Question

1.         List and explain the two different approaches used to measure GDP. (1)Expenditures Approach. (2)Income Approach

Answer 1

1) The expenditure approach attempts to calculate GDP by evaluating the sum of all final good and services purchased in an economy. The components of U.S. GDP identified as “Y” in equation form, include Consumption (C), Investment (I), Government Spending (G) and Net Exports (X – M).

Y = C + I + G + (X − M) is the standard equational (expenditure) representation of GDP.

• “C” (consumption) is normally the largest GDP component in the economy, consisting of private expenditures (household final consumption expenditure) in the economy.
• “I” (investment) includes, for instance, business investment in equipment, but does not include exchanges of existing assets.
• “G” ( government spending ) is the sum of government expenditures on final goods and services. It includes salaries of public servants, purchase of weapons for the military, and any investment expenditure by a government.
• “X” (exports) represents gross exports. GDP captures the amount a country produces, including goods and services produced for other nations’ consumption, therefore exports are added.
• “M” (imports) represents gross imports. Imports are subtracted since imported goods will be included in the terms “G”, “I”, or “C”, and must be deducted to avoid counting foreign supply as domestic.

2) Income Approach

The income approach looks at the final income in the country, these include the following categories taken from the U.S. “National Income and Expenditure Accounts”: wages, salaries, and supplementary labor income; corporate profits interest and miscellaneous investment income; farmers’ income; and income from non-farm unincorporated businesses. Two non-income adjustments are made to the sum of these categories to arrive at GDP:

• Indirect taxes minus subsidies are added to get from factor cost to market prices.
• Depreciation (or Capital Consumption Allowance) is added to get from net domestic product to gross domestic product.