1. ASHFORD ECO203 Entire Course
Principles of Macroeconomics
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ECO203 Principles of Macroeconomics
Week One
Week 1 - DQ 1
One of the scarce resources that constrain our behavior is time. Each of us has
only 24 hours in a day. How do you go about allocating your time in a given day
among competing alternatives? How do you go about weighing the alternatives?
How can you apply the concepts of opportunity cost to your decision to attend
Ashford? Use the notion of opportunity cost in your answer.
Week 1 - DQ 2
The rent for apartments in New York City has been rising sharply. Demand for
apartments in New York City has been rising sharply as well. This is hard to
explain because the law of demand says that higher prices should lead to lower
demand. Do you agree or disagree? How is this going to affect prices in the
market for New York City? Make sure to provide appropriate economic terms in
your answers.
Week Two
Discussions
Week 2 - DQ 1
Visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics and click on the links for state employment
and unemployment. Look at your home state and describe what changes have
taken place in the workforce and unemployment rate. Has the labor force
participation rate gone up or down? Provide an explanation for the rate change.
Are your state’s experiences the same as the rest of the country? Provide an
explanation of why your state’s experiences are the same or different from the
rest of the country.
Week 2 - DQ 2
With each of the following examples, please explain what happens to
contributions to GDP and economic growth in each of the following statements:

2. a. A woman who makes a living charging for investment advice on her Internet
website marries one of her clients, to whom she now provides advice at no
charge.
b. A tennis player wins two top professional tournaments as an unpaid amateur,
meaning the tournament sponsor does not have to pay out his share of prize
money.
c. A public utility installs new antipollution equipment in its smokestacks.
Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.
Week Three
Discussions
Week 3 - DQ 1
While many thought that the 2008 fiscal stimulus plan described in the feature on
pg. 174 was a good idea, some did not. Some even thought that Congress didn’t
go far enough. In retrospect, who was right? Did the economy experience a
recession in 2008 or 2009? What happened to employment during the rest of
2008? What are some of the alternatives to a tax cut that might have been used?
Week 3 - DQ 2
Why do you think the FED evaluates the money multiplier when making decisions
with regard to the money supply? What function does the money supply serve in
our economy to influence certain economic variables? Why does the FED like to
fight inflation in our economy and is inflation a concern right now given our current
economic situation?
Week 3
Assignments
Week 3 - Assignment - Fed and Its Tools
Given the role of the Fed in our economy, how can the Fed use the tools that it
has to influence an economy that is in a recession? The Fed has three tools to
influence the direction of the economy; in your two to three page paper, make
sure to address each of them and what the Fed should do to get the economy out
of a recession.
Week Four
Discussions

3. Week 4 - DQ 1
Your boss offers you a wage increase of 10 percent. Is it possible that you are
worse off with the wage increase than you were before? Explain your answer
using proper economic terms and analysis.
Week 4 - DQ 2
On pg. 255 in your text, The Economics in Practice describes the increase in food
prices around the world in 2008. Since food, in large measure, affects the real
income of households, increasing prices will eventually push up wages and have
an impact on the aggregate supply curve. Central banks were very worried about
the prospects for inflation becoming generalized. To stop inflation, what would the
Fed be likely to do? What are the consequences for the economy? Specifically,
what would be the effects on employment and unemployment given the actions
taken by the Fed?
Week Five
Discussions
Week 5 - DQ 1 - Balanced Budgets
Some states are required to balance their budgets. Is this measure stabilizing or
destabilizing? Suppose all states were committed to a balanced budget
philosophy and the economy moved into a recession. What effects would this
philosophy have on the size of the federal deficit?
Week 5 - DQ 2 - Output vs. Workers
Between October 2004 and 2005, real GDP in the United States increased by 3.6
percent, while nonfarm payroll jobs increased by only 1.4 percent. How is it
possible for output to increase without a proportional increase in the number of
workers? What are the implications in our economy of more output being
produced by fewer workers?
Assignments
Week 5 - Assignments - Final Paper - ECO203 Principles of Macroeconomics
Complete a 5-6 page final paper that completely answers the following:
Economists generally agree that high budget deficits today will reduce the growth
rate of the economy in the future. Why? Do the reasons for the high budget deficit
matter? In other words, does it matter whether the deficit is caused by lower
taxes, increased defense spending, more job-training programs, and so on? In
your analysis, what role do fiscal and monetary policies have to lead to higher or

4. lower budget deficits? How do budget deficits affect overall long-term economic
growth and the debt that the U.S. has to contend with?