Reference no: EM133067546
Discussion Questions
1. GDP is the sum of all income earned in a country during a year.? Alternatively,?it can be thought of as the value of all production in an economy during a year.?But do income and production measure happiness? The way we measure GDP can both overstate and understate people's happiness and well-being.?It understates economic activity and well-being when it doesn't take into account production that is not exchanged in a market?(grandma providing free baby-sitting)?and leisure time.?It overstates well-being when two otherwise identical activities are measured the same even though one produces more pollution.
- Should we continue to measure GDP as we do now??After all, the current way of measurement has been used over time, so we can make historical comparisons.
- Are there problems with GDP that should be fixed? If you don't think GDP should be changed,?explain your reasoning.?If you think it should be changed,?what changes would you recommend,?and why?
2. Two of the biggest issues in macroeconomics are inflation and unemployment. Policymakers would like to keep both measures low. Often, however, there is a?trade-off?between the two. A strong economy that lowers unemployment can put upward pressure on prices. A weak economy that lowers inflation can increase unemployment. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had both very low unemployment and inflation. Then unemployment rose. In the future, unemployment and inflation could change and it's good to have policy plans in place before either of these problems gets too bad.
Imagine that you oversee macroeconomic policy. Start your discussion by responding to these questions and explaining your answers:
- What are some of the problems, difficulties, or hardships caused by unemployment?
- What are some of the problems, difficulties, or hardships caused by inflation?
- If you had to make a choice today between a policy that would head off increases in inflation or increases in unemployment, which one would you choose?
3. There has been discussion about whether the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that took effect in 2018 is increasing tax revenue. Tax revenue can be thought of as an average tax rate multiplied by taxable income. If the average tax rate falls while taxable income stays the same, tax revenue will fall. But what if the tax cuts increase taxable income? The major schools of thought in macroeconomics (Keynesians?and?Neoclassicals) believe that tax cuts increase economic growth. Economic growth increases taxable income. Our economic growth before the pandemic brought unemployment down to historically low levels.
Start your discussion by responding to these questions:
- Do you think that tax cuts increase economic growth and taxable income so much that tax revenue increases?
- Or do you think that tax cuts reduce tax revenue? Explain your answers.
4. Define the term "strategy". List at least 6 basic questions that should be asked when developing the key components of an organizational strategic plan.
5. Describe the three primary forms of organizational structure: functional, divisional, and matrix, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each. Discuss how managers use the organizational structure as a managerial tool.
6. Describe how an organizational performance system is used as a tool to help build a sustainably successful organization.