Macroeconomics Assignment 1000 words by 6th of March

Midterm Task brief & rubrics

Task

This task brief covers for 40% of your final grade in Macroeconomics. This Course Assessment stretches over the first 3 units and you need to reflect on the

concepts digested, GDP, CPI, Government Expenditure, Unemployment, Interest Rates, welfare, etc. I have prepared 4 exercises for you to review, interpret and

discuss individually for the Midterm Summative Assignment (10 marks each that add up to 40 marks)

Exercise #1 - Lunch break at a restaurant or home cooking with love (10 marks)

Goods and services that are not sold in markets, such as food produced and consumed at home, are generally not included in GDP. Can you think of how this

might cause the numbers in the second column of the table below to be misleading in a comparison of the economic well-being of the United States and India?

Explain.

Exercise #2 - Real vs Nominal GDP in your country of origin (10 marks)

Revised estimates of homeland’s GDP are usually released by the government near the end of each month. Find a newspaper article that reports on the most

recent release for GDP in your country of origin, or research yourself on the internet. Discuss the recent changes in real and nominal GDP and in the components

of GDP.

Exercise #3 – Barry's product and income (10 marks)

One day, Barry the Barber, Inc., collects $400 for haircuts. Over this day, his equipment depreciates in value by $50. Of the remaining $350, Barry sends $30 to

the government in sales taxes, takes home $220 in wages, and retains $100 in his business to add new equipment in the future. From the $220 that Barry takes

home, he pays $70 in income taxes. Based on this information, compute Barry’s contribution to the following measures of income.

a. gross domestic product

b. net national product

c. national income

d. personal income

e. disposable personal income

Exercise #4 – The loan and the inflation (10 marks)

Suppose that a borrower and a lender agree on the nominal interest rate to be paid on a loan. Then inflation turns out to be higher than they both expected.

a. Is the real interest rate on this loan higher or lower than expected?

b. Does the lender gain or lose from this unexpectedly high inflation? Does the borrower gain or lose?

c. Inflation during the 1970s was much higher than most people had expected when the decade began. How did this affect homeowners who obtained

fixed-rate mortgages during the 1960s? How did it affect the banks that lent the money?

Formalities:

• Wordcount: The total Midterm Assignment should be around 1000 words. About 250 per exercise.

• Cover, Table of Contents, References and Appendix are expected but excluded of the total wordcount.

• Font: Arial 12,5 pts.

• Text alignment: Justified.

• The in-text References and the Bibliography have to be in Harvard’s citation style.

Submission: March 6th ,2021 – 23:59 CET – Via

Moodle (Turnitin). Weight: This task is a 40% of your

total grade for this subject.

It assesses the following learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate an understanding of macroeconomic decision-making.

• Understand the forces determining macroeconomic variables such as national output, inflation, unemployment, and interest rates.

• Demonstrate an understanding of the circular flow diagram, macroeconomic terminology and macroeconomic policy suggestions.

• Evaluate real life situations with practical application of the acquired tools and knowledge.

Rubrics

Exceptional 90-100 Good 80-89 Fair 70-79 Marginal fail 60-69

Knowledge & Understanding

(20%)

Student demonstrates excellent understanding of key concepts and uses vocabulary in an entirely appropriate manner.

Student demonstrates good understanding of the task and mentions some relevant concepts and demonstrates use of the relevant vocabulary.

Student understands the task and provides minimum theory and/or some use of vocabulary.

Student understands the task and attempts to answer the question but does not mention key concepts or uses minimum amount of relevant vocabulary.

Application (30%) Student applies fully relevant knowledge from the topics delivered in class.

Student applies mostly relevant knowledge from the topics delivered in class.

Student applies some relevant knowledge from the topics delivered in class. Misunderstanding may be evident.

Student applies little relevant knowledge from the topics delivered in class. Misunderstands are evident.

Critical Thinking (30%)

Student critically assesses in excellent ways, drawing outstanding conclusions from relevant authors.

Student critically assesses in good ways, drawing conclusions from relevant authors and references.

Student provides some insights but stays on the surface of the topic. References may not be relevant.

Student makes little or none critical thinking insights, does not quote appropriate authors, and does not provide valid sources.

Communication (20%)

Student communicates their ideas extremely clearly and concisely, respecting word count, grammar and spellcheck

Student communicates their ideas clearly and concisely, respecting word count, grammar and spellcheck

Student communicates their ideas with some clarity and concision. It may be slightly over or under the wordcount limit. Some misspelling errors may be evident.

Student communicates their ideas in a somewhat unclear and unconcise way. Does not reach or does exceed wordcount excessively and misspelling errors are evident.