QUESTION SET A A1 . Why do national income accountants compare the market value

Question

QUESTION SET A

A1. Why do national income accountants compare the market value of the total outputs in various years rather than actual physical volumes of production? What problem is posed by any comparison over time of the market values of various total outputs? How is this problem resolved?

A2. What is the basic objective of monetary policy? What are the major strengths of monetary policy? Why is monetary policy easier to conduct than fiscal policy?

A3. Explain why a single commercial bank can safely lend only an amount equal to its excess reserves but the commercial banking system as a whole can lend by a multiple of its excess reserves. What is the monetary multiplier, and how does it relate to the reserve ratio?

Explanation / Answer

A1: Answer: If it is impossible to summarize oranges and apples as one statistic, as the saying goes, it is surely even more impossible to add oranges and, say, computers. If the production of oranges increases by 100 percent and that of computers by 10 percent, it does not make any sense to add the 100 percent to the 10 percent, then divide by 2 to get the average and say total production has increased by 55 percent.

            Since oranges and computers have different values, the quantities of each commodity are multiplied by their values or prices. Adding together all the results of the price times quantity figures leads to the aggregate figure showing the total value of all the final goods and services produced in the economy. Thus, to return to oranges and computers, if the value of orange production increases by 100 percent from $100 million to $200 million, while that of computers increases 10 percent from $2 billion to $2.2 billion, we can see that total production has increased from $2.1 billion (= $100 million + $2 billion) to $2.4 billion (= $200 million + $2.2 billion). This is an increase of 14.29 percent [= ($2.4 billion ? $2.1 billion)/$2.1 billion)]

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