...CASE STUDY H&M WORKPLACE Fire safety is a major issue in Bangladeshi garment factories. Poor electrical installations and bad maintenance often create significant fire hazards. In order to make a safe workplace the norm throughout the sector, we think that it is essential to involve all stakeholders such as the government, industry organisations, trade unions and other brands. This is why we developed two training films to increase fire safety awareness amongst employees at all levels in garment factories. We teamed up with 18 other brands and employer associations in the sector, BGMEA and BKMEA, to spread this training. According to BGMEA, more than 1,250 factories and 100,000 workers received the training. Based on a study that we conducted in 2011, we raised the concern of lapsed fire-safety licenses with the Government of Bangladesh and engaged the Bangladeshi University of Engineering and Technology as well as a specialist to assess the electrical installation in four factories. These assessments were finalised in spring 2012 and their results were presented to concerned stakeholders at a seminar in Dhaka. The most common shortcomings in regards to electrical safety such as poor-quality materials, poor maintenance and lack of proper electrician training were discussed. During the seminar, a number of actions were proposed, including introducing stricter legislation and inspections. In order to set a good example, we have stipulated that all our supplier factories...
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...as Prentice Hall • Macroeconomics, 5/e • Olivier Blanchard 1-1 The United States Table 1-1 1996–2006 (average) 2006 2007 2008 3.1% 3.4% 3.3% 2.1% 2.5% Output growth rate Unemployment rate 6.2 5.0 4.6 4.6 4.8 Inflation rate The unemployment rate 4.0 2.0 2.9 2.6 2.2 Output growth rate: annual rate of growth of output (GDP). Unemployment rate: average over the year. Inflation rate: annual rate of change of the price level (GDP deflator). 3 of 18 Chapter 1: A Tour of the World The inflation rate The period 1996-2006 was one of the best decades in recent memory: The average rate of growth was 3.4% per year. The average unemployment rate was 5.0%. The average inflation rate was 2.0%. Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall • Macroeconomics, 5/e • Olivier Blanchard 1-1 The United States 4 of 18 1-1 The United States Has the United States Entered a New Economy? Should We Worry About the U.S. Trade Deficit? Figure 1 - 2 Figure 1 - 3 Rate of Growth of Output per Hour in the United States Since 1960. The U.S.Trade Deficit Since 1990 The trade deficit increased from about 1% of output in 1990 to about 6% of output in 2006. The average rate of growth of output per hour appears to have increased again since the mid-1990s. Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall • Macroeconomics, 5/e • Olivier Blanchard ...
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...Chapter 1 What is Macroeconomics? ( Chapter Outline 1. How Macroeconomics Affects Our Everyday Lives (a) The “Big Three” Concepts of Macroeconomics 2. Defining Macroeconomics (a) How Macroeconomics Differs from Microeconomics (b) Economic Theory: A Process of Simplification 3. Actual and Natural Real GDP (a) Unemployment: Actual and Natural (b) Real GDP and the Three Macro Concepts 4. Macroeconomics in the Short Run and Long Run (a) The Short Run: Business Cycles (b) Business Cycle Concepts (c) The Long Run: Economic Growth 5. Case Study: A Century of Business Cycles (a) Real GDP (b) Unemployment 6. Macroeconomics at the Extremes (a) Unemployment in the Great Depression, 1929–40 (b) The German Hyperinflation of 1922–23 (c) Fast and Slow Growth in Asia 7. Taming Business Cycles: Stabilization Policy (a) The Role of Stabilization Policy 8. The “Internationalization” of Macroeconomics IP* Box: How Does U.S. Economic Performance Rank? ( Chapter Overview Chapter 1 begins by introducing a set of three central macroeconomic concepts, called the “Big Three Concepts of Macroeconomics. They are the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, and productivity growth. Introducing the field of macroeconomics to students in this way has an important advantage. It facilitates the early introduction and definition of basic macroeconomic terminology, which gives students a chance to get used to thinking of macroeconomic issues in terms...
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...that all material in this coursework which is not my own work has been acknowledged and I am fully aware of the consequences of plagiarism. Signed | For Academic Registrar use only | Outline Introduction 3 I. Analyses of Key Macroeconomic Indicators 3 1. Growth Rate 4 2. Productivity growth 5 3. Output Gap 6 4. Unemployment Rate 6 5. Inflation Rate 8 6. Trade 8 II. Interrelationships between key macroeconomic indicators 9 1. Growth and Unemployment, Okun's Law 9 2. Inflation-Unemployment Tradeoffs, the Philip curve 10 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 11 Introduction Over the years a great deal of works have been devoted to improve the economic performance of one of the sub-Saharan African country, located in the territory of Northern Rhodesia, Zambia. The country gained independence from the British in 1964, and started to operate and be counted as a separate economy. This empirical study analyses the available annual data on key macroeconomic indicators of Zambia for the period from 2000 to 2012 years, and explains the interrelation between these indicators with the help of important macroeconomic theories. I. Analyses of Key Macroeconomic Indicators As it is noted in macroeconomic textbooks, the nation's overall macroeconomic performance matters, not its own sake but because many individuals experience its consequences. The assumption that these connections between the overall economy and the lives of individuals are reflected in data...
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...1. Critically examine the effectiveness of various approaches that may be used to reduce macroeconomic instability. According to Mc Vaish (Macroeconomics theory, p123) Macroeconomics can be defined as the analysis of the economy wide aggregates such as the analysis of the total output and employment, total consumption, total investment, total saving and national product. Macroeconomic theory employs technique of general equilibrium in order to study the determination of the general price level, money supply, total employment and output levels and fluctuations in these aggregates magnitudes. A macroeconomic stable environment can be defined as one in which inflation is low and predictable, the exchange rate is near its equilibrium level, the government budget is well managed, the budget deficit relative to GDP is at a reasonable level and the use of central bank credit to finance the budget deficit is kept at a minimal level. Macroeconomic stability sends important signals to the private sector about the direction of economic policies and the credibility of authorities’ commitment to manage the economy efficiently. Such stability, by facilitating long term planning and investment decisions, encourages savings and capital accumulation by the private sector. Macroeconomic instability takes place in two forms namely exogenous shocks and inappropriate policies. Exogenous shocks (such as reversal capital flows, terms of trade and natural disasters) require compensatory action...
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...Macroeconomics Chapter 1 What Is Macroeconomics? 1.1 How Macroeconomics Affects Our Everyday Lives 1) Macroeconomics is the study of A) the economic issues which affect individual well-being and individual firms' profit levels. B) the economic issues which affect foreign and domestic prices of related goods and services. C) inflation and poverty at the level of the household. D) the economic issues which affect the nation's total income, employment, and output. Answer: D Question Status: New 2) Political incumbents often gain or lose re-election because of a strong or weak economy. Which of the following is an exception to that rule? A) Al Gore B) George H.W. Bush C) Jimmy Carter D) Herbert Hoover Answer: A Question Status: Previous Edition 3) The "Big Three" concepts of Macroeconomics are A) profits, liquidity, and sustainability. B) unemployment rate, inflation, and economic growth. C) asset rebalancing, markups, and profitability. D) federal budget, foreign trade, and quantitative easing. Answer: B Question Status: New 4) Economy with no productivity growth is called the A) zero-sum society. B) zero-growth society. C) export-led society. D) doomed-to-fail society. Answer: A Question Status: New 5) The inflation rate is the A) measure used to calculate the price level. B) measure used to calculate the cost of borrowing money. C) percentage increase in the average level of prices. D) percentage increase in the average...
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...Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Paper ECO/372 June 9th 2014 Professor Salazar Fundamentals of Macroeconomics The global economy is a concept important to understand and mastering this concept is successful by analyzing the term macroeconomics. Macroeconomics a term that illustrates the economy as a whole by describing economics aspects in different countries around the World as opposed to microeconomics which contemplates countries in a singular fashion. The following paper speaks to terms surrounding macroeconomics and consumer economic issues like unemployment, inflation, and interest rates. The Gross Domestic Product or GDP measures a societies manufacturing activities in a one year period. Two aspects of GDP are Real GDP and Nominal GDP and understanding the differences between the two is vital to computing Gross Domestic Product. Real GDP expresses how inflation effects the dollar value of a product of service each year and a reference for this change is the consumer price index. Nominal GDP however are not adjusted for inflation and will at times expresses bigger numbers than Real GDP. The unemployment rate expresses the percentage of people in different countries that either do not have a job or practice other means of obtaining currency. In addition, unemployment is directly affected by inflation another concept surrounding the fundamentals of macroeconomics. Inflation is the how much the price of a product of service increases in the economy. “Inflation...
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...Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Essay I. Ojeda University of Phoenix ECO/372 June 26, 2013 Chris D. Foster Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Principles of Macroeconomics is the study of what people do or use to coordinate good and services, to understand economics we must know the fundamentals of economics. Macroeconomics is the decision making on how economics evolves in our everyday lives. Principles of Macroeconomics include a variety of terms that helps to determine the Economy in United States. Some of the terms by most economists are; Gross Domestic product (GDP), Real GDP, Nominal GDP, Unemployment rate, Inflation rate, and Interest rate. The first subject that I will cover and discuss on this paper will include Gross Domestic Product (GDP). What’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? Is the standard living through its goods and services within the market value in a country in a period of time. Is the value of the amount of how much each household and businesses can produce and report each year in United States. GDP can also be measured by adding up the value of the domestic expenditure made at the end of the year. Those expenditures can be described as consumption; government expenses, investment, and total spend on exports. How Microeconomics can be impacted by GDP is when showing potential and economics are able to see what was expected. This can be used during recession to tract how the country’s economy is doing and...
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...Introduction All economic problems arise from scarcity because human wants are unlimited but resources are limited. Economics the science of choice, it is talking about how individuals and societies make a choice from the scarcity. All economic choices can be summarized in three questions: What gets produced? How is it produced? Who gets what is produces? Economists define their work in micro and macro perspective. Microeconomics and Macroeconomics are the two major branches of economics. What is Microeconomics? Microeconomics is the study of how households and firms make decisions and how they interact in markets. So all these problems belong to microeconomics: how the consumer reacts when price changes; how the firms decide the output level and how they decide the production method; how should the firms charge their product prices. Microeconomics also considerate the demand and supply of individual goods and services and the equilibrium occurs when the quantity of demands are equal to the quantity of supplies. A typical example of microeconomics is a mobile phone manufacturer decides to charge what price of their new model of smart phone depends on the demand of the mobile markets. A number of factors would affect the demand of the mobile phone including the price of the product itself, the income of the consumer, the consumer’s amount of accumulated wealth, the price of other competitor’s product, the consumer’s tastes and preferences and the expectations...
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...Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Paper Daniel Souza ECO/372 March 31, 2014 Professor John Ilokwu Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Paper Covered in this paper is the explanation of fundamental terms used in macroeconomics and the analysis of the resulting affects different economic activities impose upon government, households, and business. Prior to diving the dissection of jargon and investigating the influence of activity, a basic definition of macroeconomics is beneficial. Colander (2010) writes, “Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. It considers the problems of inflation, unemployment, business cycles, and growth” (pg. 15). Now that a basic meaning has been provided, six key terms used in macroeconomics are detailed below. Key Terms Used in the World of Macroeconomics There exists many important nomenclatures used within the study and application of macroeconomics. This section explains six basic components that are essential in beginning to understand macroeconomics. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Real GDP, Nominal GDP, Unemployment Rate, Inflation Rate, and Interest Rate are covered. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) The juggernaut known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) refers to the financial appraisal relative to the total spectrum of completed goods and work performed inside a country, during a specified period of time (Investopedia, 2014). An annual computation is most common. The calculated GDP is a monetary picture of the total private consumption...
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...Macroeconomic Cause and Effect Macroeconomics Cause and Effect Macroeconomics Cause and Effect Macroeconomics covers the studies and behaviors of our economy. The data complied through studies can be current or historical data. Subjects that are more commonly studied and tracked are the Gross domestic product (real and nominal), unemployment rate, inflation rate, and interest rate. Gross domestic product is the value of all goods and services produced in a country within a year. It also consists of what our government invest and spends during that year while adding the value of exports and subtracting the value of the imports we import from other countries. The only difference between real and nominal gross domestic products is that real gross domestic products are adjusted for our economies inflation while nominal gross domestic products aren’t. This simply means that nominal gross domestic products will present themselves higher than the real gross domestic products. Another subject that macroeconomics covers is the unemployment rate which is always a topic of discussion in the media. The unemployment rate is simply the percentage of people without a job. Different states have different percentages and is usually used by the public and government. The data collected over the years will show massive layoffs and show the percentages for those years. If there was a massive layoff the percentages for the unemployment rate would be much higher for those specific years...
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...Goals of Macroeconomics Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. Macroeconomics is concerned with such major aggregates as the household, business, and government sectors; in addition to measures of the economy such as inflation rates etc. Macroeconomic Issues The macroeconomic issues that will be examined during this course are: 1) Economic Growth (change in the level of output) a) An outward shift in the PPC (production possibilities curve) due to an increase in the quantity or quality resources. b) An increase of real output (gross domestic product) or real output per capita. NB: Gross domestic product is the market value of all final goods and services produced within an economy for a given period. 2) Unemployment: The failure of an economy to fully utilise its entire labour force. 3) Inflation: A rise in the general level of prices in an economy. 4) The Balance of Payments: A summary of all the transactions that took place between the individuals, firms and government units of one nation and those of all other nations during a year. 5) Exchange Rates: The rate of exchange of one nation’s currency for another nation’s currency. A foreign firm would look at some key macroeconomic indicators so as to inform its decision as to whether or not it should invest in a particular country. These key macroeconomic indicators are: 1. Real Gross Domestic Product (Real GDP) 2. The unemployment rate 3. The inflation...
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...UNEMPLOYMENT 1. Introduction I have selected the topic on unemployment. Here I am going to discuss about a online news article regarding the unemployment rate in U.S. I found the news Yahoo.com under the finance sector which news is originally from AP, Associated Press firm in the United States. The article is titled as “Jobless rates rise in January in half of US States”. It summarizes about the unemployment rate that rose in 25 states and increase in 7.8 percent to 7.9 percent from December 2012 to January 2013. It talks on the different states in U.S. about the jobs increase and decrease. I plan to discuss about jobless rates in U.S. and what factors that have caused it. I use the article which focuses on U.S. to relate about the unemployment topic that I have chosen on. I will generally talk about macroeconomics concepts of GDP, business cycle and unemployment. 2. Macroeconomics Concepts on GDP The gross domestic product (GDP) is one the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country's economy. It represents the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period. Usually, GDP is expressed as a comparison to the previous quarter or year. Measuring GDP simply has two ways of doing it, the expenditure approach and the income approach. The expenditure approach is to add up the market value of all domestic expenditures made on final goods and services in a single year. From what I have learned, Final goods...
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...Fundamentals of Macroeconomics ECO/372 Principles of Macroeconomics January 6,2014 Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Economics proposes that we live in a world of scarcity. We do not have enough resources or time to meet our needs. Economics studies how we allocate our resources to achieve those needs. Macroeconomics deals with the entire components of a country’s economy. Macroeconomics can be called the “big picture” of economics at a national level. Rather than focusing on individual markets, macroeconomics looks at production and consumption of the economy as a whole. The most important basics of macroeconomics include gross domestic product, real gross domestic product, nominal gross domestic product, inflation rates, interest rates, and unemployment (Colander, 2010). PART I The gross domestic product (GDP) is used as a way to determine a country’s economic health. It is basically the amount of services and products that are produced over a period of time, usually a year. To measure the GDP in its simplest form one would add up what everyone earned in a year, or add up what everyone spent. In a perfect world, the two total results would be about the same. The real gross domestic product is adjusted for inflation. To adjust for price changes, the real GDP is measured using the prices from a specific year. For example if real GDP’s from various years are measured, each year uses the quantities from its respective year. However, the prices are all from the base year, only...
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...Part 1 Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Macroeconomics puts a focus on how decisions made both on an individual level and by corporations and government has Macroeconomics is known as the study of behavior in relation to the aggregate economy and studies economy-wide issues such as changes in unemployment, income levels and many various other factors (Investopedia, 2012). This paper will define many of the terms used when it comes to dealing with macroeconomics and cover a few examples of economics can effect different situations on both government levels and individual levels. Gross domestic product (GDP) A major term to understand is the gross domestic product which is also known as the GDP. The GDP is the market value of services and final goods that are produced in the economy and the stated price in the given year (Colander, 2010). As people produce goods and earn income from selling those good, the economy grows. Economic growth usually means that a person income increases from one year to the next. Real GDP The real GDP is an inflation adjusted measure shows the value of all goods and services and is being shown in a base year pricing (Colander, 2010). The real GDP is sometimes also referred to as the constant price. To calculate what the real GDP is, a price index is created that measures how much a price level has risen during a year and it is compared to the previous year. This is then divided by the nominal GDP and multiplied by 100 (Investopedia, 2012)...
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