(BQ) Part 2 book "Economics for managers" hass contents: Measuring macroeconomic activity, the role of money in the macro economy, the aggregate model of the macro economy, international and balance of payments issues in the macro economy, combining micro and macro analysis for managerial decision making. | Part 2 Macroeconomic Analysis 11 Measuring Macroeconomic Activity I n this chapter we change our focus from the microeconomic factors influencing managers—prices, costs, and market structure—to factors arising in the larger macroeconomic environment, such as the overall level of income and output produced in the economy, the price level, and the level of employment and unemployment. The latter factors are affected by the spending decisions of individuals and organizations throughout the economy. Thus, macroeconomic analysis focuses on the aggregate behavior of different sectors of the economy. However, changes in the macro environment affect individual firms and industries through the microeconomic factors of demand, production, cost, and profitability. We begin this chapter with a case that describes measures of . economic activity in spring 2012. We also discuss how firms in different industries responded to this economic data. We then describe the framework used to measure overall economic activity or gross domestic product (GDP). We use this framework to develop the aggregate macroeconomic model (Chapters 11–15). Next we describe commonly used measures of the price level and the level of output and employment in the economy and relate these concepts to the major issues facing policy makers. Although managers cannot influence the macroeconomic environment, they need to understand the policies that change that environment to determine whether they need to modify their competitive strategies. 320 320 13/08/14 1:30 PM Case for Analysis Measuring Changes in Macroeconomic Activity: Implications for Managers At the end of May 2012, the government reported that the . GDP grew in the first quarter of 2012 at an annualized rate of percent, which was less than the percent growth rate previously estimated. These and other data reflected a view of an economy that was slowly recovering from the recession that officially .
