Case Study
Suppose you are a junior macroeconomists working for an economic consulting firm in California. Recently you are assigned to tasks with four important economic issues.
Task 1: Categorize the following groups of people by different types(structural, cyclical, or frictional) of unemployment and report it to the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) in a month. The document you receive has the following information:
“There are 330,000 people reside in Riverside. Among them, 40% of the population is civilian labor force. The 15% of civilian lost their jobs because their job skills are not required any longer. 30% of civilian workers are unemployed because the economy is busted. 55% of remaining civilian workers are actively looking for jobs.”
Classify civilian labor force in Riverside into one of the following unemployment types: structural, cyclical, and frictional unemployment and explain why.
Calculate how many of civilian labor force in Riverside would fall into each type of unemployment.
Task 2: You were notified by researchers from the BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) that a recent growth in consumer’s confidence index decreased by 20%, while recent technological breakthrough in medical and cell phone industries led to a cost savings and an increased productivity across the nation.
(Note that consumer confidence index (CCI) measures the degree of optimism that consumers feel about the overall state of the economy, and the higher the CCI, the higher the consumption.)
Discuss the change in price level and real GDP based on the events occurring in the scenario (Hint: study aggregate demand and supply shifters)
Task 3: Recently, the US began to import wine from France. There are some opponents that argue imports will cut the price of domestic wine, leading to a decrease in the number of jobs in the US wine industry.
Provide counter-evidence that imports will bring overall benefits to our nation in terms of improving the total welfare (sum of consumer and producer surplus).
Task 4: The exchange rate between dollar (US currency) and yen (Japan currency) was 120¥/$; and the exchange rate between dollar (US currency) and euro is 1.3€/$ in 2014, and the exchange rate increased to 130¥/$ and 1.5€/$, respectively in 2015.
Predict the pattern of export and import between those three countries in 2015 compared to 2014. In other words, would exports from US to Japan and European countries increase or decrease? Would imports from Japan and European countries to US increase or decrease?
