EKN120 Practice Exercise 1 [UP 2023]
EKN120 Practice Exercise 1 [UP 2023]
EKN120 Practice Exercise 1 [UP 2023]
The purpose of these exercises is to develop and improve your analytical and computational
skills. They require careful reasoning. Most of these questions are based on exercises in
Janse van Rensburg et al. (2021) and EKN120 past exam/test papers.
1. Come up with consumption and savings equations/functions that correctly represents the
data given in the following table.
Table 1: Income and consumption data
Disposable income Consumption
R0 R40
100 100
200 160
300 220
400 280
2. Which South African province host the least citizens but covers the largest land area?
3. List any four basic functions of the central/federal government?
4. Use the following information to answer questions that follow:
a C0 = 50, I = 80, M P C = 25% Yd = 520 a
(a) Write down the consumption function and calculate the value of C.
(b) Write down the savings function and calculate the value of S.
(c) Calculate the multiplier.
(d) If disposable income changes to 770, how big will the multiplier be after this change?
(e) Draw a graph to illustrate the consumption function in (a).
5. Calculate the Gross Value at factor cost using the following information:
Subsidies on production and products = R4,000
Taxes on production and products = R2,000
Gross domestic production at Market Prices = R10,000
6. Identify which of the following variables will be used to calculate:
(a) GDP according to the expenditure method
(b) GDP according to the income approach
• wages and rents bigwhitespace • individual household expenditure
• expenditure by foreigners • savings
• government purchases • investment expenditure
• proprietor’s income • transfers
• income taxes • corporate profits
• consumption expenditure • interest
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7. Calculate the unknown variable/answer the following questions:
(a) C0 = 50; Y = 360; S =?; 1 − c = 0.25.
(b) Y = 500; S = 50; c = 0.8; C =?.
(c) C0 = 200; Y =?; c = 2/3.
(d) Graphically illustrate the savings function in (a).
8. Calculate the GDP according to the income approach using the following information,
Write down (or indicate) all the variables and values you use to do the calculation.
10. Using AD/AS analysis, illustrate, on separate graphs, how the government’s expansionary
and contractionary policy can influence the levels of real GDP. What effect can each
scenario have on the government’s budget?
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12. Suppose the nominal annual interest rate on a two year loan is 8% p.a. and lenders expect
inflation to be 5% in each of the of the two years. What is the annual rate of interest?
13. How does the SARB respond to 8.5% inflation rate, way outside its target band of 3-6%?
15. Answer the following questions given the monthly CPI for 2009-2012 in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Monthly CPI 2009-2012
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Ave
2009 81.4 82.3 83.4 83.8 84.1 84.5 85.4 86.0 86.0 86.0 86.0 86.2 84.6
2010 86.4 87.0 87.7 87.8 88.0 88.0 88.6 88.7 88.7 88.9 89.0 89.2 ?
2011 89.6 90.2 91.3 91.6 92.0 92.4 93.2 93.8 93.8 94.2 94.5 94.6 ?
2012 95.2 95.7 96.8 97.2 97.2 97.5 97.8 98.0 98.9 99.5 99.60 100 ?
16. Imagine that you are an economic advisor in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council
(PEAC). Explain to President Cyril Ramaphosa the likely effect of each of the following
three events occurring in South Africa with regards to AD/AS curve and how these changes
will affect the equilibrium general price level and output.
(a) Political instability in SA which increases the risk for foreign investors, thereby, discouraging
them to invest more in SA.
(b) South African firms are optimistic about future business conditions and forecast high
rates of return.
(c) The global financial crisis negatively affecting SA’s net export spending.
N. David Sithole
September 26, 2023
References
Janse van Rensburg, J., McConnell, C. R., Brue, S. L., and Flynn, S. M. (2021). Economics:
A Southern African Context 3rd Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.