1. The following transactions occurred in a given year. Firm A manufactures leather using a factory valued at $20,000. Suppose Firm A produced $2,000 worth of leather and incurred the following costs: $1,000 for the salaries of workers, $100 for interest payments on a
bank loan, and taxes of $200. Firm A sold all of its leather to Firm B, which is a manufacturer of luxury bags. Suppose Firm B produced four bags at a cost of $800 each.
The cost of each bag consisted of paying for $500 worth of raw materials, paying for the salaries of workers for $200, and $100 in taxes. Firm B has a factory valued at $30,000. Firm B sold to the public three of its four bags for $1,000 each. Calculate the contribution
to GDP using the following:
1) Production approach.
2) Income approach.
3) Expenditure approach
2 . Consider a two-good (A and B), two-period (year 1 and year 2) economy. In year 1, the economy produced 10 units of A at a per unit price of $1 and 5 units of B at a per unit price of $2. In year 2, the economy produced 15 units of A at a per unit price of $1 and 5 units
of B at a per unit price of $3. Calculate real GDP for years 1 and 2 using the following methods:
1) Laspeyres.
2) Paasche.
3) Fisher.
4) Calculate and compare the growth rate of real GDP using the three approaches.
3. Mankiw, page 42, question 2. A farmer grows a bushel of wheat and sells it to a miller for $1. The miller turns the wheat into flour and then sells the flour to a baker for $3. The baker uses the flour to make bread and sells the bread to an engineer for $6. The engineer eats the bread.
1) What is the value added by each person?
2) What is the bread's contribution to GDP?
4. Mankiw, page 42, question 3. Suppose a woman marries her butler. After they are married, her husband continues to wait on her as before, and she continues to support him as before (but as a husband rather than an employee).
1) How does the marriage affect GDP? (Note: That is, the butler is treated as a husband, not as an employee)
2) How should it affect GDP? (Note: That is, the butler is treated as an employee, not as a husband)