ECON 102- Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 73 pages long!)

Lonely Planet In 1972, Tony and Maureen Wheeler were newlyweds who decided to have one last adventurous travel experience before settling down. Their trip was an overland trek from London to Australia through Asia. So many other travelers asked them about their experiences that they sat down at their kitchen table and wrote a book titled Across Asia on the Cheap. They published the book themselves and were surprised by how many copies they sold.

More than three decades and 60 million books later, their publishing enterprise has turned out to be one of the most successful in history. The Wheelers%u2019 publishing company, Lonely Planet, has grown rapidly, with typical annual sales increases of 15 percent or more. In 2007, BBC Worldwide purchased a 75 percent ownership interest in the company and purchased the rest of the company%u2019s stock in 2011.

Lonely Planet TV now produces a variety of travel and documentary programs that appear on cable networks throughout the world. As a BBC subsidiary, the company does not release sales figures, but industry analysts estimate current annual revenues to be about $110 million. Lonely Planet publishes more than 600 titles and holds a 20 percent share of the travel guide market. The company has more than 450 employees in its U.K., U.S., French, and Australian offices performing editorial, production, graphic design, and marketing tasks.

Travel guide content is written by a network of more than 200 contract authors in more than 20 countries. These authors are knowledgeable about everything from visa regulations to hotel prices to the names of the hottest new entertainment spots. The combined expertise of the in-house staff and the in- country authors has kept Lonely Planet ahead of its competitors for many years.

Lonely Planet also offers travel services that include a phone card, hotel and hostel room- booking, airplane tickets, European rail travel reservations and tickets, package tours, and travel insurance. These services are sold by telephone and on the Lonely Planet Web site. The Web site has won numerous awards, including the Society of American Travel Writers Silver Award and a spot on Time magazine%u2019s %u201CFifty Best Web Sites%u201D list.

The site was launched in 1994 and includes an online store in which Lonely Planet publications are sold. However, the site%u2019s main draws are its comprehensive collection of information about travel destinations and its online discussion area, the Thorn Tree, which has nearly a half million registered users. The company has had trouble turning any of this information into a source of revenue generation. Despite its excellent Web site and its use of new technologies, most of Lonely Planet%u2019s revenues are still generated by book sales.

The typical production cycle of a travel guide is about eight months long. This is the time it takes to commission authors, conduct research, work through several drafts of writing and editing, select photos, create the physical book, and print it. This production cycle causes new books to be almost a year out of date by the time they are published. Only the most popular titles are revised annually. Other titles are on two-, three-, or four-year revision cycles. The time delay in publication means that many details in the guides are outdated or wrong; restaurants and hotels close (or move), exchange rates and visa regulations change, and once hot night spots are abandoned by fickle clientele. Lonely Planet publications are well researched and of high quality, but the writers do not work continually because the books are not published continually.

The Web site often has information that is more current than the published travel guides. The site%u2019s online shop does offer some custom guides, which are parts of its existing travel guides packaged in different ways, and it does let customers buy specific chapters from its books, but it still is largely focused on selling books, although the site does offer PDF files that can be downloaded to mobile devices. Lonely Planet has adopted some new technologies, but has not used them to change its revenue model in any major way or to make basic changes in the production of its main product, the travel guides.

Required: 1. Review the company%u2019s offerings for Apple iPhone and iPad products and for Android smart phones (Trippy). Evaluate those products and identify opportunities for other products or services that the company could offer for mobile devices that would take advantage of Internet technologies (including wireless technologies for mobile devices) and address customers%u2019 concerns about the timeliness and currency of information in the printed travel guides.

2. Prepare a report in which you analyze the marketing channel conflicts and cannibalization issues that Lonely Planet faces as it is currently operating. Suggest solutions that might reduce the revenue losses or operational frictions that result from these issues.

TRUE / FALSE

1. True False In the aggregate expenditures model presented in the textbook,

investment is assumed to rise with increases in real GDP and fall with decreases in real GDP.

2. True False When C + I_g = GDP in a private closed economy, S = I_g and there are no unplanned changes in inventories.

3. True False The risk-free interest rate is the rate on long-term U.S. government bonds.

4. True False Bond prices and interest rates are directly or positively related.

5. True False The public debt is the accumulation of all deficits and surpluses that have occurred through time.

6. True False The M₂ money supply may be larger or smaller than the M₁ money supply depending on the size of small-denominated time deposit balances and Money Market Mutual Fund balances held by individuals.

7. True False Excess reserves are the amount by which required reserves exceed actual reserves.

8. True False The public debt is held as Treasury bills, Treasury notes, Treasury bonds, and U.S. savings bonds.

9. True False The equilibrium price level and equilibrium level of real GDP occur at the intersection of the aggregate demand curve and the aggregate supply curve.

10. True False Investment is highly stable; it increases over time at a very steady rate.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

11. A recessionary expenditure gap is:

A. the amount by which the full-employment GDP exceeds the level of aggregate expenditures.

B. the amount by which equilibrium GDP falls short of the full-employment GDP.

C. the amount by which investment exceeds saving at the full-employment GDP.

D. the amount by which aggregate expenditures exceed the full-employment level of GDP.

12. The multiplier effect indicates that:

A. a decline in the interest rate will cause a proportionately larger increase in investment.

B. a change in spending will change aggregate income by a larger amount.

C. a change in spending will increase aggregate income by the same amount.

D. an increase in total income will generate a larger change in aggregate expenditures.

13. Which one of the following is true about the U.S. Federal Reserve System?

1. There are 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks.

B. The head of the U.S. Treasury also chairs the Federal Reserve Board.

C. There are 14 members of the Federal Reserve Board.

D. The Open Market Committee is smaller in size than the Federal Reserve Board.

14. If the nominal interest rate is 18 percent and the real interest rate is 6 percent, the inflation rate is:

A. 18 percent.

B. 24 percent.

C. 12 percent.

D. 6 percent.

15.

Refer to the above diagram for a private closed economy. The equilibrium level of GDP is:

A. $400.

B. $300.

C. $200.

D. $100.

16. Which of the following represents the most expansionary fiscal policy?

A. a $10 billion tax cut

B. a $10 billion increase in government spending

C. a $10 billion tax increase

D. a $10 billion decrease in government spending

17.

Refer to the above table. The economy shown is a:

A. private economy.

B. private open economy.

C. mixed closed economy.

D. mixed open economy.

18. Currency held in the vault of First National Bank is:

A. counted as part of M₁.

B. counted as part of M₂, but not M₁.

C. only counted as part of M₁ if it was deposited into a checking account.

D. not counted as part of the money supply.

19. If the dollar appreciates relative to foreign currencies, we would expect:

A. the multiplier to decrease.

B. the country's exports and imports to both fall.

C. the country's net exports to rise.

D. the country's net exports to fall.

20. The most important determinant of consumption and saving is the:

A. level of bank credit.

B. level of income.

C. interest rate.

D. price level.

21. The multiple by which the commercial banking system can increase the supply of money on the basis of each dollar of excess reserves is equal to:

A. the reciprocal of the required reserve ratio.

B. 1 minus the required reserve ratio.

C. the reciprocal of the income velocity of money.

D. 1/MPS.

22. Which one of the following would not shift the aggregate demand curve?

A. a change in the price level

B. depreciation of the international value of the dollar

C. a decline in the interest rate at each possible price level

D. an increase in personal income tax rate

23. The cyclically-adjusted budget tells us:

A. that in a full-employment economy the Federal budget should be in balance.

B. that tax revenues should vary inversely with GDP.

C. what the size of the Federal budget deficit or surplus would be if the economy was at full

employment.

D. the actual budget deficit or surplus realized in any given year.

24. The aggregate supply curve:

A. is explained by the interest rate, real-balances, and foreign purchases effects.

B. gets steeper as the economy moves from the top of the curve to the bottom of the curve.

C. shows the various amounts of real output that businesses will produce at each price level.

D. is downsloping because real purchasing power increases as the price level falls.

25.

Refer to the above diagram. If the equilibrium price level is P₁, then:

A. aggregate demand is AD₂.

B. the equilibrium output level is Q₃.

C. the equilibrium output level is Q₂.

D. producers will supply output level Q₁

26. Discretionary fiscal policy refers to:

A. any change in government spending or taxes that destabilizes the economy.

B. the authority that the President has to change personal income tax rates.

C. intentional changes in taxes and government expenditures made by Congress to stabilize the economy.

D. the changes in taxes and transfers that occur as GDP changes.

27.

Refer to the above diagram. Which tax system has the most built-in stability?

A. T₄

B. T₃

C. T₂

D. T₁

28.

29. When a bank loan is repaid the supply of money:

A. is constant, but its composition will have changed.

B. is decreased.

C. is increased.

D. may either increase or decrease.

30. The Federal budget deficit is found by:

A. subtracting government tax revenues plus government borrowing from government spending in a particular year.

B. subtracting government tax revenues from government spending in a particular year.

C. cumulating the differences between government spending and tax revenues over all years since the nation's founding.

D. subtracting government revenues from the noninvestment-type government spending in a particular year.

31.

Refer to the above information. Money supply M₁ for this economy is:

A. $ 60.

B. $ 70.

C. $ 130.

D. $ 140.

32. Which of the following statements is true as a result of Federal Reserve efforts to rescue the financial industry from the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008?

1. From February 2008, to May 2009, the Fed oversaw the consolidation of 20 major financial institutions into fewer than a dozen.

B. From March 2008, to February 2009, the Fed experienced a 50 percent decline in the value of assets held.

C. From February 2008, to March 2009, Fed assets more than doubled to nearly $2 trillion.

D. From February 2008, to March 2009, Fed lending caused the U.S. public debt to rise by over $1 trillion.

33. Which of the following is the basic economic policy function of the Federal Reserve Banks?

1. holding the deposits or reserves of commercial banks

B. acting as fiscal agents for the Federal government

C. controlling the supply of money

D. the collection or clearing of checks among commercial banks

34. In a fractional reserve banking system:

A. bank panics cannot occur.

B. the monetary system must be backed by gold.

C. banks can create money through the lending process.

D. the Federal Reserve has no control over the amount of money in circulation.

36. Assume the Continental National Bank's balance statement is as follows:

Assuming a legal reserve ratio of 20 percent, how much in excess reserves would this bank have after a check for $10,000 was drawn and cleared against it?

A. $ 3,000

B. $ 24,000

C. $ 6,000

D. $ 16,000

37. Answer the question on the basis of the following table for a commercial bank or thrift:

Refer to the above table. When the legal reserve ratio is 25 percent, the excess reserves of this single bank are:

A. $0.

B. $1,000.

C. $5,000.

D. $30,000.

38. Which of the following is a tool of monetary policy?

A. open market operations

B. changes in banking laws

C. changes in tax rates

D. changes in government spending

39. An increase in nominal GDP increases the demand for money because:

A. interest rates will rise.

B. more money is needed to finance a larger volume of transactions.

C. bond prices will fall.

D. the opportunity cost of holding money will decline.

40. Answer the next question on the basis of the following table:

At equilibrium in the above market for money, the total amount of money demanded is:

A. $500.

B. $480.

C. $460.

D. $440.

41. For most financial assets investors must be compensated for:

A. non-diversifiable and diversifiable risk.

B. diversifiable risk and time preference.

C. non-diversifiable risk and time preference.

D. non-diversifiable and diversifiable risk, and time preference.

42. Reserves must be deposited in the Federal Reserve Banks by:

A. only commercial banks which are members of the Federal Reserve System.

B. all depository institutions, that is, all commercial banks and thrift institutions.

C. state chartered commercial banks only.

D. federally chartered commercial banks only.

43.

44. The discount rate is the interest:

A. rate at which the central banks lend to the U.S. Treasury.

B. rate at which the Federal Reserve Banks lend to commercial banks.

C. yield on long-term government bonds.

D. rate at which commercial banks lend to the public.

45. What concept describes how quickly an investment increases in value when interest is paid not only on the original amount invested, but also on the accumulated interest payments?

A. present value

B. future value

C. compound interest

D. real rate of interest

46. The aggregate demand curve:

A. is upsloping because a higher price level is necessary to make production profitable as production costs rise.

B. is downsloping because production costs decline as real output increases.

C. shows the amount of expenditures required to induce the production of each possible level of real output.

D. shows the amount of real output that will be purchased at each possible price level.

47. The Security Market Line depicts the relationship between the:

A. average expected rate of return on stocks and the average expected rate of return on bonds.

B. average expected rate of return of a financial asset and the discount rate.

C. risk level of a financial asset and the prime interest rate.

D. average expected rate of return and risk level of a financial asset.

48. Arbitrage causes all financial assets:

A. of the same risk level to have the same price.

B. to have the same expected rate of return.

C. to have the same beta.

D. of the same risk level to have the same average expected rate of return.

50. Given the expected rate of return on all possible investment opportunities in the economy:

A. an increase in the real rate of interest will reduce the level of investment.

B. a decrease in the real rate of interest will reduce the level of investment.

C. a change in the real interest rate will have no impact on the level of investment.

D. an increase in the real interest rate will increase the level of investment.

END OF THE EXAM

 1) Which of the following transactions would be included in GDP?

a) The purchase of a Monet painting.

b) The purchase of paper clips.

c) The purchase of Telstra shares.

d) The purchase of a used car.

2) Economics is the study of

a) the choices everybody makes to attain their goals, given their scarce resources.

b) supply and demand.

c) how to make money in a market economy.

d) how to make money in the stock market.

3)   The economy is considered to be at full employment when

a) all unemployment is voluntary.

b) all unemployment is frictional or structural.

c) there are no unemployed workers.

d) there are more unemployed workers than job vacancies

4) An example of an intermediate good would be

a) a can of cool drink sold by a super‐market.

b) a microwave used at home.

c) the bread that goes into a sandwich sold by a lunch bar.

d) the petrol purchased by consumers for their cars

5) From 2004 to 2005, the CPI for medical care increased from 260.8 to 272.8. What was the inflation rate for medical care?

a) 12 percent

b) 11.1 percent

c) 4.9 percent

d) 4.6 percent

6) A shift outwards of the nation's production possibility frontier can occur from

a) a reduction in unemployment.

b) an increase in the size of the labour force.

c) a change in the amounts of one good desired.

d) a natural disaster like a hurricane or severe earthquake

7) What assumptions about humans do economists make?

a) People are greedy and selfish.

b) None, because economics takes humans as given.

c) People are rational and respond to incentives.

d) Humans prefer to live in a society that values fairness above all else.

8) The labour force is the

a) a number of people employed minus the number of people unemployed.

b) ratio of the number of people employed by the number of people unemployed.

c) ratio of the number of people employed to the working-age population.

d) the number of people employed plus the number of people unemployed.

9) The production possibility frontier shows

a) attainable combinations of two products that may be produced with available resources.

b) the various products that can be produced now and in the future.

c) what an equitable distribution of products among citizens would be.

d) the rate of substitution between capital and labour.

10) Which of the following transactions would be included in the official calculation of GDP?

a) Bridgestone sells $2 million worth of tyres to General Motors Holden

b) You illegally download music off the Internet to put on your new iPod.

c) A new iPod.

d) A student buys a used textbook at the bookstore.

11) What are the three fundamental questions that any economy must answer?

a) What will be the prices of goods, how will these goods be produced, and who gets them?

b) What will be the prices of goods, what will be produced, and who gets them?

c) What will be produced, how will these goods be produced, and who gets them?

d) How much will be saved, what will be produced, and how can these goods be fairly distributed?

12) If the nominal interest rate is 6% and the inflation rate is 2%, then the real interest rate is

a) 3%.

b) 2%.

c) 4%.

d) 8%.

14) Suppose that a very simple economy produces three goods: movies, burgers, and bikes. Suppose the quantities produced and their corresponding prices for 2004 and 2009 are shown in the following table:

What is real GDP in 2009, using 2004 as the base year?

a) $3690

b) $7035

c) $6360

d) $3320 

15) If the production possibility frontier is graphed as a straight line, what does this mean?

a) Opportunity costs are constant as production shifts from one product to the other.

b) It is easy to efficiently produce output.

c) Nothing, there is no significance of a straight line production possibility frontier.

d) Opportunity costs are increasing as production shifts from one product to the other.

16) If you have both an economics exam and a management exam tomorrow, but find that you have time to fully study for only one of them, what are you facing?

a) A failing grade in both exams

b) A zero opportunity cost

c) A trade‐off

d) An impossible situation

17) Which of the following is a problem inherent in centrally planned economies?

a) Production managers do not satisfy consumer wants but the government's orders.

b) Too much production of low‐cost, high‐quality goods and services.

c) There are no problems, everyone, including consumers are satisfied.

d) None of these describe the problem inherent in a centrally planned economy.

18) Inflation is an increase in the

a) average hourly wage rate.

b) general price level in the economy.

c) the overall level of economic activity.

d) rate of growth of GDP.

19) Total production in the economy is measured as the

a) dollar value of all final goods and services produced in the economy.

b) the total number of services produced in the economy.

c) the total number of goods produced in the economy.

d) the total number of goods and services produced in the economy.

20) An increase in the price of dairy products produced domestically will be reflected in

a) Both the GDP deflator and the consumer price index.

b) Neither the GDP deflator nor the consumer price index.

c) The GDP deflator but not in the consumer price index.

d) The consumer price index but not in the GDP deflator.

21) The reason that opportunity cost arises is that

a) money has proven to be an inefficient means of facilitating exchange in a market.

b) sometimes there are no alternative decisions that can be made.

c) resources are limited at any point in time. d) people have unlimited wants.

21) You have an absolute advantage whenever you

a) are better educated than someone else.

b) can produce something at a lower opportunity cost than others.

c) can produce more of something than others with the same resources.

d) prefer to do one particular activity.

22) Which of the following is an example of a worker experiencing cyclical unemployment?

a) A Freightliner employee who was sacked because of a recession.

b) A worker who quits his job because he does not get along with his boss

c) A worker that changes jobs to move closer to her family.

d) An assembly line worker who loses his job because of automation.

23) A company named Home Depot sells new and used doors to contractors who build new homes. Home Depot also sells new and used doors to home‐owners. Which of the following would be counted in GDP?

a) The sale of a used door to a home‐owner

b) The sale of a used door to for construction for installation into a new home.

c) The sale of a new door to for construction for installation into a new home.

d) The sale of a new door to home‐owner.

24) If you buy shares, the dollar value is

a) not included in GDP.

b) included in GDP under consumer expenditure.

c) included in GDP as a business expense.

d) included in GDP under-investment.

25) During the 1930s, Australia and other industrialised countries experienced the Great Depression with a large number of workers and factories unemployed.Which of the following points on a production possibility frontier model would represent this experience?

a) A point on the frontier

b) A point inside the frontier

c) An increase in the opportunity cost of the substitution between capital and labour

d) A point outside the frontier

26) How is the decision about what goods and services will be produced made in a market economy?

a) The government decides on what will be produced.

b)  Producing firms decide to produce only what the firms' owners say must be produced.

c)  By consumers, firms, and government choosing which goods and services to buy.

d)  What will be produced is determined by what society needs the most.

27) In the country of Shem, the CPI is calculated using a market basket consisting of 5 apples, 4 loaves of bread, 3 robes and 2 gallons of gasoline. The per‐unit prices of these goods have been as follows: Using 2002 as the base year, what was the inflation rate between 2003 and 2004?

a) 28.5 percent

b) 34.2 percent

c) 47 percent

d) It is impossible to determine without knowing the base year.

28) Given the following information, calculate the unemployment rate: Full‐time employed = 80 Part‐time employed = 25 Unemployed = 15 Discouraged workers = 5 Members of underground economy = 6 Consumer Price Index = 110

a) 18.8 per cent.

b) 12.5 per cent.

c) 16.7 per cent.

d) 25 per cent.

29) If the quantity of resources available is fixed, as more of a good is produced, the opportunity cost of producing it increases. The most probable reason for this is that

a) as more of a good is produced, the quality of technology available to produce additional units declines.

b) the price of the inputs used to produce the good will rise.

c) consumers are unwilling to pay higher prices to cover the increases in production costs.

d) resources are not equally well‐suited to producing all goods.

30) Which of the following is a normative statement?

a) The current high price of petrol is the result of strong worldwide demand.

b) The price of petrol is too high.

c) Larger vehicles always use more fuel per kilometre than smaller vehicles

d) The supply of petrol has not been able to meet the demand for petrol.

31) Transfer payments are not included in GDP because

a) they do not generate income.

b) their market value is difficult to measure.

c) they are not purchases of goods or services.

d) their value is included in government expenditure.

32) The opportunity cost of going to your economics class

a) depends on the cost of your transport getting to class.

b) is equal to the highest value of alternative use of the time.

c) is zero because there is no admission charged if you are enrolled in the class.

d) depends on the salary of the lecturer.

33) Establishing employment agencies that speeds up the process of matching unemployed workers with unfilled jobs are an attempt to lower

a) cyclical unemployment.

b) seasonal unemployment.

c) structural unemployment.

d) frictional unemployment.

34) Suppose that money GDP for 2009 was $15 000 billion and the price index was 150 and in 2010 money GDP was $17 050 billion with a price index of 155. What is the rate of economic growth?

a) 5%

b) 10%

c) 2%

d) 1%

35) An individual has a comparative advantage in activity whenever she

a) also has an absolute advantage in that activity.

b) can perform the activity at a lower opportunity cost than another person can.

c) can do everything better than everyone else can.

d) can do the activity in less time than anyone else.

36) GDP is not a perfect measure of wellbeing because

a) GDP is adjusted for increases in drug addiction.

b) GDP is not adjusted for the effects of pollution.

c) GDP is adjusted for changes in crime.

d) the value of leisure is included in GDP.

37) What does an entrepreneur do in a market economy?

a) Organise the factors of production in a working unit.

b) Stand to lose the personal funds provided.

c) Develop the vision for the firm and ensure funding for the firm.

d) An entrepreneur does all of these things.

38) An example of a transfer payment is

a) the purchase of a new government office block.

b) a teacher's pay is transferred electronically from the government to the teacher.

c) interest repayments on a loan.

d) an unemployment benefit.

39) Which of the following is a microeconomics question?

a) What will be the level of total production in the national economy?

b) How much income will be saved and how much will be spent on consumer goods?

c) What factors determine the price of computers in the market?

d) Why is the rate of unemployment rising?

40) The measure of production that values production using current prices is called

a) value-added GDP.

b) nominal GDP.

c) black economy GDP.

d) real GDP.

41) Which of the following causes the official measure of the unemployment rate to understate the true extent of joblessness?

a) People who collect unemployment benefits report themselves to be searching for a job.

b) Discouraged workers are counted as unemployed.

c) Discouraged workers are not counted as unemployed.

d) Many full-time workers really want to be part-time workers.

42) A production possibility frontier will shift inwards if

a) inefficiency in production processes arise.

b) there is an increase in the rate of unemployment.

c) productive resources are destroyed due to war.

d) all of these options are correct.

43) Structural unemployment would increase when

a) discouraged workers drop out of the workforce.

b) the economy enters a recession.

c) the number of individuals who quit their job to find another increase.

d) workers are replaced by machines and the workers do not have the skills to perform new jobs.

44) The 2005 CPI was 196 and the 1982 CPI was 96.5. If your parents put aside $1,000 for you in 1982, how much would you have needed in 2005 in order to buy what you could have bought with the $1,000 in 1982?

a) $1,834.20

b) $2,031.09

c) $2,308.89

d) None of the above is correct.

45) What is an economic model?