microeconomics week 2

This video is a British House of Commons committee hearing on the use of Quality of Life measures. The speaker is advocating using such measures. The video is Closed Captioned. Once the video states click on the CC icon and select from the menu.

This video is from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (bea.gov) which computes the GDP and National Income and Product Accounts information.  The video describes what GDP includes.  From more detailed information follow the BEA link and select the data series and/or tables of specific interest to you. The video is Closed Captioned. Once the video states click on the CC icon and select from the menu.

This week’s discussion topic is about Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Per Capita GDP and Quality of Life. GDP is the market value of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a year. Per Capita GDP is GDP/Population and shows how much of total GDP is theoretically available to each individual in the society. Per Capita GDP is the normal measure of Standard of Living when comparing nations.

Quality of Life has no standard definition. It is broader concept that attempts to embrace the multitude of variables that make people happy. There are many measures of it, but all include GDP and/or Per Capita GDP.

The ultimate question for this week is: “Is GDP a good measure of economic well being?”

Part of answering that question is a consideration of whether economic well being for the nation is the same as quality of life for the individual? If not, how would you measure quality of life for the individual?

Assignment Summary:

1) Review the concept and details of computing GDP (GDP.pptx).  Then listen to an excellent discussion of GDP and a variety of issues involved in computing GDP, including ones that are part of this week's discussion:  GDP Discussion.

2) Read the article in Chapter 23 in your textbook: "Measuring Macroeconomic Well-Being" (pages 500-501) - (Week 2 article.pdf ).

3) Read the Quality of Life Index article (QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf) as part of your study for this discussion. There are additional videos discussing this question in this week's YouTube Videos collection.

4) Watch the videos above and under the Week 2 YouTube videos link watch videos 1 and 2 for a better understanding of GDP and video 5 for a discussion of how to measure well being (it is a live recording of a discussion group and, unfortunately, the audio is not always the best). For a detailed discussion of consumer spending, consumer savings and the CPI both current (December 27, 2013) and historic changes, watch the video from C-SPAN: Consumer Spending Habits.

5) You may want do an internet search for other well being measures such as the "happiness index" or the "economic freedom" index. These indexes will deepen your understanding of this week’s topic.

6) Post your views to the discussion board and refer to at least two different concepts from this week’s Chapters. Your illustration of concepts MUST include an explanation why you think they are relevant to the week’s topic using specific information from the articles, videos and other research that you have done.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU ADD SOMETHING NEW to the discussion.

7) Post on three different days for a minimum of three posts. Failure to meet these minimum posting requirements results in point loss.

Include a word count on each post. All of your posts should sum to a minimum of 500 words.

Each post submitted should be between 150 and 250 words. Keep them short, specific, and clear.

Use paragraphs as appropriate.

Very lengthy posts do not provide an incentive to be read.

Remember to document all use of sources by using citations and references. These should be in APA format.

Please review Plagiarism Powerpoints (PLAGIARISM.ppt) and be sure to provide references (APA.ppt), including URLs where appropriate, to all works that you cite.

Be sure to respond to comments or questions from your instructor. If you do not respond to the posts sent by your instructor, your grade will be significantly affected.

Now click on "Week 2 DISCUSSION Forum" text above to go to the discussion forum. You can start a new thread by clicking on the Create Thread button at the top. You can also respond to an existing post by clicking the Respond button at the bottom of the post.

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