Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Input/Output

Absolute advantage:
-individual: exists when a person can produce more of a certain good/service than someone else in the same amount of time
-national: exists when a country can produce more of a good/service than another country can in the same time period

Comparative advantage:
-individual/national: exists when an individual or nation can produce a good/service at a lower opportunity cost than can another individual or nation

Input problems: the country/individual that uses the least amount of resources, land or time, has the absolute advantage

Output problems: country/individual that can produce the most has the absolute advantage
The country/individual that has the lowest opportunity cost has the comparative advantage in that product
(in some format it deals with production)

Absolute advantage: faster, more, more efficient

Comparative advantage: lower opportunity cost
Heres a practice problem.

Foreign Exchange Market

Foreign exchange (FOREX): the buying and selling of currency
-the exchange rate (e) is determined in the foreign currency markets
-simply put. The exchange rate is the price of a currency

Tips

  • always change the D line on one currency graph, the S like on the other currency's graph
  • move the lines of the two currency graphs in the same directions (right or left) and you will have the correct answer 
  • If D on one graph increases, S on the other will also increase
  • If D moves to the left, S will move to the left on the other graph
Changes in exchange rate
-exchange rates (e) are a fiction of the supply and demand for currency
  • an increase in the supply of a currency will make it cheaper to buy one unit of that currency
  • a decrease in supply of a currency will make it more expensive to buy one unit of that currency
  • an increase in demand for currency will make it more expensive to buy one unit of that currency
  • a decrease in demand for a currency will make it cheaper to buy one unit of that currency
Appreciation: appreciation of a currency occurs when the exchange rate of that currency increases 
-hypothetical: 100 yen used to buy $1

Depreciation: depreciation of a currency occurs when the exchange rate of that currency decrease
-one hundred ten used to buy now dollar. Now 50 yen buys one dollar
-the dollar is weaker because it takes fewer yen to buy one dollar

Exchange rate determinants
  • consumer tastes
  • relative income
  • relative price level
  • speculation
Purchasing power parity: when the current rates are set by international markets changes will be based on the actual purchasing power of the currencies
  • For ex: if US dollar to European euro is $1.50 to 1 than each S1.50 will buy one euro however if an item in the U.S. cost $1.50, and then cost more or less than one euro, the parity is lost, markets will adjust quickly in floating rates or pressure for change will occur in fixed rates 
Why do we exchange currencies?
  1. To invest in other countries stocks and bonds
  2. Sell exports and buy imports
  3. To build factories or stores in other markets
  4. To hold currencies in ban accounts for future imports, exports, or business loans
  5. Tp speculate on currency values
  6. To control excessive imbalances and the imbalance will come from the balance of payment

Formulas

Balance of trade:

  • goods and services exports - goods and services imports
  • (if imports > exports) trade deficit or trade surplus (if exports > imports)
  • goods exports + good imports
Current account:
Balance of trade + net investment + net transfer

Capital account:
Foreign purchases of U.S. assets + U.S. purchases of assets abroad

Official reserves:
Current account + capital account

How to calculate goods and services:
Good imports + service imports 

Balance of Payments

4/9/15

Balance of payments: measure of money inflows and outflows between the united stated and the rest of the world (ROW)
-inflows are referred to as credits
-outflows are referred to as debits
-balance of payments is divided into 3 accounts
1. Current account
2. Capital/financial account
3. Official reserves

Double entry bookkeeping: every transaction in the balance of payments is recorded twice in accordance with standard accounting practice
Ex: us manufacturer, john Deere, exports $50 million worth if farm equipment to Ireland
-$50 million worth of farm equipment or physical assets
-a debit of $50 million to the capital/financial account (+$50 million worth of euros or financial assets)


Balance of trade or net exports
-exports of goods/services-import of goods/services
-exports create a credit to the balance of payment
-imports create a debut to the balance of payments

Net foreign income
-income earned by us owned foreign assets - income paid to foreign held us assets
-ex. Interest payments on is owned Brazilian bonds - interest payments on German owner us treasury bonds

Net transfers (unilateral)
-foreign aid ->a debut to the current account
-ex: mexican migrant workers send money to family in Mexico

Capital/financial account
-the balance of capital ownership
-includes the purchase of both real and financial assets
-direct investment in the United States is a credit to the capital account
-purchases of stocks and bonds by foreigners
-purchase of foreign financial assets represents a debit to the capital account
-ex. Warren buffet buys stock in petrochina

-purchase of domestic financial assets by foreigners represents a credit to the capital account
-united arab emirates sovereign wealth find purchases a large stake in the Nasdaq

Relationship between current and capital account
-the current account and the capital account should zero each other out
-if the current account has a negative balance (deficit) then the capital account should then have a positive balance (surplus)

4/13/15
Official reserves:
-the foreign currency holdings of the us federal reserve system
-when there is a balance of payments surplus the fed accumulated foreign currency and debits the balance of payments
-when there is a balance of payments deficit the fed depletes it's reserves of foreign currency and credits the balance of payments
-the official reserves zero out the balance of payments

Active v. Passive official reserves
-the United States is passive in it's use of official reserves. It does not seek to manipulate the dollar exchange rate
-the peoples republic of china is active in it's use of official reserves. It actively buys and sells dollars in order to maintain a steady exchange rate with the United States

Phillips Curve

Short run
Time too short for wages to adjust to the price level

Workers may not be aware of changes in their real wages due to inflation and have adjusted their labor supply decisions and wage demands accordingly

Nominal wages: amount of money received per day per hour or per year

Sticky wages: nominal wage level is set according to an initial price level and it does not vary

Long run aggregate supply
Time long enough for wages to adjust to the price level
-flexible wage and price level
-both offset each other


Phillips curve: Represents relationship between unemployment and inflation
-the trade off between inflation and unemployment only occurs in the short run
-long run Phillips curve: occurs at the natural rate of unemployment , if the natural rate of unemployment change, the lspc change
▪️represented by a vertical line
▪️no trade off between unemployment and inflation in the long run this means the economy produces at. A full employment level
▪️lrpc will only shift if the LRAS curve shifts otherwise it is assumed to be stable
▪️major lrpc assumption is that more worker benefits create higher natural rates and fewer worker benefits creates lower natural rates

Short run Phillips curve
-there is an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment
-has a relevance to Okun's law
-since wages are sticky inflation changes on the srpc
-if inflation persists an expected rate of inflation rise then the entire srpc moves upward which causes stagflation
-if inflation expectations drop, due to new technology or economic growth then the srpc will move downward
-aggregate supply shocks can create both higher rates of inflation and higher rates of unemployment
-supply shocks: rapid and significant increase in resource cost

Misery index: a combination of unemployment and inflation in any given year
- single digit misery is good


The long run Phillips curve (lrpc)
-because the long run Phillips curve exists at the natural rate of unemployment (Un), structural changes in the economy that affect Un wil also cause the lrpc to shift
-increases in Un will shift lrpc ➡️
-decreases in Un will shift lrpc ⬅️

Stagflation: period where we have high inflation and high unemployment occurring at the same time
-after vietnam war
-baby boom
-civil rights movement
-women's movement


Disinflation: reduction in inflation rate from year to year

Deflation: it is a situation in which there is an actual drop in the price level

4/715

It is the belief that the as curve will determine levels of inflation, unemployment and economic growth

-to increase the economy the as curve should shift to the right which will always benefit the company first

Amount paid on the last dollar earned or on each additional dollar earned so by reducing the marginal tax rate, supply siders believe that you will encourage more people to work longer and forego leisure time for extra income

Support policies that promote GDP growth that arguing that the high marginal tax rate along with the current system of transfer payments, they provide disincentives to work, invest, innovate, and undertake entrepreneurial ventures

Reaganomics : lower marginal tax rate to get the us out of a recession ➡️Results in deficit

Laffer curve: It is a trade off between tax rates and government revenue
-it is used to support the supply side argument

3 criticisms of the laffer curve
1. Research suggest that the impact of tax rates on incentives to work, save, and invest are small
2. Tax cuts increase demand which can fuel inflation and causes demand to exceed supply
3. Where the economy is actually located on the curve is difficult to determine

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Unit 4-Monetary Policy Video Notes


  • There are three types of money which is: commodity money, representative money, and fiat money. Commodity money is commodities that also function as money, so goods with some other purpose. Representative money means that a represents a quantity of a precious metal. Fiat money does not represent anything except it has value because the government says so. 
  • To label a Money Market graph, the y-axis is labeled "i" which stands for interest rate and the x-axis is labeled "Qm" which stands for the quantity of money. Demand for money is always going to slope downward. It slopes downward because when the price is high, the quantity of demand is low; when the price is low, the quantity for demand is high. The supply of money is vertical is because it does not vary based on the interest rate and is fixed by the Fed, unless the Fed moves it. An increase for the demand for money will shift to the right and a decrease will be a shift to the left. If the Fed increase the money supply, it will bring the interest rate down and stabilize it. 
  • The tools of monetary policy can be divided into two categories: expansionary (easy money) and contractionary (tight money). For expansionary policy, the Fed lowers the reserve requirement and discount rate and buys bonds to increase money supply. For contractionary policy, The Fed will raise their required reserves and discount rate an sells bonds to decrease money supply. The discount rate is the rate at which banks can borrow money from the Fed. The Federal Funds Rate is the rate at which banks borrow money from each other. 
  • To label the Loanable Funds graph, the y-axis is labeled, "i" which stands for interest rate or price. The x-acis is labeled "Qlf" which stands for quantity of loanable funds. Demand for loanable funds is downward sloping. Supply for loanable funds is upward sloping. Supply of loanable funds comes from the amount of money that people have in banks, which means that people are dependent on savings. An increase in demand for money also increases the demand for loanable funds, because both changes increase the interest rate. More demand for money reduces the supply of money, because the government is demanding more, which causes them to buy more which leaves less in terms of supply. 
  • Banks create money by making loans. The reserve requirement is the percentage of the banks total deposits that they have to keep in reserves. The money multiplier is 1 divided by the reserve ratio. Then you take this multiplier and multiply it by the amount of the initial deposit in order to find out how much money the bank can loan. Its due to the process of multiple deposit expansion. It is not guaranteed that this amount of money will be created because we would assume that none of the banks hold excess reserves. 
  • The relationship between the money market, loanable funds market, and the AD/AS model is integral to macroeconomics. For example, government deficit spending; there will be an increase in the demand for money in the money market, which shifts to the right. This will also cause the demand for loanable funds to increase and the supply of loanable funds to decrease, and then an increase in AD. An increase in the interest rate will also be an increase in the price level, and this is known as the "Fisher Effect".