Question

2) Economic Growth: Use the PPF from above to illustrate the effects of saving and investment upon national GDP. Use a PPF to show what happens when the society decides to spend most of its income on donuts (consumer goods). Show what happens when the society decides to spend most of its income on machine tools

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Economic Growth can be defined as an increment in production capacity of an economy using all its available resources. The PPF illustrates the largest possible quantity of goods and services a nation can produce base on its available resources. An outward shift in the economy’s production possibility frontier (PPF) depicts  a raise in productive capacity of an economy.  An outward shift implies that an economy has capacity to  increase its production outputs. This can be as a result of   the economy employing new technology, allowing specialization, increasing its labour force, using new production approaches etc. Likewise, an inward shifting PPF implies an economy has witness a loss or exhaustion of some of its scarce resources and it will culminate into reduction in an economy’s productive potential.

Effects of saving and investment upon national GDP

level of savings direct related to the level of investment, investment feeds on available finance from saving. If more people save, the banks will be able  to lend more to firms to support their investments.

low savings and investment implies a PPF inward shift. low savings  in economy implies that the economy is opting for short-term consumption over long-term investment, and this will lead to future undue pressure on available infrastructures ad resources.

spending  on consumer goods vs capital goods effect on the economy

In the short run, the economy must prefer using available resources to produce capital rather than consumer goods. Standards of living will be affected, as private consumption will have access to fewer resources. However, in the longer run, the raised production of capital goods will boost  the production of more consumer goods ad therefore standards of living will experience more increase than they would have witness if the economy had spent most of its income on consumer goods.