Internet Activities
Chapter 1-Ten Principles of Economics
1. Go to http://www.adamsmith.org/ and visit the Adam Smith institute and read about the life and times of Adam Smith.
2. While at the site in QUESTION (I) read about the Omega Project.
Chapter 2—Thinking Like an Economists
1. Go to http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/ and examine the
various schools of economic thought.
2. While at this site compare and contrast the basic ideas in
any two school of economic thought.
Chapter 2-Thinking Like an Economists
1. Go to http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/ and examine the
various schools of economic thought.
2. While at this site compare and contrast the basic ideas in
any two school of economic thought.
Chapter 3—Interdependence and the Gains from Trade
1. Visit http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/ricardo.htm
and read about the life of David Ricardo. Read the article: The Development of Ricardo’s Theory of Value by Jacob H. Hollander at the site in question (1).
2. Visit the web site nafta@10 (Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade), read the report on Canada’s international trade and investment performance ten years after NAFTA.
Chapter 4---Supply and Demand 1: How Markets Work
1. http://cepa.newscholl.edu/het/profiles/marshall.htm and read about the life of Alfred Marshall.
2. Look at Marshall’s book called The Principles of Economics: An Introductory Text. Read Book V: Relations of Demand and Supply and Value. Is it similar to the material Chapter 4 of the text?
Chapter 5—Measuring a Nation's Income
1. Visit the web site of Statistics Canada at www.statscan.ca get the data for gross domestic product expenditure based and for gross domestic product income based. What is the difference between these two statistics? Why do they differ?
2. Visit the web site of the United Nations at www.un.org and find the Human Development Index? What is Canada’s rank in the world based on this index? What does the index measure?
Chapter 6-Measuring the Cost of Living
1. Visit the web site of Statistics Canada at www.statscan.ca and get data for the consumer price index annual average for 2003. What is the core inflation rate for 2003?
2. Use data from the consumer price index to estimate the percentage change in tuition fees from 2000 to 2003.
Chapter 7-Production and Growth
1. Visit the site of the World Economic Forum at www.weforum.org and compare Canada’s ranking on the world’s competitiveness index with that of the United States. Why do you think that Canada’s ranks much lower than the United States?
2. Browse the Global Competitiveness Report for 2003-2004. What factors are necessary to improve competitiveness?
Chapter 8-Saving, Investment, and the Financial System
1. Visit the web site of Statistics Canada at www.statscan.ca and browse the data for savings through retirement savings plans. What percentage of savings is in the form of RRSPs and RPPs for the year 2001?
2. What percentage of income is saved for the year 2001?
Chapter 9- The Basic Tools of Finance
1. Browse the site of the Toronto Stock Exchange at www.tse.com.
Choose any individual stock and get the latest index number for the stock, also get the index number for a year ago. Use the data that you have collected to calculate the percentage change in the index from a year ago.
2. Get the index numbers for the Toronto and New York stock exchanges for the same period and compare with the individual stock that you choose in question (1) above.
Chapter 10-Unemployment and its Natural Rate
1. Browse the Statistics Canada web site at www.statscan.ca and examine the Labour Force Survey. What is the current unemployment rate? What is the unemployment rate among adult women? What is the unemployment rate among adult men?
2. From the Statistics Canada web site get the annual unemployment rates for the decade of the 1990s. Get the same information for the United States for the same decade from the United States Department of Labour at www.dol.gov. Compare the two sets of data. Did the U.S. have full employment in the 1990s? Did Canada have full employment in the 1990s? Use the concept of natural rate of unemployment to help explain your answer.
Chapter 11-The Monetary System
1. Browse the site of the Central Bank of Canada at www.bank-banque-canada.ca and read the definitions for M1 and M1+ of the money supply.
2. Visit the Canadian Payments Association web site at www.cdnpay.ca/jome and browse their membership list. What is the purpose of the Canadian Payments Association?
Chapter 12—Money Growth and Inflation
1. Visit the site of the Central Bank of Canada at www.bank-banque-canada.ca and note the values of M1for the years 1990 and 2000. Then visit the site of Statistics Canada at www.statscan.ca and get the values for nominal gross domestic product for 1990 and 2000. Use the equation of exchange to calculate the velocity of circulation in the two years. Is velocity stable?
2. Visit the site of the Central Bank of Canada and note the values of M2+ for the years 1990 and 2000. Then visit the site of Statistics Canada and get the values for nominal gross domestic product for the same two years. Use the equation of exchange to calculate the velocity of circulation in the two years. Is velocity stable? Compare your answers with the answers in question (1) above.
Chapter 13-Open-Economy Macroeconomics: Basic Concepts
1. The index of openness measures the importance of international trade to an economy; and is calculated as the ratio of exports over total production. Visit Statistics Canada’s web site at www.statscan.ca and collect data for Canada’s gross domestic product and imports for 2003 and calculate Canada’s index of openness for that year.
2. Browse the Statistics Canada web site and obtain information about Canada’s international balance of payments. What is the value of net capital outflows in 2003?
Chapter 14-A Macroeconomic Theory of the Open Economy
1. Browse the site www.Oanda.com for currency investors. What do the following terms mean: bid price, ask price and spread.
2. Browse the site of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission at www.crtc.gc.ca and examine their tariff laws and domestic content laws.
Chapter 15-Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
1. Browse the web site of Investor Group at www.investorsgroup.com and find the Index of Canadian consumer confidence. What does this index measure and how is it related to changes in aggregate demand?
2. Browse the site www.cepa.newschool.edu/het and read about the life of John Maynard Keynes. Examine the various subjects about which he wrote.
Chapter 16 -The Influence of Monetary and Fiscal Policy on Aggregate Demand
1. Access Statistics Canada’s web site at www.statscan.ca and view the last federal budget. Did the government run a surplus, a deficit or a balanced budget?
2. Access the web site of the Central Bank of Canada at www.bank-banque-canada.ca and find the tools of monetary policy most often used by the Central Bank of Canada.
Chapter 17-The Short-Run Tradeoff Between Inflation and Unemployment
1. Browse the site of The History of Economic Thought at http://homepage.newschool.edu/het/ and read about the life and research of Alban W. Phillips.
2. Go to the Statistics Canada web site at www.statscan.ca and collect data for inflation rates and unemployment for Canada from 1990 to 2000. Is there a trade off between unemployment and inflation?
Chapter 18-Five Debates Over Macroeconomic Policy
1. Browse www.fin.gc.ca and read the document that discusses sustainable development strategy for Canada for the years 2004 to 2006.
2. Browse www.uwsa.com and note the size of the national debt of the USA. Compare with Canada’s national debt. Also compare the per capita debt in the two countries.
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