Week 2 · Readings & resources

Week 2 — Readings & Resources

Principles of Macroeconomics Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 2 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 9 items (3 readings and 6 videos). Allow 54–65 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more practice, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–22 min total)

① What does GDP measure? One number for a whole economy

Chapter 2, Section “Add up the spending: four groups of buyers” · Session 1, Segment 1, “GDP and the expenditure approach” · Remember: GDP adds up spending on new final goods and services, and a trade deficit subtracts.

Macroeconomics: Crash Course Economics #5 — CrashCourse — a fast tour of why economists look at the whole economy and what GDP measures; the parts on unemployment and inflation preview later weeks. This builds on Week 1's circular flow, where every dollar spent is a dollar of someone's income. (video, 14 min) (captions: creator)
What is GDP? — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — a two-minute central-bank explainer of what GDP counts and why it is the usual yardstick for an economy's size. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
Gross Domestic Product: what to know — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — the agency that measures U.S. GDP explains in plain words what the number is and why people watch it; read the opening and the "More to know" part, and skip the state and industry links. (reading, 4–6 min)

② Which sales count? Final goods and value added

Chapter 2, Section “Decide what counts: final goods and value added” · Session 1, Segment 2, “What counts and what does not” · Remember: count the final good or the value added at each stage, never both.

What is Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? — Statistics Canada — a national statistics agency defines GDP through value added and explains how it is measured, stage by stage of production. Use it while working through the Week-2 module overview. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)

③ More stuff, or higher prices? Real GDP and the deflator

Chapter 2, Section “Separate prices from quantities: real versus nominal GDP” · Session 2, Segment 3, “Real GDP, nominal GDP, and the deflator” · Remember: nominal GDP uses each year's prices, real GDP uses base-year prices, and the deflator compares them.

Real vs Nominal GDP — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — a short explainer on valuing the same output at fixed prices so that a rise in prices is not mistaken for a rise in production. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
How to Calculate the GDP Deflator — Think Econ — a step-by-step calculation of the deflator from nominal and real GDP, the same division you do by hand this week; you can skip the inflation step at the end. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Deflators and how we use them in economic estimates — Office for National Statistics — a government statistics office explains, with a small made-up example, how a deflator turns cash totals into real ones; read sections 1, 2, and 4. Stop before the part on consumer price indexes; next week takes up the CPI. (reading, 8–12 min)

④ What does GDP leave out? Output versus well-being

Chapter 2, Section “Check the story: real growth, inflation, and nominal growth” · Session 2, Segment 4, “The growth check and the limits of GDP” · Remember: GDP measures output, so a bigger number is not the same as a better life.

GDP is Not a Perfect Measure of Economic Well-Being — Economics in Many Lessons — a short look at why GDP is an imperfect gauge of well-being, and why it still tracks many things people care about; useful before this week's discussion. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Chapter 2: Fundamental Concepts, NIPA Handbook — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — the agency's own handbook chapter; read the parts on the production boundary and the three ways to measure GDP, and skip the classification and accounting-framework sections, which go beyond this course. (reading, 10–15 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com