macroeconomics

An overview of macroeconomics, the study of the economy as a whole, and how it differs from microeconomics
The importance of the business cycle and why policy-makers seek to diminish the severity of business cycles
What long-run growth is and how it determines a country’s standard of living

The meaning of inflation and deflation and why price stability is preferred
What is special about the macroeconomics of an open economy, an economy that trades goods, services, and assets with other countries

Macroeconomics vs. Microeconomics
Let’s begin by looking more carefully at the difference between microeconomic and macroeconomic questions.

Macroeconomics vs. Microeconomics

Macroeconomics vs. Microeconomics
Microeconomics focuses on how decisions are made by individuals and firms and the consequences of those decisions.
Example: How much it would cost for a university or college to offer a new course ─ the cost of the instructor’s salary, the classroom facilities, the class materials, and so on. Having determined the cost, the school can then decide whether or not to offer the course by weighing the costs and benefits.

Macroeconomics vs. Microeconomics
Macroeconomics examines the aggregate behavior of the economy (i.e. how the actions of all the individuals and firms in the economy interact to produce a particular level of economic performance as a whole).
Example: Overall level of prices in the economy (how high or how low they are relative to prices last year) rather than the price of a particular good or service.

Macroeconomics vs. Microeconomics
In macroeconomics, the behavior of the whole macroeconomy is, indeed, greater than the sum of individual actions and market outcomes.
Example: Paradox of thrift: when families and businesses are worried about the possibility of economic hard times, they prepare by cutting their spending.
This reduction in spending depresses the economy as consumers spend less and businesses react by laying off workers.
As a result, families and businesses may end up worse off than if they hadn’t tried to act responsibly by cutting their spending.

Macroeconomics: Theory and Policy
In a self-regulating economy, problems such as unemployment are resolved without government intervention, through the working of the invisible hand.
According to Keynesian economics, economic slumps are caused by inadequate spending and they can be mitigated by government intervention.
Monetary policy uses changes in the quantity of money to alter interest rates and affect overall spending.
Fiscal policy uses changes in government spending and taxes to affect overall spending.

Why George W. Bush Wasn’t Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover didn’t do much to fight the Great Depression. At the time, conventional wisdom dictated that the government take a hands-off approach to the economy.
Leading economists, including Joseph Schumpeter, offered similar advice. “Remedial measures which work through money and credit. Policies of this class are particularly apt to produce additional trouble for the future.”
Under President George W. Bush: The 2004 Economic Report of the President stated “Strong fiscal policy actions by this Administration and the Congress, together with the Federal Reserve’s simulative monetary policy,” the report declared, “have softened the impact of the recession and have also put the economy on an upward trajectory.”

The boost to the economy given by fiscal policy and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts reduced the severity and duration of the 2001 recession.

Growth, Interrupted, 1988-2008

The Business Cycle
The business cycle is the short-run alternation between economic downturns and economic upturns.
A depression is a very deep and prolonged downturn.
Recessions are periods of economic downturns when output and employment are falling.
Expansions, sometimes called recoveries, are periods of economic upturns when output and employment are rising.

The Business Cycle
The point at which the economy turns from expansion to recession is a business-cycle peak.
The point at which the economy turns from recession to expansion is a business-cycle trough.

The Business Cycle

The Business Cycle

The Business Cycle
What happens during a business cycle, and what can be done about it?
The effects of recessions and expansions on unemployment
The effects on aggregate output
The possible role of government policy

Defining Recessions and Expansions
In many countries, economists adopt the rule that a recession is a period of at least 6 months, or two quarters, during which aggregate output falls.
? sometimes too strict
In the U.S., the task of determining when a recession begins and ends is assigned to an independent panel of experts at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). They look at a number of economic indicators, with the main focus on employment and production, but ultimately the panel makes a judgment call.
? sometimes controversial

The U.S. Unemployment Rate

Taming the Business Cycle
Policy efforts undertaken to reduce the severity of recessions are called stabilization policy.
One type of stabilization policy is monetary policy: changes in the quantity of money or the interest rate.
The second type of stabilization policy is fiscal policy: changes in tax policy or government spending, or both.

Global Comparison: International Business Cycles

Comparing Recessions
In particular, some recessions have been much worse than others.
Comparing three historical recessions:
Terrible slump of 1929–1933
1981–1982 recession—generally considered the worst economic slump since the Great Depression
Relatively mild 2001 recession
These recessions differed in duration: the first lasted 43 months; the second, 16 months; the third, only 8 months.
Even more important, however, they differed greatly in depth.

Comparing Recessions

Comparing Recessions
The 1929–1933 recession hit the economy vastly harder than either of the post–World War II recessions.
The 1981–1982 recession did eventually reduce industrial production by about 10%, although production then staged a rapid recovery.
In 2001, the decline in industrial production was very modest.
By Great Depression standards, or even those of the 1980s, the 2001 recession was very mild.

Long-Run Economic Growth
Long-run economic growth is the sustained upward trend in the economy’s output over time.
A country can achieve a permanent increase in the standard of living of its citizens only through long-run growth.
A central concern of macroeconomics is what determines long-run economic growth.

Long-Run Economic Growth
In 1905, we find that life for many Americans was startlingly primitive by today’s standards.
Americans have become able to afford many more material goods over time thanks to long-run economic growth.

Long-Run Economic Growth
Real GDP per
capita (2000 dollars)
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2007
Year
$40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000

When Did Long-Run Growth Start?
Long-run growth is a relatively modern phenomenon.
From 1000 to 1800, real aggregate output around the world grew less than 0.2% per year, with population rising at about the same rate.
Economic stagnation meant unchanging living standards. For example, information on prices and wages from such sources as monastery records shows that workers in England weren’t significantly better off in the early eighteenth century than they had been five centuries earlier.
However, long-run economic growth has increased significantly since 1800.
In the last 50 years or so, real GDP per capita has grown about 3.5% per year.

A Tale of Two Colonies
One of the most informative contrasts in long-run growth is between Canada and Argentina.
Economic historians believe that the average level of per capita income was about the same in the two countries as late as the 1930s.
After World War II, however, Argentina’s economy performed poorly, largely due to political instability and bad macroeconomic policies.
Meanwhile, Canada made steady progress. Thanks to the fact that Canada has achieved sustained long-run growth since 1930, but Argentina has not, Canada today has almost as high a standard of living as the United States—and is about three times as rich as Argentina.

Inflation and Deflation
A rising aggregate price level is inflation.
A falling aggregate price level is deflation.
The inflation rate is the annual percent change in the aggregate price level.
The economy has price stability when the aggregate price level is changing only slowly.

Inflation and Deflation
200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200%
Percent increase
Hourly earnings
Roast coffee
Eggs
White bread
Gasoline
431%
220%
508%
595%
1,052%

A Fast (Food) Measure of Inflation
McDonald’s opened in 1954: Hamburgers cost only 15 cents─25 cents with fries.
Today a hamburger at a typical McDonald’s costs five times as much─between $0.70 and $0.80.
Is this too expensive?
No. In fact, a burger is, compared with other consumer goods, a better bargain than it was in 1954.
Burger prices have risen about 400%, from $0.15 to about $0.75, over the last half century. But the overall consumer price index has increased more than 600%.
If McDonald’s had matched the overall price level increase, a hamburger would now cost between 90 cents and $1.00.

International Imbalances
An open economy is an economy that trades goods and services with other countries.
A country runs a trade deficit when the value of goods and services bought from foreigners is more than the value of goods and services it sells to them.
It runs a trade surplus when the value of goods and services bought from foreigners is less than the value of the goods and services it sells to them.

International Imbalances
Exports, imports (billions)
$2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
United States Germany China Saudi Arabia
Exports
Imports

Estonia’s Miraculous Trade Deficit
The Soviet Union broke up into 15 independent countries in 1991. Many of these countries experienced hard economic times in the years that followed.
The small nation of Estonia, however, thrived.
Economists routinely talk of an Estonian economic “miracle.”
You might think that such a successful economy would run a big trade surplus, exporting much more than it imports.
In fact, Estonia runs trade deficits that are small in dollar terms because it’s a small country (just 1.3 million people), but are large compared with the size of the economy.
In fact, relative to the size of its economy, Estonia's trade deficit in 2007 was almost three times that of the United States.

Estonia’s Miraculous Trade Deficit
Why does Estonia run such large trade deficits?
Because it’s so successful!
The success of the economy has led to high rates of investment, much of it by companies based in other European countries.
As we’ve just suggested, trade deficits are high when investment spending is high compared with savings.

Macroeconomics is the study of the behavior of the economy as a whole. Macroeconomics differs from microeconomics in the type of questions it tries to answer and in its strong policy focus. Keynesian economics, which emerged during the Great Depression, advocates the use of monetary policy and fiscal policy to fight economic slumps. Prior to the Great Depression, the economy was thought to be self-regulating.
One key concern of macroeconomics is the business cycle, the short-run alternation between recessions, periods of falling employment and output, and expansions, periods of rising employment and output. The point at which expansion turns to recession is a business-cycle peak. The point at which recession turns to expansion is a business-cycle trough.

Another key area of macroeconomic study is long-run economic growth, the sustained upward trend in the economy’s output over time. Long-run economic growth is the force behind long-term increases in living standards and is important for financing some economic programs.
When the prices of most goods and services are rising, so that the overall level of prices is going up, the economy experiences inflation. When the overall level of prices is going down, the economy is experiencing deflation. In the short run, inflation and deflation are closely related to the business cycle. In the long run, prices tend to reflect changes in the overall quantity of money. Because inflation and deflation can cause problems, economists and policy makers generally aim for price stability.

Although comparative advantage explains why open economies export some things and import others, macroeconomic analysis is needed to explain why countries run trade surpluses or trade deficits. The determinants of the overall balance between exports and imports lie in decisions about savings and investment spending.