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HSC 2015 Economics Marathon (5 Viewers)

Tsonga

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Describe trends that have occurred in the international and regional business cycles. (3)
 

Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Describe the difference between a bilateral exchange rate and the trade weighted index - 2 marks
 

Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Explain the relationship between unemployment and inflation in the short and long run - 5 marks
 

Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Describe the ways the labour force participation rate would increase - 3 marks
 

jackleung34

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Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Explain how an increase in autonomous investment can have a multiplier effect on the level of income in an economy - 3 marks
 

Zlatman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

For the first question, I'll use a theoretical situation to describe it:

Suppose you have an economy with a working age population of 10 people: 6 are employed, 2 are unemployed.
Therefore the labour force has 8 people and the unemployment rate will be 25%.

If one of the employed persons has their job retrenched, and they no longer actively seek employment, then 5 will be employed and 2 unemployed. Therefore the labour force has only 7 people now (smaller) and the unemployment rate will be 28.6% (higher).


For the second question, B, C and D all describe situations of a market operating properly (clear property rights, social costs considered, negative externalities added to market price). Therefore, A describes a feature of market failure. This is because public goods cannot be allocated to maximum efficiency since it's hard to find the optimum price and quantity.
 

Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

For the first question, I'll use a theoretical situation to describe it:

Suppose you have an economy with a working age population of 10 people: 6 are employed, 2 are unemployed.
Therefore the labour force has 8 people and the unemployment rate will be 25%.

If one of the employed persons has their job retrenched, and they no longer actively seek employment, then 5 will be employed and 2 unemployed. Therefore the labour force has only 7 people now (smaller) and the unemployment rate will be 28.6% (higher).


For the second question, B, C and D all describe situations of a market operating properly (clear property rights, social costs considered, negative externalities added to market price). Therefore, A describes a feature of market failure. This is because public goods cannot be allocated to maximum efficiency since it's hard to find the optimum price and quantity.
Ah I see now, so the question is basically saying that when individuals get retrenched and no longer seek work, the labour force decreases and the unemployment rate stays the same. Thanks
 

Zlatman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Ah I see now, so the question is basically saying that when individuals get retrenched and no longer seek work, the labour force decreases and the unemployment rate stays the same. Thanks
It should increase, because the amount of people employed decreases while the amount of people unemployed stays the same. So the proportion of unemployed people to the labour force increases, i.e. unemployment rate increases (like in my example: 2 from 8, or 25%, to 2 from 7, or 28.6%).
 

Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

It should increase, because the amount of people employed decreases while the amount of people unemployed stays the same. So the proportion of unemployed people to the labour force increases, i.e. unemployment rate increases (like in my example: 2 from 8, or 25%, to 2 from 7, or 28.6%).
Yeah, sorry poor wording lol.
 
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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Explain how an increase in autonomous investment can have a multiplier effect on the level of income in an economy - 3 marks
Increase in investment would lead to an increase in the level of national income (increase in investment leads to an increase in AD and thus GDP). Thus this continual increase in aggregate demand would cause an increase in the multiplier (increase in AD leads to increase in C and thus MPC will rise and cause an increase in the multiplier)
Really not sure about this...
The “autonomous investment” bit confused me because I thought only induced consumption and investment affects the MPC
 
Last edited:

Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Increase in investment would lead to an increase in the level of national income (increase in investment leads to an increase in AD and thus GDP). Thus this continual increase in aggregate demand would cause an increase in the multiplier (increase in AD leads to increase in C and thus MPC will rise and cause an increase in the multiplier)
Really not sure about this...
The “autonomous investment” bit confused me because I thought autonomous investment and consumption and only induced consumption and investment doesn’t affect the MPC.
Your wording seems a little confusing, here is my response:

Autonomous investment involves the investment or expenditure on necessary items. The multiple rounds of consumption of the initial investment, results in a multiplied increase of the national income levels. Hence the initial investment is a factor of the increased level of national income, as the increase is caused by the multiplier effect, where the MPC of each round of spending results in a greater increase of the level of national income.

The reason why the word 'autonomous' is used, is because when we describe the multiplier effect, we don't look at the investments caused by conspicuous consumption, rather we look at consumption based on necessities, as it is a more reliable indicator of the increase in national income.
 
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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Explain why countries may have similar Human Development Index Levels but very different GNI per capita (2 marks)
 

Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Explain why countries may have similar Human Development Index Levels but very different GNI per capita (2 marks)
This questions seems a bit weird because GNI per capita is taken into consideration when developing the HDI. The only thing that comes to my mind is that:

-The population between countries vary
-The amount spent on education and health vary between countries
-The level of economic growth may vary
 
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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Yeah I thought it was weird too. This is what I wrote:
The Human development index of economies may be similar due to the similar educational levels and literacy rate and similar life expectancies.
However, GNI may be different due to the lack of social welfare and unequal distribution of income. An economy’s exchange rate may also cause distortions in the GNI measurements.
 

Ekman

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Re: 2015 HSC Economics Marathon

Yeah I thought it was weird too. This is what I wrote:
The Human development index of economies may be similar due to the similar educational levels and literacy rate and similar life expectancies.
However, GNI may be different due to the lack of social welfare and unequal distribution of income. An economy’s exchange rate may also cause distortions in the GNI measurements.
That doesn't make sense, because GNI per capita is measured by dividing the total income by the population. Are you sure the question didn't ask about the GINI coefficient, because then the question would make sense.
 

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