Apply macroeconomic concepts to current and personal economic events and decisions.
In addition to writing about macroeconomic concepts, it’s equally important to be able to convey your understanding of these concepts by communicating them to others. In the workplace you might do this by writing briefs (like you did for Assignment 1), creating presentations, or writing reports for your manager or team. An example final report and optional template are provided below.
For this Final Report assignment, you can build off your previous economic brief and selected industry from Assignment 1, or you can select another industry such as Finance and Insurance, Health Care, or Manufacturing, and examine one of the macroeconomic indicators or policies below:
GDP growth
Unemployment rates
Inflation rates
Interest rates
Imports and exports
Government fiscal policy and issues related to taxation, government spending, and budget deficits
FED (central bank) monetary policy and issues related to the FED’s mission to stabilize the economy. + 300 WORDS
The industry I have chosen is the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing plays a crucial role in any economy as it makes use of resources such as raw materials, labor and technology to produce goods for sale or export. As such, macroeconomic indicators and policies have a significant impact on the activity of this industry.
GDP growth has an especially important impact on manufacturing output since it serves as an indicator of overall economic health and consumer demand. When GDP rises, more consumers are likely to purchase manufactured goods leading to increased production from manufacturers. Conversely, when GDP falls there is less incentive for manufacturers to invest in new production processes or expand existing ones due to decreased demand for their products.
Unemployment levels can also affect manufacturing output significantly since unemployed individuals are less capable of purchasing goods than employed citizens. In addition to affecting consumer demand directly, high unemployment levels reduce access to skilled workers which may lead some firms in the manufacturing sector to scale back their operations or hire fewer employees until conditions improve again.
Inflation rates serve as another key factor impacting manufacturing activity since they provide insight into how much prices will increase over time relative to income levels (i.e., purchasing power). Generally speaking, higher inflation rates tend adversely affect both businesses and consumers alike thereby reducing overall demand for manufactured goods while lower inflation rates typically stimulate demand by making items more affordable relative to wages/salaries earned by employees and those spent by employers on capital investments necessary for production processes within the industry