In: Economics
When looking at changes in prices, you will find that this can impact how firms will react. What are the implications of a higher price level on the economy?
In the mid-2010s, the global economy witnessed the U.S. dollar
gain steam against other major currencies and saw oil prices
freefall, along with several other macroeconomic events.1
Conventional wisdom suggests the health of the U.S. dollar has an
inverse relationship to the price of imports and in this case, a
strong U.S. dollar decreases the price of imports. However, import
prices of consumer discretionary goods don't always move in sync
with changes in the U.S. dollar, as foreign firms often choose to
maintain its prices in the U.S. market..
We defined demand as the amount of some product a consumer is
willing and able to purchase at each price. That suggests at least
two factors in addition to price that affect demand. Willingness to
purchase suggests a desire, based on what economists call tastes
and preferences. If you neither need nor want something, you will
not buy it. Ability to purchase suggests that income is important.
Professors are usually able to afford better housing and
transportation than students, because they have more income. Prices
of related goods can affect demand also. If you need a new car, the
price of a Honda may affect your demand for a Ford. Finally, the
size or composition of the population can affect demand. The more
children a family has, the greater their demand for clothing. The
more driving-age children a family has, the greater their demand
for car insurance, and the less for diapers and baby
formula.Aggregate supply is the total quantity of output firms will
produce and sell—in other words, the real GDP.
The upward-sloping aggregate supply curve—also known as the short
run aggregate supply curve—shows the positive relationship between
price level and real GDP in the short run.
The aggregate supply curve slopes up because when the price level
for outputs increases while the price level of inputs remains
fixed, the opportunity for additional profits encourages more
production.Potential GDP, or full-employment GDP, is the maximum
quantity that an economy can produce given full employment of its
existing levels of labor, physical capital, technology, and
institutions.
Aggregate demand is the amount of total spending on domestic goods
and services in an economy. The downward-sloping aggregate demand
curve shows the relationship between the price level for outputs
and the quantity of total spending in the economy. To understand
and use a macroeconomic model, we first need to understand how the
average price of all goods and services produced in an economy
affects the total quantity of output and the total amount of
spending on goods and services in that economy. The aggregate
supply curve
Firms make decisions about what quantity to supply based on the
profits they expect to earn. Profits, in turn, are also determined
by the price of the outputs the firm sells and by the price of the
inputs—like labor or raw materials—the firm needs to buy. Aggregate
supply, or AS, refers to the total quantity of output—in other
words, real GDP—firms will produce and the quantity of total
spending in the economy. Instead, the connection between import
prices and the U.S. dollar is reflected by the tendency for
commodity prices to fall when the dollar strengthens. The commodity
markets are quoted in U.S. dollars so it may seem intuitive that
when the dollar rises, commodity prices will decrease. Simply, a
stronger U.S. dollar will impact inflation through commodity prices
rather than consumer goods. So, a key factor to consider in
anticipating how the currency will affect inflation is the behavior
of commodity prices.