Go to the St. Louis Federal Reserve FRED database, and find data on real government spending (GCEC1),
Question:
Go to the St. Louis Federal Reserve FRED database, and find data on real government spending (GCEC1), real GDP (GDPC1), taxes (W006RC1Q027SBEA), and a measure of the price level, the personal consumption expenditure price index (PCECTPI). Download all the data onto a spreadsheet, and convert the tax data series into real taxes. To do this, for each quarter, take taxes and divide by the price index, then multiply by 100.
a) Calculate the level change in real GDP over the most recent four quarters of data available and over the previous four quarters before that.
b) Calculate the level change in real government spending and real taxes over the most recent four quarters of data available and over the previous four quarters before that.
c) Are these results consistent with what you would expect? How do your answers to part (b) above help explain, if at all, the answers to part (a)? Explain as it relates to the IS and AD curves.
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