. stocks
3. Which form of investment usually spreads your money over the largest number of
investment projects?
a. bank account
b. stocks
a. bank account
b. bonds
c. stocks
a. bank account
b. bonds
c. stocks
a. bank account
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b. bonds
c. stocks
a. Substitutes.
b. Complements.
8. Suppose you’d like to invest in a company and you’ve narrowed your choice down
to three firms: Company A is offering a zero-coupon bond with a face value of $1000
to be repaid in 1 year for $963. Company B has the same face value and maturity date
but sells for $871. And company C also has the same face value and maturity but
sells for $985. In which would you rather invest?
a. Company A
b. Company B
c. Company C
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d. Cannot be determined with the given information.
a. 4%
b. 6%
c. 8%
d. 10%
2. Suppose Company E is selling a zero-coupon bond with a face value of $1400 maturing
in a year for $1300 today. Which company is offering the higher rate of return?
a. Company D
b. Company E
3. Suppose Company F has a zero-coupon bond with a face value of $250 maturing in one year
and with an implied rate of return of 3%. Approximately what is the bond’s sale price today?
a. $243
b. $245
c. $247
d. $249
4. Suppose Company G is selling a zero-coupon bond with a face value of $100 that matures in
two years at a price of $82.64 today. What is the implied rate of return? (Hint: this one is tricky!)
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a. 4%
b. 6%
c. 8%
d. 10%
2. When governments outlaw high interest rates and the ceiling is binding, what likely
happens to the total amount of money borrowed?
b. It falls because savers aren’t willing to lend as much money at this lower interest rate.
3. If financial intermediation breaks down, what category of GDP will probably fall the most:
a. Consumption
b. Investment
c. Government purchases
d. Net exports
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4. During the Great Depression banking panics led people to pull their money from the
banking system. Which of the following would NOT be an effect of a banking panic?
a. Reduced investment.
b. Fewer loans
d. Greater savings
6. On Oct. 3, 2008 the FDIC temporarily raised the insured amount on a bank account
from $100,000 to $250,000 (since made permanent). Why did the FDIC raise the insured
amount at this time?
a. A run was developing at investment banks and the FDIC wanted to make sure that the
panic didn't extend to commercial banks
d. Inflation had increased the size of nominal bank account holdings and increases like this
are needed periodically to keep real insured amounts the same
a. $475,000
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b. $250,000
c. $100,000
d. $25,000
a. 15
b. 18
c. 19
d. 20
3. In general, higher leverage ratios are _____________ than lower leverage ratios.
a. Riskier
b. Less risky
a. Hedge funds
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b. Money market funds
c. Commercial banks
d. Investment banks
e. b and c only
b. Dentists in Germany
c. Banks
d. a and b only
e. a, b, and c
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Personal Finance
c. Market prices aggregate dispersed information that no single investor is likely to comprehend.
2. True or false. Actively managed mutual funds usually have lower fees than
passively managed mutual funds.
a. True
b. False
3. According to a study referenced in the video, of the top 25% of actively managed mutual
funds in 2012, what percent were also ranked in the top 25% of performance 5 years later?
a. 25%
b. 10%
c. 1%
d. none
4. Suppose that 100 financial ‘experts’ were to flip a coin at the start of each new year.
Those who flip ‘heads’ will say the market is going up this year and those who flip
‘tails’ will say the market is going down this year. Roughly what percent of these
experts would have a perfect prediction streak 3 years in a row?
a. 50%
b. 25%
c. 22%
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d. 12%
e. 10%
f. 6%
5. What percent of these experts would successfully predict the market’s direction at
least 2 out of the 3 years by simply flipping a coin? (Hint: this question is tricky!)
a. 50%
b. 25%
c. 22%
d. 12%
e. 10%
f. 6%
a. it went up
b. it went down
2. According to the efficient-market hypothesis, should you sell your shares now, a
few hours after the bad news emerged?
a. Yes
b. No
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3. On average, buyers in the stock market have
4. Is it better to invest in a mutual fund that has performed well for the past 5 years in
a row or one that has performed poorly for five years in a row?
2. Which of the following would be the least risky thing for you to do if you work as a
real estate agent?
b. Buy a house.
c. Marry a doctor.
a and b only.
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For questions 4-6, let’s see how fees can hurt your investment strategy. Let’s assume
that your mutual fund grows at an average rate of 7% per year—before subtracting the
fees. Using the rule of 70:
4. Approximately how many years will it take for your money to double if fees are 0.5% per year?
a. 8.1 years
b. 9.3 years
c. 10 years
d. 10.8 years
e. 11.2 years
5. Approximately how many years will it take for your money to double if fees are 1.5%
per year (not uncommon in the mutual fund industry)?
a. 8.2 years
b. 9.5 years
c. 10 years
d. 11.4 years
e. 12.7 years
6. Approximately how many years to double if fees are 2.5% per year?
a. 7.4 years
b. 11.5 years
c. 13. 5 years
d. 15.5 years
e. 16.3 years
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1. In 2008, Warren Buffet and a money management firm (Protege Partners) made a
million-dollar bet. Warren Buffet bet that a passive, low-fee mutual fund of his choosing
could outperform an actively managed investment portfolio by a team of financial
wizards. Buffett picked a boring S&P 500 index fund, like this video recommends.
Protege Partners chose a “portfolio of funds of hedge funds.” While the bet doesn’t
conclude until 2018, who do you think is on track to win?
b. The very smart financial managers and their complex ‘funds of funds.’
2. The market has some known anomalies such as the January effect mentioned in
this video. Given these known anomalies, should you try to beat the market?
a. Yes
b. No
b. In index funds.
c. In funds of funds.
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Unemployment and Labor Force Participation
1.In 2014, there were _______ as many bachelor degrees conferred in information
technology than in psychology.
a. half
b. 1.5 times
c. twice
d. three times
2. In 2014, the median starting salary for computer science majors was roughly
________ as much as the median starting salary for psychology majors.
a. half
b. 1.5 times
c. twice
d. three times
a. Plumber
b. Uber driver
c. Umpire
d. Factory worker
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4. What percent of jobs in the US require some form of occupational licensing?
a. 15%
b. 25%
c. 40%
d. 50%
a. A military soldier.
b. An adult who is out of work, wants a job, and applied to a job 2 weeks ago but not since then.
c. An adult in prison.
d. An adult who is out of work, wants a job, and applied to a job 5 weeks ago but not since then.
e. a and b only.
f. b and d only.
______________)*100 a. Employed
b. Labor Force
c. US adult population
d. US population
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3. Since 1950, in which year was the unemployment rate 0%?
a. 1953
b. 1969
c. 1994
d. a and b only.
a. 3%
b. 5%
c. 8%
d. 10%
5. According to the video, the average unemployment rate between 1950 and
2015 was approximately
a. 0%
b. 3%
c. 6%
d. 8.5%
a. An adult out of work who has been looking for work in the past year.
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b. An adult who is out of work and has been looking for work in the past 15 weeks.
c. An adult who is out of work and has been looking for work in the past 4 weeks.
d. An adult who is out of work and has been looking for work in the past week.
a. U-1
b. U-3
c. U-4
d. U-6
3. Discouraged workers are unemployed individuals who say they want a job, but although
they haven’t looked for work in the past ________ , they have looked in the past ________.
a. 4 weeks, 15 weeks
b. 4 weeks, year
c. 15 weeks, year
e. 2 weeks, 15 weeks
b. Doubles.
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1.True or false. It would be very beneficial for the US economy if we could greatly
reduce or eliminate frictional unemployment.
a. True
b. False
2. If the news reported that 100,000 “new” jobs were created and there were
1,000,000 job separations in the United States in July 2016, how many new hires
occurred in the US that month?
a. 100,000
b. 900,000
c. 1,000,000
d. 1,100,000
e. 1,500,000
3. In the above scenario, how many jobs are created for every job destroyed?
a. .1
b. .9
c. 1
d. 1.1
e. 1.5
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d. a and b only.
a. Unemployment benefits
a. Yellow Cab lays off 6,000 taxi drivers and replaces them with automated self-driving cars.
The taxi drivers look for work in another industry.
b. The economy is doing worse, so Yellow Cab closes down 10 dispatch offices and lays off
taxi drivers.
c. Each month, on average three Yellow Cab drivers quit their jobs in the city to move to
the countryside and start searching for work in their new town.
d. Each month, on average, one of the Yellow Cab drivers who quits and moves to the
country will decide to stop job searching for a new job and retire.
4. In countries with high costs of hiring and firing, firms have a more difficult time ___________
labor resources during economic fluctuations, making structural unemployment more prevalent.
a. training
b. paying
c. reallocating
5. Those who are most likely to oppose moving from having ‘just-cause’ employment
laws to ‘at-will’ employment laws are
a. Employed workers.
b. Unemployed workers.
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Video name: Cyclical Unemployment
1. Cyclical unemployment is defined as:
a. The amount of workers who have given up looking for work but would still take a job if it
paid enough.
a. People get upset when wages fall, particularly if they think their employer is causing the
wage cut, which negatively impacts workplace morale.
b. If wages were easily cut, workers might respond by working less or disrupting their work,
thus negatively affecting productivity.
c. Cyclical unemployment.
e. Structural unemployment plus the rate at which domestic jobs are replaced by
outsourcing skills internationally.
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4. Under some conditions, the government can reduce cyclical unemployment using
__________ and __________ policies.
5. According to the video and this graph, in what year might monetary and fiscal
policy be effective tools to smooth the unemployment rate?
a. 1971
b. 1997
c. 2010
d. 2015
2. The decline in which industry since the 1950s has caused a reduction in
low-skill, low-education, male labor force participation rates?
a. Services
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b. Technology
c. Agriculture
d. Manufacturing
3. Suppose in the next few years, a very large increase in college graduates opt to
pursue PhD programs full-time instead of accepting offers for financial analyst and
consultant positions. All else equal, what is likely to happen to the labor force
participation rate in those coming few years?
b. It will decrease, due to more adults in their working prime opting out of jobs.
c. It will stay the same, because being a PhD student counts as a full-time job.
4. Which of the following is an important demographic factor that can influence the
labor force participation rate?
a. Race
b. Religion
c. Age
d. Citizenship status
b. Increased costs to employers for installing wheelchair ramps and other accommodations
for aging workers.
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d. The monetary value of lost retirement benefits.
2. What would we expect to happen to the labor force participation rate if the U.S. government
raised the age at which senior citizens could begin collecting retirement benefits from 62 to 67?
c. Stay the same, since elderly are not counted as part of the labor force.
d. Stay the same, since retirees are already counted as part of the labor force.
3. What would we expect to happen to the labor force participation rate if the U.S.
government began diminishing retirement benefits to senior citizens who chose to stay
in the workforce past the age of 65?
c. Stay the same, since elderly are not counted as part of the labor force.
d. Stay the same, since retirees are already counted as part of the labor force.
4. In the graph, which country has the highest tax incentive for adult males to retire?
a. Japan
b. Spain
c. France
d. Italy
Video name: Women Working: What’s the Pill Got to Do With It?
1. Female labor force participation rates started to increase dramatically in
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b. The late 1940s
2. According to research by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz (2006), states that legalized oral
3. According to the graph in the video, by 1995 just over ______ of graduate students
pursuing law degrees were women.
a. 20%
b. 30%
c. 40%
d. 50%
e. 60%
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Inflation and Quantity Theory of Money
d. a and b only.
4. According to the video, hyperinflations have occurred in all of the following countries except:
a. Germany
b. South Africa
c. Yugoslavia
d. China
e. Zimbabwe
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Video name: Measuring Inflation
1. Which of the following situations is an example of inflation occurring in a two-good economy?
a. The price of apples is about 2% higher than it was five years ago, while the price of pears
fell by about 2% over the same time period.
b. The price of apples and the price of pears both increased by about 2% in the last five years.
c. The price of apples and the price of pears have remained the same over the past 5 years,
but wages for factory workers have increased since then.
d. The price of apples and the price of pears both decreased about 5% in the past 5 years.
2. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a weighted average of the prices of:
3. The inflation rate is measured as the percentage change in the index over a time
period. What variable should be plugged in for the denominator?
a.
b.
c.
d.
4. If the CPI is 93 in 2014 and 97 in 2015, calculate the rate of inflation from 2014 to 2015.
a. 4%
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b.4.12%
c. 4.3%
d. 5.2%
a.
b.
c.
d.
a. Real GDP
b. Inflation
c. Nominal GDP
4. In the quantity theory of money, P and Y represent the price and quantity of:
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a. all raw materials and natural resources sold in an economy.
5. Nominal GDP in terms of _______ is represented by how much money there is and
how many times it is spent, while Nominal GDP in terms of ________ is represented by
all goods and services and their prices.
b. V, velocity of money.
b. GDP spread.
c. Escalation.
d. Inflation.
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3. The phrase that “money is neutral in the long run,” means:
a. Inflation raises all prices so that consumers must pay more than they make.
b. Inflation distorts price signals, making it difficult for consumers to tell if the price increase is
due to scarcity or inflation, and react appropriately.
c. Inflation wastes seller resources, as they spend time and money changing prices.
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d. Inflation wastes buyer resources as they engage in more searching for lower prices.
2. How does inflation redistribute wealth when the rate is higher than expected?
a. Unexpected inflation reduces the real return on a loan, so wealth moves from the lender to
the borrower.
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b. Unexpected inflation increases the real return on a loan, so wealth moves from the lender
to the borrower.
4. If the inflation rate is expected to be 7% over the next year, and Bank of Bigbucks aims to
secure a real return on loans of 6%, what will the bank set interest rates at for borrowers?
a. 6%
b. 7%
c. 13%
d. 16%
5. The effect uncertainty about future inflation rates and the real rate of return on
loans is problematic for the economy overall because:
b. As interest rates rise, banks make exorbitant amounts of money and hoard it for the 1%.
c. As interest rates rise, government taxes must increase, leaving consumers with less
disposable income.
d. As long-term lending become more costly and less common, the economy invests less.
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Nominal Nominal return Inflation Real return
interest after taxes after taxes
rate
6% 3%
12% 9%
Refer to the above table when solving the next four questions. Let’s see how taxes
can affect your incentive to save when there is expected inflation. We know the
government taxes any nominal interest you earn on a savings account, so for the
following scenarios, assume a realistic 33% tax rate.
8. Calculate the nominal rate of return after taxes if the nominal interest rate is 6%.
a. 6%
b. 4%
c. 2%
d. 1%
9. Now calculate the real rate of return after taxes, which takes inflation into
account. In this scenario, inflation is 3%.
a. 3%
b. 2%
c. 1%
d. -1%
8. Calculate the nominal rate of return after taxes if the nominal interest rate is 12%.
a. 12%
b. 9%
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c. 8%
d. 6%
e. 3%
9. Now calculate the real rate of return after taxes, which takes inflation into
account. In this scenario, inflation is 9%.
a. 9%
b. 6%
c. 3%
d. 1%
e. -1%
a. 300%
b. 600%
c. 800%
d. 900%
a. -597%
b. -297%
c. -97%
d. -27%
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e. 0%
The above examples assumed that inflation, though very high, was expected. Now let’s
see what happens when inflation is high and unexpected. For the next two questions,
assume the nominal interest rate is 6% and inflation is unexpectedly 15% that year.
Assume the government tax rate is ⅓.
a. 0%
b. 2%
c. 3%
d. 4%
e. 6%
a. 19%
b. 4%
c. 0%
d. -7%
e. -11%
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d. A run on banks, as they have too little money.
2. What is most likely to happen when a government repeatedly boosts the economy by
printing more money?
a. People come to expect the increases so they prepare for higher prices.
d. The banks have too much money on hand and lend it at much cheaper interest rates.
3. In the short run, attempting to reduce inflation can lead to what effect until the
prices “catch up” to the smaller money supply?
c. Higher unemployment.
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Business Fluctuations
a. real GDP.
b. nominal GDP.
c. employment.
d. a and c only.
e. b and c only.
2. Over the last 60 years, the US’ real GDP has grown at an average rate of
a. 1%.
b. 2%.
c. 3%.
d. 4%.
a. True.
b. False.
a. 0%
b. 4%
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c. 8%
d. 16%
a. 0%
b. 2%
c. 6%
d. 10%
a. 0%
b. 8%
c. 10%
d. 16%
4. Inflation occurs when more money chases the same amount of goods and services. If
_________ increases, we can expect a corresponding decrease in inflation, because
more money will be chasing more goods.
a. real growth
b. velocity
c. money supply
d. unemployment
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a. Real GDP growth rate
b. Inflation
c. Consumption
a. outward/inward
b. inward/outward
c. outward/upward
d. inward/upward
1. All of the following factors are fundamental to an economy’s potential growth rate except for:
a. Labor
b. Capital
c. Money supply
d. Ideas
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2. How does inflation affect the long-run real growth?
d. There are many other factors to consider before determining how inflation will affect long
run real growth.
c. Inflation rate.
5. A negative real shock to the economy shifts the LRAS curve to the left, causing a(n)
____________ in growth and a(n) ____________ in inflation.
a. increase/increase
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b. decrease/decrease
c. decrease/increase
d. increase/decrease
a. higher
b. lower
c. stabilized
2. If inflation is 6% and you receive a 1% raise in your nominal wage, by how much did
your real wage change?
a. -7%.
b. -5%.
c. 1%.
d. 5%.
e. 7%.
3. If inflation is 1% and you receive a 1% raise in your nominal wage, by how much did
your real wage change?
a. -2%.
b. -1%.
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c. 0%.
d. 1%.
e. 2%.
a. exacerbate
b. lessen
a. Increased spending doesn’t immediately cause full inflation, so there is short run growth.
c. More spending makes prices sticky, so inflation skyrockets in the short run.
d. More spending makes prices more volatile, so inflation drops and often turns into deflation.
2. Using both a long-run aggregate supply curve and a short-run aggregate supply
curve can help demonstrate what effects in a real economy?
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3. A positive shock to the AD curve will cause inflation to __________ in the short
run and growth to ___________ in the short run.
a. increase/decrease
b. increase/increase
c. decrease/increase
d. decrease/decrease
a. Consumption
b. Investment
c. Government spending
2. In the short run, a decrease in consumption would lead to a(n) _________ in growth and a(n)
_________ in inflation.
a. increase/decrease
b. increase/increase
c. decrease/increase
d. decrease/decrease
b. Higher taxes.
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c. A war leads to more government spending.
d. Increased saving.
c. high inflation
2. When banks failed, people lost their money and had less to spend, leading to a
negative AD shock. Which of the following describes how bank failures also resulted in
a negative real shock to the economy?
a. The supply of gold was looted and stolen, so money wasn’t backed by enough hard value.
b. The bridge between saving and investing collapsed, making the economy less efficient.
c. Banks printed more money to make up for the withdrawals and caused hyperinflation.
d. Bank shut-downs meant that direct deposit failed and workers didn’t get paid on time.
3. In the 1930s, instead of ________ the money supply, the Federal Reserve
________ the money supply, which prolonged the Great Depression.
a. expanding / contracted
b. contracting / expanded
c. contracting / inflated
d. expanding / inflated
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4. What were the intentions of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, and what was the actual
outcome of the policy?
a. The tariff taxed domestic goods intending on decreasing the demand for foreign goods, and
it succeeded.
b. The tariff supplemented domestic goods intending to increase the demand for cheap
foreign goods, but it backfired and domestic demand increased.
c. The tariff taxed foreign goods intending on increasing demand for domestic goods, and
it succeeded.
d. The tariff taxed foreign goods intending on increasing demand for domestic goods, but
it backfired when other nations also imposed tariffs and trade fell.
5. Tariffs, like the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, make which of the following less efficient?
a. Taxes
b. Sales
c. Trade
d. Immigration
6. Which of the following natural shocks hit the United States early-on in the Great
Depression, contributing to the length and slow recovery?
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a. A major technological innovation.
2. Suppose the money supply growth rate is 4%, velocity is 5%, and the real GDP
growth rate is 3%. What is the inflation rate?
a. 9%
b. 6%
c. 4%
d. 2%
3. Suppose the money supply growth rate of the economy shown above is 5.5%.
What is the nominal GDP growth rate?
a. 4%
b. 1.5%
c. 7%
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d. -1.5%
e. 0.5%
Video name: Office Hours: Multiple Shocks with the AD-AS Model
1.Think back to the scenario in which scientists create a new invention, and consumers
become more optimistic. Compared to the inflation rate after short-run effects have taken
place, what will happen to inflation in the long run?
a. It will increase.
b. It will decrease.
d. It’s ambiguous.
2. Think back to the scenario in which there is a year of good weather and the
government cuts spending. Compared to the inflation rate after short-run effects have
taken place, what will happen to real GDP in the long run?
a. It will increase.
b. It will decrease.
d. It’s ambiguous.
3. Think back to the scenario in which a war causes a decrease in the supply of oil, and the
Fed decreases the money supply. Compared to the inflation rate before any shocks occurred
(eg, the war and the Fed’s actions), what will happen to inflation in the long run?
a. It will increase.
b. It will decrease.
d. It’s ambiguous.
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4. Suppose a negative real shock is accompanied by an increase in aggregate
demand. This would cause ________________ in the short run.
a. An increase in the inflation rate and decrease in the real GDP growth rate.
b. A decrease in the inflation rate and decrease in the real GDP growth rate.
c. An increase in the inflation rate, but the change in real GDP growth rate is indeterminate.
d. A decrease in the real GDP growth rate, but the change in the inflation rate is indeterminate.
5. Which of the following graphs depicts the scenario described in question #4?
a.
b.
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c.
d.
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Business Cycle Theories
a. Consumption.
b. Net exports.
c. Interest rates.
d. Investment.
e. Government spending.
a. Fiscal policy.
b. Monetary policy.
c. Aggregate demand.
d. Long-term contracts.
a. It will fall.
c. It will rise.
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a. Cut government spending.
e. a and d only.
f. b and d only.
d. a and b only.
e. b and c only.
d. In the short run, an increase in the money supply boosts economic output.
e. c and d only.
2. Which of the following is not a reason that monetarists want to constrain the Fed?
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c. A stable inflation rate should be enough to stabilize business cycles.
a. Stabilizing one measure of the money supply may destabilize other measures of it.
b. It leaves the Fed unable to act in case of negative real shocks and velocity shocks.
d. It only applies to times when inflation is too high, such as the 1970s.
e. a and b only.
c. It sets the inflation rate based on the overall health of the economy.
b. Wages
c. Aggregate demand
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2. According to real business cycle theory, how can we avoid recessions?
a. It doesn’t explain why negative supply shocks affect the entire economy.
b. It doesn’t explain why negative supply shocks happen in the first place.
a. By increasing velocity, the central bank creates the illusion of greater consumer demand
for short-term goods.
b. By increasing velocity, the central bank creates the illusion of lower consumer demand
for investment goods.
c. By increasing inflation, the central bank causes interest rates to fall, falsely signaling
an increase in consumer savings.
d. By increasing inflation, the central bank causes interest rates to rise, falsely signaling
a decrease in consumer savings.
2. According to the Austrian theory of business cycles, how does the boom part of the
business cycle lead to the bust?
a. Malinvestments made in response to distorted price signals fail when met with
insufficient consumer demand.
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b. The decrease in interest rates caused by distorted price signals creates an excess of
consumer demand.
d. The increased production of short-term goods caused by distorted price signals is met
with insufficient consumer demand.
e. a and c only.
e. a and c only.
4. Which of the following is a problem with the Austrian theory of business cycles?
a. It fails to explain why entrepreneurs don’t account for the distortions in price signals caused
by the central bank.
d. a and c only.
a. The bursting of the housing bubble meant consumers had to pay more in mortgages, and
so had less money to spend. This caused consumer spending to drop.
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b. The housing bubble encouraged banks to make bad loans. Entrepreneurs responded
by saving these loans instead of investing them, causing investment to drop.
c. Unemployment and lower income, resulting from a drop in consumer spending and investment,
meant governments took in less in tax revenue. This caused government spending to drop.
d. b and c only.
2. According to the real business cycle theorists, why was recovery so slow?
4. According to the Austrians, which of the following was not a cause of the Great Recession?
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Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve
a. Act as a lender of last resort, control money supply in the long term, and print money.
b. Create money, buy government bonds, and control long-term economic growth.
c. Buy government bonds, act as a lender of last resort, and create money.
d. Control short-term growth, create money, and buy government bonds.
2. The Federal Reserve can control short-run growth better than long-term growth but
even then, there are limits to its powers to influence short-term growth, in part because:
a. It cannot buy bonds, cannot use executive orders, and it cannot control the supply of money.
b. It has a lack of direct control, incomplete data about the economy, and lack of the
executive order.
c. It has incomplete data about the economy, lagged results from policy to growth, and
limited control.
d. It cannot increase the money supply, has incomplete data about the economy, and can
buy bonds.
3. How does the Quantity Theory of Money help us understand the limitations of the
Federal Reserve’s power to control economic growth?
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1.Which of the following count as money?
b. M1 plus M2.
3. Over which aspect of the money supply does the Fed have the most direct control?
a. Checkable deposits.
b. Monetary base.
c. M2.
d. M1 and M2.
b. M1.
c. M2.
d. M1 and M2.
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Video name: The Money Multiplier
1.If the Federal Reserve sets the minimum reserve ratio for private banks at 25%, then
the money multiplier is:
a. 2.5
b. 4
c. 1
d. 0.4
2. If the Federal Reserve increases the minimum reserve ratio that private banks are
required to hold, the following will occur:
a. The banks can make more loans and the money supply decreases.
b. The banks can make more loans and the money supply increases.
c. The banks can make fewer loans and the money supply decreases.
d. The banks can make fewer loans and the money supply increases.
3. The control the Federal Reserve has in manipulating the money supply by setting the
minimum reserve ratio is limited because:
a. Banks can decide to hold more cash than the minimum reserve ratio requires.
c. People might not hold their money in banks, which limits the loanability of that cash.
d. a and c.
e. a and b.
Video name: How the Fed Worked: Before the Great Recession
1.Which of the following is not a reason that banks keep reserves?
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b. To meet the Fed’s minimum reserve requirement.
c. To meet customers’ withdrawals.
d. To keep the interest rate from becoming too low.
4. Contractionary OMOs are the reverse of expansionary OMOs and are intended to have the
opposite effect. Which of the following should the Fed do to conduct contractionary OMOs?
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b. Banks hold fewer excess reserves.
Video name: How the Fed Worked: After the Great Recession
1.What is quantitative easing?
a. When the Fed swaps money with banks for assets other than treasury bills.
b. When the Fed changes the federal funds rate more slowly, so as to prevent a sudden shock
to the economy.
c. Open market operations that happen overnight at the Fed’s sole discretion.
d. The Fed’s new ability to set interest rates directly, without having to go through
transactions with banks.
2. What is one reason open market operations stopped being as effective during and
after the Great Recession?
a. With interest rates near zero, it became nearly impossible to impact the economy by
lowering the federal funds rate.
b. Banks are now legally mandated to hold higher reserves, making a federal funds
market unnecessary.
c. After the Great Recession, major firms began to account for changes in the federal funds
rate, cancelling their effect.
d. The Fed can now directly set the federal funds rate, making open market
operations unnecessary.
a. See the impact of its policies before it’s too late to reverse
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d. Simply set interest rates without having to carry out purchases in a market
4. How does the Fed now influence how much banks hold in reserves?
c. Interest rates
d. Repos are also conducted with other financial institutions besides banks.
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c. Liquid and insolvent.
d. Illiquid and insolvent.
a. Regulate banks.
e. a and c only.
f. a, c, and d only.
a. Regulate banks.
e. a and c only.
f. a, b, and c only.
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d. The federal government increases military spending.
e. a and c only.
f. a, b, and c only.
2. Suppose the economy operates as below. Which graph best illustrates what
happens if consumers and investors become more optimistic?
a.
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b.
c. d.
3. Now suppose you’re a central banker in this economy and you want to neutralize this change in
the economy. That is, you want to return the economy to its original state by pushing monetary
96
policy in the opposite direction of the shock. If you do your job perfectly and the
economy returns to its original state, what will the inflation rate be?
a. 4%
b. 7%
c. 10%
d. 14%
Suppose that an oil shock causes the long run aggregate supply curve (LRAS) to
decrease by 10%, but the Fed mistakes the noticeable increase in inflation as caused
by a positive shock to aggregate demand.
1.If the graph above represents the original state of the world, which graph below
properly represents the LRAS true shock (LRAS-T) and the AD false shock (AD-F)?
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a.
b.
c.
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d.
2. If the goal were to get the economy closer to its original growth rate, what policy would
the Fed take based on its incorrect assumption that this is an aggregate demand shock?
3. If the goal were to get the economy closer to its original growth rate (albeit
temporarily), what is the correct policy to take given the actual real shock?
4. Aggregate supply shocks are often accompanied by aggregate demand shocks. In the
following scenario, identify which of the following has definitely occurred to the economy.
Biologists learn how to use computer simulations to rapidly search for molecules that would
make promising medicines, and investors become optimistic about future profit opportunities.
a. Rise in inflation.
b. Fall in inflation.
e. a and c only.
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f. b and c only.
1.Let’s suppose there is a massive, negative velocity shock to the economy. If the Federal
Reserve is following annual monetary growth rule of 3%, what will happen to inflation and
real GDP in the short run?
2. What will happen to inflation and real GDP in the long run?
3. Now suppose the Fed is trying to follow a Nominal GDP Rule of 3%. If v, velocity,
suddenly fell by 4%, what action, if any, should the Fed take?
e. No action necessary.
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For the next four questions, let’s look at the money supply (M2) and velocity ‘before’
and ‘after’ the banking crises of the Great Depression, as seen in the table below.
Year M2 v (velocity)
a. $16.3 billion.
b. $37.4 billion.
c. $76.2 billion.
b. $35.36 billion.
c. $78.1 billion.
6. What was the approximate growth of nominal GDP between these two years?
(Hint: this question is difficult!)
a. -3.1%
b. +3.1%
c. -15.7%
d. +15.7%
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7. If velocity growth would have been zero during this period, but money growth
stayed the same, what would have happened to nominal GDP?
a. -3.1%
b. +3.1%
c. -6.2%
d. +6.2%
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Fiscal Policy
1.The government hires 2000 workers for new infrastructure projects. Over half of the
newly hired construction workers, however, were employed in other sectors of the
economy and quit their jobs to take this better paying opportunity.
f. a and d only.
f. a and d only.
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d. Fiscal multiplier.
e. a and c only.
f. a and d only.
4. During a recession, the government sends $500 checks to every American family.
70% of American families save the money or use it to pay off their debt.
f. a and d only.
1.Suppose a change in fiscal policy causes the AD curve to shift from AD(1) to AD(2) as
shown above. Which response below would most likely cause that shift?
3. Given your answer above, in which direction will the AD curve shift?
a. Unemployment insurance.
b. Temporary tax cuts passed by Congress when bad economic news hits.
c. Temporary spending increases passed by Congress when bad economic news hits.
d. a and b only.
e. a and c only.
2. It’s often very difficult to time fiscal policy correctly. Suppose each fiscal lag identified in the
video lasts approximately 3 months. If the average U.S recession since World War II lasts around
11 months, is the total fiscal lag longer or shorter than the typical recession?
a. Shorter.
b. Longer.
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3. Given that an ideal stimulus is timely, targeted, and temporary, which of the
following scenarios would most benefit from expansionary fiscal policy?
b. American workers get laid off by the hundreds of thousands because of a sudden collapse
in investment purchases.
d. a and b only.
e. a and c only.
e. a and c only.
2. If the government performs expansionary fiscal policy, which curve shifts and
in what direction?
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a. Increase inflation in the short run.
a. A monetary offset.
b. Ricardian equivalence.
c. Contractionary fiscal policy.
e. b and c only.
2. When the central bank contracts the money supply in response to expansionary
fiscal policy, this is known as
a. A monetary offset.
b. Ricardian equivalence.
c. Contractionary fiscal policy.
e. b and c only.
a. Consumers.
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b. The central bank.
c. Businesses.
d. b and c only.
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