The New IB Economics Course (4)- Macroeconomics

The major changes to the macroeconomics course are as follows…

1. Calculation of GDP data

• Calculate nominal GDP from sets of national income date, using the expenditure approach.
• Calculate GNP/GNI from data
• Calculate real GDP using a price deflator

2. Calculating ‘Green GDP’ (taking into account environmental destruction)

3. Calculating u/e rate

4. Constructing weighted price index and subsequent inflation rate

5. Calculation of economic growth rate

6. Analysis of income spread data

• Analyse data on relative income shares of given percentages of the population, including deciles and quintiles
• Draw a Lorenz curve and explain its significance
• Explain how the Gini coefficient is derived and interpreted.

7. Poverty- distinction between absolute and relative

• Explain possible causes of poverty including low income, unemployment and lack of human capital.
• Explain possible consequences of poverty, including low living standards and lack of access to health care and education.

8. Calculation of marginal and average rate of tax from set of data

9. The impact of automatic stabilisers

• Explain how factors including the progressive tax system and unemployment benefit which are influenced by the level of economic activity and national income, automatically