Economics

a)   Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Growth i.         Analyze the annual GDP during the time frame to calculate specific growth rates and trends in the U.S. economy. ii.          Choose two or three of the most relevant historical and/or current events during this time period that impacted the U.S. economy. Apply specific models developed throughout the course to demonstrate how these events influenced national output during this time. b)   Unemployment and Inflation i.          Analyze unemployment and inflation data during the time frame in their relation to output and growth, using macroeconomic principles and models to explain their effect. ii.        Apply specific models developed throughout the course to demonstrate how the previously selected historical and/or current events influenced both unemployment and inflation during this time. c)    Analyze interest rate fluctuations throughout this time period and their effects on other aspects of the economy. How would these fluctuations affect inflation? Would investments and foreign trade rates increase or decrease? How would the GDP of the American economy be affected?

Write an essay about the Rationale for having an Economic System

Develop a detailed paper applying Porter’s Five Forces Model to the American automotive industry, with a focus on the U.S. market.

Supply & Demand Discussion This week’s discussion utilizes simulations so you can experiment with the demand curve, supply curve, and changes in equilibrium.  Assignment Objective Analyze the factors that cause the demand curve and supply curve to shift.  Determine changes to equilibrium price and equilibrium quantity when a curve shifts.  Directions Pick ONE of the three options… Option 1: Practice applying your knowledge of demand by playing the “Simulation: Demand for Food Trucks”  (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site. .  Summarize your experience with simulation in one paragraph.  Did it help you understand demand?  Explain the non-price factors that cause the demand curve to shift.  Include a few examples in your explanation. OR Option 2: Practice applying your knowledge of supply by playing the “Simulation: Supply of Food Trucks”  (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site. .  Summarize your experience with simulation in one paragraph.  Did it help you understand supply?  Explain the non-price factors that cause the supply curve to shift.  Include a few examples in your explanation. OR Option 3:  Practice applying your knowledge of equilibrium by playing the “Simulation: Food Trucks and Changes in Equilibrium”  (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site. .  Summarize your experience with the simulation in one paragraph.  Did it help you understand changes in equilibrium?  

Assignment 1: Impact of Economics on Daily Living Due: Week 4 Points: 105 Skill(s) Being Assessed: Problem Solving Criteria for Success: In this assignment, you will: Identify a relevant economic concept and describe how it applies to the scenario. Summarize the change in expenditures between budgets. Record the ways in which economic trends impacted personal income and consumer prices. Explain the rationale for budget decisions made in response to economic changes. Explain an additional economic trend or change from within the last year and how it has impacted your personal life and finances. What to submit/deliverables: A completed Assignment 1 template, in Word document form. What is the value of doing this assignment? Economic trends and events in the world have real impacts on your daily life. This could take the form of a new technology that increases the demand for workers in a certain field, the amount of economic growth for a country affecting the ability (or willingness) of employers to increase wages, or even trade decisions between two countries that cause price of some everyday goods to fluctuate. Economic impacts require you to make decisions on how to allocate resources and effectively budget, and use critical thinking strategies to help you navigate the world of finance and economics. Throughout the previous weeks of this course, you have learned foundational economic concepts, basic personal finance considerations, and problem solving strategies. In this assignment, you will apply all of these to help a friend communicate her budgeting decisions to her family. Your goal for this assignment is to: Build your problem solving skill by articulating how economics have real impacts on families and their budgets. You will apply decision making and critical thinking strategies to explain how economics impacts a friend’s personal budget decisions. Steps to complete: In Week 4, submit your assignment in BlackBoard by following these steps: STEP 1:Read the scenario in the Assignment 1 Template and preview the questions that follow. Scenario: A friend who knows that you are learning problem solving skills and economics has come to you for advice. At the beginning of this year, rent and the price of imported food rose. At the same time, prices for domestic food dropped. The family’s income stayed the same, but because of these economic changes, they had to make changes to their yearly budget. Your friend’s family is unhappy about the lifestyle changes that your friend has chosen. Your friend knows that you are studying personal finance and have asked you how to explain to her family what has happened to their spending. She has brought with her their family budget from last year, as well as their current budget for this year. STEP 2: Identify one relevant economic concept that applies to the scenario and describe how it applies. (Question 1) STEP 3: Summarize how expenditures changed between budgets. Make sure to address how expenditures changed (or did not change). (Question 2) STEP 4: Describe the economic trends that created the need for a change in expenditures. Make connections to the economic concepts you have learned. (Question 3) STEP 5: Explain the rationale for your friend’s budget decisions to her family. Address all changes (or non-changes) in expenditures and discuss long term effects. (Question 4) STEP 6: Reflect on how changes in economic variables may impact your personal life and finances. (Question 5) STEP 7: After completing all questions in the Assignment 1 Template, save your responses as a Word document titled: Your Name, ECO110_Assignment 1 Economic Impacts and upload to BlackBoard in Week 4. Make sure to also review the scoring rubric before submitting.   Assignment 1 Template: Impact of Economics on Daily Living Scenario:A friend who knows that you are learning problem solving skills and economics has come to you for advice. They have brought their family’s budget from last year, as well as their current budget for this year. At the beginning of this year, rent and the price of imported food rose. At the same time, prices for domestic food dropped. Your friend’s family’s income stayed the same, but because of these economic changes, they had to make changes to their yearly budget. Budget 1 on the left shows how their family used to spend their income of $25,000. Budget 2 on the right reflects changes your friend made to the family’s budget based on economic changes. Your friend’s family is unhappy about the lifestyle changes that your friend has chosen. They are having a difficult time explaining the reasons for some of the decisions they have had to made about family finances. Since they know that you are studying personal finance, they have asked you to help them come up with a way to explain to their family what has happened to their spending. Answer the following questions based on the scenario and Budget 1 and 2: 1. In the first four weeks of this class you have learned about several economic concepts and how they impact daily living. Choose one economic concept from this list and explain how it is relevant to your friends’ budget situation:   Supply and demand Scarcity Tradeoff decisions International trade Opportunity cost Compound growth 2. How did expenditures change between budgets? Which expenditures changed the most? Which expenditures changed the least? Which stayed the same? 3. What were the economic trends that created the need for your friend’s family to change their expenditures? What can you infer about the connection between prices and expenditures, based on the economic concepts you have learned? 4. Help your friend explain the rationale for their budget decisions to their family. For each expenditure change, describe why your friend made that decision and how it impacts the family overall. Also make sure to address expenditures that did not change. What are the long-term benefits/risks of these changes? Some questions you could help them answer are:   Why did your friend decide to buy less imported food, and more domestic food? Why did your friend decide to use the furnace and air conditioning less? Why did your friend decide to walk more? Why did your friend not change the amount spent of education and family care? Why did your friend decide to reduce savings, and what will the long-term effects of that be? 5. In our personal lives, we sometimes need to react to changes in our economic environment. Thinking about your own budget, describe how a change in an economic variable (such as a change in income, employment, interest rates, or prices) could impact your personal life and finances.

“What are the advantages of living in a market economy? What are the disadvantages and how could those be minimized? Describe why a poor person in a command economy might reject capitalism (market economy) and prefer a socialist state (command economy).  Responses should include at least one peer-reviewed reference.  Be sure to include the full source citation in MLA format. 

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words: Innovation and physical capital are 2 of the 4 factors of production. Discuss some specific ways that 1 of the following laws increased the productivity of 1 or both of these factors of production: 1862 Pacific Railway Act 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act 1946 Federal Airport Act What other examples of economic concentration can you share? What are the risks and advantages to economic concentration? How has economic concentration influenced your industry?

go to the web sites for the Bureau of Economic Analysis (bea.gov) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov).  Read the most recent summary reports for Gross Domestic Product (National Income and Product Accounts), Unemployment, and Inflation.  Pick one of these reports (indicate which at the top of your post) and identify two items that you found surprising (explain why) and two questions that you have about the reports.

present and explain how costumers the purchase decision was influenced by various economic, social, cultural, and psychological factors learned about the product (Nintendo switch). Your presentation will be evaluated based on perceived level of preparation, appropriate identification of factors, creativity, and effectiveness of your delivery.  The product is Nintendo switch

Market Structures and Pricing Decisions Applied Problems Please complete the following two applied problems: Problem 1: Robert’s New Way Vacuum Cleaner Company is a newly started small business that produces vacuum cleaners and belongs to a monopolistically competitive market. Its demand curve for the product is expressed as Q = 5000 – 25P where Q is the number of vacuum cleaners per year and P is in dollars. Cost estimation processes have determined that the firm’s cost function is represented by TC = 1500 + 20Q + 0.02Q2. Show all of your calculations and processes. Describe your answer for each question in complete sentences, whenever it is necessary. a. What are the profit-maximizing price and output levels? Explain them and calculate algebraically for equilibrium P (price) and Q (output). Then, plot the MC (marginal cost), D (demand), and MR (marginal revenue) curves graphically and illustrate the equilibrium point. b. How much economic profit do you expect that Robert’s company will make in the first year? c. Do you expect this economic profit level to continue in subsequent years? Why or why not? Problem 2: Greener Grass Company (GGC) competes with its main rival, Better Lawns and Gardens (BLG), in the supply and installation of in-ground lawn watering systems in the wealthy western suburbs of a major east-coast city. Last year, GGC’s price for the typical lawn system was $1,900 compared with BLG’s price of $2,100. GGC installed 9,960 systems, or about 60% of total sales and BLG installed the rest. (No doubt many additional systems were installed by do-it-yourself homeowners because the parts are readily available at hardware stores.) GGC has substantial excess capacity–it could easily install 25,000 systems annually, as it has all the necessary equipment and can easily hire and train installers. Accordingly, GGC is considering expansion into the eastern suburbs, where the homeowners are less wealthy. In past years, both GGC and BLG have installed several hundred systems in the eastern suburbs but generally their sales efforts are met with the response that the systems are too expensive. GGC has hired you to recommend a pricing strategy for both the western and eastern suburb markets for this coming season. You have estimated two distinct demand functions, as follows: Qw =2100 – 6.25Pgw + 3Pbw + 2100Ag – 1500Ab + 0.2Yw for the western market and Qe = 36620 – 25Pge + 7Pbe + 1180Ag – 950Ab + 0.085Ye for the eastern market, where Q refers to the number of units sold; P refers to price level; A refers to advertising budgets of the firms (in millions); Y refers to average disposable income levels of the potential customers; the subscripts w and e refer to the western and eastern markets, respectively; and the subscripts g and b refer to GGC and BLG, respectively. GGC expects to spend $1.5 million (use Ag = 1.5) on advertising this coming year and expects BLG to spend $1.2 million (use Ab = 1.2) on advertising. The average household disposable income is $60,000 in the western suburbs and $30,000 in the eastern suburbs. GGC does not expect BLG to change its price from last year because it has already distributed its glossy brochures (with the $2,100 price stated) in both suburbs, and its TV commercial has already been produced. GGC’s cost structure has been estimated as TVC = 750Q + 0.005Q2, where Q represents single lawn watering systems. Show all of your calculations and processes. Describe your answer for each item below in complete sentences, whenever it is necessary. a. Derive the demand curves for GGC’s product in each market. b. Derive GGC’s marginal revenue (MR) and marginal cost (MC) curves in each market. Show graphically GGC’s demand, MR, and MC curves for each market. c. Derive algebraically the quantities that should be produced and sold, and the prices that should be charged, in each market. d. Calculate the price elasticities of demand in each market and discuss these in relation to the prices to be charged in each market. e. Add a short note to GGC management outlining any reservations and qualifications you may have concerning your price recommendations.