2.3 Exercises
Read the articles and answer the questions.
Exercise 1: How much would you pay to use Google?
Read “How much would you pay to keep using Google?” The Economist. 2018.
- What services from Google are counted/not counted towards GDP?
- Should these services be counted given the purpose of calculating GDP?
- Are all countries equally affected by this problem? (Advanced)
Exercise 2: Real GDP by expenditure
Read Statistics Canada’s most recent Quarterly Canadian GDP report. (To find the most recent report, go to the Statistics Canada homepage and click Real GDP by expenditure.)
- What the purpose of the report?
- What components of the expenditure-based GDP are discussed? Why is it important to discuss them? (Think about the purpose of the report.)
- Based on the report, what conclusion can you draw about the Canadian economy?
Exercise 3: What does GDP tell us about the economy?
Read “What GDP can and cannot tell you about the post-pandemic economy,” The Economist, 2020.
- What was a “normal” GDP growth rate for the US or Canada before the pandemic?
- How should we understand the statement “US Q3 GDP grew at 33.1%”? Is it that the value produced in Q3 was 33.1% larger than that in Q2? If not, how large was the Q3 number compared to Q2 number? (Tip: You can find the answer in the Economist article.)
- How does the Q3 GDP data compare to the 2019 level? How does it compare to people’s expectations in 2019?
