SUBJECT:Measurements of the Economy: Gross Domestic Product

SITE AND PURPOSE: TheBureau of Economic Analysis site contains extensive data on the economy, including various measures of current GDP and the historical trends.The purpose of this assignment is to learn the current level of growth of GDP, the historical trends, and to relate both current and historic measures to experiences.

SITE ADDRESS, INSTRUCTIONS AND ASSIGNMENT:

• Go towww.bea.gov.Under"principal economic indicators",click "grossdomestic product".Scroll down.You'll see a sort of box with stuff in blue letters, then a list in black letters.From the list in black letters, select Supplemental Information and Additional Data.Look at the first two tables :Current dollar and real GDP, andPercent change from preceding period. These will both be in excel format. In each file, there are segments, each with two columns. You will want the Annual Data (first segment) and the "GDP percent change based on chained 2012 dollars" column.

• Question 1: Has GDP increased in the last 25 years? Compare the change in the last 5 years to the period 1992-1997. Which had higher growth?Remember, you are looking at percentage change. Thus, a change of 3.3% is positive, as is a change of 2.6%, or even 0.2%. A change of -1% is a decrease.
• Question 2: What do you think happens to people and businesses when the economy grows fast? Slowly?When it shrinks (when there is a negative sign)?
• Question 3: now, again in the table of "percentage change"look at the quarterly data, using the column "2012 chained dollars).Look at the very last item, which is "2020Q1."What happened?