Principles of Economics 11 Lecture One Notes

SAC 303/STA 307:
Principles of Economics II
Course leader: Namanya Betrum
Tel: +254703-986192
: +256789-276682 (WhatsApp line)
Meaning and importance of various basic
macroeconomic concepts
An economy
• An economy may be defined as a collection of certain institution or
individuals each of whom faces and solves an economizing problem
subject to certain constraints.
• Examples of economic agents or institutions in an economy includes:
i.) Households
ii.) Firms and
iii.) The government.
• Household: refers to group of persons sharing income for purposes of
consumption.
• Firms: are producing entities of goods and services either for further
production or final consumption.
• Government: is a public authority, which engage in policies with an
aim of improving social welfare subject to some constraints.
• Micro-economy
This refers to a system of individual activities undertaken by individual
agent whose aims are to maximize welfare, utility, production etc.
On the other hand, Microeconomics refers to;
….a branch of economics that deals with small-scale economic factors;
the economics of the individual firm, product, consumer, etc., rather
than the aggregate of such individuals
Roles of microeconomics
• Microeconomics is useful in the following ways:
1) It helps in the understanding of the working of an economic system.
2) It is used to determine the level of activities that maximizes welfare
e.g. production, consumption etc.
3) It is used to explain how the price-mechanism allocates resources
more efficiently.
Macro-economy
This refers to a system of aggregate activities undertaken by the economic
agents e.g.
• Total production by firms
• Total consumption by household
• Total expenditure by government
• Total savings by household
Plainly put, macroeconomics refers to the branch of economics that deals
with large-scale economic factors; the economics of a national economy
as a whole.
• It also refers to the study of the economy as a whole and deals with broad
aggregates
Roles of macroeconomics
• The major role of macroeconomics is that it seeks to explain why
fluctuation in economic variables occur and investigate policies that
can mitigate (remedy) the fluctuations.
• Macroeconomic theory therefore, can be considered as the study of
economic fluctuations.
• If for example we consider the growth of output for an economy over
time, we shall observe that the growth path is not smooth but
irregular. This means that the economy undergoes recession and
recoveries as shown below:
This is popularly known as the business cycle.
Macroeconomics explains how and why recession and recoveries do
occur in an economy over time.
• Recession: These are periods of contracting economic activities i.e.
periods when activities like production and employment are falling.
• Trough: This is the period of stagnant production. It is the end of
recession or the beginning of recovery.
• Recovery: This is a period of above-average economic growth
following a recession.
• Peak: This is the beginning of a recession.
Some key issues in macroeconomics
Unemployment
• This is the fraction of the labour force that cannot find jobs
at the prevailing wage rate. Labour force refers to the
number of persons aged 18 years or over who is either
working or unemployed.
Okun’s law
• This law is named after its discoverer, Arthur Okun who used it to
illustrate the effects of macroeconomic policy. The law states that a
3% increase in real GDP generates a 1% point decrease in the
unemployment rate.
• This relationship acts as a useful guide to policy because it allows us
to ask how a particular growth target will affect the unemployment
rate over time.
Inflation
• This is the percentage change in the average price of all goods in
the economy. Inflation like unemployment is a major
macroeconomic problem.
Philips curve
• This shows the relationship between rates of inflation and
unemployment. A British economist by the name Alban William
Philips first developed this relationship.
• The typical Philips curve shows an inverse relationship between
unemployment rate and inflation rate.
The policy implication of the Philips curve are that less unemployment can
always be attained by incurring more inflation or inflation can be reduced
by allowing more unemployment
Interest rates
• This refers tom the amount charged for a loan by a bank or any other
lender per shilling per year expressed as a percentage. It is the cost of
borrowing. The interest rate minus the expected rate of inflation gives
us the real rate of interest.
Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
Aggregate demand refers to total demand for goods and services in the
economy. It is the total expenditure on real output of goods and
services in the economy.
Aggregate supply relates the general price level to the total output
assuming that resources, technology and institutions are given.
Aggregate demand and aggregate supply together determines price
and output levels in the economy as shown in the next slide.
 Exchange rate
This refers to the amount of foreign currency that can be purchased with
one domestic currency.
Output
• real gross national product (GNP) measures total income of an economy
• It is closely related to the economy's total output
Economic growth
• increases in real GNP, an indication of the expansion of the economy’s total
output
Macroeconomic policy
• a variety of policy measures used by the government to affect the overall
performance of the economy

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